KWA Mandatory Anti-Union Meetings

This footage was taken by KWA home care workers at mandatory anti-union meetings held on Monday, Feb. 1, 2010.



SEIU Healthcare 775NW is extremely proud of our historic relationship with the Korean Women’s Association (KWA). Over the years, our union and KWA have developed a model labor‐management relationship. We worked together collaboratively at the bargaining table, in Olympia, and in the community. Sadly, as you can see from the video below, this relationship turned highly contentious over the last three months under the leadership of the new executive director, Peter Ansara.

Despite getting the same vendor rate as all home care agencies (which went up slightly last year), KWA is the ONLY home care agency seeking wage and benefit reductions for home care workers who made around $10/hr. They are also refusing to use all the money they receive from the state for worker training, which currently means their workers are not eligible to receive any training.

On Monday, KWA began holding mandatory anti-union captive audience meetings. These meetings were billed as L&I trainings, and workers were paid using Medicaid money to attend them. Check out what they really were…