Image 1: USC Nurses, Photograph, 2009. Used with permission.

As soon as they announced in September 2009 that they intended to hold labor union elections to certify themselves as NUHW, USC used the opportunity to try to rid the hospital workers of union representation altogether. USC sent out a fact sheet to its representatives claiming that NUHW did not want USC "to give employees the facts" and was intimidating both workers and managers to vote for the union. In reality, the vast majority of the six hundred hospital workers had filed a petition with the NLRB to obtain NUHW representation in September 2009. USC restricted workers' access to NUHW union representatives, punished workers for attending NUHW delegations, and prohibited workers from wearing pro-NUHW stickers and buttons; its security guards harassed hospital workers for talking about working conditions or passing out NUHW flyers. SEIU worked to block the elections, and in October 2009 USC hired a union-busting consulting firm, the Weissman Group, to prevent unionization with NUHW.

After news of the Weissman Group's involvement was leaked in 2010, a group of faculty members and students wrote to then-President Sample regarding the character of the Weissman Group, which on its own website claims that "a well conceived union avoidance strategy can benefit you and your employees," and details the hinderances unions bring to business operations. Writing of the contradiction between USC's mission to enrich humanity and its financial investment "in trying to break the spirit of the workers," the faculty members and students demanded that the university recognize and accept the workers' right to organize.

A coalition of student groups, including SCALE and MEChA, then wrote to Sample and then-Provost Nikias regarding their hiring of the Weissman Group, and read the letter aloud at the hospital on April 1. The students protested the hypocrisy of a university teaching its students progressive principles while interfering with its own workers' rights. They stated, "We do not spend money, take loans and incur debts so that workers will be mistreated." The students insisted that until the Weissman Group ended its work at USC, they would be vocal in their opposition. The students hosted a teach-in in support of the hospital workers in April, calling on students to protest USC's use of their tuition dollars for union busting.

The Weissman Group trained managers in their methods of dealing with unions, which included calling the cafeteria private property and accusing workers who went there during office hours of trespassing, attempting to divide the workers with threats of job loss on the basis of race, sex, or seniority, calling workers in to their managers' offices and told to vote "no union," and suspending or firing workers visiting co-workers on their days off to talk to them about unions. Some hospital workers even reported being bribed by their supervisors for voting “no-union.” If the majority of the hospital workers voted against a union, they would lose benefits and rights to collective bargaining, as well as job security. On May 5, union organizers and respiratory therapists Michael Torres and Julio Estrada were suspended for being at the hospital during their time off under an off-duty access policy that had not been enforced until the workers received their election date on May 3 for May 26 and 27. Torres returned to work anyway and DPS and LAPD officers arrested him and officially detained him. An April 4 article in the Daily Trojan featured an interview with Torres in which he stated that the Weissman Group was employed to “to help employees decide to vote ‘no union.'" USC denied that the Weissman Group was employed as a union-busting organization. 

Protests in front of Bovard in favor of the hospital workers' right to choose their union were accompanied by SCALE's efforts to get the student body on board. They posted flyers throughout the university with notices that “our tuition is paying for union busting,” and requested students to participate in protests in support of the healthcare workers because “student voices matter.” Students and hospital workers protested after Torres' and Estrada's suspensions; one of SCALE's leaders remarked, “Our university is running like a corporation, it’s acting pompous and I’m so disappointed that we go to a school that would treat its workers this way.” The two organizers were reinstated.

However, on May 13, then-CEO of USC University Hospital Mitch Creem prevented union representatives from entering the cafeteria, and when they argued with him, he ordered them arrested for trespassing. On May 14, NUHW sent out a press email detailing SEIU's betrayal of the workers. SEIU officials had "conspired with management to illegally remove NUHW organizers from the hospital (federal labor law permits organizers to visit the hospital's public areas, especially in the run-up to an election)." SEIU's staff members played a role in arresting NUHW's organizers the previous day. On May 19, after remaining silent about the violations of workers' rights and conspiring to prevent the workers from obtaining new representation, SEIU formally withdrew from the election.

Students organized a petition opposing the Weissman Group's continued involvement, which they attempted to deliver to USC's administration. Their action was rebuffed and ridiculed as "misguided." Faculty members wrote to Sample and Nikias on May 18 decrying this response to the students, and denouncing USC's use of the Weissman Group themselves. Professor Philip Ethington spoke about the incident, remarking that the administration was "misguided," not the students, because it was "acting in disregard of a University policy of constructive, beneficial engagement with out surrounding communities" by "seeking a union-free environment."

On May 26 and 27 the elections went ahead, and the workers voted for representation by NUHW. However, on June 3, USC filed an official complaint to the NLRB against NUHW, claiming that the conduct of the election was tarnished by "harassing, inflammatory and intimidating conduct" on the part of the NUHW, while denying its own actions, and called for the election results to be set aside. During this time faculty members and administration continued to communicate about the Weissman Group's role in the lead-up to the elections. USC dropped its objections to the election results on June 17. USC's administration wrote to Ethington and Pulido on June 21 to tell them that the Weissman Group had only been hired in a limited capacity, to assist managers in understanding their options during the election process.

Image 2: NUHW, "We are USC University Hospital Workers. We are NUHW," Flyer, 2010. Used with permission.

The contract negotiations between USC and NUHW began on August 17. USC proposed articles that would make the workers' conditions worse, not better, and ignored the workers' pervious contract victories under SEIU. The negotiations continued through the expiration of their existing contract in March 2011, at which point USC hired a new lead negotiator and progress was made. USC removed him after only a few months, and NUHW organized a one-day strike in October, four workers were suspended that same month, and a candle-light vigil of students and workers was held at the hospital in November. After worker, faculty, and student protests, a contract agreement was eventually reached.