Two years ago, an employee at a San Diego-area childrens’ hospital filed a union decertification petition to eject an unwanted SEIU local. Instead of submitting to a formal decertification election, SEIU union officials filed a series of frivolous "blocking charges" in an attempt to indefinitely delay any decision.

After years of legal wrangling, however, the SEIU’s charges were finally resolved. But rather than face a union decertification election, SEIU officials opted to withdraw from the bargaining unit, knowing full well that they’d lose employees’ votes by a wide margin.

This is the paradox of union "representation": instead of allowing themselves to be held accountable to workers through a secret ballot election, SEIU lawyers took advantage of a few loopholes to stall the entire process — when that ultimately failed, the union bosses finally took a hike. Does anyone think these cynical antics resulted from a sincere desire to represent workers’ interests?

Here’s a copy of the union’s letter (.pdf) disowning any interest in retaining its monopoly bargaining privileges at the hospital. Here’s the National Labor Relations Board’s decision (.pdf) formally revoking the union’s workplace authority. The San Diego Tribune also featured a decent article on the union’s decision to withdraw from the hospital.