August 9, 2010
Dear Mr. Regan,
We are writing this letter to notify SEIU that we are resigning our positions as stewards. We have felt privileged to represent our colleagues and labor’s interests in Kaiser’s DSA and are heavy-hearted at having to resign. Despite misgivings about the trusteeship’s leadership, we attempted to remain stewards out of a sense of obligation to the cause of labor and the rights and interests of our staffs. We can no longer do so.
We are appalled at SEIU’s past and continuing use of mass firings and purges and of loyalty oaths as prerequisites for past and future participation in union activities and labor-management committees. We are outraged at SEIU’s passing along to Kasier for termination the names of IBHS workers who, out of conscience, refuse to pay SEIU dues. At the same time SEIU is using millions of dollars of those same dues for mass mailings, consultants, robocalls and polling to assure its victory in the upcoming election. We are outraged at SEIU’s cooperation with management in eviscerating our pension plan and then trumpeting the new contract as “No Take aways” while including formation of a committee in which SEIU and Kaiser “experts” will work together once again to reduce our health care and other benefits. We resent that Kaiser facilities, which were made available to SEIU for a vote on the contract, were utilized in the the most blatant way to promote its own election as the union representing us and to attack NUHW.
Labor union or company union? We have come to believe that SEIU does not represent labor’s interests at Kaiser. We cannot continue to support SEIU and are resigning to promote the election of NUHW, a union whose leadership will serve labor’s interests.
Sincerely,
Herb Klar, LCSW
Clinical Social Worker
Kaiser Mental Health, Pleasanton
Sue Doster, LCSW
Clinical Social Worker
Kaiser Mental Health, Martinez
