Dave Regan's For-Profit Unionism at SEIU-UHW

Hey, SEIU-UHW members: Ever wonder what Dave Regan is doing with all of your union dues? Tasty hears he’s definitely not using them to hire Field Reps to support the membership or enforce the union’s contracts. In fact, workers say it's pretty much impossible to get a return call from SEIU-UHW's Field Reps -- even when workers are getting fired after 33 years on the job.

Meanwhile… SEIU-UHW keeps raising members’ dues. Earlier this year, Dave Regan increased Kaiser workers' dues by $4 per month. And next month, he'll boost dues by another $4 per month. 

So where's all this money going?

Well, check out this remarkable document. It’s a financial statement from SEIU-UHW that details all of the union’s revenues and expenses from January through August (“Actual YTD” means “the actual money that's been received and spent year-to-date”). 

The bottom line: SEIU-UHW pocketed a profit of $11.8 million in the first eight months of 2011! That’s a profit margin of roughly 20%. In other words, for every $100 of dues that are paid by a worker, SEIU-UHW is keeping $20 as pure profit. WTF! Tasty has never heard of a union making profits. (Here's a view of SEIU-UHW's financial statement, although you can see a larger and clearer version here).

So how did Regan convert the union into a profit-making business venture? Basically, CEO Dave is taking in more dues from members, but providing less staff to assist the membership. It’s the ultimate business scam: “Pay me more money… and I’ll give you less services.”

And what’s Regan doing with all the profits? Well, we already know where a large chunk of them are going:  sky-rocketing salaries for “Wall Street” Dave Regan and all of his East Coast transplants. Since taking over SEIU-UHW, Regan's salary has nearly tripled compared to what Sal Rosselli earned at the time of the trusteeship. Here’s what Regan took home in 2010 ($298,647), according to the U.S. Department of Labor:

And that’s not all: Steve Trossman (SEIU-UHW’s Communications Director) makes nearly double what Sal Rosselli used to earn. Meanwhile, SEIU’s fat cats are shoveling vast quantities of money (equal to 14% of their salaries) into their SEIU pension funds, even as the same SEIU officials cut back-room deals to eliminate the pension plans for workers at Kaiser Permanente and Catholic Healthcare West.