Here's a look at some of the top stories of 2011:
Crookin' at Kaiser: In early 2011, two federal judges forced
Kaiser Permanente to pay millions of dollars of wages it illegally withheld from 2,500
Southern California workers after they voted to leave
SEIU and join NUHW. And in July, an Administrative Law Judge found SEIU guilty of violating federal labor
law during the giant election covering 43,000 Kaiser workers. The NLRB ordered
a re-run election that hasn’t been scheduled because it's investigating even
more violations, including allegations that Kaiser illegally funded
dozens of SEIU's election campaign staffers during the election. So, while 2010
was the year of massive law-breaking by Kaiser and SEIU, the year of 2011 will
be remembered as pay-back time. As 2011 drew to a close, Kaiser and SEIU were
so nervous about the re-run election that they launched a super defensive Wizard-of-Oz themed PR campaign!
Jumping
off the Purple Bus: In 2011,
thousands of workers from California,
Michigan and Canada
voted to leave SEIU and join independent unions. In California,
workers at a half-dozen hospitals and nursing homes voted to join NUHW,
including workers at San Francisco's
largest hospital. SEIU also suffered losses in San Diego and Los Angeles… and is facing a home-grown
decertification effort by 1,200
unhappy members of SEIU-UHW in Northern California. In Canada,
an independent union has won five elections against SEIU since July. Next?
In early January, workers at a Michigan
hospital will be voting on whether to leave SEIU and join NUHW.
Crookin’ at SEIU-UHW: After denying Kaiser
workers a fair election in 2010, Dave
Regan continued to show his true colors in 2011. Federal records
revealed how "Wall Street" Dave nearly
tripled his salary to $300,000 after taking over SEIU-UHW… and how he handed
out salaries of $150,000-$200,000 to Steve
Trossman, Hal Ruddick and other
SEIU staffers. Last summer, the U.S. Department of Labor released records
revealing how Regan liquidated
members' $4.1 million pension fund in March of 2011. And last fall, SEIU-UHW’s
internal financial records showed how Regan has turned SEIU-UHW into a profit-making
machine, apparently by hiking union dues and cutting representation for SEIU-UHW
members.
Concessionary Caravan:
SEIU’s concessionary bargaining was another big story in 2011 -- from Children’s Hospital in Oakland, Providence
Tarzana Medical Center, University
Medical Center (Las Vegas) and Washington
Hospital Center (D.C.) to Santa
Clara, San
Diego and San
Joaquin Counties. Perhaps the biggest story was the $217
million pension cut that SEIU-UHW negotiated for 13,000 workers at Catholic
Healthcare West (CHW)... along with the campaign
of lies that SEIU's Hal
Ruddick engineered to implement the cuts.
Ballot Stuffing, Rigged Elections and Un-Representation: Another
big story in 2011 was SEIU’s endless effort to rig elections and deny support
for its own members – from Walnut
Creek, San
Francisco and Los
Angeles to Saginaw
and Muskegon
in Michigan. One of the saddest stories involved SEIU staffers sitting on their
hands while Kaiser officials fired
a worker with 33 years on the job…
Ass-Kicking & Numbers-Taking: Finally, NUHW members made headlines by launching
aggressive bargaining campaigns and strikes at hospitals across California,
including Salinas
Valley Memorial Hospital and USC
University Hospital. At Providence
Tarzana Medical Center, NUHW members bargained a contract that’s far
superior to SEIU’s contract for 600 RNs at the same facility. And at Kaiser
Permanente, NUHW members have sparked a growing multi-union
fight against Kaiser Permanente – including the largest
strike in the U.S.
healthcare industry of 2011 by 21,000 workers!
P.S. Of course, the year
wouldn’t have been complete without the cast of pathetic SEIU officials who added
a certain comic relief to 2011: Josie
Mooney, Steve
Matthews, Andy
Stern, Tyrone
Freeman, Michelle
Ringuette, Bill
Lloyd, Brandi
Madewell, Dave
Kieffer and JonPaul
McClellan.
