What’s the latest from the SEIU/Coalition’s negotiations with
Kaiser Permanente?
This week, SEIU officials will conclude their tightly
choreographed “negotiations” with Kaiser. Meanwhile, Dave Regan is desperately trying to organize workers to support
SEIU-UHW by telling them that negotiations are somehow teetering on the edge of
a dangerous precipice. A recent email from SEIU-UHW put it this way:
Dear ___,So here’s what’s up. Despite lots of progress and agreements on specific goals, Kaiser management at national bargaining is stalling on our most important priorities… It’s time to come together. Wear your purple and your sticker ant stay tuned for other plans in your facility to give Kaiser that extra push it needs…
Tomorrow (May 8), SEIU-UHW is telling workers to join rallies
at three Kaiser hospitals to “take action to show Kaiser we are united and not
going to back down.”
Sounds like the negotiations are in flux, right? Not quite.
Unfortunately,
Dishonest Dave conveniently forgot to tell workers about this interesting
website, which reveals that SEIU and the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente
Unions have already scheduled an "endorsement conference" for May
18-19 at the Sheraton Gateway LAX in Los Angeles.
What’s the purpose of the conference? According to the website, it's to discuss “our
newly negotiated National Agreement” as well as “ideas about our contract
implementation process.”
And that’s not all. Dave Regan and John August have already created the
agenda for the “Endorsement Conference.”
Here’s the text from the website’s main page:
Join us at the Sheraton Gateway LAX for our third and final delegate conference of 2012 from May 18-May19. Learn about the content of our newly-negotiated National Agreement, which promises to be as transformational as our previous agreements. Ask questions about its impact on our benefits, our health, workforce development program, union membership growth and our partnership. Discuss our ratification. Provide your ideas about our contract implementation process.
So... if there's one thing that Kaiser workers can say with certainty, it's that you can't trust anything that SEIU officials tell you. In fact, if you want the truth, it's usually the exact opposite from what SEIU says.
Way to go, Dishonest Dave!
