Here's an interesting development. While Dave Regan was dancing in front of SEIU-UHW's Executive Board meeting, one board member was running for the exit sign... and then resigned from the Executive Board and announced her support for NUHW in the upcoming election at Kaiser Permanente!!
So why did the board member -- a Pharmaceutical Tech at a Kaiser hospital in the San Francisco Bay Area -- throw her support behind NUHW?
She says SEIU-UHW officials lied to the union's members members about SEIU-UHW's secret layoff deal with Kaiser's executives. Under the deal, Kaiser will lay off an estimated 1,000 employees in California.
Readers might recall that last fall, SEIU-UHW officials claimed they were 'taken by surprise' when Kaiser announced the giant layoffs. Later, during an internal conference call, SEIU-UHW officials admitted that they'd been discussing the layoffs with their partners at Kaiser for many months.
Here's what the former Executive Board member says about her decision to quit SEIU-UHW's Executive Board and support NUHW (see her statement in an NUHW leaflet below):
Until recently, I was an SEIU-UHW Executive Board member. I have resigned from my position because I can’t tolerate SEIU-UHW’s lies.
SEIU-UHW officials are lying to members about the layoffs they agreed to with management. They claim they didn’t agree to let Kaiser cut 1,000 of our jobs, but when I challenged them on it, they admitted they had met with management six times to discuss implementing layoffs.
Take it from me. I saw how SEIU-UHW really works. That’s why I had to step down. I now support NUHW-CNA. I hope you will join me.
Meanwhile, SEIU-UHW's secret deal with Kaiser to lay off 1,000 workers is looking more and more ridiculous. Last fall, SEIU-UHW told its stewards that Kaiser needed to do the layoffs because the company was facing a $500 million "budget gap."
Well, last week, Kaiser released its year-end financial results for 2012... and Kaiser took home a profit of $2.6 billion -- a 30% increase from the prior year! And get this: this is Kaiser's biggest profit in more than a decade. Here's a link to Kaiser's press release on its profits, which the company quietly released late on a Friday afternoon.
Quite remarkable, right? Kaiser -- with the skilled assistance of SEIU's Dave Regan -- can pocket gigantic profits and still lay off 1,000 employees.
SEIU -- a 'company union' that just keeps on giving!
