Kaiser Exec: John August "is not technically a Kaiser Permanente employee"

Here’s an interesting article about John August’s sudden exit from the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions (aka, “the partnership unions”).

In case it wasn’t crystal clear, the article offers more evidence that Kaiser’s execs are the puppet masters who control the partnership unions with every twist and turn of their fingers.

In the article, August’s departure is confirmed not by union officials… but by Kaiser! Ordinarily, the Boss isn’t the formal press source for internal union leadership changes, right?  But here’s how the article starts:

John August, executive director of the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions, is stepping down this summer, Kaiser officials confirmed Thursday.

John Nelson, vice president for brand communication at Oakland-based Kaiser, confirmed that August is leaving his post. Nelson stressed, however, that August is not technically a Kaiser Permanente employee, but is employed by the union coalition at Kaiser.

Of course, in PartnershipLand, it’s hard to know who’s sitting on which side of the bargaining table. In fact, Kaiser funded most of August’s $200,000-a-year salary. And August worked out of a fancy office inside Kaiser’s national headquarters in Oakland.

Apparently, that’s why Kaiser’s “Vice President of Brand Communication” had to go to great lengths to make clear that “John August is not technically a Kaiser Permanente employee.” Coulda fooled Tasty!

Here’s the full article, which was penned by Chris Rauber, a not-so-competent journalist who’s apparently a half-brother of SEIU-UHW’s Steve Trossman.

San Francisco Business Times

Head of Kaiser Permanente Union Coalition to Step Down

Chris Rauber, Reporter- San Francisco Business Times

May 16, 2013, 2:53pm PDT

John August, executive director of the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions, is stepping down this summer, Kaiser officials confirmed Thursday.

John Nelson, vice president for brand communication at Oakland-based Kaiser, confirmed that August is leaving his post. Nelson stressed, however, that August is not technically a Kaiser Permanente employee, but is employed by the union coalition at Kaiser.

The coalition includes unions that represent roughly 100,000 members at Kaiser.

August had headed the coalition for seven years.

Chris Rauber's beats include health care, insurance and the wine industry for the San Francisco Business Times.