Tasty hears that Dave
Regan’s latest atrocity has many observers shaking their heads in disgust.
Here’s what happened.
In California, SEIU Local 1021 represents thousands of public-sector employees
who work for the City of San Francisco, the city’s courts, city college, etc.
Most of these workers get their health insurance from Kaiser Permanente, which is trying to boost the cost of their health insurance by $15
million a year.
San Francisco’s elected officials and the city's workers are fighting
back. According to an analysis by city officials that’s cited in this Los
Angeles Times article,
“nonprofit” Kaiser HMO made a 15% profit margin from the City employees’
business during the past two years. That’s $87 million in profits.
Meanwhile, “nonprofit” Kaiser has pocketed more than $9.5
billion in company-wide profits since 2009.
That’s why elected officials and labor unions demanded that
Kaiser lower its proposed rate hike on San Francisco’s workers. The city’s unions
-- including SEIU Local 1021, the International
Federation of Professional and Technical Employees, Union of American Physicians and Dentists/AFSCME -- even formed a
coalition to fight Kaiser’s rate hike. Check out one of their leaflets below,
entitled “Kaiser: Stop Draining San Francisco Tax Dollars,” which bears SEIU
Local 1021’s logo.
Here’s where SEIU-UHW’s Dave Regan enters our story.
 |
| SEIU-UHW's Dave Regan |
Did “Wall Street” Dave rush to the side of workers and
taxpayers in order to fight the disgusting profiteering by the nation’s largest
HMO? Not by a long shot.
According to multiple sources, Regan recently appeared at
San Francisco’s city hall with a team of Kaiser’s executives and conducted a
round of lobbying visits to push elected officials to approve Kaiser’s full
rate hike.
According to several sources, Regan even tried to enter the
office of John Avalos, one of the
most progressive members of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Last year, Regan
teamed up with the Chamber of Commerce to try to unseat Avalos by fielding one
of Regan’s staffers -- Leon Chow -- as
a candidate against Avalos. That is… until Chow crashed
and burned in spectacular fashion after evidence surfaced that he violated
multiple election laws!
 |
| SEIU-UHW's Leon Chow |
So… when Regan recently walked into Avalos’s office, Avalos
reportedly told Regan to get out. At which point Regan began jabbing his finger
at Avalos’s chest in “old
school” fashion before “Wall Street” Dave and the Kaiser suits beat a hasty
retreat.
Regan and his business-suited buddies then continued to lobby
other elected officials to approve Kaiser’s multi-million-dollar rate hikes.
Quite a story, right?
Remember that famous labor song that says, “Which side are
you on?”
Well… what does it mean when a top SEIU official shows more
solidarity for a multi-billion-dollar HMO than for SEIU’s own members -- not to
mention workers in general?
At a time when lots of people are asking well-deserved questions about the future
of the U.S. labor movement, this recent episode speaks volumes.
Notably, Regan’s vision of company-dominated unionism is shared
by the top leaders of SEIU, one of the
nation’s largest unions. In fact, Tasty’s sources say SEIU President Mary Kay Henry hasn’t voiced the
slightest opposition to Regan selling out San Francisco’s workers in favor of a giant HMO.
Here's SEIU Local 1021's leaflet on Kaiser's price-gouging:
