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| SEIU-UHW's Dave Regan |
Remember the massive
dues hike that Dave Regan forced
down the throats of SEIU-UHW’s members
last fall?
In one fell swoop shrouded in alleged vote-rigging, Regan boosted workers’ maximum union dues from
$84 a month to $124 a month -- a 50% increase!
Well… here’s the latest.
Regan’s dues hike was officially “implemented” on January 1,
2014. And it’s creating a storm of controversy among union members -- even among Regan’s
supporters.
Why?
During the first month of the new dues system, Regan managed
to suck an extra wad of cash out of workers’ pockets by triple-deducting his sky-high dues from workers' paychecks.
Here’s what happened.
The union is supposed to divide each worker’s monthly dues
into two payments, which are then deducted from workers’ bi-weekly paychecks.
In other words, two payments per month. This month, however, Regan deducted
three payments from workers’ paychecks… a triple-deduction that caused some workers to pay
as much $186 for the month!
SEIU-UHW members are flipping out.
Check out an email from Alisha Blinks, an SEIU-UHW Shop Steward
at Kaiser Permanente and an erstwhile supporter of Regan. Here's an excerpt. The
full e-mail is below.
We asked specifically about three pay period months and the consistent answer was, dues are only subtracted twice a month at a 2% variance for all classifications. Here we are first month of the new structure three pay periods in a month and waalah 2% deducted again… We all work hard for our credibility and integrity. I have learned to be more careful with whom I entrust with it. So I am going to tell members to call their union hall in which they pay handsomely and demand answers, we shouldn't have to weather the storm alone. As a matter of fact I think it's important for people to who they are paying millions too, put a name to the voice. I didn't know lies could cost so much.
In a stroke of poetic justice, Regan’s dues rip-off is occurring
precisely on the fifth anniversary of SEIU’s disastrous trusteeship of
SEIU-UHW.
Since parachuting into California in 2009, Regan has...
- slashed and burned workers' pay and benefits (for example, eliminating the pensions of more than 20,000 workers),
- handed out billions of dollars of savings to the corporate CEOs who’re Regan’s best buddies,
- hiked workers' union dues by as much as 50%,
- slashed representation,
- doled out fat salary increases to himself and his East Coast buddies on SEIU-UHW’s staff,
- and used a loyalty oaths and witch hunts to maintain his grip on power inside the union.
And that's just the beginning of Regan's mile-long rap sheet!
Here's the email from Alisha Blinks.
