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| Kaiser's Robert Pearl |
Check out this video.
The resourceful folks over at NUHW got
ahold of a top Kaiser exec discussing Kaiser’s super-profits during a
behind-closed-doors speech.
The exec -- Dr.
Robert Pearl -- is the CEO of The
Permanente Medical Group (TPMG), one of Kaiser’s various for-profit
arms. TPMG runs Kaiser’s clinics and outpatient facilities in Northern
California.
In the speech, Pearl reveals that TPMG pocketed $1.2 billion
in profits last year. That’s in addition to the $2.7 billion in profits that Kaiser's
non-profit arm reported.
TPMG’s profits are usually hidden from public view because
the company is owned by private shareholders who are not required to make their financial statements available to the public.
TPMG’s booming profits are another bit of jaw-dropping news for
Kaiser’s workers.
Why?
Kaiser has been holding mandatory meetings -- called “Turbulent
Times” -- during which the HMO’s fatcat execs tell workers that the sky is falling
and workers must accept cuts… like the massive benefit cuts that SEIU-UHW’s Dave Regan already accepted in a secret “unpublished
side letter," say sources.
Check out the other parts of Pearl’s speech. He says Kaiser
is preparing for big strikes by the California
Nurses Association because the nurses will refuse to accept the cuts that SEIU-UHW and
the "partnership unions" have already secretly agreed to. Here's what
Pearl says:
…our nurses union has a contract up this year that will not get settled. There's no way it gets settled. And so we're looking at strikes inevitably coming up sometime in the latter part of 2014 heading into 2015.
