Kaiser workers who are members of SEIU and the other “partnership
unions” might be interested to know what their union leaders and bosses are saying
inside hotel conference rooms.
Earlier this month, the Labor
and Employment Relations Association held its annual conference at the
Hilton Portland and Executive Towers in Portland, Oregon.
During the conference, John
August gave a speech titled “Examples from the Labor-Management Partnership
at Kaiser Permanente: Cost Reduction in Health Care,” according to the conference
schedule.
Until recently, August served as the head of the “Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions” (CKPU)
-- aka, the partnership unions -- where he teamed up with SEIU-UHW’s Dave Regan to push a "21st
century" style of unionism that involves slashing workers' benefits to
boost Kaiser's bottom line.
Meanwhile, Kaiser’s Dennis
Dabney gave a speech about “Navigating the Workforce of the Future in
Partnership.” Tasty only wishes that Dabney had discussed the topic of “How
Corporations Give Forgivable Tax-Free Loans to Fatcat Execs While Simultaneously Attempting
to Slash Workers' Benefits."
It turns out that when Dabney quit his job as the V.P. of
Human Resources at First Energy Corp.
and then took his new position as the Senior V.P. for Labor Relations at
Kaiser, the nonprofit HMO gave him a tax-free forgivable loan of $300,000 to
help poor Dennis relocate to Kaiser's HQ in Oakland, California, according to Kaiser's tax returns.
And here's a speech that'll no doubt show up on Netflix sometime soon.
Conference-goers were graced by the presence of none other
than SEIU’s David Rolf (aka “Clueless
in Seattle”), who discoursed about new telephone apps and online petitions
in a spellbinding speech entitled “Innovative Strategies for Organized Labor.”
Wow!
