In his
latest "groundbreaking" move, SEIU-UHW’s
Dave Regan has borrowed a page from
Republican Donald Trump’s playbook --
namely, lying through his frickin’ teeth.
Last month,
Regan forced giant benefit cuts and a multi-year wage freeze down the throats
of 2,000 SEIU-UHW members at four California hospitals run by the Daughters of Charity Healthcare System.
Altogether, Regan
accepted more
than a dozen benefit cuts -- including stripping hundreds of workers of
their health insurance, vacation, holidays, sick pay, retirement, etc. -- which
workers exposed by leaking copies of Regan’s agreement to Tasty.
After
SEIU-UHW conducted ramrod
ratification votes to implement the cuts, workers filed complaints with federal
authorities alleging that SEIU-UHW officials withheld vital information from
its members, blocked workers from attending negotiations, and committed
irregularities during the vote count.
Which is why
workers were a bit, umm, shocked to read SEIU-UHW's Dec. 14 press release describing
its sell-out contract as "innovative" and "groundbreaking."
Here's an excerpt from the press release, which is posted on SEIU-UHW's website (full copy is below):
As BlueMountain accepts the groundbreaking deal, it also assumes an innovative new contract that was recently ratified between 1,900 SEIU-UHW healthcare workers and the Daughters of Charity Health System. The three-year agreement protects benefits and… (emphasis added)
Of course,
this is just the latest example of SEIU-UHW lying to its members.
Workers were
also a tad surprised to see SEIU-UHW "welcoming" BlueMountain Capital as their hospitals'
new owner.
Headquartered on New York’s Park Avenue, BlueMountain is a $22 billion
venture capital firm that makes enormous profits by buying and flipping
companies after loading them with debt and exorbitant management fees.
 |
| Andrew Feldstein, CEO of BlueMountain Capital |
Over the
weekend, the New York Times described BlueMountain’s role in a scandal brewing
in Puerto Rico. It turns out that BlueMountain and other hedge funds are working
to keep Puerto Rico mired in debt so they can reap billions of dollars in
profits for their wealthy investors. (See "Inside
the Billion-Dollar Battle for Puerto Rico’s Future," New York Times,
December 19, 2015)
Given SEIU's
love of billionaires
and venture
capital titans, perhaps we’ll soon see "Wall Street Dave" and "The
Donald" on the campaign trail together.
