Here's the
latest in the legal battle between SEIU-UHW
and the California Hospital Association
(CHA)… which has now spread across three California courthouses and features SEIU-UHW
President Dave Regan’s alleged arm-breaking
assault against a process server.
In the
latest development, Regan has instructed his high-priced attorneys to play a
game of legal "hide n’ seek" with the CHA.
Here's
what's happening.
In November,
SEIU-UHW filed a
lawsuit against CHA CEO Duane Dauner
in Sacramento Superior Court. The suit angrily attacked Dauner (Dave’s former BFF)
for ditching SEIU-UHW in order to team up with Laphonza Butler and the SEIU California State Council.
In response,
the CHA filed a countersuit
in the same courthouse. The CHA asked the judge to consolidate the two lawsuits
into a single case so all of the interrelated issues could be handled together.
Days later,
Regan mysteriously dropped
his lawsuit… only to refile it a week later in Los Angeles County Superior
Court, some 400 miles away.
Apparently,
Regan realized his lawsuit would soon be tossed by the judge, so he launched a game
of legal hide n’ seek that involves SEIU-UHW's $500-an-hour attorneys ducking and
hiding behind the shrubs, fenceposts and garbage cans of the legal world.
In recent
days, the CHA responded by asking a Los Angeles judge to send Regan’s lawsuit
back to Sacramento.
Here are
some excerpts from the CHA's March 25 request to the Los Angeles judge, with a
full copy below.
Take note of
how the CHA describes Regan's 21st
century vision of labor relations in which SEIU pursues "cooperation," rather than "confrontation," with healthcare corporations because of workers' "aligned interests" with the millionaire bosses and shareholders who employ them.
Defendants [CHA] move to transfer venue to Sacramento County, which is undoubtedly the "proper county" for this case and was the county where these defendants were sued over the same set of facts only a few months ago….
As noted, this is not the first time Mr. Dauner has faced a meritless action seeking to remove him as director and Co-Chair of [Caring for Californians, a Labor Management Committee]… In November 2015, UHW filed an action in Sacramento County, purportedly on behalf of CFC, seeking the same relief sought here under a different statute. After CHA moved to intervene in that action, UHW voluntarily dismissed its complaint… A week later, Mr. Regan filed this action.
Mr. Regan's complaint is as clear an example of forum shopping as can be imagined. The Corporations Code, however, prohibits that conduct. The Court should transfer this action to Sacramento County…
In 2014, UHW, CHA, and a number of California hospitals and health systems entered into an agreement titled the "Code of Conduct" that sought to align the interests of employers and employees and "create a new model for labor relations that is based on cooperation rather than confrontation." The Code of Conduct mandated the creation of a joint advocacy committee to function as a Labor Management Cooperation Committee... which UHW and CHA would jointly controlled to advance their common interest.
