The California Hospital Association (CHA)
has taken SEIU-UHW to court… again.
This time, CHA
is trying to recover tens of millions of dollars that SEIU-UHW has locked away
inside a secret “partnership” organization, according to records obtained from Sacramento
County Superior Court. (Below is a full copy.)
On October
14, CHA’s and SEIU-UHW’s attorneys will face off in a Sacramento courthouse.
Here’s
what’s happening.
When
SEIU-UHW’s Dave Regan and CHA’s Duane Dauner signed their secret
partnership deal in 2014, they also agreed to set up and finance a secret
new organization to carry out their joint projects.
The new
organization’s first priority was to help SEIU-UHW convince politicians to steer
$6 billion a year in new Medicaid funds to California’s giant hospital corporations.
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| Dave Regan and Duane Dauner |
If SEIU-UHW had
succeeded in this task (they didn’t), then the hospital CEOs would have allowed
SEIU-UHW to unionize 30,000 of their employees… but only as long as the workers
were banned from striking, forced into cheap labor contracts, and silenced by a
massive gag
clause.
The covert
partnership organization -- ironically named “Caring for Californians” by its founders -- was funded with $50
million that Regan and Dauner diverted from their treasuries in 2014.
With
millions in its bank count, “Caring
for Californians” leased office space in Sacramento, hired Peter Ragone
as its Executive Director, hired attorneys and staff, etc. The organization was
soon spending $40,000 a month in operating expenses, according to court filings
by the CHA.
For a time,
things were going swimmingly for Wall Street Dave. Fantasies of his
class-collaborationist partnership danced through his head as he performed
late-night lap dances for some of California’s wealthiest corporate CEOs.
 |
| Peter Ragone, CFC's Executive Director |
By November
of 2015, however, Dave’s partnership had exploded in a fiery display that lit
up California’s skies. The partnership was dead!
At the time
of the partnership’s demise, “Caring for Californians” still had $34 million in
unspent cash sitting in its bank account.
And that’s
what the latest lawsuit is all about. The $34 million.
Under the
terms of Regan and Dauner’s secret partnership deal, the $34 was supposed to be
returned to CHA and SEIU-UHW on January 1, 2016. However, Regan -- in an
apparent fit of vindictiveness against his former pin-striped pals -- is
refusing to return the money to either organization.
According to
CHA’s lawsuit, Regan has vetoed any return of the money to both CHA and
SEIU-UHW.
How?
“Caring for
Californians” is run by an eight-person Board of Directors, with equal numbers
of seats filled by CHA and SEIU-UHW. Regan and Dauner are co-chairs of the
board. Since January of 2016, says CHA, Regan has used his four votes (one of
them is SEIU-UHW staffer Arianna
Jimenez) to block every proposal to return the $34 million.
So what’s
happening to the money?
It’s simply swirling
down the drain, says CHA.
Here’s an excerpt from a recent CHA legal filing,
which refers to “Caring for Californians” by its initials “CFC.” The term "Code of Conduct" refers to the secret partnership deal signed in 2014.
“On December 31, 2015, the Code of Conduct terminated pursuant to its terms. Since that time, CFC has had no ongoing work, and neither CHA, UHW, nor any CFC Director has made any efforts to initiate new endeavors. Nonetheless, CFC has continued to spend approximately $40,000 each month on operating expenses for resources and services it has not been using. These are not only unnecessary expenditures, but they also decrease the amount available for redistribution to both CHA and UHW as provided by the Code of Conduct.” (p. 3)
Interesting,
right?
 |
| SEIU-UHW's Arianna Jimenez |
Regan is so vindictive
he’s willing to piss millions of dollars of SEIU-UHW members’ money down the
drain to get back at CHA.
How much
money do SEIU-UHW members stand to lose? According to the CHA:
“As of September 1, 2016, the CFC has approximately $34 million in its accounts that is not currently encumbered. Pursuant to the terms of the Code of Conduct, approximately $27.2 million would be returned to CHA and approximately $6.8 million would be returned to UHW.” (p. 4)
What’s CHA
asking the judge to do?
CHA’s
lawsuit asks the judge to force SEIU-UHW into binding arbitration so it
can recover its $27.2 million. Plus, it wants SEIU-UHW to pay all of CHA’s
attorneys fees.
If history
is a judge, it looks like SEIU-UHW’s members will be footing the bill for yet another
idiotic blunder by Regan.
Here’s a
copy of CHA’s suit filed on September 6, 2016:
