Nearly 2,000
workers at a chain of California hospitals are asking why SEIU-UHW officials agreed to freeze their pay scale and give away health
insurance, vacation, sick pay, retirement benefits, and other benefits during contract
negotiations with the company’s top executives.
Workers are angry,
say Tasty’s sources, after NUHW recently
negotiated a contract with the same company, Verity Health System, but didn’t accept any of the cuts negotiated
by SEIU-UHW officials.
NUHW’s
contract, ratified in December, covers workers at two of the company’s six
hospitals. SEIU-UHW represents workers at the company’s remaining four
hospitals.
Here’s what
happened.
In November
2015, Dave Regan and other SEIU-UHW
officials negotiated massive cuts for SEIU-UHW’s approximately 2,000 members at
Verity Health System, formerly known
as the Daughters of Charity Health System.
SEIU-UHW represents workers at O’Connor Hospital, St. Louise Regional Hospital,
St. Francis Medical Center, and St. Vincent Medical Center.
During negotiations,
Regan agreed to freeze workers’ wage scales and to eliminate
a whole range of benefits -- including health insurance, vacation pay, sick
pay, and retirement benefits -- for hundreds of SEIU-UHW’s members who work
part time at the hospitals.
As far as
the benefit cuts, Regan agreed to change the contract’s so-called “benefit
eligibility standard” so that part-time workers must now work at least 30 hours
a week, instead of 20 hours a week, to be eligible for health insurance, sick
pay, vacation pay, etc.
Regan also
agreed to eliminate float differentials and short-call pay, cut Paid Time Off
(PTO) accruals, eliminate “Jury Duty Leave” and “Education Leave,” eliminate
future Extended Sick Leave accruals, as well as multiple
other cuts. Regan also accepted the elimination of retiree health benefits
for all employees at St. Louise Regional Hospital and O'Connor Hospital, according
to a copy of the deal.
SEIU-UHW
members called Regan’s contract “the
worst contract in our history.”
To add
insult to injury, Regan jammed the wage freeze and benefit cuts down workers’
throats by using ramrod
ratification votes.
 |
| Dave Regan, SEIU-UHW |
Two months
later, approximately 650 workers at two Verity hospitals (Seton Medical Center
and Seton Coastside Hospital) began their own negotiations with Verity
officials after decertifying
SEIU-UHW and voting to join NUHW.
With NUHW,
workers successfully fought off all of management’s benefit cuts and won increases
of 3% per year to workers’ wage scales during each year of the three-year contract.
In addition, NUHW members won one-time “equity” pay increases of up to 12%.
Across
California, Regan and SEIU-UHW have a well-documented history of cutting
backroom deals with hospital CEOs to gut workers’ pay, benefits, and working
conditions. Now, at the Verity hospitals, Regan’s dirty deeds have produced a
lopsided outcome for employees who do the same work just miles apart. SEIU-UHW members,
working 40 miles away from their NUHW counterparts, now receive vastly inferior
benefits from the same company.
Regan’s cuts
offer another jarring contradiction.
SEIU
officials have rightfully criticized Trump’s effort to cut health coverage
under the Medicaid Program and the Affordable Care Act. So, ummm, why did one of SEIU’s top officials –
Dave Regan – agree to eliminate health coverage for hundreds of SEIU’s own
members without any kind of fight?
And while we’re
on the topic of contradictions, why did Regan ink his sell-out deal with
Verity, a company controlled by New York hedge fund BlueMountain Capital?
So much for SEIU’s
fight against the 1% and the billionaire class, who are pocketing unprecedented
profits while US workers struggle to pay rent and put food on the table.
