A source shared a copy of SEIU-UHW’s recent
agreement with Verity Health System, which reveals even more cuts affecting the union’s roughly 2,000 members at four
California hospitals.
First,
SEIU-UHW failed to address the effects of a three-year wage freeze negotiated
by SEIU-UHW President Dave Regan during
the union’s prior negotiations.
In 2015, Regan agreed to freeze SEIU-UHW
members’ wage scales for three years and also agreed to block workers from
receiving “step increases” based on their years of service at the hospital.
Under the
agreement negotiated last month, SEIU-UHW members are supposed to once again start
getting paid according to a wage scale. However, SEIU-UHW’s wage scale is now
three years out of date due to the freeze negotiated by Regan. And… SEIU-UHW
did nothing to fix that problem during last month’s negotiations.
Second,
SEIU-UHW failed to reverse many of the cuts to its members’ benefits that Regan
negotiated in 2015. For example, SEIU-UHW failed to restore workers’ Extended
Sick Leave, a benefit that had been in workers’ contract for many years and
which NUHW
members at Verity hospitals continue to receive. Here’s the provision that
SEIU-UHW negotiated for its members in 2015:
 |
| Exerpt SEIU-UHW's contract with Verity Health: 2015-18 |
Third,
SEIU-UHW failed to restore benefits for hundreds of its members who lost their
health insurance, vacation pay, sick pay, retirement, and other benefits due to cuts negotiated by Regan two years ago.
In 2015, Regan agreed to radically
change workers’ so-called “benefit eligibility standards” so that SEIU-UHW
members must regularly work a minimum of 30 hours a week -- instead of 20 hours
a week -- in order to qualify for benefits. In contrast, NUHW
members at Verity hospitals are eligible for benefits if they work 20 hours
a week or more, which is the decades-old standard in California’s healthcare
industry.
Why did Regan and Co. refuse to fight for SEIU-UHW's members?
And why did
SEIU-UHW officials swallow such a cheap contract in lightning-quick negotiations
some 18 months before workers’ current contract is even set to expire?
Important
questions, right?
Dave?
Here's a copy of the tentative agreements that were later signed by officials from both SEIU-UHW and Verity:
