SEIU-UHW
officials have cut another dirty backroom deal with hospital bosses, according
to workers at four California hospitals.
Here’s
what’s going on:
Two years
ago, SEIU-UHW’s Dave Regan made a
backroom deal with a New York hedge fund that bought the Daughters of Charity Health System, a chain of six California
hospitals in Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area.
As BlueMountain Capital was negotiating to
buy the chain in 2014, Regan met privately with its execs and agreed to accept massive
benefit cuts for SEIU-UHW’s 2,000 members, according to documents
later obtained from the California Attorney General.
Next,
SEIU-UHW officials used ramrod
ratification votes in 2015 to jam a new three-year contract down the throats
of SEIU-UHW members at four of the chain’s six hospitals. In addition to
containing a freeze on workers’ pay scales and other cuts, Regan’s new contract
stripped hundreds of members of basic benefits -- such as health insurance,
vacation, sick pay, and retirement benefits -- by gutting workers’ longtime benefit-eligibility
standards. See this
post for more details.
Several
months later, NUHW negotiated with the same hedge fund for a contract covering
650 workers at the chain’s two remaining hospitals, Seton Medical Center and
Seton Coastside Hospital. NUHW
successfully fended off all of the cuts swallowed by Regan and also won increases
of 3% per year to workers’ wage scales and one-time “equity” pay increases of
up to 12%.
Last month,
SEIU-UHW’s members got their latest surprise.
Under SEIU-UHW’s
current labor contract, which expires in late 2018, SEIU-UHW is required to do
mid-contract negotiations with the company to implement a new health plan that
that “reduces costs for the employer.” Article 25 of SEIU-UHW’s contract reads:
"In order to reduce costs, the Employer and Union will work together as soon as possible to find a new health plan to take effect for 2017 through the term of the contract that maximizes Employee benefits while reducing costs of providing health coverage to the Employer."
Last month,
SEIU-UHW officials gathered a bargaining committee to negotiate over the health
plan… but SEIU-UHW officials quickly pulled a giant switcheroo on workers.
Greg Pullman, Regan’s “Chief of Staff,”
appeared as SEIU-UHW’s negotiator, and told the bargaining committee he planned
to negotiate a quick three-year extension to SEIU-UHW’s piss-poor contract --
the same contract that has stripped hundreds of workers of basic benefits.
Pullman said he wanted to roll over SEIU-UHW’s current contract with 3% pay
increases for the next years.
What about
fighting to restore workers’ benefits so they at least equal those enjoyed by
NUHW members? Naaaah… forget it, said Pullman.
 |
| Dave Regan |
Workers
cried foul. But Pullman pushed the deal through a full year and a half before
the contract will expire on October 31, 2018.
Now,
SEIU-UHW’s 2,000 members are stuck until 2021 with a contract that gives its
members second-class benefits compared to NUHW members who work for the same
employer, Verity Health System.
SEIU-UHW’s
members are stuck, that is, unless they exercise their right to dump SEIU-UHW
in a decertification vote just like the workers did at Seton Medical Center and
Seton Coastside Hospital.
