What's Art Pulaski thinking?

Art Pulaski

Remember Art Pulaski?

He was formerly married to SEIU’s Josie Mooney and is currently the head of the California Federation of Labor.

In 2012, Pulaski famously teamed up with SEIU-UHW’s Dave Regan to engineer an "emergency" phone call of the Labor Fed’s board in an unsuccessful effort to roll back the state's landmark nurse-to-patient staffing ratio law.

Well… Pulaski has made another decision that’s left observers scratching their heads.

Next week, the California Labor Federation will hold its biennial convention in San Diego, California. Pulaski has decided to put the presidents of UNITE HERE (D. Taylor) and SEIU (Mary Kay Henry) on the same stage.

As you can imagine, the folks over at UNITE HERE are no fans of Henry and SEIU. Back in 2009, Mary Kay Henry was one of Andy Stern's key lieutenants who launched SEIU’s multi-million dollar hostile takeover aimed at seizing control of UNITE HERE and gobbling it up inside of SEIU. 

SEIU’s disastrous scheme -- a byproduct of purple arrogance and imperial ambitions -- was roundly condemned by the labor movement.

So what’s Pulaski thinking?

Good question. Here's the announcement.

The 2014 California Labor Federation Biennial Convention is only 12 days away, and our speaker lineup is as action-packed as our agenda! We know that in order to win in the long run we must grow our movement and go on the offense. That’s why we’re thrilled to announce two keynote speakers who know firsthand what it means to fight in the trenches, grow their memberships and win.

Be sure to join us Tuesday, July 29 to hear SEIU International President, Mary Kay Henry and UNITE HERE President, D. Taylor as each highlight their unique lessons learned from fighting hard to organize new members, and the importance of expanding our offensive game to maintain a powerful movement for all workers. You won’t want to miss this!

Thud! SEIU's Dave Regan Is Under the Bus Again

Once again, SEIU’s Dave Regan has been tossed under the bus -- this time, by the CEO of the California Hospital Association. Here’s what happened:

Since the staffing-ratio scandal broke last week, Regan and SEIU huckster Steve Trossman have been trying to claim they didn’t actually want to roll back California’s safe-staffing ratios, but simply wanted the California Labor Federation to be “neutral” on any change.

Here’s how SEIU-UHW said it in a leaflet to its members:

The Hospital Association has proposed a temporary, 2-year lifting of the RN staffing ratios – just during meal and break periods – which they say saves them $400 million. SEIU-UHW has taken a neutral position on that proposal, neither in favor nor opposed.

Likely story, right? Fortunately, SEIU’s partner in crime -- the California Hospital Association (CHA) -- has ‘fessed up to what really happened.

Yesterday, Duane Dauner (the CEO of the CHA) told the Sacramento Business Journal that he made a deal with certain California legislators to have them introduce the anti-ratio bill, but only if the California Labor Federation first agreed “to go neutral” on the legislation.

That’s where SEIU and Dave Regan came in. They acted as Dauner’s secret agents by pressuring the Labor Federation’s to adopt a “neutral” position during an “emergency” phone call engineered by Dave Regan and the Labor Federation’s Art Pulaski.

Here’s how the Sacramento Business Journal describes it:

There will be no bill this year to relax the ratios because the California Hospital Association had an agreement with legislative leaders who might have carried the legislation that the Labor Fed had to go neutral on the notion first, said Duane Dauner, president and CEO at CHA.

“That vote did not occur,” Dauner said. “As a result, we didn’t try to move it.”

…SEIU and CHA are trying to work together on public policy matters that affect both partners, Dauner said.

“We felt this was one time — because it involved labor — it was appropriate for SEIU to present the idea to the California Labor Federation,” he said. “Then it was dead.”

As you can see, SEIU was hardly “neutral” in this scheme. In fact, they were the industry’s handmaiden... the CEO's errand boy. To make a sports analogy, SEIU served as the Boss’s linemen who tried to clear the field so SEIU’s corporate quarterback, Duane Dauner, could carry the ball across the goal line.  

And how fierce and furious is the SEIU/CHA scandal in California? Check out this leaflet from the California Nurses Association:

 Leaflet by California Nurses Association on Effort by SEIU and California Hospital Association to Roll Back...

SEIU’s Neal Bisno: “No idea what Dave was thinking”

SEIU-UHW’s Dave Regan is facing mounting waves of backlash after teaming up with hospital corporations to undermine California’s law on nurse-to-patient staffing ratios. In fact, Tasty hears that SEIU RNs in California are so angry they’ve begun contacting other unions for help.

And that’s not all. SEIU RNs from other states are also up in arms. Why? They’re trying to pass their own versions of nurse-to-patient ratio legislation that’s patterned after California’s first-in-the-nation law.

Confronted by the blowback, SEIU officials are back-pedalling away from Regan as quickly as they can. And as they beat their hasty retreat, they’re repeatedly tossing Regan under the bus.

Check out this statement by SEIU Local 121’s Executive Director Sue Weinstein, who discusses the “vocal and passionate reaction by our Registered Nurse members” against Regan’s ratio-busting efforts. The statement says:

We are calling on UHW to declare nurse-to-patient staffing ratios “off limits” in its ongoing work with the California Hospital Association as they explore cost savings and revenue-generating initiatives.

Despite her criticism, Weinstein says she LOVES Regan’s “visionary agreement with the California Hospital Association,” which “holds exciting promise for SEIU and the labor movement.” Hmmm. It sounds like Weinstein actually supported Regan’s deal with the CHA… until she was against it. Nothing like some late-onset cold feet to send Weinstein running for the hills.

Meanwhile, a source sent Tasty an interesting email from Neal Bisno, the president of SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania and a member of SEIU’s International Executive Board. Here’s an excerpt:

No idea what Dave was thinking - you can rest assured that our local and SEIU are strongly opposed to any suspension or other dimunition of any aspect of the hard-won CA RN to patient ratios law.  We have every intention of continuing to fight for identical legislation. This is a patient safety and patient lives issue, a valuing of nurses issue, a nurses union issue. Unfortunate incident, and rest assured a subject of intense reaction from SEIU Nurse Alliance leaders and members, including myself, inside our union.

Thud!!    That, my friends, is the sound of bus tires rolling over Regan like a well-worn speed bump.

Finally, here’s more news coverage about Regan’s collusion with industry CEOs. The article from “Beyond Chron” features quotes from RoseAnn DeMoro (the Executive Director of the California Nurses Association). She calls Regan “an embarrassment to the labor movement,” “overtly disgraceful,” and describes his arguments as “idiotic” and “drivel.”

She also recounts details from the “emergency” conference call convened by the California Labor Federation’s Art Pulaski during which Regan “made an impassioned speech on behalf of the CA hospital association…"

The article issues this challenge to SEIU President Mary Kay Henry:

Dave Regan is the proverbial “5th Column” in California labor. He has battled UNITE HERE, SEIU Local 1021, NUHW and now CNA on behalf of a vision that the rest of the labor movement rejects...

National SEIU President Mary Kay Henry’s passivity in response to Regan’s shenanigans is remarkable. If she believes silence is the best way to get him to change course, she's been proven wrong time and again. Henry's passivity empowers Regan and is undermining SEIU in California.

Well, Mary Kay?

SEIU-UHW's Dave Regan Joins Hospital Industry to Roll Back Nurse Staffing Law... and Suffers Smackdown

In a jaw-dropping move that’s producing seismic reactions across California, SEIU’s Dave Regan revealed just how far he’s climbed into bed with California’s hospital corporations. Here’s what’s going on.

On Thursday, Regan teamed up with the California Hospital Association to try to roll back a California law that requires hospitals to meet minimum nurse-to-patient staffing ratios designed to ensure safe care for patients. These safe-staffing ratios have been in place for 40 years in ICUs, Neonatal ICUs and ERs. And in 2004, the California legislature extended staffing ratios to other hospital units like oncology, medical-surgical and pediatric units.  

As caregivers and their unions pushed for the ratios, the California Hospital Association (CHA) aggressively fought them, even spending millions of dollars on an unsuccessful lawsuit to overturn the law. Why?

The CHA is the “chamber of commerce” for California’s hospital industry. It’s run by multi-billion-dollar corporations like Kaiser Permanente, Dignity Health, Sutter Health, HCA and Tenet Healthcare. For these companies, fewer staff means more profits. In 2010, for example, California’s hospital industry earned more than $4.4 billion in profits.

After the industry failed to roll back the ratios through lobbying and lawsuits, they enlisted their new pal, Dave Regan, to engineer a back-door legislative maneuver to achieve the same outcome. On Thursday, Regan and the CHA tried to insert language into a “trailer bill” attached to California’s state budget. The “trailer” would suspend the ratios during any meal and rest breaks. According to SEIU’s “talking points,” this initial rollback of the law would save hospital corporations more than $400 million.  

So… was “Wall Street Dave” successful in his underhanded efforts to roll back the ratio law? Not by a long shot. Instead, Regan suffered a series of head-spinning smackdowns that one source described as “utterly humiliating.” Here’s what happened:

On Thursday, Regan dispatched members of the SEIU California State Council, headed by Bill Lloyd, to the State Capitol in an effort to find a single California legislator who would “sponsor” the trailer to the budget bill. End result? Not a single legislator agreed to put their name on the bill!

Next, Regan called his buddy Art Pulaski at the California Labor Federation, AFL-CIO. Pulaski, who was formerly married to SEIU’s Josie Mooney, agreed to convene an “emergency” phone call of the Federation’s Executive Council, which is made up of union leaders across the state.

During Thursday night’s call, Regan personally pitched his proposal to the Executive Council and then asked the labor leaders to endorse CHA/SEIU's effort to roll back the ratio law. Regan argued that the hospital industry needed relief from the law in order to improve its profitability. (Apparently, $4.1 billion isn’t enough for Dave's buddies at the CHA.) SEIU’s Bill Lloyd also spoke in favor of the proposal.  RoseAnn DeMoro (the Executive Director of the California Nurses Association) spoke against it. 

In the end, the Executive Council voted 60-2 against Regan’s proposal! Regan’s only two votes came from SEIU officials: Bill Lloyd and Mike Garcia of SEIU Local 1877.

In case Regan’s backside wasn’t stinging enough, yesterday the California Labor Federation sent this letter to California’s governor and legislative leaders, stating:

The California Labor Federation opposes any proposal to suspend nurse-to-patient staffing ratios during meal and rest periods. Such proposal would endanger both patient safety and worker health and safety, two core values we support and defend. We ask you to not include this proposal in any budget trailer bill or legislation to come.

And in a press release issued last night, the CNA’s RoseAnn DeMoro delivered this body blow to Regan:

It would be hard to imagine a more immoral and corrupt scenario than for a labor leader to be lobbying other unions to endanger patients on behalf of corporate hospital executives whose only concern is increasing profits.

Meanwhile, a source sent Tasty an email from CNA leaders with this reference to Regan:

Nurses are miracle workers, but grafting testicles on someone is outside of our scope of practice.

Ouch!!!

And earlier today, one of NUHW’s RN leaders sent this email blast to healthcare workers across California, including SEIU’s members. Also, here's news coverage of Regan's debacle.

Tasty hears that Regan will be facing more smackdowns in the days ahead. 

Before launching his harebrained scheme, Regan somehow forgot that five SEIU unions in California happen to represent 16,000 Registered Nurses, including SEIU Locals 1021, 121, 721, 521 and 221. Oh... and these RNs are BIG big fans of the same ratio law that Regan is trying to undermine. Tasty wonders what the RNs think about SEIU just about now…

Second, Regan’s effort on behalf of some of California’s largest companies has further isolated Regan -- and SEIU -- from the rest of California’s labor movement. One person described Regan’s effort this way: “Labor should never put takeaways on the table for labor.” Another said: “What’s next? Will SEIU want to roll back laws on lunch breaks and overtime?” Tasty got other emails calling Regan “the hospital association’s toady” and “a disgrace.”

Lastly, Regan’s apparent role as a CHA lobbyist has focused new attention on his “visionary” partnership deal with the CHA, which Regan and the CHA signed last month. Regan has famously refused to allow SEIU-UHW’s own members to read the “ground-breaking” agreement, as SEIU's Steve Trossman described it. In fact, rank-and-file members of Regan’s own union filed disciplinary charges against Regan for refusing to share a copy of his secret pact with the CHA.

What does the deal say? It’s clear that the Bosses are buttering Regan’s bread. But how much butter? Is the CHA bankrolling Regan’s efforts to undermine caregivers and patients across the state?

It looks like “Wall Street Dave” has tied SEIU into so many knots that it’ll take at least a month to figure things out. That is… if Regan can extract himself from the Bosses’ bed for long enough to attend to such matters.

Tasty especially likes the following homemade graphic, sent by a reader, that captures workers’ attitudes about Dave Regan and his real bosses: