Consumer Watchdog: ‘Death Rattle Shakes Dave Regan’s Pact with California Hospital Association’

Jamie Court, President of Consumer Watchdog

Today, the President of Consumer Watchdog reported the following news about SEIU-UHW President Dave Regan’s deal with the California Hospital Association in a blog:

Word on the street is that union President Dave Regan's Faustian bargain with the California hospital industry -- cuddle up with hospitals' management to keep patient problems quiet and receive more than 60,000 new hospital workers -- is now teetering on the brink of collapse. Apparently Regan shut up, but the hospitals didn't put up the new workers. Good riddance.

Consumer Watchdog, founded by public interest lawyer Harvey Rosenfield, is a non-profit consumer advocacy organization with offices in California and Washington, DC. It has won legislation to reform HMOs and utility companies as well as court battles to defend consumers against banks, oil companies and insurance corporations.

Jamie Court, Consumer Watchdog's president, describes additional details about SEIU-UHW's "Pax-Lucifer" with the CHA in today’s blog on his organization's website:

Inside sources says talks between the Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West (SEIU-UHW) and the California Hospital Association (CHA), the industry's lobbying group, have stalled...

As a result... Regan reportedly is now considering re-filing the same statewide ballot initiatives that he’s already filed (and withdrawn) twice at a cost of tens of millions of dollars to SEIU-UHW's membership. According to Court:

Regan may be threatening to take those two initiatives out of the closet again as a club for the hospitals, but it's not clear he has the money or connections to actually get them to the ballot. No one with any juice wants to work with Regan anymore.  He had 70,000 of his 150,000 members recently stripped from UHW and has lost any leverage to gain more members. Can you hear the death rattle for the corporate collaborator?

Court describes how SEIU-UHW threw patients and consumers under the bus in exchange for Regan’s backroom deal to add more workers to the union's membership rolls:

[SEIU-UHW’s] labor-management deal with the hospital industry is a business model to stop the public and regulators from knowing about quality of care problems at hospitals -- one pioneered by SEIU-UHW at Kaiser Permanente for years...

The most pernicious part of the Pax-Lucifer was that Regan agreed the union would never oppose any hospital industry political position or have a public difference of opinion in the policy world.  That's led his union's name to be affiliated with many anti-patient positions, including opposition to health insurance rate regulation, patient safety protections and good consumer bills. His slap down by SEIU leaders was well deserved. Now he's getting the other side of the hand from the hospital industry.  It's a cautionary tale. But Regan doesn't strike me as guy who knows his Faust.

As Regan thinks about re-filing his ballot initiatives, he might wanna take a glance at a new law approved last year by California’s governor that turns Regan's ballot-initiative bamboozle into a crime punishable by up to three years in jail. 

Then again, Dave might look good in pinstripes...

Here's a link to Jamie Court’s full blog.

Leaked Memo In Full: Dave Regan on Internal War with SEIU

Check out Dave Regan’s leaked memo, first described in a June 17th article in the San Francisco Business Times. Tasty has pasted it below.

In the memo -- "Who’s Gonna Bell the Cat? The Tyranny of the Majority: Ethics and Values in SEIU?” -- Regan catapults himself to new heights of hypocrisy by tearfully condemning SEIU's decision to transfer 65,000 SEIU-UHW long-term care workers to a new statewide union.

In 2009, Regan not only supported this transfer, he was a top SEIU staffers in DC who designed, promoted, and executed the plan to carry out the transfer of these same 65,000 workers. Later, SEIU President Andy Stern rewarded Regan for his political hatchet job by appointing him to head SEIU-UHW after its pro-democracy leadership had been removed.

As far as Regan's hypocrisy, the president of a consumer rights organization describes it this way in a piece published yesterday in the Huffington Post:

Regan has "issued one of the more hypocritical memos ever written... In a long, dressed-up whine about his fate, he complained about payoffs, gag clauses, and everything being for sale, including souls. These are the very strategies Regan made his bones with in the union movement."

In Dave’s delusional memo, Regan tries to reinvent himself as a crusader for union democracy, transparency, and worker rights. Regan pretends to leap onto the stage as a hero who’s being victimized by a tyrannical despot. Cloaked in self-righteous armor, he climbs atop his high horse and tearfully moans and groans about the horrific crimes and injustices that, uhh, he himself actually perpetrated against these same workers.

And in case that’s not enough, Dave heaves another steaming shovelful of bullsh*t atop his dungheap of hypocrisy.

Remember the recent revelations about the gag clause that Regan secretly signed with the California Hospital Association?

Well, Dave didn't blink an eye when, with the stroke of his pen, he gagged more 80,000 hospital workers from reporting patient-care violations to government investigators. But now, he's crying crocodile tears over an internal SEIU gag rule (which he reportedly agreed to) that's supposed to stop him, a graduate of Cornell University, from airing SEIU's dirty laundry with the outside world.

Cry me a river, muthafuka!

And spare me your morally righteous bullsh*t.

As Jamie Court, the president of Consumer Watchdog, noted in his Huffington Post article:

In the labor movement, there are two kinds of leaders -- those who fight big corporations, and those who collaborate with them. The poster child for the collaborators just had half his membership taken away.

David Regan, head of United Healthcare Workers West, who inked sweetheart deals with California's largest HMO, Kaiser and its hospitals, to keep quality of care problems hush-hush, and only fought for corporations' political goals, lost 70,000 of his 150,000 members recently.

It's a fitting fate for one of labor's biggest corporate sellouts.

Here's the full piece:

  Dave Regan: "Who’s Gonna Bell the Cat? The Tyranny of the Majority: Ethics and Values in SEIU?" (...

SEIU’s Election-Year Flip Flop Reveals Terms of Secret Deal with California Hospital Industry

In California, SEIU has achieved a new level of notoriety by committing an election-year flip-flop that’d make even the most cynical politician blush.

The flip-flop is discussed in an op-ed published yesterday in the state capital’s largest newspaper (Sacramento Bee: “SEIU Sells Out on Prop. 45”). (Also in the San Francisco Examiner).

Here's the story.

Just months ago, SEIU was waging a highly publicized statewide campaign to control runaway healthcare costs that are hurting millions of families across the state. Sounds good, right?

Well… it turns out SEIU’s support for consumers is as deep as piss on a flat rock.

In the run-up to this Tuesday’s elections, SEIU unceremoniously tossed California’s consumers under the bus and instead threw all of SEIU’s political support behind the state’s multibillion-dollar insurance industry in a battle over a key measure on the ballot.

The measure -- Proposition 45 -- would give California’s elected insurance commissioner the power to limit exorbitant rate hikes imposed by HMOs on consumers. Thirty-five other states already have such a system in place.  

Prop. 45 is sponsored by a statewide nonprofit consumer organization called "Consumer Watchdog" and is backed by a coalition of consumer groups, community organizations, unions and others.

Who opposes Prop. 45?

California's HMOs and hospital corporations. They've already spent more than $57 million to try to defeat Proposition 45 -- and have outspent the measure's supporters by 14 to 1.

And then, of course, there's SEIU-UHW and the SEIU California State Council (SEIU’s statewide political arm)… which have joined industry CEOs in aggressively opposing Prop. 45. For example, SEIU-UHW sent this "Official Election Endorsement" to its 145,000 members. And here's a link to the SEIU State Council's election materials.

So why did SEIU commit such a massive act of betrayal against California's consumers?

SEIU's Regan and the CHA's Duane Dauner

It’s reportedly due to a "gag" clause in the "partnership agreement" that SEIU-UHW’s Dave Regan inked with the California Hospital Association several months ago. 

The clause specifically prohibits SEIU from either sponsoring or supporting any legislation or ballot measures that are opposed by the insurance and hospital industries. 

Incredible, right? 

And that's reportedly just a small fraction of what SEIU traded away to industry CEOs... including a long list of other worker and consumer rights. 

Here are the details provided by NUHW’s Sal Rosselli in the Sacramento Bee:

So why has the Service Employees International Union – the nation’s largest health care workers union – joined health insurance corporations in opposition to Prop. 45?

The answer: A few months ago, SEIU signed a corrupt deal with those companies in which it promised that in return for the opportunity to unionize 60,000 California health care workers, SEIU would not criticize these corporations or support legislation they oppose. SEIU explicitly agreed to prohibit its 150,000 California members from participating in “communications that degrade or attack a signatory hospital or health system or the hospital industry” or that raise “concerns about hospital pricing and executive compensation in health care.”

In other words, SEIU has formally abdicated its watchdog role. In exchange for the chance to collect dues from 60,000 new members, SEIU has officially sold out their workers and is actively campaigning in support of their employers’ political goals. This is the very definition of a company union.

SEIU and California Hospital Association officials tout their deal as “revolutionary.” And perhaps they’re right. A defining principle of the labor movement is that unions represent workers. With a few strokes of the pen, SEIU has effectively silenced its members and put their dues dollars at the disposal of wealthy and powerful corporations.

Meanwhile, consumers lose, health care workers lose and democracy loses.

SEIU-UHW’s “Gag Clause” Turns Heads at Football Stadium

Dave Regan’s cozy relationship with the hospital industry is turning heads -- this time inside a football stadium.

In a recent article ("Dignity Health Spends Big at Levi's Stadium," September 14, 2014), the San Francisco Chronicle describes the public outrage after Dignity Health shelled out $2.5 million for a luxury skybox at the San Francisco 49ers’ new football stadium. 

Inside the air-conditioned suite, Dignity’s overpaid execs are gorging themselves on trays of food and bottles of liquor as athletes battle it out on the gridiron below.

Consumer Watchdog, a leading consumer rights organization, told the Chronicle it’s “scandalous” that Dignity Health -- a nonprofit hospital corporation -- is "wasting millions of dollars on luxury skyboxes rather than putting those charitable dollars towards patient care..."

Damn right!

Dignity’s skybox scandal appeared to offer a perfect opportunity for SEIU-UHW to attack Dignity's pinstriped priorities. To use a baseball metaphor, Dignity had served up a proverbial "softball" that SEIU-UHW could hit out of the park. After all, Dignity recently demanded -- and Dave Regan accepted -- a wage freeze for all of SEIU-UHW’s 14,000 members at Dignity.

Why, then, has SEIU-UHW been quiet as a church mouse about Dignity's skybox scandal?

Sources say it’s typical of Regan, who has implanted himself firmly in the Boss's pocket instead of at the side of workers. During recent contract negotiations, Regan helped Dignity eliminate workers’ defined-benefit pension and impose a wage freeze on 14,000 SEIU-UHW members.

Sources also point to a second interesting explanation for SEIU-UHW’s deafening silence:  the gag clause in Regan's new “partnership” deal with the California Hospital Association, signed in May of 2014.

In an internal SEIU conference call leaked to Tasty, Regan said the gag clause bans SEIU-UHW from expressing any criticism or doing any "negative campaigning" against hospital corporations. Here's what Regan said:

The Code of Conduct requires that in all of our interactions -- whether they're in the public realm, in the realm of advocacy, in the realm of media relations or press relations or political work as well as in the realm of non-union workers deciding whether or not to join our union -- we will eliminate and prohibit all negative campaigning.

To reinforce the deal, Regan brought a top Dignity exec -- Wade Rose -- to speak about the terms of the "partnership" agreement at one of SEIU-UHW’s recent Executive Board meetings.

Hmmm… So how, exactly, are Dignity's workers supposed to get any kind of justice from their

Skybox at the 49ers new stadium

multibillion-dollar employer if they can't utter a single criticism about sky-high executive salaries, wasteful spending, off-the-hook profits, and short-staffing?

Good question! It's like fighting a 300-lb. bully with both hands tied behind your back.

And that's the bottom line. Regan has fixed the fight in the Boss's favor. Which helps explain why Dignity workers' wages and benefits are suffering while their company's profits are booming. 

Several weeks ago, Dignity reported $913 million in profits for the year ended June of 2014… with one economist criticizing nonprofit Dignity's sky-high profit margin of 8.3%. (Sacramento Business Journal, "Dignity Health Sees Healthy Growth in Profit Margin," September 25, 2014).

So... for all you 49er fans out there -- keep your eyes out for SEIU’s Dave Regan. Tasty bets dollars to doughnuts he’ll soon be partying with Dignity's execs inside their $2.5 million skybox!

SEIU's “Dishonest Dave” Busted by Los Angeles Times

It looks like SEIU’s Dave Regan -- whose aggressive lies during the 43,000-person Kaiser election caused the NLRB to overturn the election results -- is up to his same dishonest tricks.

Check out this breaking story in the Los Angeles Times. The article, published yesterday, reports that Regan’s SEIU-UHW has been circulating petitions in California to place two measures on the November ballot in order to “reform” the state’s healthcare industry. SEIU has been telling California’s voters, politicians and the media that the initiatives will protect California consumers from over-priced hospital services and will force hospitals to give more care to the poor. Sounds good, right?

Except it's not true!

According to the Los Angeles Times, SEIU inserted hidden loopholes into the ballot measures that completely exempt California's two largest hospital companies from all of the proposed laws' provisions. And get this... the two companies control at least 25% of California's hospitals! As one reader described it, it’s like writing a law to reform the U.S. auto industry, but exempting Ford and GM.

Here’s how the Los Angeles Times describes it:

As healthcare workers gathered outside California hospitals recently to collect signatures for two proposed ballot initiatives, they told voters the measures would rein in excessive hospital billings and expand healthcare for the poor.

Unspoken in the public pitch was the fact that the measures, backed by the Service Employees International Union and aimed at private hospitals, would have a major effect on facilities the union has tried unsuccessfully to organize, while exempting those where many of its members work.

Dignity Health [formerly called Catholic Healthcare West], the state's largest hospital chain, and Kaiser Permanente, the largest HMO, would not be subject to the proposals. The measures would prohibit their private competitors from charging more than 25% above the actual cost of providing care and require nonprofits to devote at least 5% of their patient revenue to free care for the poor. The union represents nearly 60,000 workers in those two systems.

And consumer advocates say SEIU’s proposals would…

ultimately result in a competitive advantage for the already dominant players in California's healthcare market. But the proposals would fail to eliminate the problems of medical inflation and inadequate charity care. At least a quarter of California's private hospitals would be exempted from the measures, according to the state's nonpartisan legislative analyst and others.

The president of Consumer Watchdog, a California advocacy organization, is quoted as saying: "There's no good reason" to exclude Kaiser and Dignity, "two of the largest providers in the state."

And it gets worse... It turns out that Regan has systematically lied to the media about the measures. A journalist at the Sacramento Business Journal -- who apparently was never informed by SEIU’s Steve Trossman about the massive loopholes hidden in the proposals’ small font -- penned a gushing article describing how the ballot initiatives “seek to rein in health care costs and ensure charity care to needy residents.” The article says the initiatives “would require all hospitals to charge patients reasonable rates based on the actual cost of providing care” and even includes quotes from Dave Regan like this one:

“Companies that operate tax-free should not be permitted to overcharge consumers, and they should be required to meet their charitable duty by providing a reasonable level of services for prevention, treatment and wellness to those in need.”

Of course, both Kaiser and Catholic Healthcare West are tax-free, but were carefully exempted from the "reform" initiatives.

And that’s not all. Regan also lied to SEIU-UHW’s own members... even as he asked them to volunteer to collect signatures to qualify the initiatives for the ballot. Here’s an excerpt from a letter that Regan sent to SEIU-UHW members about the ballot initiatives (click here to see the full letter):

And Regan personally signed the letter.

And here’s the kicker. Regan is using $5.5 million of SEIU-UHW members’ dues money to foist this massive fraud on California voters. Check out this resolution that Regan pushed through the union’s Executive Board to authorize the expenditure of the $5.5 million. And take special note that the resolution never discloses the massive loopholes that were carefully inserted in the so-called “reform” measures.

So what does Regan say now?  Well, after he was busted by an LA Times reporter, here's how he responded (for full quotation in the LA Times article) to the revelations that his carefully crafted loopholes would exempt one-quarter of California’s hospitals from SEIU’s so-called “industry-wide reforms:”

"If people want to criticize that we only got three-fourths, then so be it."

Way to go, Dave!!!