Mike Garcia Is Out as Head of SEIU Union in California

SEIU's Mike Garcia is on left

Insiders report that Mike Garcia has resigned as the President of SEIU United Service Workers West/Local 1877, a union that represents 35,000 janitors, security guards, and airport workers in California. 

Garcia reportedly made the announcement last week during a meeting of the union’s Executive Board and cited his health as the reason.

During his tenure, Garcia oversaw one of SEIU’s mega-mergers which fused together SEIU Local 1877 and several other SEIU locals into “SEIU United Service Workers West.” The move prompted the resignation of at least one SEIU official and was sharply criticized by advocates of union democracy, who described the move as a "new stage in the super bureaucratization of labor” due to the new-fangled structures of control that SEIU erected atop the union.

In 2012, Garcia famously teamed up with SEIU-UHW’s Dave Regan in a failed effort to roll back California's nurse-to-patient staffing ratio law in an underhanded favor to the California Hospital Association, which is the hospital industry's Chamber of Commerce. 

Earlier, Garcia raised eyebrows when his secretary -- who just happened to be married to Garcia's right-hand man, David Stilwell -- received a giant pay increase that boosted her salary from $28,000 to nearly $200,000 a year.

With Garcia headed out the door, David Huerta -- the second-in-charge at United Service Workers West -- has been fingered to take over Garcia's position atop the union.

It's unclear whether Garcia also resigned from SEIU’s International Executive Board.

Airport Workers: We Want Out of "Our Do-Nothing-But-Take-Our-Dues Union" (aka, SEIU)

SEIU is once again under fire for selling out workers through backroom deals… and boosting workers’ union dues at the same time!

The latest criticism comes from 1,100 workers at San Francisco International Airport and is aimed at SEIU Local 1877, which is headed by Mike Garcia.  

A local newspaper reports that workers have already filed a petition with the NLRB. Meanwhile, a worker-run blog describes workers' effort to decertify SEIU and replace it with a worker-run union (see more below).  

Here’s an excerpt from an article in the San Francisco Examiner.

Tensions recently flared up between San Francisco International Airport security workers and their representatives at Local 1877 of the Service Employees International Union. Claiming that the union has rolled over in negotiations with the airport's private security contractor, Covenant Aviation Security, several workers have petitioned the National Labor Relations Board for an open shop.

The signatories, who constitute more than 30 percent of the bargaining unit covered by SEIU's contract with Covenant, requested a "deauthorization" election that would make union dues voluntary. They plan to hold an election that could create one of the largest open shops in existence — 1,100 workers, including everyone from the checkpoint and baggage departments — if the petitioners garner a majority…

Baggage screener John Marteen, who has worked at the airport since November 2002, said the union has been too conciliatory in accepting Covenant's aggressive budget cuts, most of which sliced into workers' paychecks. Over the past year, Covenant has decreased holiday overtime pay by about 20 percent, raised employees' out-of-pocket expenses for hospital care and withdrawn reimbursements for employees' parking and shoes.

Rather than consulting workers, the SEIU took the liberty of bargaining by itself, Marteen said.

"In one of the meetings in the break room last week, the union said 'We had a choice of this and this, and we took the one that was less of a burden for you guys,'" he recounted.

"I said ... I wouldn't accept either of them," he added. "They never made a counter offer — they just accepted what the company presented."

He added that the union also raised the price of dues to 2.6 percent of each employee's paycheck in January, right after the employees got a 3 percent raise.

In a response, SEIU doesn’t challenge workers’ claims about its back-room deals and sell-out concessions. Instead, SEIU says some of the workers are receiving help from a right-wing, anti-union group.

This worker-run blog, however, indicates that workers are not anti-union, but instead want to decertify “our do-nothing-but-take-our-dues union” (SEIU) and replace it with a union that workers run themselves. 

In the blog, workers blast their Boss, Covenant Aviation, for its “profit at any cost” approach and “your complete and utter disregard for the well being of your employees and their families.”

If workers’ decertification effort is successful, SEIU Local 1877 will lose nearly 5% of its statewide membership.

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:

Sticky Fingers at SEIU Local 1877

A tipster alerted Tasty to a troubling case of skyrocketing SEIU salaries that may be connected to a staffer’s romantic connection to a top union official. It’s happening at SEIU Local 1877, which represents low-wage janitors in California and is headed by President Mike Garcia, who also serves on SEIU’s International Executive Board.

Here’s what’s going on. Back in 2005 and 2006, a staffer named Carmen Bojorquez earned modest pay of $27,000 a year as Garcia's Executive Secretary. Here’s how Local 1877 reported her pay in annual financial reports submitted to the U.S. Department of Labor. (Bojorquez's total pay is in the right-hand column. Click on the image to enlarge it.)

Source: SEIU Local 1877's DOL Form LM-2 for 2005

Source: SEIU Local 1877's DOL Form LM-2 for 2006

 Then, in 2007, her annual pay rocketed to $186,906 even though her job title remained the same.

Source: SEIU Local 1877's DOL Form LM-2 for 2007

In 2008, it jumped even higher – to almost $200,000.

Source: SEIU Local 1877's DOL Form LM-2 for 2008

And in 2009, it rocketed to nearly a quarter million dollars!

Source: SEIU Local 1877's DOL Form LM-2 for 2009

What’s going on? Insiders offer two possible explanations. First, Bojorquez just happens to be married to a top union official named David Stilwell, who’s Mike Garcia’s right-hand man. Insiders say that Stilwell -- whose job title is “Assistant to the President” -- may have rigged a special pay deal for his wife.

The second explanation is this: the large payments may have been a way for Garcia to funnel large quantities of money to a travel agency connected to Garcia’s wife. Workers report that the union has steered lots of business to the travel agency over the years. But many of the reported transactions don't seem to appear on the union’s financial reports. Transferring money to the travel agency via Bojorquez may have been a way to do an end-run around the federal government's reporting requirements.

Whatever the case, this situation needs some serious investigation… including lots of questions for Eddie “Wrong Number” Iny, who was serving as the Secretary-Treasurer of SEIU Service Workers West, the umbrella organization overseeing Local 1877, at the time of the payments.

P.S. Readers can view the union’s LM-2s at this website by plugging in the union’s “File Number,” which is 521-501, and selecting “LM-2” at the bottom of the page.