Ballot Initiative Backlash: SEIU-UHW's Dave Regan Tried to Snatch Billions from California's Schoolchildren

In a fit of anger, Dave Regan recently sued the California Hospital Association and penned an angry attack against SEIU officials (entitled "The Shame of SEIU") after his erstwhile pals joined hands to introduce a statewide ballot initiative that competes head-to-head with Regan's own initiative.

Regan's initiative is designed to deposit billions of dollars a year into the hospital industry's pocket, a massive payoff he must deliver before industry bosses will allow SEIU-UHW to put tens of thousands of non-non-union hospital workers into cheap, pre-negotiated labor contracts that ban them from striking.

Why did SEIU officials team up with the CHA to undermine Regan's initiative?

It turns out that Regan's ballot initiative was horribly designed. According to one knowledgeable source, "It would have blown a multi-billion-dollar hole in the state budget" by re-directing billions of state tax revenues -- currently used to fund public schools -- into hospital bosses' pockets.

By cutting school funding, Regan also would have destabilized funding for other government services as budget-makers shift budget dollars to make up for lost revenues.

That's why the California Teachers Association teamed up with the SEIU California State Council, headed by Laphonza Butler, to introduce a competing ballot initiative ("School Funding and Budget Stability Act") to preserve funding for public schools.

SEIU represents approximately 95,000 California state employees through its Local 1000. Other locals, such as SEIU Local 99, SEIU Local 521 and SEIU Local 1021, represent tens of thousands of teacher assistants, cafeteria workers, and other public education workers. California's students have suffered devastating budget cuts during the Great Recession that forced massive teacher layoffs and skyrocketing classroom sizes.

So, umm,... who was the genius at SEIU-UHW who wrote a ballot initiative to strip money from schoolchildren and from SEIU's own public-sector members?

Dave Kieffer: ballot initiative genius

Sources say it was Dave Kieffer. 

Kieffer, who was involved in trying to cover up the Tyrone Freeman corruption scandal, was pushed out of his job at the SEIU California State Council in 2013 and now serves as "Director of Governmental Relations" at SEIU-UHW.

He was the architect of an earlier money-for-members scheme by which SEIU officials tried to trade billions in taxpayer-funded Medicaid dollars for tens of thousands of workers at nursing homes.

Way to go, Dave.

All of this helps explain why analysts are penning articles like this one, entitled "Shrinking Political World of UHW President Dave Regan," which begins:

We've been chronicling the ever-shrinking political world of union President Dave Regan, see here, here and here, for a while now, and recent news highlights his dwindling power.

SEIU-UHW's Dave Regan Funnels Millions to Lobbyists

Here’s an interesting item.

The "Capitol Weekly," a newspaper that covers the political scene in California’s state capitol, offers yet another glimpse at the ass-backwards changes brought by Dave Regan to SEIU-UHW.

Earlier, Tasty posted internal documents that show how Regan is systematically slashing the union's day-to-day representation of its own members while SEIU-UHW pockets multi-million dollar profits.

At the same time, Regan has been busy funneling millions of dollars to business-suited lobbyists in the state capitol, according to the "Capitol Weekly."

In fact, during 2013 SEIU-UHW became one of the top ten biggest lobbyists in California... along with Chevron, the California Chamber of Commerce, ATT, Southern California Edison and the California Hospital Association.

Regan funneled $1.88 million to a variety of lobbying firms in 2013, causing SEIU-UHW to join the top-ten list for presumably the first time ever.

What kinds of policies did Regan lobby for/against during 2013?

Regan assigned an estimated ten lobbyists to fight a bill backed by UNITE HERE, the UFCW, the Teamsters, Teachers, Longshore Workers… and even SEIU Locals 521, 721 and 1021! The bill would've required Kaiser Permanente to share more information with unions and other purchasers when Kaiser demands premium hikes for its health insurance policies.

The bill's demands were milk-toast modest, basically saying: "Hey Kaiser, show us the numbers before you jack up our premiums."

But instead of supporting workers' demands for more transparency, Regan pimped for Kaiser and the California Hospital Association by hiring lobbyists to kill the worker-backed bill.

Regan also teamed up with the California Hospital Association to lobby against Assembly Bill 975, which would’ve required nonprofit hospitals to spend more money on "charity care" for low-income, uninsured patients.

It's no wonder “Wall Street” Dave is on the short-list for the Chamber of Commerce’s ‘Employee of the Year' award.

Here's the full article from the Capitol Weekly entitled "Top 10 Lobbying Firms Bill More than $40 Million.”

SEIU-UHW's Dave Regan Joins Chamber of Commerce and Kaiser Permanente in Opposing Labor-Backed Bill

Ever wonder why SEIU-UHW’s Dave Regan is expected to win the “Employee of the Year Award” from Kaiser Permanente and the Chamber of Commerce?

Here’s a clue.

Earlier this year, unions across California backed a bill in the state legislature that seeks to beat back the skyrocketing cost of health insurance. Senate Bill 746 would require large insurance companies like Kaiser Permanente to cough up more information about their profits and operations so that unions and large employers can figure out whether the insurance companies’ rate hikes are fair.

As supporters say, “All we want is transparency -- basic information from the big insurance companies.”

The bill’s backers include all of the state’s major unions: UNITE HERE, the Teamsters, UFCW, AFSCME, Transit Workers, Teachers, Machinists, Longshore Workers, Engineers, Utility Workers, Nurses, the California Public Interest Research Group, the California Pan-Ethnic Health Network, etc.

In fact, even SEIU’s public-sector unions back the bill -- SEIU Locals 521, 721 and 1021. Check out their letter of support below.

So who’s opposed to the bill?

You guessed it. All of the Bosses… and Dave Regan’s SEIU-UHW!

Here’s the list of opponents: the California Chamber of Commerce, Kaiser Permanente, Health Net, Aetna, California Association of Health Plans, America’s Health Insurance Plans, Association of California Life and Health Insurance Companies... and SEIU-UHW. Below, see SEIU-UHW’s letter of opposition.

And here’s a fact that speaks volumes:  SEIU-UHW is the only union that opposes this bill.

Interestingly, legislators in both houses ended up approving the bill by wide margins despite the fact that Regan assigned as many as 10 staffers to lobby against the bill, including Dave Kieffer of Tyrone Freeman fame.

Tasty hears that Regan's efforts to defeat the bill have intensified SEIU-UHW’s isolation from the rest of the labor movement… and have boosted Regan’s well-earned reputation as bought-and-paid-for by the Chamber of Commerce and Kaiser Permanente!

   SEIU-UHW's  Letter Opposing California Senate Bill 746: June 18, 2013

   Letter from SEIU Locals 1021, 721 and 521 endorsing California Senate Bill 746: August 29, 2013.

SEIU-UHW’s Dave Regan Sells Out SEIU Local 1021, Pimps for Kaiser Permanente

Tasty hears that Dave Regan’s latest atrocity has many observers shaking their heads in disgust.  

Here’s what happened.

In California, SEIU Local 1021 represents thousands of public-sector employees who work for the City of San Francisco, the city’s courts, city college, etc. Most of these workers get their health insurance from Kaiser Permanente, which is trying to boost the cost of their health insurance by $15 million a year.

San Francisco’s elected officials and the city's workers are fighting back. According to an analysis by city officials that’s cited in this Los Angeles Times article, “nonprofit” Kaiser HMO made a 15% profit margin from the City employees’ business during the past two years. That’s $87 million in profits.

Meanwhile, “nonprofit” Kaiser has pocketed more than $9.5 billion in company-wide profits since 2009.

That’s why elected officials and labor unions demanded that Kaiser lower its proposed rate hike on San Francisco’s workers. The city’s unions -- including SEIU Local 1021, the International Federation of Professional and Technical Employees, Union of American Physicians and Dentists/AFSCME -- even formed a coalition to fight Kaiser’s rate hike. Check out one of their leaflets below, entitled “Kaiser: Stop Draining San Francisco Tax Dollars,” which bears SEIU Local 1021’s logo.

Here’s where SEIU-UHW’s Dave Regan enters our story.

SEIU-UHW's Dave Regan

Did “Wall Street” Dave rush to the side of workers and taxpayers in order to fight the disgusting profiteering by the nation’s largest HMO? Not by a long shot.

According to multiple sources, Regan recently appeared at San Francisco’s city hall with a team of Kaiser’s executives and conducted a round of lobbying visits to push elected officials to approve Kaiser’s full rate hike.  

According to several sources, Regan even tried to enter the office of John Avalos, one of the most progressive members of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Last year, Regan teamed up with the Chamber of Commerce to try to unseat Avalos by fielding one of Regan’s staffers -- Leon Chow -- as a candidate against Avalos. That is… until Chow crashed and burned in spectacular fashion after evidence surfaced that he violated multiple election laws!

SEIU-UHW's Leon Chow

So… when Regan recently walked into Avalos’s office, Avalos reportedly told Regan to get out. At which point Regan began jabbing his finger at Avalos’s chest in “old school” fashion before “Wall Street” Dave and the Kaiser suits beat a hasty retreat.

Regan and his business-suited buddies then continued to lobby other elected officials to approve Kaiser’s multi-million-dollar rate hikes.

Quite a story, right?

Remember that famous labor song that says, “Which side are you on?”

Well… what does it mean when a top SEIU official shows more solidarity for a multi-billion-dollar HMO than for SEIU’s own members -- not to mention workers in general?

At a time when lots of people are asking well-deserved questions about the future of the U.S. labor movement, this recent episode speaks volumes.

Notably, Regan’s vision of company-dominated unionism is shared by the top leaders of SEIU, one of the nation’s largest unions. In fact, Tasty’s sources say SEIU President Mary Kay Henry hasn’t voiced the slightest opposition to Regan selling out San Francisco’s workers in favor of a giant HMO. 

Here's SEIU Local 1021's leaflet on Kaiser's price-gouging:

   Leaflet by SEIU Local 1021 about Kaiser Permanente's Price-Gouging of San Francisco's Workers: July 2013

Purple Source: "SEIU-UHW Is a Sell-Out Union"

It turns out that Kaiser workers are not the only ones who've concluded that SEIU-UHW is in bed with the Boss! 

Take a look at an email that’s circulating among the staff at SEIU Local 1021, which represents 42,000 public-sector workers in Northern California. 

Dave Regan has been pressuring Local 1021 and other SEIU locals to contribute their staff and resources to SEIU-UHW's election campaign at Kaiser Permanente. Check out what Local 1021's staffers say about the idea of helping SEIU-UHW at Kaiser!

----- Forwarded Message -----
From:
To:
Sent: Monday, March 11, 2013 

Subject: SEIU-UHW, "A SELL-OUT" UNION

Dear Colleagues:

Please help me educate our co-workers about the ugliness union operation of SEIU-UHW in the workplaces and in our communities.  The article below is one of many reports about Regan and his local union.  Being a staff of SEIU is hard enough but a sister SEIU local union doing this kind of thing affects our ability to coalesce with community organizations. We become suspect... And helping Regan at Kaiser?

Defying Health Care Advocates, SEIU-UHW Backs Sutter’s CPMC Mega-Hospital

by Randy Shaw‚ Mar. 24‚ 2010

Breaking with a large coalition of community groups and citywide health care advocates, SEIU-UHW has agreed to publicly support Sutter Health’s controversial 550-bed CPMC mega-hospital planned for San Francisco. The proposed project has aroused widespread opposition among citywide health care advocates, as it is linked with Sutter’s plan to reduce acute care beds by 60% at its St. Luke’s Hospital in the city’s heavily Latino Mission District. This has spawned a broad “Coalition for Health Planning – San Francisco,” to address principles of health justice and equity in the city.

In addition, a broad “Good Neighbor Coalition” (GNC) of groups including St. Anthony’s Foundation Medical Clinic, Meals on Wheels, and the Housing and Urban Health division of the city’s Department of Public Health have spent months preparing a Community Benefits Agreement to address the impacts of Sutter’s proposal. The GNC seeks to ensure that the project does not negatively impact the surrounding community, and “that medical services provided are accessible, affordable, and equitably distributed.” But even before negotiations could begin, SEIU-UHW cut its own deal with Sutter on March 11, 2010, unconditionally backing the project.

As SEIU-UHW battles to convince workers that it is the union that can best assure quality patient care and health services, it will need to explain why it entered into a Side Letter with Sutter Health to “publicly and privately support the Medical Center’s building projects … including but not limited to meeting with San Francisco public officials to express support for the building projects and supporting the projects at city hearings.”

The Side Letter even authorized Sutter to assign SEIU-UHW workers to spend work hours building support for the project.

In other words, while citywide health advocates fight to save the scaling down of St. Luke’s Hospital, and while nonprofits in the area surrounding the proposed CPMC mega-hospital on Van Ness Avenue are demanding that Sutter sign an enforceable Community Benefits Agreement, SEIU-UHW has already agreed to serve as lobbyists for the proposal.

Or to put it more bluntly, while the California Nurses Association and virtually every health care advocacy group is fighting to save St. Luke’s Hospital and force Sutter to sign an enforceable agreement protecting the community, SEIU-UHW has already sided with the employer.

Community Anger at SEIU-UHW

As I informed community health care advocates about SEIU-UHW’s Side Letter agreement with Sutter for this story, the reaction was nearly universal anger.

Kathy Looper, who owns the historic Cadillac Hotel in the Uptown Tenderloin and whose husband Leroy was once a community representative on the Board of St. Luke’s, was shocked by SEIU-UHW’s actions. “This is outrageous, “ she said, “a union that claims to care about patient care should not be going against a coalition seeking to ensure that the medical needs of low-income people are protected.”

Terrrie Frye, an Uptown Tenderloin low-income resident who has long fought to save St. Luke’s, said she was “disgusted” by SEIU-UHW’s support for Sutter’s proposal. “This is just awful. They did this with no community input. I’m surprised that a union that claims to care about health care would make such a deal.”

Joseph Smooke, Executive Director of the Bernal Heights Neighborhood Center, said: “it is sad to learn of this since we have worked so hard for so many years now to build and sustain a coalition of labor and community organizations and individuals to hold corporate healthcare interests accountable. It raises the question – what does SEIU expect to gain from selling out to CPMC?”

Smooke’s organization runs a program for the frail elderly that had received funding from CPMC. Once Smooke’s group began fighting to save St. Luke’s Hospital, CPMC yanked its money.

Nato Green, a CNA representative, told me that his union sees the proposed CPMC project as “bad for workers, bad for the neighborhoods, and bad for public health.”

Eileen Prendiville, a CNA rank and file member who works at a CPMC facility in San Francisco, echoed Green. She told me that SEIU-UHW’s contractual support for Sutter’s proposed facility “does not advance health care equity and is not in the best interest of patients.” She said nurses strongly oppose the scaling down of St. Luke’s, and felt that “SEIU-UHW got nothing for its members in exchange for agreeing to support Sutter’s project.”

Prendiville, a nurse for thirty years, also suggested “NUHW would never have agreed to support this project against the community.” I called NUHW Vice President John Borsos to confirm this, and he told me “there is no way NUHW would have made such a deal with Sutter. We always felt it important to work with the community regarding this project.”

SEIU’s Community Disengagement

According to sources who have attended recent hearings on the proposed CPMC project, SEIU-UHW has few if any people present. The union’s disengagement from San Francisco’s health care advocates helps explain why it would back a project without requiring the written protections for citywide healthcare access and equity that community groups and activists deem essential.

SEIU-UHW’s reliance on contract negotiators outside the local community, and often from other states, is also part of the problem. These representatives have no relationships with the activists or groups fighting to save St. Luke’s or to win a Community Benefits Agreement, and likely won’t be around to deal with the backlash.

SEIU-UHW has already alienated many San Francisco progressives, with nearly all local progressive elected officials siding with NUHW in their dispute. SEIU’s attempted pullout of funds from the San Francisco Labor Council, its calling UNITE HERE Local 2 President Mike Casey a “liar,” and its threats to California Democratic Party chief John Burton left UHW politically isolated prior to its Sutter deal; its unqualified backing of the new CPMC project now estranges UHW from health care and community-based nonprofit groups.

To be clear, the San Francisco Building Trades also support Sutter’s project. But the Building Trades supports virtually every construction project proposed in San Francisco, and – unlike SEIU-UHW – does not claim protecting patient care and health equity as part of its mission.

The citywide Coalition for Health Planning – San Francisco and the GNC are continuing their efforts to increase public awareness of Sutter’s plans. SEIU-UHW had a great opportunity to secure allies by joining this broad coalition, but instead chose to align with Sutter Health, which continues to hand out flyers to new employees titled “Joining a Union Does Not Guarantee Pay Raises.”