Yesterday, another SEIU-UHW shop steward resigned her position to support NUHW. Check out her letter.
After she announced her decision to support NUHW, Tasty hears that multiple SEIU officials pleaded with her to support SEIU. But no dice. Would you support SEIU after what they did to her department?
August 18, 2010
To all of my co-workers in EVS at Kaiser Walnut Creek
CC: Dave Regan, Trustee SEIU-UHW
I have been a steward for many years because I have always believed in protecting our rights in our workplace. After seeing our department be torn apart in the past several months, largely due to poor bargaining and bad agreements made by SEIU, I can no longer remain quiet. The final straw was the disrespect shown by SEIU representatives to our local EVS committee in "bargaining" over the rebalancing of EVS schedules. First, they changed our proposal without telling us and then, in front of management, told one of our committee to be quiet when she questioned the change.
I am resigning as a steward in order to actively support NUHW. This was a hard decision but I firmly believe that we will have much better representation if we all join together in NUHW.
Thanks from the bottom of my heart,
Tina Lynch
EVS Head Aide
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Liz Castillo: Patient
A little birdie told me that Liz Castillo came into St. Francis Hospital yesterday with a broken leg!Poor lady, that has to hurt. But it begs the question: How did she break that leg? Did she lose a street fight or just trip over her own bad judgment?
Liz: I wanna sign your cast!
For Reals? Eliseo?
Eliseo Medina is going to be the new Secretary Treasurer of SEIU?
At least that gets him out of California, and into DC, where the bureaucrats belong.
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
38 Members Lose Their Jobs Because the Zombies Don't Know Basic Labor Law. Unreal.
At the same time that SEIU's trustees are begging Kaiser workers for their votes in the upcoming NLRB election, California nursing home workers are getting a crash course in just how inexperienced and incompetent the SEIU trustees are. Tragically, it's come at a huge cost to workers as 38 UHW members have been fired from their jobs and 120 more workers now face cuts in their health insurance and other benefits. Here's what happened:
Before the trusteeship, SEIU-UHW represented about 160 workers at two assisted living facilities in Oakland called Piedmont Gardens and Grand Lake Gardens. As soon as SEIU imposed its trusteeship, SEIU officials removed the workers' elected Shop Stewards and even conspired with management to get the workers' Chief Steward, Stan Lacy, fired from his job. (Where have we heard that one before?)
When it came time for contract negotiations with the company, SEIU's trustees used loyalty oaths to exclude longtime rank-and-file leaders from the bargaining committee and instead put its own hand-picked people on the committee. The nursing home company clearly smelled blood in the water because SEIU's trustees had given up multiple concessions to other nursing home companies that sharply undercut the union's industry-wide contract standards--standards that took decades to achieve. Thus, Piedmont Gardens and Grand Lake Gardens demanded cuts in workers' health insurance and reductions in other benefits, and offered wage increases of only 0.5% per year.
With workers divided because of SEIU's removal of their stewards and rank-and-file leaders, SEIU's trustees called a five-day strike against the company. And in a huge blunder, the trustees apparently forgot to file the necessary unfair labor practices (ULPs) to assert that the employer violated the workers rights. An "unfair labor practice" strike makes it illegal for the employer to hire permanent replacements for the workers--thus, when the workers return to work their jobs are there waiting for them, no matter if the boss hired scabs. Striking without a "ULP" designation means that the employer can hire people to take your place at work, and when the strike is over, they don't have to give you your job back! The scab who took it, can keep it, if the boss wants!
When the strike began, fewer than half of the workers honored the strike line. And, don't let Tasty shock you, but the boss saw his opportunity and took it-- permanently replacing 38 workers who are now out on the street.
All because some idiot at UHW didn't file the necessary ULP to protect members. (We're talking a couple hours worth of effort here, folks.)
And which particular idiot is Tasty referring to? Myriam Escamilla, the Director of SEIU-UHW's Nursing Home Division. Escamilla, who also happens to be the ex-wife of Greg Pullman (Dave Regan's Chief of Staff), has never led a strike before and has never successfully negotiated a nursing home contract. (Great credentials.)
Other nursing home companies are closely watching SEIU's failure at the two facilities, and UHW members at other nursing home companies will no doubt be facing similar takeaways when they go back to the bargaining table.
While SEIU's trustees try to paint themselves as some powerful purple machine, Tasty sees them more as a band of inexperienced clowns who prefer cutting backroom deals with the boss because they have no idea how to fight for members' interests.
Oh, and lest you think this is a one time mistake, don't forget about the strike this spring at Prison Health Services where SEIU sent workers out on strike, but failed to put the end date on the strike notice and the workers got locked out...Those workers voted for NUHW after the strike.
Before the trusteeship, SEIU-UHW represented about 160 workers at two assisted living facilities in Oakland called Piedmont Gardens and Grand Lake Gardens. As soon as SEIU imposed its trusteeship, SEIU officials removed the workers' elected Shop Stewards and even conspired with management to get the workers' Chief Steward, Stan Lacy, fired from his job. (Where have we heard that one before?)
When it came time for contract negotiations with the company, SEIU's trustees used loyalty oaths to exclude longtime rank-and-file leaders from the bargaining committee and instead put its own hand-picked people on the committee. The nursing home company clearly smelled blood in the water because SEIU's trustees had given up multiple concessions to other nursing home companies that sharply undercut the union's industry-wide contract standards--standards that took decades to achieve. Thus, Piedmont Gardens and Grand Lake Gardens demanded cuts in workers' health insurance and reductions in other benefits, and offered wage increases of only 0.5% per year.
With workers divided because of SEIU's removal of their stewards and rank-and-file leaders, SEIU's trustees called a five-day strike against the company. And in a huge blunder, the trustees apparently forgot to file the necessary unfair labor practices (ULPs) to assert that the employer violated the workers rights. An "unfair labor practice" strike makes it illegal for the employer to hire permanent replacements for the workers--thus, when the workers return to work their jobs are there waiting for them, no matter if the boss hired scabs. Striking without a "ULP" designation means that the employer can hire people to take your place at work, and when the strike is over, they don't have to give you your job back! The scab who took it, can keep it, if the boss wants!
When the strike began, fewer than half of the workers honored the strike line. And, don't let Tasty shock you, but the boss saw his opportunity and took it-- permanently replacing 38 workers who are now out on the street.
All because some idiot at UHW didn't file the necessary ULP to protect members. (We're talking a couple hours worth of effort here, folks.)
And which particular idiot is Tasty referring to? Myriam Escamilla, the Director of SEIU-UHW's Nursing Home Division. Escamilla, who also happens to be the ex-wife of Greg Pullman (Dave Regan's Chief of Staff), has never led a strike before and has never successfully negotiated a nursing home contract. (Great credentials.)
Other nursing home companies are closely watching SEIU's failure at the two facilities, and UHW members at other nursing home companies will no doubt be facing similar takeaways when they go back to the bargaining table.
While SEIU's trustees try to paint themselves as some powerful purple machine, Tasty sees them more as a band of inexperienced clowns who prefer cutting backroom deals with the boss because they have no idea how to fight for members' interests.
Oh, and lest you think this is a one time mistake, don't forget about the strike this spring at Prison Health Services where SEIU sent workers out on strike, but failed to put the end date on the strike notice and the workers got locked out...Those workers voted for NUHW after the strike.
Monday, August 16, 2010
Zombie Deputy Communications Director is like: SEE YA!
Maybe making calls to the press, only to get slammed in every article finally got to her...Or maybe it was working with over worked, under trained, probably very unhappy staff...
Or maybe it was the leadership, or lack thereof at the local...
Either way, former Unite Here Communications Director, current UHW Deputy Communications Director, Amanda Cooper has quit UHW and gone out on her own...
According to her LinkedIn profile "Amanda Cooper for hire! After 15 years of in-house strategic communications and media relations work I have branched out on my own, ready to take on new challenges. I am lucky to be collaborating with an incredible group of strategists and tacticians at LightBox Collaborative so I can take on projects big and small. "
So, from Communications Director at a major International Union (Unite Here) to Communications Director at a fledgling part of another union (Workers United) to DEPUTY Communications Director at a local in turmoil, to a contractor...
Either she gets really bad career advice or, as a reader suggests, she is a smart lady who can see the writing on the wall--and is getting out of Zombie land, while the getting is good.
Looks like Trossman is gonna be busy!
Sunday, August 15, 2010
72, 73!
On Friday, two more SEIU-UHW shop stewards announced they're supporting NUHW in the upcoming elections. The two stewards are Edvin Hakopian and Mustafaa Tyehimba at Kaiser Sunset Medical Center in Los Angeles - Kaiser's largest hospital in SoCal.
This is fun, Tasty wants to see MORE stewards go Red! The SEIU staff must be freaking out!
This is fun, Tasty wants to see MORE stewards go Red! The SEIU staff must be freaking out!
Saturday, August 14, 2010
File This Under: How Dumb Do They Think You Are?
Tasty is getting reports about SEIU's latest campaign tactic!At Kaiser Modesto Medical Center in Northern California, SEIU has assigned 11 full-time organizers plus additional lost-time staffers to the facility. And the organizers are inviting individual undecided workers to free lunches and dinners at nearby restaurants where SEIU organizers talk to them and show SEIU campaign videos on laptop computers while workers eat freshly cooked Mexican food.
And then SEIU organizers ask them to vote for SEIU. Really? A video and a taco and the workers are supposed to forget about the contract take-aways and the mass firings of stewards? Tasty suspects that Kaiser workers are looking for a little more than enchiladas in their union...
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