Pitchman for the Plutocrats

Looks like Andy Stern is getting more attention for his cozy relationship with all the CEOs he’s been pallin’ around with. Check out this article in the Jewish Daily Forward: “Former Union President Andy Stern Says He Was Too Tough on Banks at SEIU.” (The article even comes with this photo of Stern flashing his pinky ring.)

The article says “Stern has received plaudits from business advocates for support of the plan” to slash taxes on the $1.3 trillion in profits that U.S. corporations stashed in the Bahamas and other overseas hideouts.

James Tisch, the CEO of Loews Corporation, even wrote an editorial in the Wall Street Journal titled: “Andy Stern Sees the Light on Overseas Profits.” (Shouldn’t the headline be: “Andy Stern Sees Lots of Green in CEOs’ Wallets and Says ‘I Want Some of That!’”)

Andy’s latest gig as pitchman for the plutocrats has lots of people wondering: Is Andy off the reservation? Did he forget to take his medication? Or is Stern’s current behavior simply a continuation of the incredibly bad judgment and lack of principles that he displayed while he was President of SEIU? In Tasty’s view, it’s the latter.

Andy’s BFF

Tasty thought that readers might enjoy this pop quiz. (Don’t worry… it’s multiple choice). So here you go:

Imagine you’re the President Emeritus of one of the nation’s biggest labor unions and you claim to be leading a “revival” of the labor movement.

(1) Would you (a) become Best F***ing Friends (BFFs) with David Cote, the CEO of Honeywell International, a Fortune 500 company or (b) would you give the finger to this MoFo CEO?

Here are a few clues: In 2010, David Cote locked out 230 workers at a uranium-processing plant in Illinois as part of his effort to slash workers’ pensions, retiree health plan and health insurance… including raising each workers’ out-of-pocket health expense to $8,500 a year. (In case you didn’t catch this detail, uranium is RADIOACTIVE, so these workers kinda REALLY NEED health insurance). More clues: The workers are members of the United Steel Workers Local 7-669. CEO David Cote makes more than $12 million a year and is a Republican.

(2) If you were stupid enuf to become BFFs with Cote, would you (a) hope that no one notices, or (b) would you tell the Washington Post that you’re BFFs in an article like this?

(3) Okay, so let’s say you and the MoFo CEO get appointed to Obama’s Deficit Commission. Would you (a) “talk and e-mail at least once a week” with Cote, “sit together at commission meetings,” and even arrange a field trip together (Washington Post) or (b) would you kick the MoFo CEO in the shins with your heaviest pair of boots?

Well… Tasty is confident that every first grader on the planet would score 100% on this ethics quiz. Unfortunately, SEIU’s President Emeritless scored a big fat “0” (musta been those stock options dancing in his head). Kinda helps explain things, doesn’t it.

B/t/w: Readers can support the uranium workers, who are waging a heroic fight against a lockout that’s lasted more than a year. You can donate to the locked-out workers here.

P.S. Yes, the picture above is of Andy with his BFF David Cote.

This site may be G-Rated, but…

Tasty got lots of mail from readers about the judge’s “guilty” verdict against SEIU, but especially liked this reader’s note:

Hey Tasty – I read that judges ruling. I won’t write down all the words running thru my head cuz I know your website is G-Rated. But WTF! That worker is totally right about SEIU trustees being AWOL. In my hospital, theres no representation. They let management do whatever they damn well want. Managers are firing people for the smallest thing and even firing them cuz their injured and sick. Its like having no union at all. What gets me is how SEIU spends all that time and energy to fire their own member. How is it that their filing grievances to get dues money from the members, but their doing absolutely zero to help people who are getting screwed by management?

Judge Rules against SEIU for Illegal Firing

Here's a story that speaks volumes. Two weeks ago, an administrative law judge found SEIU’s trustees guilty of ordering the illegal firing of an SEIU-UHW rank-and-file member from his hospital job. What was the reason given for firing the worker? SEIU told hospital officials that the worker, a five-year Encephalogram Tech at a Southern California hospital, owed SEIU a whopping $236.16 in back union dues.

After the worker was fired, he filed charges with the NLRB and, with the help of an NUHW attorney, he got a full hearing before a judge. Two weeks ago, the judge issued this 23-page ruling that describes what really happened.

It turns out that the worker, a popular rank-and-file leader and former Shop Steward, had complained that SEIU’s trustees were not giving any support to the union’s members. So SEIU’s trustees got management to fire him… illegally.

The judge ruled that SEIU never answered the worker's multiple requests for an accounting of any back dues he owed to SEIU. And SEIU never informed him they planned to ask HR officials to fire him. So the judge ordered SEIU to clear the way for the worker to get his job back. And he told SEIU to make the worker “whole for any loss of earnings or other benefits arising out of this loss of employment, with interest” (p. 20).

The judge’s ruling has more details about the extreme corruption of SEIU officials. For example, SEIU officials threatened to take legal action against the hospital after HR officials dragged their feet when SEIU instructed them to fire the worker. In one disgusting episode, SEIU staffer Cory Cordova sent emails to HR officials and hand-delivered a letter to the hospital’s HR Director with this text:

…Union demands that Lakewood Regional Medical Center terminate [the worker’s] employment effective immediately. Failure to do so is a breach of the Collective Bargaining Agreement. The Union will have no recourse but to file both a grievance and charges with the National Labor Relations Board. (p. 11)

And SEIU attorney Bruce Harland’s name is splashed across the judge’s ruling. Harland, who’s made a career of trying to block workers’ democratic elections, has apparently now turned to defending SEIU’s illegal firing of the workers who pay actually Harland’s wages.

Tasty has seen a lot of nasty sh*t in his years. But this is a serious low… even for SEIU. In most unions, people like Dave Regan, Cory Cordova and Bruce Harland take an oath “to defend workers’ rights” and “to never see a worker harmed.” What does it mean when rank-and-file workers gotta be more afraid of SEIU than their actual bosses? This, my friends, is the upside-down-world of SEIU… a world where SEIU officials hand over workers’ hard-won benefits in backroom deals with the boss, where SEIU imposes loyalty oaths on stewards, and where SEIU officials use illegal firings to try to eliminate their internal critics.

A Note from the Inside

Sounds like things are not going too well under the trustees. Check out this note from a union staffer at UHW:

SEIU is restructuring / reorganizing the operations at UHW. They’ve determined that they over-hired for many positions, so they’re pushing many people out, forcing them to move, or moving them to positions they weren't hired under. They’re trying to make sure it’s not considered a lay-off so they don't have to pay unemployment benefits. They’re also trying to pick on those who’re on the verge of breakdowns, and they’re targeting them just when they’re getting help or right before they get help.

Well… no wonder Dave Regan is allowing healthcare companies to cut UHW members’ jobs and to bully them on the job. Looks like Regan is working from the same playbook as the bosses.

Dave Kieffer on Chopping Block?

Tasty hears that Dave Kieffer, the recently appointed Executive Director of SEIU’s California State Council, was nearly removed from his job today by a vote of the Council’s governing board. The board, which apparently is none too pleased with Kieffer, took up a formal proposal to terminate Kieffer… and then deadlocked on the vote.

Kieffer is literally hanging on by mere fingernails after reportedly wearing out the board’s patience due to his trademark combination of ineffectiveness and arrogance. Apparently, the board was especially pissed off at Kieffer’s comments that aired in the Sacramento Bee, where Kieffer criticized the Democratic governor’s proposal to bring tax and spending proposals to a vote of the people as a way to address California’s multi-billion-dollar deficit.

Kieffer called the governor’s proposal “terribly fraught with peril” and threatened to withhold SEIU’s money from any election campaign. Kieffer’s comments drew a sharp rebuke from the Governor’s spokesperson: “The people are the ultimate authority. The governor made a promise during the campaign, and he is not wavering from it.”

Kieffer, another of SEIU’s high-paid officials from Washington DC, has created substantial controversy in California and other states by pushing 'deals with the devil' in order to win "organizing rights" for SEIU at nursing home chains. Under Kieffer’s deals, SEIU throws its support behind nursing home chains’ proposals to change state laws so as to sharply restrict the rights of elderly and disabled patients to sue nursing homes for killing or injuring patients. The deals – which SEIU and its corporate partners call “tort reform” – have drawn sharp criticism from senior organizations like AARP.

Will Kieffer hang on to his job at SEIU's California State Council? Or will he be packing his bags to head back to DC to join his wife in SEIU’s Purple Palace? Stay tuned!

Family Ties?

A resourceful reader tipped off Tasty about a possible explanation for Chris Rauber's cushy coverage of SEIU's trustees in the San Francisco Business Times.

The reader thinks it has something to do with the resemblance between Rauber and SEIU communications director Steve Trossman. Check out their side-by-side photos. Could they be cousins? Or simply conspirators to push SEIU's misinformation through the business press?