Concessions in Cali -- SEIU-style

It’s been quite a couple of weeks! About 1,000 Canadian healthcare workers won three stunning election victories after a two-year struggle against SEIU. And California workers scored a giant legal victory to re-run two elections for 44,000 Kaiser workers.

To top it off, check out this late-breaking story that helps explain why workers are struggling so hard to leave SEIU.

In Southern California, SEIU represents 6,800 Registered Nurses and professionals through SEIU Local 121. At Providence Tarzana Medical Center, SEIU just accepted a two-year wage freeze for its 600 members without even letting its members vote on the issue… and without organizing any kind of fightback against the hospital.

SEIU – led by SEIU staffer Judy Serlin – has spent the last year trying to negotiate a successor contract with the hospital.

What’s up next for the RNs and professionals at Providence Tarzana? SEIU is considering a 6% cut to its members’ wage scales. Check out this leaflet that SEIU is distributing to its members. It contains crazy clip art (see above) and jewels like these:

Our team has already agreed to freeze wages for two years.

What this means is that Tarzana RNs and Professionals won’t receive any raises – no wage increases and no step increases. It also means that our wage scale that we fought so hard for over the years will be reduced by a total of 6 percent by 2012.

So, in a couple of years when you’re sitting down to lunch with your nursing school buddies who work at other hospitals, make sure it’s their treat because they’ll be making a lot more than you will.

And if that’s not pathetic enough, SEIU’s leaflet actually quotes the BOSS, allowing him to explain to SEIU members why they should accept a 6% wage cut. (Tasty is not kidding.)

“The realities are, the nurses are very well paid here,” said Providence Attorney and Lead Negotiator Doug Hart during Thursday’s bargaining.

WTF!!

After SEIU distributed the leaflet to its members, someone ran into SEIU Negotiator Judy Serlin and asked: “Judy, what’s going on?” Judy’s response: “I don’t know. I was in the Alps…”

In the Alps? Was Judy on a juicy junket to Davos with SEIU President Emeritus Andy Stern? Is Judy simply trying to dodge the blame for SEIU’s total ineffectiveness at fighting for its members? Or did Judy simply stop taking her meds? Tasty wants to know… Tarzana workers??

Moral Bankruptcy

Remember the story about the administrative law judge who found SEIU’s trustees guilty of ordering the illegal firing of an SEIU member from his job as an Electroencephalogram Tech at a California hospital?

The worker, a popular rank-and-file leader who had criticized SEIU’s trustees for failing to provide representational services to his co-workers, was fired under the pretext that he owed SEIU a grand total of $236 in union dues.

(SEIU staffer Cory Cordova played a pivotal role in the firing.)

On June 29, the judge ruled the firing illegal and ordered SEIU to make the worker “whole” by giving him backpay, plus interest, and clearing the way for him to return to work.

Next steps??

Seems like a no-brainer for SEIU, right? After all, SEIU officials were caught red-handed committing a moral betrayal of the worst kind –- fratricide rather than solidarity, brotherhood, respect.

It’s supposed to be bosses who fire workers and steal the bread off their family’s dinner table… not unions, right? So SEIU should pay the money. Get the worker his job back. Seems simple.

Not if you’re Dave Regan. This week, Regan –- in his arrogant, bully-boy style –- ordered SEIU’s hack attorneys to appeal the judge’s ruling. This means the worker will be left without his job for more months... and SEIU will be forced to write him an even fatter check when they lose one more time at the NLRB in Washington, DC.

Meanwhile, SEIU will pay tens of thousands more dollars to its hack attorneys (Bruce Harland and Jacob White from Weinberg, Roger and Rosenfeld), who are busy recording billable hours.

Canadian Health Workers Win a Third Election!

This just in from Ontario, Canada…

Today, a unit of 276 clerical workers at William Osler Hospital voted by a margin of 60% to 40% to leave SEIU and join the Ontario Workers Union!

That’s three in a row... and it comes despite SEIU parachuting more and more SEIU International staff across the border. Congratulations to Ontario's healthcare workers!

Canadian Healthcare Workers Win Another Election!!

Today, a unit of 300 workers at a SECOND hospital in Ontario, Canada voted to leave SEIU and join the Ontario Workers’ Union! The victory – by a vote of 132 to 75 – took place at Humber River Regional Hospital, which is one of Canada’s largest regional hospitals and is affiliated with the University of Toronto.

Tasty hears that Sharleen Stewart (president of SEIU Local 1-ON) didn’t show her face at the vote count. Instead, she sent Tim Cadeau (“Executive Assistant to President Stewart” and the local's former Organizing Director), who pulled a “Jerry Springer” move that’s eerily reminiscent of Ragin’ Dave Regan’s alcohol-fueled antics.

Here’s what happened. When government officials announced the final vote count, Cadeau threw a table across the room in frustration and then had to be restrained by one of the hospital’s HR officials. Cadeau was then escorted off the property by hospital security guards as three agents from the Canadian labor board looked on. Way to go, Timmy! (that’s him pictured above… apparently on a happier day).

Workers’ victory in today’s election follows last week’s triumph at William Osler Hospital, where workers voted by a two-to-one margin to join OWU.

Congratulations to our Canadian sisters and brothers! Keep up the great work!

PS. Hey Timmy, unless you get some serious counseling, Tasty sees this in your future.

Medina and Woodruff on way out of SEIU??

Tasty hears that SEIU Secretary-Treasurer Eliseo Medina and SEIU Executive Vice President Tom Woodruff are preparing to announce their resignations from SEIU. If true, their departures would signal more turbulence inside SEIU, which last year saw its No. 1 and 2 officers (Stern and Burger) jump ship after leading SEIU down a disastrous path of raiding other unions and trying to crush dissent inside SEIU’s membership.

So what could be pushing Medina and Woodruff towards the exit sign?

Tasty suspects that the massive SEIU corruption scandal involving Tyrone Freeman may finally be catching up to Medina. According to court records, the feds are considering filing criminal charges against Freeman for stealing more than $1 million from low-wage SEIU members in Southern California.

So how could Medina be implicated? Even though Freeman’s corruption wasn’t publicly known until late 2008 (when it was uncovered by the Los Angeles Times), Medina and other top SEIU officials had reportedly known about the corruption for seven long years.

In fact, Tasty has seen transcripts of two sworn testimonies by former SEIU official Jim Philliou in which Philliou testified that he told Medina’s office in 2001 that he’d uncovered Freeman’s corruption. Philliou, who worked under Medina at the time, was so shocked by Freeman’s corruption that he refused to continue providing financial oversight of Freeman’s local on behalf of SEIU.

Apparently, when SEIU officials learned in 2001 about the corruption, Medina along with Andy Stern, Mary Kay Henry and Steve Trossman engineered a cover-up that allowed Freeman to continue stealing from SEIU members for another seven years.

Now that he’s facing possible jail time, Freeman may be “naming names”… including Medina’s.

It’s possible that Woodruff was also wrapped up in the Freeman corruption scandal. Others speculate that Woodruff may be leaving because “Change to Win,” which he’s helped lead since 2005, has failed badly to deliver on its many promises. In fact, SEIU itself has failed horribly as it seesaws from one organizing pipe dream to the next nutty top-down scheme… which appear to make sense only in SEIU officials’ imaginations.

And, of course, there’s still that other explanation for possible resignations: perhaps Andy found two empty seats on the board of directors at SIGA Technologies!

Judge, Citing More SEIU Violations, Throws Out a Second Kaiser Election!

Breaking news: The NLRB has found SEIU guilty of violating workers’ rights in a SECOND Kaiser election and has recommended that the election be re-run!

The judge's 14-page decision (posted on NUHW's website) affects Kaiser’s Northern California Medical Social Workers, who are in a separate bargaining unit of approximately 380 employees. Last fall, they voted in an NLRB election about whether to join NUHW or stay with SEIU.

SEIU won the election by a razor-thin margin of just 9 votes (148 to 139). A judge later investigated the election and found SEIU guilty of the same kind of collusion with Kaiser that she cited in last week’s decision covering 43,000 California workers who are in the Service & Technical employees' bargaining unit.

Here are some excerpts from the judge’s 14-page decision on the Medical Social Worker (MSW) election:

“Insofar as [SEIU’s] campaign focused on Kaiser’s conduct in the SoCal-pro units, its objective effect was to warn employees that they jeopardized monetary benefits if they changed representatives. In [SEIU’s] communications, Kaiser’s Unfair Labor Practices figured as concrete, menacing reminders that Kaiser unilaterally withheld benefits from employees in the SoCal-pro units when they chose to be represented by NUHW.” (p. 11)

'[SEIU’s] widely disseminated, consistent warnings that Kaiser was likely to repeat its 2009 unlawful conduct in the MSW unit if unit employees selected [NUHW] as their collective-bargaining representative tended to stoke unwarranted and coerced fears.” (p. 13)

“The unavoidable inference to be drawn from these circumstances is that MSW unit employees voted with objectively reasonable, albeit inaccurate and Unfair Labor Practice-induced, apprehensions that a vote for [NUHW] was a vote for benefit reduction.” (p. 13)

“Further, [SEIU] was joined in its warnings by Kaiser’s Regional President Ben Chu, who informed employees that only members of coalition unions were guaranteed PSP incentive bonuses. [SEIU] widely disseminated Chu’s statement, giving weight to [SEIU’s] repeated forewarnings that representational change might endanger PSP bonuses. In these circumstances, widely disseminated warnings that PSP incentive bonuses would not survive a change of representative must also have tended to interfere with employees’ freedom of choice.” (p. 12)

“I recommend that the Board election in Case 32-RC-5774 be set aside and a new election be held.” (p. 13)

Staff Problems at SEIU Michigan Healthcare!

Sounds like SEIU is having more problems in Michigan. Tasty hears that four organizers -- including senior organizer Krista Sturgis -- quit their jobs at SEIU Healthcare Michigan last week.

Reliable sources tell Tasty that staffers are frustrated with the local's leaders (including Marge Faville, Johnnie Jolliffi and Mark Raleigh) as well as the local's new director Eric Noice, who's reportedly been disrespectful towards the union's staffers.

During the past 2 months, six organizers have reportedly quit their jobs at the local -- and some are apparently talking about picketing the local's offices!

Insiders say that President Marge Faville has not been seen in the Detroit office in almost two months (...sources say she's camped out in the Muskegon office) and that the local has not held its regular monthly, all-staff meeting since April.

The recent staff resignations follow the resignation of Stephanie Arellano, who some describe as "the only smart person on the whole staff." Arellano reportedly quit because working with Mark Raleigh became unbearable.

Meanwhile, the local's officials are spending big bucks on newspaper ads and other gimmicks in a desperate effort to appeal to workers who've filed for two NLRB decert elections so they can join NUHW. What's next? Maybe SEIU should bring Andy Stern -- or Rickman "$32,000" Jackson -- to deliver an inspirational speech to the staff!

A "Huge Decision" for the Labor Movement.

Check out this video from Democracy Now, regarding Juan Gonzalez's column on the SEIU election.

He calls the overturn of the Kaiser election a "huge defeat for SEIU." And a "huge step forward for those who believe in union democracy."

Tasty couldn't agree more!

Has your phone been ringing??

Tasty hears that Kaiser workers are getting phone calls at home from "an independent polling firm" hired by SEIU that's surveying workers about their attitudes towards NUHW and SEIU. Among the questions: "If an election were held today, who would you vote for: SEIU or NUHW?"

Canadian Health Workers Win Big Victory over SEIU!

Breaking news: Today, approximately 300 workers at William Osler Hospital in Ontario, Canada voted by a two-to-one margin to decertify SEIU and join a new union!

For these workers, it’s been a two-year battle to liberate themselves from SEIU. Back in 2009, they formed a new union and requested government-run elections so they could leave SEIU. SEIU officials – using the same playbook of dirty tactics they’re using in California – sued the new union’s leaders and filed bogus charges at the labor board to stall workers’ elections.

Well… after two years of struggle, the first group of workers finally got their chance to vote. And they delivered a serious thumping to SEIU… despite all the union staffers that SEIU parachuted into the hospital and the dirty smear campaign that SEIU unleashed on workers.

Tasty hears that Sharleen Stewart (the president of SEIU Local 1-Ontario and a member of SEIU's International Executive Board) came to today’s vote count but scurried out of the room when it became crystal clear that SEIU was losing bigtime.

For those who don’t know her, Sharleen Stewart is the Marge Faville of Canada. In 2004, SEIU merged six SEIU locals in Ontario into one. Andy Stern then handpicked Sharleen to run the mega-local. Like Marge, she reportedly pulls down a giant salary and runs the union with a mix of nepotism, incompetence and deliberate neglect of the members.

One report describes how Sharleen handed out jobs at the SEIU local to her brother, daughter, son and long-time friend… and even placed some of her family in luxury condominiums on Toronto’s waterfront, with the rent paid by the union's members.

Time for Sharleen to take a hike, eh?

Congrats to the workers at William Osler Hospital! And good luck to hundreds more Canadian healthcare workers who’ll be voting in elections in the weeks ahead!

“OMG. WTF. I can’t do it again…”

Looks like SEIU staffers are experiencing some serious panic, dread and anxiety as they imagine a re-run election at Kaiser. Check out what they’re posting on their Facebook pages, including this one belonging to SEIU’s Seth Hemond.

During last summer’s Kaiser election, Hemond was parachuted into California from Washington State, where he works for SEIU Local 775. LaDawna “ALL CAPS” Howard used to be Mary Kay Henry’s personal assistant and now works as an Assistant Director of the Health Systems Division in SEIU’s Purple Palace in DC. The other guy, Dave Lowitzki, works as a Researcher at an SEIU local in Illinois.

Well, SEIU staffers, here’s Tasty’s advice: Ya better start figuring out a plan to skip the next election, cuz it ain’t gonna be easy. Kaiser workers have already experienced one round of SEIU’s lies, disinformation and bullying, and they’re not gonna be buying all the B.S. that SEIU tries to sell to workers. Maybe this’ll help you.

News and Analysis about Judge’s Ruling on Kaiser Election

Want more news and analysis about the judge’s decision and what’s happening next? Check out these articles:

In These Times: “Election Results KOed: Judge Orders Rematch between SEIU and NUHW” by Steve Early

Beyond Chron: “NLRB Throws Out Kaiser Election: New Vote for 43,000 California Workers” by Cal Winslow

Also, Tasty highly recommends this new book by longtime labor journalist Steve Early: “The Civil Wars in U.S. Labor.” It covers California healthcare workers’ fight for member-controlled, democratic unions and offers more “insider” details about SEIU, like the multi-million-dollar scandal related to SEIU's failed grievance call centers.

'The Worst Day in the History of SEIU'

So what’s happening inside SEIU? Tasty hears that when the judge announced her decision to toss out the Kaiser election results, Trustee Dave Regan told SEIU staffers it was “the worst day in the history of SEIU.”

Hmmm… kinda says something about Dave Regan, doesn’t it?

Apparently, Dave is all torn up because he’s finally been found guilty of violating workers’ rights. But I guess Dave wasn’t too upset when he was actually COMMITTING all the violations.

So Dave... see if you can answer these simple questions: Why WASN’T it “the worst day in the history of SEIU”…

…when you ran a campaign of lies, disinformation and threats against SEIU’s own members?

…when you made back-room deals with Kaiser’s executives to cut workers’ pensions and health benefits?

…when two separate Superior Court judges were forced to issue restraining orders against SEIU staff for threatening to kill Kaiser workers simply because they supported NUHW?

…when your staff heckled and bullied labor legend Dolores Huerta, the 80-year-old co-founder of the United Farm Workers, and even told her to “Go back to the fields” because she was visiting NUHW supporters in a Kaiser hospital cafeteria?

…when your staff – including Angela Hewitt – beat their fists on tables and shouted down workers inside Kaiser cafeterias so they couldn’t talk to one another about the election?

…when you adopted a disgusting strategy of converting Kaiser facilities into “World War III” battlegrounds to try to intimidate Kaiser workers into silence?

Well, Dave… whatsa matter? Cat got your tongue?

Former SEIU Staffer Comments on NLRB's Ruling

Tasty got this message from a former SEIU staffer about their experiences inside SEIU's Kaiser campaign. It offers an interesting picture of the collusion and law-breaking by Kaiser and SEIU. Check it out:


I organized on several campaigns, including the Southern California Pro's election in January, 2010. It was during that time that I can recall being specifically instructed to tell the Southern California Pro's that they would lose their PSP benefits if they voted to elect NUHW.

Afterwards, Kaiser Permanente set out to punish the healthcare workers who elected to leave their partner, SEIU, by withholding wages and benefits that they were legally entitled to. The trustees of UHW immediately went to work, intimidating healthcare workers who had yet to vote in an election. Kaiser's campaign of withholding wages and benefits, and the resolution by the Kaiser Coalition of Unions to exclude NUHW became the trustees way of proving that there would be consequences for leaving the blanket protection of UHW.

I'm happy that the NLRB has overturned the election. I hope that there will be a new and fair election that will allow healthcare workers to choose which ever union they wish. Healthcare workers deserve to elect a union without fear of retribution - from anyone.

More troubling is UHW's response to the NLRB's decision is to deny accountability, and to spin information in a desperate attempt to manipulate the values of their frontline staff. They continue to force their organizers to shoulder the enormous task of holding the union together. While Regan and his inner circle continue to walk between the rain drops.

More Info on Judge's Kaiser Decision...

You can see NUHW's press release here. And to see the judge's full 34-page decision, go to this page and click on the blue text.

Judge Overturns Kaiser Election!

It's true! An NLRB Administrative Law Judge issued a 34-page decision (see below) that overturns the results of the largest private-sector union election in 70 years because of multiple legal violations committed by SEIU and Kaiser Permanente. According to the decision:

The mail ballot election held between September 13 and October 4 was set aside because the National Labor Relations Board found that certain conduct of SEIU-UHW West in the circumstances of unfair labor practices committed by Kaiser Foundation Hospitals and Southern California Permanente Medical Group among three professional collective-bargaining units of Kaiser employees in Southern California interfered with the employees' exercise of a free and reasoned choice among employees in the following unit... Therefore, a new election will be held in accordance with the terms of this notice of election.

Translation??? The judge said that, first of all, Kaiser violated federal labor law by withholding $2 million in pay and benefits from 2,500 Southern California professional workers after they voted to join NUHW in January of 2010. Next, SEIU used Kaiser's illegal action to threaten 43,000 service and technical workers (who were preparing for their own vote) by telling them that they too would lose their pay and benefits if they voted for NUHW. The judge put it this way:

Kaiser's ULPs figured as silent, menacing reminders that Kaiser not only could, but already had, unilaterally withheld benefits when other employees had chosen to be represented by NUHW.

The judge gave a special smackdown to Ben Chu, the President of Kaiser's Southern California Region, who told workers at a region-wide employee townhall meeting before the election that they would lose their guaranteed bonuses if they voted for NUHW.

Further, SEIU was joined in its warnings by Kaiser's President Chu, who informed employees that only members of coalition unions were guaranteed PSP incentive bonuses.

(Yo Judge... any chance you can you send Ben Chu to the Big House for threatening workers with illegal pay cuts?)

Altogether, what a huge victory!! For all the workers who were forced to experience months of SEIU's lying and bullying plus Kaiser's disgusting collusion with its "preferred union," this is a giant victory that's sending shock waves across the nation. Congrats!

   Judge's Decision overturning the results of an NLRB election for 43,000 workers at Kaiser Permanente hospit... by  

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?