After Tasty published this
post, sources forwarded additional news about Dave
Regan’s plans for upcoming contract negotiations covering thousands of
SEIU-UHW members at Sutter Health.
Sutter -- a $9 billion company that’s one of California’s worst
anti-union employers -- has already put giant takeaways on the bargaining table
with the California Nurses Association. The CNA has responded with a series of
strikes, with the most recent strike taking place just 14 days ago.
Now, as Regan prepares for negotiations, Sutter is announcing its plans. On June 26, Sutter officials mailed letters
to 1,100 SEIU-UHW members describing the company’s demands for “significant
changes in our wage and benefit structure” along with “restructuring and
reducing our staffing by approximately 10 percent.”
So… is SEIU-UHW gearing up for a fight to stop the cuts? Nope. In fact, Tasty’s
sources say Regan is welcoming the Boss with open arms.
Last week, Regan reportedly held a meeting with top Sutter
executives that was also attended by some SEIU shop stewards from three Sutter
hospitals in the San Francisco Bay Area. During the meeting, Regan proposed “fast-track”
negotiations that’ll last only a handful of weeks. And Regan, rather than
trying to beat back Sutter’s cuts, signaled an opposite approach by telling the
company, “We can work with employers like Sutter Health.”
Interestingly, Tasty hears that
Sutter’s lead negotiator -- Dan Rodriguez
-- has plenty of experience of “working with” SEIU officials. Until recently, Rodriquez
was the Vice President of Labor Relations at Tenet Healthcare. He previously worked as an attorney at Littler Mendelson, one of the most notorious
union-busting law firms in the US.
In 2007, Rodriguez headed Tenet’s negotiations with SEIU. During
the negotiations, Tenet’s workers caught three top officials from SEIU
International after they had secretly signed a deal with Rodriguez to
subcontract the jobs of hundreds of SEIU members! The SEIU officials -- without even talking to workers' elected bargaining committee -- had given away workers' protections against subcontracting.
Which SEIU officials were caught red-handed? Mary Kay Henry, Jim Philliou and Mary Joyce
Carlson. A copy of the secret agreement is posted below.
After exposing the dirty deal, Sal Rosselli’s union famously
forced SEIU’s top officials to rip up their backroom deal. This, of course,
produced a deepening divide between healthcare workers in Rosselli’s union and
Andy Stern’s Purple Palace in Washington, DC.
Needless to say, Sutter workers had better keep a close eye
on Regan. Rodriguez has reportedly spent a lot of time socializing
with Mary Kay Henry and other Purple Palace officials, who are big buddies with
Regan. Regan may be hoping to do another side-deal with Rodriguez that'll
certainly fast-track SEIU-UHW’s negotiations… but will undoubtedly leave Sutter
workers hanging.
