Ever since Dave Regan
forced Kaiser workers to start paying a “Partnership
Tax,” SEIU-UHW has carefully hidden the tax’s dirty details from the union's members.
In fact, officials at SEIU-UHW and Kaiser Permanente carefully rigged the
tax so there’s no record of it on workers’ pay stubs. Some workers have begun to wonder, “Are we actually paying the Partnership Tax?”
Well, here’s the answer. And it comes courtesy of an unusual
source: Tamara Rubyn, the president
of OPEIU Local 29 -- a “partnership”
union!
According to a memo penned by Rubyn (see below), the
Partnership Tax is actually “a wage diversion.” Rubyn writes:
The nine cents ($0.09) per hour wage diversion shall go into effect the payroll period covering October 1, 2012.
What's a "wage diversion"?
According to Rubyn, Kaiser deducts the tax directly
from workers’ wage rates. That’s why it doesn’t
show up on workers’ pay stubs like the deductions for union dues. Instead... if Kaiser is supposed to pay you $20.60 per hour, you’re
only getting $20.51. It’s a devious form of taxation without notification!
Even though Rubyn coughed up lots more info than Deceptive
Dave, she forgot to mention a few important details. For example… by lowering
your wage rate, the Partnership Tax reduces all of your benefits that are tied to
your gross pay such as your pension, Social Security, unemployment, disability,
etc. This, of course, saves Kaiser a bundle of money.
How much are SEIU-UHW’s members now paying in “Partnership
Taxes” each year? More than $6 million! And that’s on top of workers’ regular
union dues.
What are these millions in Partnership Taxes used for?
According to an SEIU-UHW handout, they’re used “to fund multiple partnership
activities such as training of workers and managers on the National Agreement, conferences
on the Labor Management Partnership.” Uhh... workers are paying to train Kaiser's managers? WTF!
Plus, most of this money is
sent straight back to Kaiser, which last year pocketed $2.6 billion in profits.
No wonder Regan has tried so hard to hide the details of his Partnership
Tax from Kaiser’s workers!
