Check this out. Last Friday, SEIU-UHW’s Dave Regan and NUHW’s John
Borsos conducted an on-air debate about the Kaiser election that was broadcast by a radio station
in the San Francisco Bay Area. Below, Tasty has posted an unedited recording of
the 25-minute debate.
So how’d the debate end up?
Basically, Regan got his ass handed to him... even though he refused
to engage in a normal debate against Borsos. Instead of having a regular back-and-forth exchange between the two, SEIU-UHW insisted that each
person be given 10 minutes to answer questions -- but only questions from the radio host.
Regan’s debate performance -- although pathetically lame -- offers a revealing
snapshot of the tactics and themes that SEIU-UHW has employed throughout its
Kaiser election campaign… complete with purple lies, fear tactics, bullying and a heavy dose of arrogance and evasiveness.
What’s most stunning to Tasty is how shamelessly Regan lied
during the course of the debate. In just ten minutes, Regan managed to spit out multiple big-ass lies... which of course are all very easy to refute. One listener -- an SEIU-UHW
member who’s a homecare worker -- put it this way in a comment posted on the
radio station’s website:
Does Dave Regan realize that there's a new invention called the Internet? It's handy for fact checking everything our "leader" claims.
For instance, check out this exchange where Regan tries to
tell listeners that workers will somehow lose their contract if they vote
for NUHW. Regan apparently forgot that SEIU published the truth about this issue on its own website -- that workers will maintain all of the terms and conditions of their contract
(their wages, pension, health insurance, benefits, shift differentials, future pay increases, etc) when they vote to switch
unions. (Click image to enlarge it.)
And of course Regan forgot to mention that the 2010 Kaiser election was overturned precisely because SEIU-UHW teamed up with Kaiser Permanente to illegally threaten workers that they'd lose their contract.
Here are two interesting exchanges between Regan and the radio interviewer:
Pathetic, right? "I don't understand the question." WTF is that!
Did you notice what Regan did when he got caught
red-handed in a giant lie by the interviewer? Instead of acknowledging the
truth, Regan simply doubled down on his lie and then tried to bully the interviewer!
Here, then, is the full, unedited interview, which aired on KPFA radio on April 5. Below, Tasty has responded to each of Regan's lies with links to documents that refute each lie. Hmm... Regan should really try out this new thing called “the internet!”
Has SEIU-UHW negotiated “me too” clauses with hospital
companies? During the debate, Regan said “NO.” Well, here’s a signed version of the “me
too” clause that SEIU-UHW signed just four months ago with Sutter
Health’s St. Luke’s Hospital in San Francisco. By the way, this “me too” clause
was even reported in the press, which contains quotes from SEIU-UHW's press spokesperson about the "me too" clause! (Click image to enlarge it.)
Did a judge overturn the 2010 election at Kaiser because of
violations committed by SEIU-UHW and Kaiser?
Yes. Here’s a link
to the judge’s 34-page decision, which states:
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.
Did Regan try to roll back California's landmark nurse-to-patient staffing law? Not only that, he even lobbied the California Labor Federation to help him undercut the safe-staffing law! Regan's buddy Duane Dauner, the CEO of the California Hospital Association, described Regan's efforts to the Sacramento Business Journal. Regan's back-stabbing role was even discussed by other SEIU officials like Neal Bisno, who wrote emails stating: "No idea what Dave was thinking." Meanwhile, Sue Weinstein, the Executive Director of SEIU Local 121 (which represents RNs in Southern California), issued a formal statement saying: "We are calling on UHW to declare nurse-to-patient staffing
ratios 'off limits' in its ongoing work with the California Hospital
Association."
Did SEIU Local 1021 criticize Regan for weakening progressives in San Francisco by making alliances with downtown business
interests and the Chamber of Commerce? Here’s a link to the letter
signed by Local 1021’s Political Director and two other top officers of Local
1021. Oh yeah, Regan deserves special kudos for dissing multiple leaders of Local 1021 in
one fell swoop.
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| Greg Maron |
Did SEIU-UHW instruct its members to cross the picket lines during
the huge strikes by members of NUHW and the CNA in 2011 and 2012? SEIU-UHW not
only told its members to scab during the strike, they even teamed up with
management to threaten
SEIU-UHW’s members with discipline and firings if they supported the strikes. SEIU-UHW also
sent emails
to workers instructing them not to honor the
picket lines.
And SEIU-UHW’s Greg Maron stormed
through Kaiser hospitals making threats to RNs to dissuade them from striking.
Notably, members of NUHW and CNA launched the strikes to oppose Kaiser’s demand
for benefit cuts... including the same retiree health cut that Regan later accepted SEIU-UHW's members during 'partnership' bargaining.
Hmm... if Dave Regan is willing to tell so many blatant lies over the radio, can we really trust anything he says?
