In California, workers report that Dave Regan’s effort to boost SEIU-UHW
members’ top dues rate to $124 a month has already suffered a defeat at a
number of hospitals where voting took place earlier this week.
At one Kaiser
Permanente hospital in Northern California, Regan’s plan was defeated by a four-to-one
margin: 155 to 42. At another Kaiser hospital in Southern California, it was
defeated by a vote of 108 to 82.
However, workers are worried that Regan has more dirty
tricks up his sleeves.
On Facebook, homecare workers report that
SEIU-UHW staffers are spreading misinformation in an effort to win support for
the dues hike. SEIU-UHW’s staffers are reportedly phoning homecare workers and telling them they won’t have to pay
any dues at all if they work fewer than 24 hours per month.
But that’s a lie!
Under
Regan’s plan, every member will pay dues, even homecare workers earning just $150
in a month, who’ll be required to pay the minimum dues rate of $32 per month.
If a purple misinformation campaign doesn't work, workers fear Regan will opt for an even bigger illegal scheme. Homecare workers are casting mail-in
ballots, which are being collected and stored by Regan’s staffers until they’re
ultimately counted. This gives Regan a perfect opportunity to
stuff the ballot box behind closed doors, say workers.
Finally... check out this “irony
of ironies.”
Readers may recall that in 2009,
the Purple Palace ordered the trusteeship of SEIU-UHW after the union’s board
refused to transfer 60,000 homecare workers to Tyrone Freeman’s union without first letting those workers vote on whether
or not they wanted to be transferred.
Nearly four years
later, SEIU has never ever transferred the homecare workers.
And now, Regan is trying to use
the homecare workers’ votes (both stuffed and unstuffed) to ram through a giant
dues hike on the rest of the union’s membership!
Apparently, there’s no trick that’s too dirty for SEIU.
