Ever wonder why SEIU-UHW’s Dave Regan is expected to win the “Employee of the Year Award” from
Kaiser Permanente and the Chamber of Commerce?
Here’s a clue.
Earlier this year, unions across California backed a bill in
the state legislature that seeks to beat back the skyrocketing cost of health
insurance. Senate Bill 746 would require large insurance companies like Kaiser
Permanente to cough up more information about their profits and operations so that unions and large employers can figure out whether the insurance
companies’ rate hikes are fair.
As supporters say, “All we want is transparency -- basic information from the big insurance companies.”
The bill’s backers include all of the state’s major unions:
UNITE HERE, the Teamsters, UFCW, AFSCME, Transit Workers, Teachers, Machinists,
Longshore Workers, Engineers, Utility Workers, Nurses, the California Public
Interest Research Group, the California Pan-Ethnic Health Network, etc.
In fact, even SEIU’s public-sector unions back the
bill -- SEIU Locals 521, 721 and 1021. Check out their letter of support below.
So who’s opposed to the bill?
You guessed it. All of the Bosses… and Dave Regan’s SEIU-UHW!
Here’s the list of opponents: the California Chamber of Commerce, Kaiser
Permanente, Health Net, Aetna, California Association of Health Plans, America’s
Health Insurance Plans, Association of California Life and Health Insurance
Companies... and SEIU-UHW. Below, see SEIU-UHW’s letter of
opposition.
And here’s a fact that speaks volumes: SEIU-UHW is the only union that opposes this bill.
Interestingly, legislators in both houses ended up approving the bill by wide margins despite the fact that Regan
assigned as many as 10 staffers to lobby against the bill,
including Dave
Kieffer of Tyrone Freeman fame.
Tasty hears that Regan's efforts to defeat the bill have intensified SEIU-UHW’s isolation from the rest of the labor movement… and have boosted Regan’s well-earned reputation as bought-and-paid-for by the Chamber of Commerce and Kaiser
Permanente!
