Incubate this!

Here's an item that offers an interesting window into the Fantasy Island formulations of SEIU’s top officials.

How exactly are Purple Palace officials planning to respond to SEIU’s pathetic failures at the bargaining table and its declining membership?

They’ve decided to set up a ‘business incubator’ to dream up “innovative” strategies that’ll allow SEIU to revive the entire U.S. labor movement!

An inside source sent copies of documents detailing SEIU’s latest Alice-in-Wonderland distraction, which is being pushed by SEIU’s David Rolf. Rolf is the teenage member of SEIU's International Executive Board who famously cut a secret deal with Washington nursing home corporations that forced workers into cheap 'template' contracts and banned them from striking for 10 years.

Here's an excerpt from the incubator documents:

Over the last 40 years, corporations invested heavily in research and innovation that produced not only new technologies to drive up profits but also new management strategies to avoid unions and hold down wages. On the other side, there’s been no similar effort to incubate 21st century alternatives to the collective bargaining model that built the middle class in the 20th century.

So… the Purple Palace has decided to set up an SEIU-styled business incubator that’ll connect “venture-funders” and “investment/business partners” with so-called innovative ideas for transforming the labor movement.

SEIU's David Rolph

What kinds of ideas? 

The only concrete strategies mentioned in the SEIU documents are such radical new approaches that range “from activating workers and consumers to engaging in political and legal strategies.”

Well... instead of flushing millions of workers' dues dollars down the toilet, SEIU might want to test out these radical ideas.

1. Stop cutting back-room deals with corporations that sell out workers… like Dave Regan’s multiple secret deals that eliminated workers' defined-pension plans, slashed their health benefits, and banned workers from striking.

2. Stop rigging union elections that keep clueless fatcat SEIU leaders in power and prevent workers from choosing their own leaders. Ever heard of “democracy”?

3. Stop lying to workers.

4. Stop protecting SEIU’s corrupt leaders like Tyrone Freeman, who robbed millions of dollars from low-wage healthcare workers in California, and Andy Stern, who pocketed tens of thousands of stock options from billionaire Ron Perelman in exchange for selling out low-wage security guards.

And the list goes on... 

Finally, here's an email from David Rolf about the purple business incubator.

Subject: Incubation Center Program Director

Friends –

Please forgive the mass email and the probability of some duplication in your inbox.

Over the last year, I and others at SEIU have had conversations and exchanged ideas with many of you about the need to address the crisis for America’s workers and unions with dedicated capacity to develop new real-world models for winning for workers in the 21st Century.  We believe that to succeed, any new model(s) would need to be:

·         Economically powerful enough to change workers lives economically for the better;

·         Scalable to cover entire industries or geographies;

·         Sustainable – with an embedded revenue model.

Working with other partners in the philanthropic, advocacy, policy, and labor communities, we intend to launch such a new center, not housed within any union or labor federation, early in 2014.  Intending to model much of what we do on the lessons successful of “incubation” and “acceleration” centers in the business and social sectors, we’re temporarily referring to this initiative the “Incubation Center.”

Attached is a draft concept paper describing our thinking to date on this new initiative.  This version is not final or written for a public audience, as it will continue to evolve as new partners become involved in shaping the vision and business plan of the Incubation Center.

The job announcement for the founding Project Director is also attached.  This executive-level position will assist the founding partners in developing the business plan and launching the new initiative during 2014…

In Solidarity,

David Rolf

SEIU Local 221 Is Forced into Do-Over after Workers Protest "Starbucks" Election

This week, SEIU Local 221 in San Diego is conducting another 'do-over' of an internal officer election after union members filed protests with the Purple Palace and SEIU President Mary Kay Henry.

In the first election, which took place last December, only 41 of the 5,000 members of the County of San Diego Chapter actually filled out a ballot. (That's less than one percent.)

Why?

SEIU refused to send mail-in ballots to its members. Instead, SEIU set up voting booths at “5 weird Starbucks locations" during just one day of voting for 5,000 workers employed at 200 county worksites, according to union members.

Super fair, right?

For the do-over election, which began April 22nd, SEIU is continuing to refuse to send out mail-in ballots to its members. This time, there'll be voting booths at 22 County worksites during five days of voting.

However, workers report that SEIU has pulled another last-minute trick from its purple hat in an effort to get its hand-picked candidates elected to office.

SEIU has censored the online statements of candidates who are critical of SEIU's leaders. These statements are posted on the union's website so voters can understand who/what they're voting for. Here's the phrase that SEIU deleted from candidates' statements:

"A reform movement has started in SEIU (see SMART at reformseiu.com)."

So... workers quickly filed another round of protests. Meanwhile, SEIU is conducting balloting at the county worksites.

Looks like the United Nations should run SEIU's elections from here on out.

Here's a link to "Reform 221," a group of rank-and-file union members that filed the original protest against SEIU's "Starbucks" election. 

On a Roll… NUHW Wins 2nd Election in a Week

On Friday, a unit of 270 non-union hospital workers in Northern California voted to join NUHW by a two-to-one margin. This, despite an anti-union campaign waged by the hospital's parent company -St. Joseph Health System.

Here's the final tally from the NLRB election at St. Joseph Hospital Eureka, which is the largest hospital in Humboldt County:

NUHW:  149

No Union:  74

Challenged Ballots:  9

The election comes just four days after NUHW won a 150-person unit at hospital in Southern California by a nearly two-to-one margin.

Looks like NUHW is on a roll!

Profits are UP for "Wall Street" Dave Regan

Last year, Dave Regan used SEIU-UHW to produce millions more in profits.

The Oakland-based union pocketed $8.6 million in profits during 2013, according to an annual report recently filed by SEIU-UHW with the U.S. Department of Labor. 

That's a profit margin of 7.8%.

In another section of the report, SEIU-UHW reveals that it stockpiled $37.8 million in cash by the end of 2013 -- the union's piles of cash jumped by 30 percent compared to twelve months earlier.

Remember…  SEIU-UHW made these profits from its members even BEFORE it implemented Regan’s giant dues hike, which took effect on January 1, 2014. Under that scheme, Regan boosted SEIU-UHW members' maximum monthly from $84 to $124.

So what's producing Regan's ridiculous profits? 

Tasty guesses the slashing of representation for members has something to do with it. Less spending on members = higher profits for Dave.

Here are some excerpts from SEIU-UHW’s recent filing:

   SEIU-UHW's $8.6 million in profits and $38 million in cash for 2013

NUHW Wins Another One!

This just in.  Today, a group of 150 non-union nurses, technical and service workers at a hospital in Southern California voted by nearly a two-to-one margin to join NUHW. 

According to Tasty’s sources, the workers beat back an aggressive anti-union campaign from their Boss at Kindred Brea Hospital. Here’s the final tally from the NLRB election:

NUHW: 81

No Union: 44

That makes seven election victories in a row for NUHW… including last month’s win at Seton Medical Center in Northern California, where 700 workers voted to dump SEIU-UHW and join NUHW.