Leaked Memo: SEIU-UHW’s Dave Regan Wages Internal War against Mary Kay Henry and SEIU

Dave Regan’s faintly concealed anger towards SEIU President Mary Kay Henry, which is contained in a June 6 letter to long-term care workers, has now burst into the open thanks to a leaked memo.

Today, the San Francisco Business Times published this article: 

“'Massive Betrayal': Leaked Memo Reveals SEIU's Internal War over Health Care Workers.”

So who’s the author of the seven-page "leaked memo"?

Dave Regan!

Here are some excerpts from the San Francisco Business Times article (the full article is below. Btw, the leaked memo has not yet surfaced publicly):

Regan said the local's leadership first officially heard about the plan to downsize UHW in January, but believes it was hatched last October and has roots in years of enmity between local and national leaders.

"We are absolutely clear this decision is malicious and undertaken with the full knowledge that the interests of California healthcare workers are being sacrificed to the political needs of Mary Kay Henry," Regan wrote. "We are ashamed and embarrassed for our Union."

The decision "marks the first time in my 25 years in SEIU (that) the union has knowingly, intentionally and willfully taken a major action that is contrary to the basic interests of the membership," Regan wrote in a highly opinionated seven-page missive obtained by the San Francisco Business Times.

"To put it bluntly," he added, "this decision is a massive betrayal of our stated principles and values. 

By writing the missive, which was undated but clearly written after May 21, Regan noted that he may be violating a "gag order" by SEIU's leadership forbidding officers and staffers from speaking "candidly and completely" about the decision to wrest half of his membership away.

Another quote indicates Regan may be actively working to undermine SEIU’s efforts in California.

"The effort to win the hearts and minds of UHW homecare leaders and members will be a challenging task, given their strong attachment to their UHW identity," he wrote. "This effort will not be done in weeks or even months.”

Of course, Regan's righteous indignation is tainted by so much hypocrisy (and plain old bullsh*t) that it's hard to know where to start.

Dave Regan

Regan says SEIU’s decision "marks the first time in my 25 years in SEIU (that) the union has knowingly, intentionally and willfully taken a major action that is contrary to the basic interests of the membership."

Regan apparently has forgotten about the undemocratic and disastrous trusteeship that he himself imposed on California healthcare workers in 2009. Since parachuting into California, Regan has a eliminated the defined benefit pensions of more than 25,000 SEIU-UHW members and replaced them with 401(k)s. He's accomplished this disgusting feat by brazenly lying to workers and violating SEIU-UHW's own constitution… as he famously did to 4,000 workers at the Daughters of Charity Health System.

Today, Regan professes to feel heartfelt pain that SEIU officials are harming "the interests of California healthcare workers." 

Gimme a break.

Remember, this is the same guy who, soon after parachuting into California as Andy Stern’s trustee, promptly fired several thousand democratically elected SEIU-UHW Shop Stewards and then imposed "loyalty oaths" on union members.

He reportedly directed a campaign of threats, intimidation and even violence against rank-and-file workers who favored joining another union… and even had his staff attack 85-year-old labor icon Dolores Huerta and make death threats against workers.

 

Mary Kay Henry

This is the same guy who liquidated SEIU-UHW members’ $4.1 million strike fund in the waning days of the trusteeship, when Regan exercised total control over the union’s finances.

This is the same guy who has refused to allow SEIU-UHW’s own Executive Board to see a copy of the secret deal he signed with the California Hospital Association, which reportedly gags workers and forfeits their right to strike.

Today, Regan passionately defends the right of workers to stay in SEIU-UHW. But in 2008-09, he aggressively backed SEIU’s effort to transfer SEIU-UHW's long-term care workers into a separate union by arguing it would be better for workers.

How much integrity can Regan claim to have when he flip-flops so violently? Not much. 

Yo Dave, take a long hard look in the mirror.

Here's the full article:

San Francisco Business Times

'Massive betrayal': Leaked memo reveals SEIU's internal war over health care workers

Jun 17, 2015

Chris Rauber

California's largest health care union is being cut virtually in half by the Service Employees' International Union's senior leaders in Washington, D.C., a step its Oakland-based leader calls "devastating" to union members.

Dave Regan, president of the Oakland-based United Healthcare Workers' West local, which currently represents about 150,000 workers in the Golden State, said SEIU President Mary Kay Henry announced the move May 21. It will slice 70,000 home care workers from UHW and transfer them to another SEIU local, leaving about 80,000 hospital and clinic service workers in the rump UHW local.

The decision "marks the first time in my 25 years in SEIU (that) the union has knowingly, intentionally and willfully taken a major action that is contrary to the basic interests of the membership," Regan wrote in a highly opinionated seven-page missive obtained by the San Francisco Business Times.

"To put it bluntly," he added, "this decision is a massive betrayal of our stated principles and values.

By writing the missive, which was undated but clearly written after May 21, Regan noted that he may be violating a "gag order" by SEIU's leadership forbidding officers and staffers from speaking "candidly and completely" about the decision to wrest half of his membership away.

"I want to make it clear that I have offered my thoughts not in my capacity as the President of UHW," he wrote, "but rather in my capacity as an individual member of SEIU, who is protected by the SEIU Constitution."

Officials at UHW didn't immediately respond to requests for comment. But SEIU, which boasts 2 million members and 150 locals nationwide, provided a statement from Mary Kay Henry on Wednesday afternoon.

Henry's response focused on the need for good long-term-care jobs, without delving into Regan's allegations. "That's why SEIU has begun the process of uniting all long-term care members in California into one strong union with one clear goal," she said, "winning $15 an hour and a union for everyone in the state who provides care and support to seniors and people with disabilities."

The newly chartered Local 2015 will have more than 280,000 members, Henry said, making it the largest such union local in the nation.

Another SEIU memo, this one reportedly written April 14 by International Executive Vice President Kirk Adams, confirms that creation of the new long-term-care local in California is starting this month, and involves shifting more than 200,000 SEIU workers from their current locals to a single California unit focusing on nursing home and home care.

It also suggests that the fight between UHW and the national leadership will have extensive fallout.

"The effort to win the hearts and minds of UHW homecare leaders and members will be a challenging task, given their strong attachment to their UHW identity," he wrote. "This effort will not be done in weeks or even months.”

A long-brewing battle

Regan said the local's leadership first officially heard about the plan to downsize UHW in January, but believes it was hatched last October and has roots in years of enmity between local and national leaders.

"We are absolutely clear this decision is malicious and undertaken with the full knowledge that the interests of California healthcare workers are being sacrificed to the political needs of Mary Kay Henry," Regan wrote. "We are ashamed and embarrassed for our Union."

But he insisted the Oakland local will keep fighting for its controversial "partnership" with the California Hospital Association, designed to help UHW recruit more members; for enhanced state funding of the Medi-Cal program for the poor, and for a $15 per hour minimum wage via a planned November 2016 ballot initiative.

Ironically, the current hostility between Oakland-based UHW and the parent union echoes a similar battle six and a half years years ago when former longtime UHW President Sal Rosselli tangled with top leaders and left to start the upstart National Union of Healthcare Workers, which has battled SEIU and UHW ever since. The union leader who replaced the fiery Rosselli: Dave Regan.

When I reached Rosselli by phone, he thoroughly enjoyed the irony of the situation, noting that Regan is now tangling with Henry over the same issue that splintered the union almost seven years ago, whether long-term-care workers are better off in UHW and other broad health care locals or in a specialized unit.