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| Alameda County Superior Court |
SEIU-UHW’s Dave Regan is headed to a court tomorrow to face new challenges over
his ballot initiatives.
The latest
challenge comes the City of Emeryville,
a tiny city of 12,000 residents sandwiched between Oakland and Berkeley in the
San Francisco Bay Area.
Emeryville’s
City Attorney sued SEIU-UHW alleging that one of Regan’s ballot initiatives is
unconstitutional, violates due process rules, and is preempted by state and
federal laws.
Tomorrow,
the two sides will face off in Alameda County Superior Court over the City
Attorney’s request for a court order to block SEIU-UHW from proceeding with its
initiative. (See lawsuit below: Alameda County Superior Court, “Michael A.
Guina vs. Smith,” Case No. RG18887782.)
The lawsuit revolves
around virtually identical ballot initiatives filed by Regan earlier this year
in five cities -- Palo Alto, Redwood City, Pleasanton, Livermore and Emeryville
-- targeting Stanford Health Care,
which operates two hospitals, a cancer center and multiple clinics in various
cities. Regan is working to put the initiatives on each city's November 2018 ballot.
In addition
to the suit filed by Emeryville, Stanford recently announced it, too, will sue
SEIU-UHW if a ballot initiative moves forward in the City of Palo Alto.
In May, multiple
hospitals and industry groups -- including Stanford, Kaiser Permanente, Sutter
Health, John Muir Health and the
California Hospital Association -- filed
an “amici curiae brief” in the Emeryville litigation in support of that city.
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| Emeryville City Attorney Michael Guina |
Meanwhile, ten
days ago the City of Palo Alto met in closed session to consider whether it
will file its on lawsuit against SEIU-UHW. (Gennady Sheyner, “
Battle
over health care costs hits Palo Alto,”
Palo
Alto Daily Post, June 15, 2018.)
What does
Regan want from Stanford?
SEIU-UHW represents
hundreds of caregivers at Stanford Hospital in Palo Alto. Recently, SEIU-UHW attempted
to unionize workers at a second non-union hospital that recently affiliated
with Stanford. However, SEIU-UHW was unsuccessful. Regan hopes he can convince
Stanford to ink a special unionization deal with him in exchange for Regan’s withdrawal of the ballot initiative.
A unionization deal
might be similar to the one Regan secretly negotiated with the
California Hospital Association. Regan’s
deal would have forced non-union workers into pre-negotiated labor contracts
with substandard wages and benefits, banned workers from striking, and imposed
gag rules barring workers from reporting patient-care violations to government
oversight agencies. That deal eventually imploded in a firestorm of lawsuits that were triggered by Regan’s violations of the terms of the deal.
What would
Regan’s ballot initiative do to Stanford?
It would
prohibit Stanford’s hospitals and clinics from charging more than 115% of the “reasonable
cost of direct patient care.” Stanford claims this will dramatically cut its
revenues and -- in a thinly veiled threat to SEIU-UHW’s existing members at
Stanford Hospital -- may cause Stanford to cut those workers’ benefits and
staffing levels. Here’s a quote from Stanford’s recent letter to the City of
Palo Alto (see below for the full letters):
In that regard, Stanford’s preliminary
calculations indicate that implementation of the initiative would result in a
20-25% drop in its revenues, which is many times greater than Stanford’s
margin. As a consequence, Stanford would have to implement cuts to its staffing
and benefit levels, facilities, and/or programs to avoid violating the statute.
Why is the
City Emeryville suing SEIU-UHW?
Stanford also
operates healthcare facilities in Emeryville. The city argues that Regan’s
initiative, if successful, would harm its residents’ access to healthcare
services by driving health care facilities out of the city and undermining the
city’s economic development.
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| Dave Regan |
Is Regan’s
unionization-via-ballot-initiative a realistic strategy for boosting U.S. labor
unions’ declining membership and flagging strength?
During the
past seven years, Regan has spent upwards of $30 million on 20+ ballot
initiatives, all of which were unsuccessful in unionizing even a single worker.
Instead, say
critics, Regan should have spent SEIU-UHW’s $30+ million in dues money to
recruit, organize and train workers – as well as wage effective contract fights
to boost workers’ pay, benefits and working conditions.
If Regan
could demonstrate SEIU-UHW’s ability to successfully raise workers’ pay and
benefits and improve their working conditions, then workers would want to join
it. Instead, Regan has given away SEIU-UHW members’ pension plans, health
benefits, and working conditions during one contract negotiation after the
next.
Secondly,
critics say it’s inevitable that employers will fight ballot initiatives in the
courts, which are not a friendly forum for unions to do battle. The courts, they
say, seldom give unions a fair shake. In addition, legal battles force unions
to spend vast amounts of money on high-paid lawyers.
Lastly,
critics say SEIU’s so-called “organizing deals” with corporations don’t build
the kind of strong, well-organized worksites that are essential for fighting and
winning better workplace standards. Unionized worksites are strongest when they
grow out of bottom-up efforts led by workers. Under Regan’s approach, the union
is installed through a secret top-down deal negotiated by Regan and corporate executives.
Furthermore,
Regan’s deals inevitably include hidden provisions aimed at sweetening the deal
for bosses – such as pre-negotiated limits on
workers’ pay and benefits. When workers ultimately discover these backroom deals, they turn against the union for selling out the members.
See below
for a copy of the lawsuit filed by the City of Emeryville as well as two
letters recently submitted by Stanford to the City of Palo Alto.
