Last week, 230
workers at 158-bed USC
Verdugo Hills Hospital in Los Angeles voted to dump SEIU-UHW as their union and return to
non-union status, according to NLRB records and the Glendale News-Press.
(Mark Kellam, “Members
vote to decertify union at USC Verdugo Hills Hospital,” Glendale News-Press, February 1, 2019.)
The results
of the NLRB election, which took place on January 30-31, are 118 (No Union) to
107 (SEIU-UHW).
The outcome
was a blow to SEIU-UHW and its president, Dave
Regan. It happened exactly 10 years after Regan seized control of SEIU-UHW
following a trusteeship imposed by SEIU’s DC headquarters.
Quite a telling
way to mark your 10-year anniversary on the job, right?
Since 2009,
SEIU-UHW’s membership has declined by approximately one-third and Regan has
poured more than $30 million of the union members’ dues into a failed strategy
of using ballot initiatives to unionize healthcare workers.
Meanwhile,
SEIU-UHW’s members routinely complain about the union’s failure to enforce labor
contracts and its refusal to give basic workplace support to its members. Regan
has also failed to organize effective bargaining campaigns to protect workers’
wages, benefits and working conditions.
Unlike other
unions, SEIU-UHW refuses to conduct strikes to force hospital corporations to
treat workers fairly.
Regan, who’s
notorious for making backroom deals with employers, has given away the
defined-benefit pension plans of tens of thousands of workers at hospital
chains like Dignity Health and Verity Health, prompting other
employers to seek the same concessions.
According to media reports, the workers at USC Verdugo Hills Hospital requested an election to dump SEIU-UHW after the union failed to deliver on its promise to help workers improve their pay and benefits.
