Like a snake-oil salesman, Dave Regan continues to hawk his ballot initiatives to SEIU-UHW’s Executive Board despite their ineffectiveness and colossal cost.
How costly
are Dave's ballot initiatives?
Last year, SEIU-UHW's spending on lobbying and political activities tripled to $37.5 million from the prior year.
Regan's ballot initiatives were so expensive they caused SEIU-UHW to experience a $17.5 million loss for the year, according to the union's annual financial report to the US Department of Labor. (The union took in revenues of $114.7 but spent $132.2 million.)
Regan's ballot initiatives were so expensive they caused SEIU-UHW to experience a $17.5 million loss for the year, according to the union's annual financial report to the US Department of Labor. (The union took in revenues of $114.7 but spent $132.2 million.)
 |
| Excerpt from SEIU-UHW's DOL Form LM-2 for 2018 |
This may
help explain why SEIU-UHW is now charging its members a maximum dues rate of
$168 per month.
Regan's spending also helped SEIU-UHW surpass a disturbing threshold: the union spent more money on “political activities and lobbying” ($37.5 million) than it did on “representational activities” ($36.3 million).
How does
this spending compare to other unions?
Tasty
took a look at the spending patterns of similar unions during the
same year and using the same data set (DOL Forms LM-2). Check out the table below. As you can
see, SEIU-UHW’s spending is ass-backwards.
Representational Activities
|
Political Activities and
Lobbying
|
Ratio of Spending on Representation
to Pol/Lobbying
|
|
SEIU 2015 (CA Longterm Care Wkrs)
|
$16.5 million
|
$5.1 million
|
3.2 to 1
|
SEIU Local 1021 (Northern Cal)
|
$11.5 million
|
$2.0 million
|
5.8 to 1
|
SEIU 1199NY
|
$57.0 million
|
$14.5 million
|
3.9 to 1
|
SEIU Local 49 (Oregon)
|
$3.4 million
|
$0.5 million
|
6.8 to 1
|
NUHW
|
$6.0 million
|
$0.7 million
|
8.6 to 1
|
SEIU-UHW
|
$36.3 million
|
$37.5 million
|
0.97 to 1
|
Here’s another interesting comparison.
Last year, SEIU-UHW spent almost three times more money on lobbying and political activities than did SEIU 1199NY… even though 1199NY had far more members (273,599) than SEIU-UHW (99,268).
In fact, if you tally up the political spending of the five other unions in the table above, it doesn’t even come close to what SEIU-UHW spent.
Hmmm, what do you call a union that spends more money on lobbying and political activities than representing its own members on the job? Good question.
A political consulting firm?
Apparently, that's Regan’s innovative strategy for “rebuilding the US labor movement.”
