SEIU-UHW's Dave Regan Trashes SEIU International at Annual Membership Meeting

SEIU-UHW's Leadership Assembly featured a "giant custom flame bob"

A union member who attended SEIU-UHW's recent "Leadership Assembly" in Fresno, California sent along the following report, including news that Dave Regan used the event as a platform to trash SEIU International and President Mary Kay Henry.

The report begins this way:

I have just finished a few days at the leadership conference, and do I feel dirty. Not because of the members, they were the saving grace, but because of the SEIU-UHW staff leadership that are also on the executive board. These people are not members, they have no concept of the struggle that working people face, they don't know us or the work of the members.

As far as Regan trashing SEIU International...

The other part that I found so completely strange was the mention of the Home-care members being put in their own union. Regan was blasting the International, and their wrong decision to create SEIU 2015. Reagan and others have said several time that the International "stole" their members. I may be naive, but aren't they still in a union? Actually, they are still with SEIU. We are fighting for the same things and the same political agenda's, but they act like these members are their property to be stole. Really, I am sure Dave is just sad about the lack of dues and Cope. I was shocked about how much crap Dave was spreading about the international. I can't imagine that the International will just sit back and take this.  I am actually more than fine with Dave and his minions get kicked out by the international.

(FYI, the term "COPE" refers to voluntary political contributions that SEIU-UHW collects from some of its members and uses to fund political campaigns.)

Tasty's source says Regan also referred to his collapsing deal with the California Hospital Association, apparently confirming details disclosed in last week's post penned by California Watchdog President Jamie Court.

Regan said that if the hospital CEO's would not support the medi-cal measure then maybe they would start going after their high pays and bonuses. … Why would hospitals NOT support this measure. This will be more money for them. It was clear that we are spending members dues to push Reagan and his buddies agenda.

Regan has already spent more than $10-$15 million of SEIU-UHW members' dues dollars to twice file and then withdraw the same ballot measures he's now considering re-filing for third time.

And here's a final excerpt. Btw, check out this union member's dead-on description of Regan and SEIU-UHW’s fatcat staff leaders: "a greedy man and a few sycophants who are more boss than working people." 

Of course, the biggest message was around Cope. Pretty much, UHW has become a lobbying group. They are pushing that all executive board members must collect ten $10 dollar COPE cards every three months. The staff are the ones pushing these goals, and if they are not met staff is disciplined. We are constantly losing good staff and member leaders. … The problem is the people making the decisions on behalf of UHW members is a greedy man and a few sycophants who are more boss than working people.  Not only was Regan's message all about cope (And man was he a boring speaker), but about the upcoming ballot initiatives that we will be pushing. 

SEIU-UHW to Kaiser workers at ratification votes: "No information for you… but give us more money!"

SEIU-UHW is putting on a classic performance during contract-ratification votes at Kaiser Permanente facilities across California, say workers.

  

In typical Regan style, the union's staffers are refusing to give copies of the tentative agreements to union members. Meanwhile, SEIU-UHW is pressuring workers to give more money to SEIU-UHW by using a deceptive "rap" that's detailed in a leaked internal memo (see below).

What's actually contained in the tentative agreement that workers are now voting on?

It's a mystery… even to the union's own membership.

That's because SEIU-UHW staffers refuse to provide copies of the tentative agreement (“TA”) to the membership. 

"How are we supposed to know how to vote when we don't even have a chance to read the TAs and talk about them to our co-workers?," says one worker.

At a second facility, a reader describes what happened during the vote at his hospital. SEIU-UHW staffers kept a single tightly-guarded copy of the TAs inside a staffer's bag and only reluctantly pulled it out (momentarily) after he asked to see it. Here's what he says:

They are keeping that TA tight to the chest. Our site had their vote. I got to see it under close watch, almost as if the folks conducting the vote didn't even like the fact I wanted to read it. Before the vote I ask for a copy of the TA either online or PDF and was denied.

There was only one copy to review at the vote. On the front page at the top it said "Do not remove from voting site." I read the retiree medical changes and tried to talk about it she grabbed the TA from my hands. I had to remind her twice I wasn't done with the TA. And initially when the Rep handed it to me he gestured as if he wanted me to sit close to him with a pointing of his finger. as soon as I was done with it he tucked real quick into his bag.

They did not offer it out to be reviewed in any open statement to us the members of SEIU-UHW but instead handed out a pre-constructed summary with vague information and high lighted the wage increases like we haven't seen 3% raises before.

Why is SEIU-UHW’s Dave Regan being so secretive if the contract has "no takeaways"? Good question.

But even as SEIU-UHW withholds vital contract information from its membership, it's nonetheless calling on workers to open up their wallets for Dave and the Gang. 

According to a leaked internal memo, SEIU-UHW has instructed its "Political Staff" to sign up "5,500 new Kaiser COPE contributors or upgrades" during the Kaiser contract-ratification votes.

Why so many?

Sources say SEIU-UHW’s COPE fund will take a hit when the union's 65,000 long-term care workers -- who've historically contributed 60% of SEIU-UHW's COPE dollars -- soon depart for Mary Kay Henry’s SEIU Local 2015. Furthermore, Regan needs even more money than ever to pay for his deal with the California Hospital Association.

That's why Regan is trying to convince Kaiser workers -- who recently were hit by Regan's dues increase -- to dole out even more money to SEIU-UHW. 

In an effort to accomplish this task, Regan instructed his staffers to use a deceptive "rap" that spins a tale of Kaiser's "turbulent times" rather than the truth about the company's unprecedented profits of $15.5 billion since 2009.  The giant HMO reported of $1 billion in profits during just the first 90 days of 2015. Kaiser and its gold-plated executives are hardly a charity case needing handouts from workers.

Here's an excerpt from Regan's "rap" (the full memo and "rap" are below):

Because of low reimbursement rates Kaiser loses 40 cents on every dollar they spend providing care for patients covered by Medi-Cal.

We know that Kaiser is looking for ways to make up for those losses. Do you think that we can keep Kaiser from making cuts to our healthcare and retirement in every contract that we bargain until you get to retirement? [Wait for answer]

Our work to fully fund Medi-Cal is political work! The only way to protect what we have one in our great Kaiser contract is by engaging in politics.

That's why members give to a separate political fund -- COPE. That's why I give to COPE.

We are asking everyone to invest in our political fund so that we can continue to protect our good jobs, but more importantly to get us to retirement with our benefits intact.

People are building our COPE fund by giving $25 a month…

Here’s the full memo:

  SEIU-UHW's Memorandum to Political Department on "Rap" for COPE Fund-raising at Kaiser Perma...

Chaos Erupts as SEIU-UHW Staffer Suffers Severe Case of Foot-in-Mouth Disease

Tasty hears that SEIU-UHW’s recent Executive Board meeting ended in chaos after board members caught SEIU-UHW officials in a multi-million dollar lie.

Apparently, Dave Regan has been hounding Executive Board members to sign up their co-workers to make monthly financial contributions to SEIU-UHW’s COPE fund. These contributions -- which are used for politics -- are voluntary.

In response to Regan's persistent pressure, board members have been saying: ‘We’re already paying as much as $134 a month in union dues. Why do we need to make more contributions to SEIU-UHW? Can’t you use some of our dues money for politics?’

SEIU-UHW officials -- doing their best Pinocchio imitation -- have blatantly lied to board members by telling them that the law prohibits the union from using workers’ dues money for political purposes.

Great strategy, right? Lying to your own Board of Directors.

At SEIU-UHW’s December board meeting, Executive Board members discovered various line items in Regan’s 2015 budget that clearly demonstrate that Regan is steering millions of workers’ dues dollars into politics. This is nothing new. Tasty last month reported that Regan is attempting to quadruple the amount of money that's taken from union members' dues and funneled into a Political Action Committee (PAC) that Regan recently set up with his pal, Duane Dauner, the CEO of the California Hospital Association.

SEIU-UHW's Greg Moron

Once the truth was out of the bag at SEIU-UHW’s recent board meeting, things went from worse to worser, as George Bush would say.

SEIU-UHW staffer Greg Maron -- affectionately known by workers as "Mr. Moron" -- was forced to admit that he’d been lying to board members for months. 

And true to his well-earned reputation, Mr. Moron stood in front of the union's board and began digging himself into a deep, muddy hole:

I didn't tell you the truth because this is complicated stuff. Let me try to dumb it down for you…

At this point, the room literally erupted, according to observers.

Nothing better than having an overpaid punk of a union staffer (Moron has pocketed as much as $140,000 a year under Regan) stand up in front of the union's elected board of directors and tell them they’re "STUPID."

Way to go, Greg!