Nearly 1,000 Hospital Workers Seek to Bolt SEIU-UHW

Last week, workers at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in Oakland, California requested an NLRB election to decertify SEIU-UHW and join NUHW.

The 857-bed hospital is one of the largest in California and is owned by Sutter Health, the biggest hospital corporation in Northern California. NUHW already represents the workers at Sutter's largest hospital, California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco, who voted to decertify SEIU-UHW back in 2011.

The decertification filing at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center, which covers approximately 1,000 workers, comes after multiple failures, backroom deals, and dirty tricks by SEIU-UHW.

In 2012, SEIU-UHW officials allowed the hospital's CEO to eliminate 100 SEIU-UHW members’ jobs by subcontracting their jobs… even though the workers' union contract strictly prohibited the hospital from subcontracting their work.

That action followed multiple other failures and backroom deals, including SEIU-UHW’s agreement to slash workers’ health benefits and to block rank-and-file union members from attending contract negotiations between the union and management.

And then there's the case of Dominic Mitchell, the SEIU-UHW union representative who was assigned to help Alta Bates Summit workers defend themselves against the hospital's aggressive HR officials. That is, until Dominic Mitchell announced that he’d taken a job as an HR hack inside the Alta Bates Summit's HR Department.

Imagine workers' surprise when their former SEIU-UHW Union Rep began disciplining and terminating them. Purple partnership in action.

Stay tuned!

SEIU-UHW Morphs into Boss at California Hospital

Workers are describing the latest details of Dave Regan’s dirty deeds with a giant California hospital chain.

At Sutter Health’s Alta Bates Summit Medical Center -- an 830-bed hospital in Oakland, California -- workers say SEIU-UHW and the Boss have fused into one ugly Frankenstein-like creature.  

Here’s what’s happening.

Recently, the hospital announced layoffs of 359 workers. Several unions defended their members by filing court injunctions that successfully blocked the layoffs of their members.

But not SEIU-UHW! 

Instead, Dave Regan and Co. are working hand-in-glove with management to kick SEIU-UHW’s members out the door and onto the unemployment line.

SEIU-UHW’s members are receiving telephone calls from hospital HR officials who say their jobs have been eliminated. The HR officials then inform them they have just 15 minutes to decide whether to accept a layoff package or to try to make a bid for another position at the hospital.

When workers say "I need time to talk to my Union Rep," the HR official responds, "Your Union Rep is sitting right here." The stunned workers listen as HR hands the phone to SEIU-UHW Union Rep Pam Stevenson. 

WTF? It turns out that Stevenson is camped out in an HR conference room with the Boss, who’s speed-dialing workers to kick them to the curb.  

In one case, Stevenson and her HR pals phoned an SEIU-UHW member who's at home recuperating from an on-the-job injury. They gave her just brief moments to decide the fate of her sole means of economic support.

When workers confront SEIU-UHW officials and tell them, "We have a contract! Why are you doing this to us?," SEIU simply says “It is what it is."

Unfortunately, Regan's latest purple atrocities are just par for the course.

In 2012, "Wall Street" Dave cut a deal with Sutter that allowed the hospital to subcontract the jobs of nearly 10% of the union's members even though workers’ contract strictly prohibited the hospital from subcontracting their jobs.

During bargaining, Regan signaled his willingness to roll over for the Boss by stating: “We can work with employers like Sutter Health.” Observers speculate that Regan is working overtime to help his buddy, Sutter’s CEO Pat Fry, because Fry plays a top role at the California Hospital Association.

As for SEIU-UHW Union Rep Pam "The Terminator" Stevenson, she's apparently chosen the same career path as Dominic Mitchell, the former SEIU-UHW Union Rep at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center who’s now one of Sutter’s HR officials.

Like Tasty said... SEIU-UHW and the Boss have become one ugly, purple Frankenstein.

SEIU-UHW's Mary Henagan Is Busted by the NLRB

Remember when the NLRB busted SEIU-UHW Field Reps. Arturo Castellanos and Sandra Jimenez for surveilling, interrogating and threatening one of SEIU-UHW’s own members at Kaiser Los Angeles Medical Center?

Well, newly released legal documents (see an out-of-court settlment below) indicate that another one of Dave Regan’s staffers has been busted at a different Kaiser hospital. It sounds like Regan’s NLRB 'rap sheet' is quickly becoming the envy of union-busting companies across the nation!

SEIU’s latest crime spree was carried out by SEIU-UHW Field Rep. Mary Henagan, who’s fondly referred to by workers as “Scary Mary.” Henagan, who’s not the sharpest knife in the drawer by any stretch of the imagination, apparently tries to compensate for her substantial “deficits” by being super loud, obnoxious and a bully.

So how did Scary Mary break the law?

On a recent workday, a rank-and-file member of SEIU-UHW showed up for her shift at Kaiser Sacramento Medical Center and was assigned to work in an outlying building. When the worker got to the building, she realized she didn’t have keys to get past the locked door, so she walked to an adjoining building to borrow keys from a co-worker.

There, the worker happened to run into “Scary Mary,” who’s the Field Rep assigned to this particular hospital. Henagan, however, didn’t try to help the SEIU-UHW member and instead made a secret phone call to Kaiser’s Human Resources officials and reported the worker as being AWOL from her job! Why? Because the worker -- just like hundreds more at the hospital -- happens to support NUHW.

Kaiser’s HR officials quickly arrived on the scene, took the worker into a vacant room, questioned her without any union representation, and then issued her “verbal coaching” as discipline.

Later on, management inadvertently revealed that Scary Mary was the one who'd actually orchestrated the entire event by dialing purple lies to HR officials.

That’s when the worker filed formal charges against Scary Mary and SEIU-UHW. The NLRB, after a lengthy investigation, announced its plans to put Scary Mary on trial in front of a judge for breaking federal labor law and violating SEIU’s “duty of fair representation” to its members.

SEIU officials realized they'd lose the trial, so they quickly negotiated an out-of-court settlement with the NLRB. The settlement forces Regan and Co. to ask their partners at Kaiser to “rescind the verbal coaching” given to the worker. SEIU-UHW is also required to post notices inside the hospital to inform Kaiser workers that SEIU-UHW will stop violating their rights.

The official notice (see below) includes statements like these to SEIU-UHW's members:

WE WILL NOT restrain or coerce any employee by reporting employee misconduct to Kaiser Permanente as a means for retaliating against any employee for supporting NUHW.

WE WILL NOT cause or attempt to cause Kaiser Permanente to investigate, discipline or otherwise discriminate against any employee for supporting NUHW.

WE WILL NOT in any like or related manner restrain or coerce you in the exercise of your rights under Section 7 of the Act.

Quite stunning, right? A so-called "labor union" that's working with the Boss to target the union's own members? Way to go, Dave!  From what Tasty can see, it sounds like Scary Mary will soon be joining SEIU-UHW Field Rep. Dominic Mitchell as a corporate HR official.
SEIU-UHW's Out-of-Court Settlement with the NLRB for Violating a Kaiser Permanente Worker's Rights 8-30-12

Workers at Giant CA Hospital Seek to Bolt SEIU-UHW

Several days ago, Tasty reported that workers at three California healthcare facilities had filed petitions to dump SEIU-UHW and join NUHW.

Well... it's time to add another facility to the list!

Today, the 1,200 workers at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in Oakland, California filed their own NLRB petition to decertify Dave Regan's SEIU-UHW and join NUHW. The action is significant because the hospital -- with 925 beds -- is one of the largest in California.

Tasty hears that the hospital's workers are itching to get out of SEIU. Under the NLRB's rules, signatures are required from at least 30% of the workforce in order to trigger an election. In this case, however, a super-majority of the workers signed petitions in a matter of days.

Tasty hears that workers are especially upset with Regan's concessionary bargaining, including his recent deal to subcontract the jobs of roughly 10% of the workers to Utah. Furthermore, workers report that SEIU-UHW makes no effort whatsoever to enforce the contract, allowing management to do whatever it wants.

So how far has SEIU-UHW climbed into bed with the hospital's execs? Well, several months ago the SEIU-UHW Field Rep who's assigned to the hospital -- Dominic Mitchell -- took a job as on of the hospital's Human Resources Agents! That's right. He's now responsible for disciplining and firing the same union members that he was responsible for protecting.

And in another famous episode of Regan's special kind of partnership with the Boss, SEIU-UHW staffers Cass Gualvez, Erica McDuffy and Carrie Cianchetti worked hand-in-hand with Sutter’s executives to illegally fire a longtime rank-and-file worker at the same hospital, which is detailed in this judge’s 50-page ruling.

Congrats to all the workers at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center!

Next Stop for SEIU-UHW's Concessionary Caravan?

Sutter Health CEO Pat Fry & Dave Regan

Tasty hears that Dave Regan’s concessionary caravan is making its next stop at Sutter Health, the largest hospital chain in Northern California. 

And guess what? An SEIU-UHW staffer -- who’s now working as one of Sutter’s “Human Resources Partners” -- is actually helping to implement the company’s cuts.

Here’s what’s happening.

Soon, union contracts covering thousands of SEIU-UHW members will be expiring at nearly a dozen of Sutter’s hospitals. In recent months, Sutter’s executives have drooled in sheer delight as Dave Regan gave away hundreds of millions of dollars of concessions to Catholic Healthcare West/Dignity Health, the Daughters of Charity Health System, Kaiser Permanente and other companies. Regan's concessions include wage freezes, health insurance cuts, elimination of pension plans, and cuts to workers’ retiree health benefits.

Now... Regan plans to give up the same concessions to Sutter Health even though the company has pocketed $1.6 billion in profits during the past two years, according to the company’s audited financial statements.

At one of Sutter’s largest hospitals -- Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in Oakland and Berkeley -- the CEO recently announced plans to “restructure” the hospital’s operations by slashing workers’ wages and benefits, and axing 10 percent of the hospital’s staff. Here’s what CEO Chuck Prosper said in a June 26th letter to 1,100 SEIU-UHW members at the hospital:

We must ask our labor partners to recognize this situation and cooperate with us as we ask for significant, but realistic, changes in our wage and benefit structure... After taking a hard look at the future, the administrative team has concluded we must restructure and reduce our staffing by approximately 10 percent... This reduction will affect employees and departments throughout our organization.

And in another letter, Sutter executives told workers that their former SEIU-UHW Field Representative -- Dominic Mitchell -- will be one of the company's “Human Resources Partners” who will implement the cuts and layoffs. Here’s the letter:

 Letter from Sutter Health's Alta Bates Summit Medical Center to SEIU-UHW Members regarding Layoffs facilita...

So is Alta Bates Summit Medical Center losing money? 

Not by a long shot. In fact, the hospital made more than $200 million in profits during the past two years, according to reports filed by the company.

So what's going on?

Sources tell Tasty that Dave Regan has become best buddies with Patrick Fry, the CEO of Sutter Health. Fry happens to sit on the Board of Directors of the California Hospital Association, which recently signed a secret “partnership” deal with Regan.

Last week, when Sutter delivered layoff letters to workers, SEIU-UHW didn’t even mount a protest against the job cuts… and instead held a barbeque for employees!  Incredible. SEIU literally threw bones to workers while their fat-cat employer announced the destruction of their livelihoods.

And to add insult to injury, Regan sent an SEIU-UHW Field Representative named Fola Afariogun to try to sweet-talk the angry and soon-to-be-jobless workers. Afariogun, who last year took home $109,091 in pay from SEIU-UHW's members, displayed Regan’s keen sensitivity towards "the 99%" by driving up to the “layoff BBQ” in his shiny Mercedes sports coup. Here’s Afariogun’s pay from 2011 (click on the image to enlarge it):

Source: U.S. Dep't of Labor Form LM-2 for SEIU-UHW, 2011

Finally, sources report that Regan’s backroom deal with Sutter has left the California Nurses Association in a difficult spot. Sutter is trying to force SEIU’s concessions down the throats of the hospitals' Registered Nurses, which has caused the nurses to respond with strikes. Regan, however, has worked hand-in-hand with Sutter to oppose the strikes, even instructing SEIU-UHW’s members to scab against their fellow nurses. Sound familiar, Kaiser workers?

 Stay tuned for more reports from Sutter's hospitals.

SEIU-UHW: Your Partner in HR at Sutter Health

It looks like Dave Regan has taken his “labor-management partnerships” to an entirely new level. In fact, Regan’s own staffers are having a hard time remembering who they’re actually supposed to be working for.

Take the case of Dominic Mitchell.

Mitchell has been SEIU-UHW’s Field Rep at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in Oakland, California for a couple of years. The hospital is owned by Sutter Health, a $9 billion corporation that’s one of California’s worst anti-union companies.

Recently, SEIU-UHW’s 1,200 members were kinda surprised when Dominic Mitchell suddenly showed up in the hospital’s Human Resources Department… behind a desk and in a suit ! It turned out that Mitchell had taken a job as one of the company’s Human Resources agents and is now responsible for disciplining and firing the same employees that he’d been responsible for protecting.

Workers are stunned. After all, Mitchell has been managing all their grievances and negotiations with management. He knows workers' intimate personal details and vulnerabilities… and can now use them against workers. Talk about unethical! 

Check out a leaflet (see below) that workers recently circulated about Dominic’s purple partnership with the Boss.

Of course, this isn’t Regan’s first flirtation with Sutter's execs. SEIU staffers Cass Gualvez, Erica McDuffy and Carrie Cianchetti worked hand-in-hand with Sutter’s executives to illegally fire a longtime rank-and-file worker at the same hospital, which is detailed in this judge’s 50-page ruling. 

And Regan allowed Sutter to slash workers’ health insurance and and impose an aggressive Wellness Program during contract negotiations. Tasty bets that SEIU-UHW's officials will soon be coordinating with Dominic Mitchell to implement the next stages of Regan's Wellness Program at the hospital!

Here’s workers' leaflet:

Worker's Leaflet on SEIU-UHW's Dominic Mitchell in HR at Sutter Health May 2012