SEIU-UHW's Dave Regan Files Third Ballot Initiative in California

On Thursday, SEIU-UHW’s Dave Regan filed a third statewide ballot initiative in California. Tasty’s sources say the initiative -- like the first two -- is driven by hidden objectives that are miles apart from Regan’s public explanations.

According to a press statement, Regan introduced the third initiative to boost wages for homecare workers in the publicly funded “In-Home Support Services” (IHSS) program.

What’s really going on?

First, Regan is trying to use the initiative to entice SEIU-UHW’s 65,000 homecare workers to help gather the 1.1 million signatures needed to place his first two initiatives on the ballot. Regan will tell homecare workers: “Do you want a wage increase? Well, start knocking on doors. Oh, by the way, we’d like you to collect signatures for these other two measures at the same time.”

Secondly, Regan plans to use the initiative to win support for himself in next year’s internal officer elections at SEIU-UHW. Regan’s numerous contract concessions and massive dues hike have made him especially unpopular among the union’s hospital and Kaiser Permanente workers, where workers have launched “Dump Dave” campaigns. As a result, Regan needs a way to recruit votes from SEIU-UHW’s 65,000 homecare workers in advance of next year's internal elections.

Does Regan intend to actually run a real campaign to pass the initiative in November of 2014?

Highly doubtful. Here’s why.

First, it would cost millions and millions of dollars.

Second, Regan’s IHSS initiative is seriously half-baked. For example, Regan hasn’t even organized support for the third initiative from other SEIU local unions… let alone non-SEIU unions and consumer organizations.

Last week’s press announcement was notable for the total and complete absence of SEIU Local 6434 and AFSCME. These unions represent far more IHSS workers in California than does SEIU-UHW -- with Local 6434 reportedly representing 140,000 IHSS workers in Los Angeles County alone.

And SEIU Local 6434 has additional importance. Its president -- Laphonza Butler -- also serves as the president of the SEIU California State Council, which manages SEIU’s statewide political resources.

Tasty hears there’s open feuding between Regan and Laphonza Butler, who played a key role in axing Dave Kieffer from his job as Executive Director of the State Council. After his ouster, Kieffer quickly took a job from Regan.  

So what's gonna happen to the IHSS initiative?

Tasty predicts that Regan will jettison the initiative if he wins re-election in next spring’s officer elections... but only after squeezing every last signature from SEIU-UHW’s 65,000 homecare workers and cynically using the fake initiative for his own personal political advantage.

A Re-Run Election for Fresno's 10,000 Homecare Workers?

Mary Kay Henry, Medina, Regan and Hudson in Fresno (June 2009)

Tasty hears that a decision issued last month by California’s Public Employment Relations Board has SEIU officials in a panic. Why? Because it may trigger a re-run election for 10,000 homecare workers in Fresno due to SEIU’s threats and intimidation against workers during the workers' 2009 decertification election.

Here’s what’s going on.

In 2009, SEIU parachuted 1,000 staffers from the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico into Fresno County and spent an estimated $10 million on the election between NUHW and SEIU-UHW. 

SEIU's Mary Kay Henry, Eliseo Medina and Gerry Hudson all flew into Fresno to help manage the campaign. And at the start of the campaign, SEIU’s Dave Regan delivered an infamous, violence-filled speech to the 1,000 SEIU staffers and officials assembled at the county fairgrounds.

During the election, SEIU’s purple-clad staffers followed Regan’s instructions to a “T.” They bullied homecare workers, took workers' mail-in ballots from their mail boxes and marked them, kicked in workers’ screen doors to steal signs supporting NUHW, and told workers they'd lose their jobs if they voted for NUHW. Check out this short video where workers describe what they experienced: 

And that's not all. SEIU's organizers even threatened immigrant homecare with deportation unless they voted for SEIU. Check out this TV news coverage on CBS:

When the ballots were finally counted, officials reported that SEIU had narrowly edged NUHW by 233 votes. NUHW formally challenged SEIU’s illegal conduct with California's Public Employment Relations Board (PERB), the agency that oversaw the election. 

A lower-level PERB agent initially dismissed NUHW’s challenge, but the PERB’s full board later reviewed the matter and backed NUHW’s position. Last month, PERB’s board ordered the agency to issue a formal complaint against SEIU's conduct during the election.

PERB's 18-page decision states: “NUHW’s allegations state a prima facie case of interference with employee rights.” It goes on to say: 

We conclude that SEIU’s alleged conduct weighed in its totality may have interfered with employees’ right freely to choose a representative or constituted a serious irregularity in the running of the election. Thus, we remand the case for issuance of a complaint consistent with this decision. (p. 12)

You can see the full decision below. 

What’s next? Tasty hears that Regan and SEIU-UHW will likely face a full-fledged hearing in front of a judge to determine whether SEIU broke the law and whether a re-run election should be ordered. Last year, an Administrative Law Judge famously overturned the results of an NLRB election for 43,000 Kaiser Permanente workers because of SEIU-UHW's illegal threats against those workers. 

Looks like more of Regan's chickens are coming home to roost!

Decision by California's Public Employment Relations Board to Issue Complaint against SEIU in 2009 Fresno H...

 

SEIU-UHW Rigs Union Vote at Kaiser Permanente Hospital

What happens when workers at a California hospital vote down SEIU’s candidate for an elected union position? Check out this story from the Adult Medicine Department at Kaiser Walnut Creek Medical Center in Northern California.

Recently, the department’s workers voted down SEIU’s candidate for Shop Steward by a vote of 40 to 3. Why? Apparently, he doesn’t fight for his co-workers and is super untrustworthy. 

In fact, several years before the trusteeship, workers caught him trying to permanently change the department’s seniority rules so he could be first in line for additional overtime hours. When workers uncovered the scheme, they used the union’s then-democratic procedures to remove him as a Shop Steward by a nearly unanimous vote. As one worker put it: “This guy is in it only for himself. He doesn’t fight for the members. It’s all about him.”

Soon after SEIU imposed its trusteeship in California, SEIU officials hooked up with the demoted steward, John Cuddihy, and began paying him to campaign for SEIU (check out his SEIU pay on top of his regular job). Cuddihy quickly became best buddies with SEIU’s trustees. That’s why SEIU wants him to be a Shop Steward, which SEIU hopes will be a stepping stone towards putting him on Dave Regan’s Executive Board.

SEIU Trustees' Payments to Cuddihy in 2009

So what happened when workers voted Cuddihy down in the recent election?  SEIU officials decided that if they couldn’t get him elected in his own department, they would hold an unannounced election for Cuddihy in a totally different department (Pediatrics) where Cuddihy doesn’t even work... even though this violates the union’s so-called rules.

As you can imagine, workers in the Adult Medicine Department were a bit surprised when SEIU announced that Cuddihy had become their Shop Steward. What happened to their earlier vote to reject Cuddihy by a 40 to 3 margin? Apparently, SEIU officials simply tossed it into the garbage. 

Ironically, the rigged vote at Kaiser Walnut Creek Medical Center took place as Dave Regan announced with great fanfare that he had convened a special “Representational Excellence Committee” to improve SEIU-UHW’s system of shop stewards and worksite representation. What a joke.

The recent rigged vote at Kaiser Walnut Creek is just the latest in a long line of such votes, including this famous contract ratification vote where SEIU deployed a 300 lb guard to block homecare workers from getting into the polling place. Check out the video.