SEIU-UHW’s Dave Regan Sells Out SEIU Local 1021, Pimps for Kaiser Permanente

Tasty hears that Dave Regan’s latest atrocity has many observers shaking their heads in disgust.  

Here’s what happened.

In California, SEIU Local 1021 represents thousands of public-sector employees who work for the City of San Francisco, the city’s courts, city college, etc. Most of these workers get their health insurance from Kaiser Permanente, which is trying to boost the cost of their health insurance by $15 million a year.

San Francisco’s elected officials and the city's workers are fighting back. According to an analysis by city officials that’s cited in this Los Angeles Times article, “nonprofit” Kaiser HMO made a 15% profit margin from the City employees’ business during the past two years. That’s $87 million in profits.

Meanwhile, “nonprofit” Kaiser has pocketed more than $9.5 billion in company-wide profits since 2009.

That’s why elected officials and labor unions demanded that Kaiser lower its proposed rate hike on San Francisco’s workers. The city’s unions -- including SEIU Local 1021, the International Federation of Professional and Technical Employees, Union of American Physicians and Dentists/AFSCME -- even formed a coalition to fight Kaiser’s rate hike. Check out one of their leaflets below, entitled “Kaiser: Stop Draining San Francisco Tax Dollars,” which bears SEIU Local 1021’s logo.

Here’s where SEIU-UHW’s Dave Regan enters our story.

SEIU-UHW's Dave Regan

Did “Wall Street” Dave rush to the side of workers and taxpayers in order to fight the disgusting profiteering by the nation’s largest HMO? Not by a long shot.

According to multiple sources, Regan recently appeared at San Francisco’s city hall with a team of Kaiser’s executives and conducted a round of lobbying visits to push elected officials to approve Kaiser’s full rate hike.  

According to several sources, Regan even tried to enter the office of John Avalos, one of the most progressive members of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Last year, Regan teamed up with the Chamber of Commerce to try to unseat Avalos by fielding one of Regan’s staffers -- Leon Chow -- as a candidate against Avalos. That is… until Chow crashed and burned in spectacular fashion after evidence surfaced that he violated multiple election laws!

SEIU-UHW's Leon Chow

So… when Regan recently walked into Avalos’s office, Avalos reportedly told Regan to get out. At which point Regan began jabbing his finger at Avalos’s chest in “old school” fashion before “Wall Street” Dave and the Kaiser suits beat a hasty retreat.

Regan and his business-suited buddies then continued to lobby other elected officials to approve Kaiser’s multi-million-dollar rate hikes.

Quite a story, right?

Remember that famous labor song that says, “Which side are you on?”

Well… what does it mean when a top SEIU official shows more solidarity for a multi-billion-dollar HMO than for SEIU’s own members -- not to mention workers in general?

At a time when lots of people are asking well-deserved questions about the future of the U.S. labor movement, this recent episode speaks volumes.

Notably, Regan’s vision of company-dominated unionism is shared by the top leaders of SEIU, one of the nation’s largest unions. In fact, Tasty’s sources say SEIU President Mary Kay Henry hasn’t voiced the slightest opposition to Regan selling out San Francisco’s workers in favor of a giant HMO. 

Here's SEIU Local 1021's leaflet on Kaiser's price-gouging:

   Leaflet by SEIU Local 1021 about Kaiser Permanente's Price-Gouging of San Francisco's Workers: July 2013

SEIU-UHW's Leon Chow Calls it Quits

SEIU-UHW's Leon Chow

Yesterday, Leon Chow’s political career reached its final, fiery conclusion when Chow -- a top official at SEIU-UHW -- officially withdrew from the race for San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors amid allegations of election fraud.

The development was reported by the San Francisco Appeal -- which initially broke the story on Chow’s apparent felony violations of election laws -- and the San Francisco Bay Guardian.

Here’s an excerpt from the San Francisco Appeal:

Union organizer Leon Chow, whose ties to residences outside of the district may constitute voter fraud, has withdrawn his candidacy for District 11 supervisor. In a brief e-mail sent to the Department of Elections on Monday, Chow offered no explanation for the withdrawal of his candidacy…

Chamber of Commerce CEO Steve Falk, with whom Chow serves as co-chairs of the Alliance for Jobs and Sustainable Growth, also did not respond to a telephone message seeking comment.

Chow’s candidacy had enjoyed months of planning, preparation and funding by Dave Regan’s SEIU-UHW and the Chamber of Commerce. In the end, however, it plummeted to earth in a spectacular explosion only 15 days after Tasty first published this post.

Here’s how the San Francisco Bay Guardian described it:

[Reporter Chris Roberts] dropped a journalistic bomb on Chow's ambitions a couple weeks ago when he unearthed documents indicating that Chow actually lived in Walnut Creek and that he was registered to vote at Chinatown business address – both in violation of election law…

 And the San Francisco Appeal cited Tasty in its coverage of the story:

According to self-described "labor union related gossip site" Stern Burger with Fries, Avalos is reportedly an enemy of SEIU-UHW honcho Dave Regan, who, according to Stern Burger, helped push Chow to run for office against him. Avalos is a member of the Board's progressive wing and was runner-up to Mayor Ed Lee in last year's mayoral election.

So what’s next? 

Well, one chapter of our story may be finished, but other chapters remain to be written! 

First, Chow will likely face a criminal investigation for apparent election fraud and other felonies. One source tells Tasty that the San Francisco City Attorney’s office has already begun examining Chow’s case.  

Secondly, more shoes will drop in the near future! Soon, Tasty plans to describe additional details -- revealed by inside sources at SEIU -- that implicate top SEIU officials in a variety of additional criminal wrongdoing that’s connected to Chow’s case.

Stay tuned!

Is SEIU-UHW's Leon Chow in Hiding?

Is Leon hiding in his condo closet?

Leon Chow -- a top SEIU-UHW official who’s a candidate for San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors -- is officially in hiding.

Eleven days ago, the San Francisco Appeal printed this article detailing apparent fraudulent voting and other felonies committed by Chow. One day later, Chow began interviewing criminal defense lawyers, according to a source inside SEIU, and was more nervous than a turkey at Thanksgiving.

Two days later, Chow’s handlers cancelled the "kickoff event" for his election campaign.

Next, Leon’s campaign website -- www.LeonChowForSupervisor.com -- suddenly disappeared from the worldwide web! 

Here’s what Chow’s website used to look like:

And here’s what it looks like today:

Apparently, all of these developments took place after Dave Regan held a series of tension-filled meetings with legions of SEIU's lawyers, campaign consultants and deep-pocketed business executives.

Despite the fact that Chow is officially “toast,” a source reports that Regan recently held a conference call during which he pledged to continue his efforts to unseat Supervisor John Avalos, whom Chow was supposed to challenge in San Francisco’s November elections. Avalos is the incumbent supervisor who’s supported by the city’s progressive movement and virtually all of its unions… except for SEIU-UHW, which is closely wedded to the Chamber of Commerce.

So what’s next on Dave Regan’s list of “genius” moves? Tasty expects he’s frantically searching under his purple couch for another “puppet” candidate to fraudulently foist on San Francisco voters. And if that doesn’t work, perhaps Regan my simply ask his new partner, CEO Duane Dauner of the California Hospital Association, to run against Avalos.

Whatever the case, Tasty hears that Regan’s latest electoral disaster will undoubtedly spark new financial concerns among SEIU-UHW’s members. They recently saw Regan flush an estimated $5.5 million down the toilet in his failed campaign to place two flawed initiatives on the California ballot.

And during his Chow-gate scandal, “Diamond Dave” reportedly poured wheel-barrows of union members’ money into Chow’s failed candidacy, including funds for campaign consultants, opinion polls, offices, websites, campaign staff, etc. 

Now that Leon has completed his felonious faceplant, Regan may try to use SEIU-UHW members’ dues money to hire criminal defense lawyers for Leon, which would be a massive misappropriation of members’ money.

But hey… don’t put such violations past Dangerous Dave. In 2008, an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor revealed that Regan had illegally funneled thousands of dollars of union members’ dues money into a union election in Nevada.

Stay tuned!