More News on Jail Term for SEIU's Tyrone Freeman

Tyrone Freeman and Monica Russo

Here's yet another news story -- this one courtesy of BNA's "Daily Labor Report"-- that has more details about Tyrone Freeman's sentencing.

The article also features revealing comments by Kim Evon, an SEIU official who apparently has migrated from Rhode Island to become the Secretary-Treasurer of SEIU Local 6434 in Los Angeles (anything is possible in SEIU!).

In the article, Evon goes out of her way to not whisper a single iota of criticism of Tyrone Freeman, who robbed Local 6434's members blind. Hmmm... wonder if Evon was one of the SEIU officials who spent multiple liquor-filled evenings in the Beverly Hills cigar club with Freeman.

B/t/w, Tasty will soon reveal info about more SEIU fatcats who spent extravagant dues-funded fun fests at the cigar club with Tyrone.

Here's an excerpt from the BNA article. The full piece is below.

In a statement provided to Bloomberg BNA, ULTCW Secretary-Treasurer Kimberly Evon said the sentencing brings to a close ‘‘an unfortunate time’’ for the union.

‘‘However, throughout this entire process the members of ULTCW chose not to focus on the past, but rather on the future and the opportunities before us to bring dignity to all who call California home,’’ Evon said…

Meanwhile, an official of the National Union of Healthcare Workers welcomed Freeman’s sentencing. NUHW was created by former leaders of an SEIU local who were forced out after refusing an order by then- SEIU President Andy Stern to move 65,000 long-term care workers, nearly half of their membership, to Freeman’s local (17 DLR A-17, 1/29/09).

NUHW Secretary-Treasurer John Borsos told Bloomberg BNA Oct. 7 that there has been a ‘‘culture of corruption’’ within SEIU, created by Stern, which has not changed.

‘‘People in SEIU’s leadership knew there was something wrong in the local for years and did nothing about it,’’ Borsos charged.

Borsos said it will be interesting to see whether the sentencing ends the federal government’s investigation, or becomes ‘‘the foundation for a continuing investigation’’ into other SEIU officials who knew about Freeman’s activities and did nothing.

   BNA's Daily Labor Report: "Former SEIU Official Freeman Gets 33 Months in Jail for Embezzlement,"...

SEIU Deals Setback to Union Demcracy via Lawsuit against Dissidents

Labor journalist Steve Early has penned an interesting article about SEIU’s ongoing assault against union democracy.

No… it’s not about Dave Regan’s show trials against union members for “disloyalty.”

Instead, the article describes how SEIU’s civil lawsuit against NUHW’s founders has rewritten federal case law so as to strengthen the Purple Palace’s top-down control over union members.

The legal ruling stems from SEIU’s disastrous trusteeship of SEIU-UHW. Back in 2009, SEIU’s head honchos in Washington, DC ordered UHW to transfer 65,000 of its members to a corrupt union headed by Tyrone Freeman, who was later convicted of 11 criminal counts.

In January of 2009, SEIU seized control of UHW and sued its leaders after UHW’s 100-member Executive Board voted unanimously to oppose the transfer unless the affected union members were first given a right to vote on the transfer.

Here’s where SEIU’s harmful legal precedent comes in.

In court, UHW’s former leaders -- who subsequently helped create NUHW -- said they acted properly because they simply followed the explicit directions of their union’s members, who overwhelmingly opposed the undemocratic transfer. The former leaders argued that their first responsibility was to the local members who elected them to office, served on the union’s 100-member Executive Board, created UHW’s constitution, and paid their salaries.

The Purple Palace argued the opposite… basically saying, “Screw the members. We call the shots!” SEIU claimed that local union leaders’ primary responsibility is to SEIU’s headquarters in D.C. -- some 3,000 miles away! Here’s how Early describes it:

The gist of SEIU's case was that the connection between a national union and any of its local affiliates is just like the Bank of America's relationship to branch banks. If the parent company (in this case, SEIU) wants to reorganize a local branch or change its management in any way, there's no legal basis for objecting. Despite being elected by the members, local officers owe a greater “fiduciary duty” to the international union than to anyone else. They must comply with any headquarters directive, even if the workers they represent are opposed to it.

And that’s what the court decided, thereby dealing a big setback to the cause of workers and union democracy.

Dan Siegel, a lawyer who’s handled similar cases since the 1970s and defended NUHW’s leaders against SEIU’s lawsuit, put it this way:

"This is really a very nefarious decision. It turns the law of fiduciary duty on its head. Local union officials can be accused of breaching their fiduciary duty if they disobey directives from national union officials contrary to the interests of their members."

Siegel fears that:

“more local union officials will be faced with a conflict of interest when their national union and their members tell them to do different things. If they stick with the workers, they could face a lawsuit for damages, measured by the entire budget of the local.”

Another legal observer describes the court’s unhelpful judicial "preference for a top-down style of unionism, favoring hierarchical, organizational discipline over the principles of internal union democracy and member control of unions."

And here’s another indication of how bad the court’s decision is:  The court said UHW’s former leaders violated their “fiduciary duty” by resisting the transfer of the 65,000 workers... even though SEIU itself has NEVER EVER transferred the workers since it seized control of UHW in 2009!

What about NUHW’s leaders, who are personally on the hook as a result of the court’s horrible decision? Here’s what John Borsos, Secretary-Treasurer of NUHW, told Early:

“I wasn’t elected by the international union. I was elected by the rank-and-file members. That, in my opinion, is who I owed my duty to, which is why I don’t have any remorse about listening to the voice of our members at the expense of the international union. If we had to do it again, we’d do the same thing.”

Here’s a link to the full article on ZNet.

Secret Plan by SEIU-UHW and Kaiser Permanente to Push Wellness Program Gets Journalist’s Attention

Remember the leaked memo detailing plans by Kaiser Permanente and SEIU-UHW to carry out publicity stunts to push their corporate wellness program on workers?

Well, so far, the stunts -- featuring SEIU-UHW’s Dave Regan and Kaiser CEO Bernard Tyson -- haven’t materialized… but journalists have certainly taken note of the partners’ secretly planned publicity ploy.

In an article published by AlterNet, journalist James Cersonsky links to the leaked planning memo during his discussion of corporate wellness programs. Here’s what he says:

So far, NUHW, which covers some 5,000 Kaiser workers, has resisted corporate wellness. SEIU, which has a track record of being overly friendly with employers and attacking NUHW, has welcomed it. Leaked minutes from a July 18 meeting between Kaiser officials, SEIU and the Kaiser Coalition of Unions reveal a joint plan to promote the program to workers and the public. It reads, “Outreach to elected officials and health policy types—promoting what we're doing and why,” and then lists a variety of potential advocates, ranging from Michelle Obama to Los Angeles Clippers point guard Chris Paul. It also notes plans for a joint op-ed by Kaiser’s CEO and SEIU-United Healthcare West’s president. Intriguingly, it says, “We won't pitch to labor reporters.”

The reporter goes on to give more details about wellness programs

Wellness programs are growing in the public and private sectors. In a survey of 335 private companies, HR firm Towers Watson found a 50 percent increase in the use of wellness-related incentives and penalties between 2009 and 2011… Though the programs are pitched as proactive public health reforms, they're also a way for employers to shift healthcare costs onto workers—and eschew their role in creating safe and healthy workplaces. In California, most healthcare is fully paid by employers. John Borsos, the secretary-treasurer of the National Union of Healthcare Workers, sees wellness plans as a slippery slope for employers to negotiate employee contributions into union contracts. In addition, in the health care industry, which ranks among the highest in incidence of worker illness and injury, carrot-and-stick health programs stand out for what they don't do. “If employers were truly concerned with employees' health, they would make the workplace better,” he says.

Here’s a link to the full article.

SEIU-UHW's Dave Regan Suffers Smackdown in Radio Debate with NUHW over Kaiser Election

Check this out. Last Friday, SEIU-UHW’s Dave Regan and NUHW’s John Borsos conducted an on-air debate about the Kaiser election that was broadcast by a radio station in the San Francisco Bay Area. Below, Tasty has posted an unedited recording of the 25-minute debate.

So how’d the debate end up?

Basically, Regan got his ass handed to him... even though he refused to engage in a normal debate against Borsos. Instead of having a regular back-and-forth exchange between the two, SEIU-UHW insisted that each person be given 10 minutes to answer questions -- but only questions from the radio host.

Regan’s debate performance -- although pathetically lame -- offers a revealing snapshot of the tactics and themes that SEIU-UHW has employed throughout its Kaiser election campaign… complete with purple lies, fear tactics, bullying and a heavy dose of arrogance and evasiveness.

What’s most stunning to Tasty is how shamelessly Regan lied during the course of the debate. In just ten minutes, Regan managed to spit out multiple big-ass lies... which of course are all very easy to refute. One listener -- an SEIU-UHW member who’s a homecare worker -- put it this way in a comment posted on the radio station’s website:

Does Dave Regan realize that there's a new invention called the Internet? It's handy for fact checking everything our "leader" claims.

For instance, check out this exchange where Regan tries to tell listeners that workers will somehow lose their contract if they vote for NUHW. Regan apparently forgot that SEIU published the truth about this issue on its own website -- that workers will maintain all of the terms and conditions of their contract (their wages, pension, health insurance, benefits, shift differentials, future pay increases, etc) when they vote to switch unions. (Click image to enlarge it.)

And of course Regan forgot to mention that the 2010 Kaiser election was overturned precisely because SEIU-UHW teamed up with Kaiser Permanente to illegally threaten workers that they'd lose their contract. 

Here are two interesting exchanges between Regan and the radio interviewer:

Pathetic, right?   "I don't understand the question."  WTF is that!

Did you notice what Regan did when he got caught red-handed in a giant lie by the interviewer? Instead of acknowledging the truth, Regan simply doubled down on his lie and then tried to bully the interviewer!

Here, then, is the full, unedited interview, which aired on KPFA radio on April 5. Below, Tasty has responded to each of Regan's lies with links to documents that refute each lie. Hmm... Regan should really try out this new thing called “the internet!” 

Has SEIU-UHW negotiated “me too” clauses with hospital companies?  During the debate, Regan said “NO.”  Well, here’s a signed version of the “me too” clause that SEIU-UHW signed just four months ago with Sutter Health’s St. Luke’s Hospital in San Francisco. By the way, this “me too” clause was even reported in the press, which contains quotes from SEIU-UHW's press spokesperson about the "me too" clause! (Click image to enlarge it.)

Did a judge overturn the 2010 election at Kaiser because of violations committed by SEIU-UHW and Kaiser?  Yes. Here’s a link to the judge’s 34-page decision, which states:

The mail ballot election held between September 13 and October 4 was set aside because the National Labor Relations Board found that certain conduct of SEIU-UHW West in the circumstances of unfair labor practices committed by Kaiser Foundation Hospitals and Southern California Permanente Medical Group among three professional collective-bargaining units of Kaiser employees in Southern California interfered with the employees' exercise of a free and reasoned choice among employees in the following unit.

Did Regan try to roll back California's landmark nurse-to-patient staffing law?  Not only that, he even lobbied the California Labor Federation to help him undercut the safe-staffing law! Regan's buddy Duane Dauner, the CEO of the California Hospital Association, described Regan's efforts to the Sacramento Business Journal. Regan's back-stabbing role was even discussed by other SEIU officials like Neal Bisno, who wrote emails stating: "No idea what Dave was thinking." Meanwhile, Sue Weinstein, the Executive Director of SEIU Local 121 (which represents RNs in Southern California), issued a formal statement saying: "We are calling on UHW to declare nurse-to-patient staffing ratios 'off limits' in its ongoing work with the California Hospital Association." 

Did SEIU Local 1021 criticize Regan for weakening progressives in San Francisco by making alliances with downtown business interests and the Chamber of Commerce?  Here’s a link to the letter signed by Local 1021’s Political Director and two other top officers of Local 1021. Oh yeah, Regan deserves special kudos for dissing multiple leaders of Local 1021 in one fell swoop.

Greg Maron

Did SEIU-UHW instruct its members to cross the picket lines during the huge strikes by members of NUHW and the CNA in 2011 and 2012?  SEIU-UHW not only told its members to scab during the strike, they even teamed up with management to threaten SEIU-UHW’s members with discipline and firings if they supported the strikes. SEIU-UHW also sent emails to workers instructing them not to honor the

picket lines.

And SEIU-UHW’s Greg Maron stormed through Kaiser hospitals making threats to RNs to dissuade them from striking. Notably, members of NUHW and CNA launched the strikes to oppose Kaiser’s demand for benefit cuts... including the same retiree health cut that Regan later accepted SEIU-UHW's members during 'partnership' bargaining. 

Hmm... if Dave Regan is willing to tell so many blatant lies over the radio, can we really trust anything he says?