Internal Recording: California Hospital Association's CEO Says SEIU-UHW's Dave Regan Has Failed to Unionize Workers under Sweetheart Deal

A source sent a recording from an internal conference call held recently by the California Hospital Association about its secret deal with SEIU-UHW.

The two-minute recording (see below) highlights growing tensions inside SEIU-UHW about whether Dave Regan’s deal with the CHA is living up to his grandiose promises.

When Regan inked the deal in May of 2014, he triumphantly described it as a "breakthrough agreement" that would allow SEIU-UHW to unionize as many as 60,000 hospital workers across California.

The agreement allows SEIU-UHW to organize 30,000 hospital workers during “Phase 1” of the deal (from May 2014 to December 2016).

In Phase 2 (December 2016 to December 2017), SEIU-UHW can ‘purchase’ the right to unionize an additional 30,000 hospital workers if the union can successfully convince California legislators and Governor Jerry Brown to allocate an additional $6 billion a year of taxpayer funds to California hospital corporations. 

Regan famously secured SEIU-UHW’s so-called "organizing rights deal" by forfeiting workers' rights -- workers’ right to strike, workers’ right to report patient-careviolations to government oversight agencies, workers’ right to negotiate their own wages and benefits, etc.

Regan also agreed to prohibit SEIU-UHW from taking any positions on legislative, regulatory, and ballot issues that are "adverse to the interests" of the hospital industry. In addition, Regan's deal essentially converts SEIU into a lobbying arm for hospital corporations that's dedicated to boosting hospital profits. 

Immediately after signing his deal, Regan jetted to a meeting of SEIU's International Executive Board in Washington, DC and boasted that the deal would literally "save" the labor movement. Days later, Diamond Dave published an article trumpeting his backroom deal ("Live Better Together") and also got journalist Josh Israel to pen a puff piece entitled "The Audacious New Proposal to Save the Labor Movement."

So… now that 15 months have passed since Regan signed the deal, what's happened? Has SEIU-UHW successfully unionized tens of thousands of hospital workers?

Not quite.

As of today, Regan has unionized a grand total of zero workers under the deal. That's right, the big goose egg.

Check out the recording below.

During last month’s conference call with California hospital executives, CEO Duane Dauner reported that so far SEIU-UHW has attempted only two elections under the deal.

In February 2015, SEIU-UHW lost (by a landslide) an election at 552-bed Mission Hospital (Mission Viejo, Calif.) covering approximately 1,000 workers.

In December 2014, SEIU-UHW narrowly won an election for fewer than 100 workers at 158-bed Verdugo Hills Hospital (Glendale, Calif.). However, SEIU-UHW allegedly violated federal labor law by using threats and "acts of physical intimidation" against workers during the election, according to NLRB records.

Earlier this spring, a judge held a trial to investigate SEIU-UHW's alleged violations, but has not yet issued a final ruling. The allegations -- which were filed by the hospital despite its sweetheart deal with SEIU-UHW -- identify Cass Gualvez (an SEIU-UHW staffer and Executive Committee member) who apparently headed the campaign at the Southern California hospital.

So... what does a quick cost-benefit analysis say about Regan's "visionary" deal with the CHA?

So far, Regan has spent approximately $35 million of SEIU-UHW members' dues money on the deal. In exchange, SEIU-UHW has unionized a total of zero workers.

Where did the $35 million go?

First, Regan flushed $10-$15 million down the toilet during two rounds of statewide ballot initiatives, which SEIU-UHW never filed. Next, the CHA agreement requires SEIU-UHW to deposit $20 million into a political fund jointly controlled by the CHA that's used to lobby politicians for billions of additional taxpayer monies for hospital corporations.

Even if you accept Regan's horribly cynical "money-for-members" approach, the current results are nothing less than an unmitigated failure.

It's no wonder, then, that voices inside SEIU-UHW are saying, "$35 million of our monthly dues money for WHAT? Dave sold us a lemon!"

Dave Regan's "Audacious Plan" Points to Purple Prison Cell

It turns out that Dave Regan's "audacious new proposal to save the labor movement" will now secure him a spot in a California jail.

Here's what's happening.

Last year, Regan deliberately withheld several consumer-friendly ballot initiatives from California voters as part of his secret, sell-out deal with the California Hospital Association.

Soon thereafter, Regan -- who’s totally allergic to the idea of actually organizing workers -- declared that his two-part strategy of (1) dishonest ballot initiatives and (2) sell-out deals with corporations is actually a masterful new plan to “save” the U.S. labor movement.

In May of 2014, Regan jetted to Washington, DC and proposed that the Purple Palace replicate his strategy across the entire US.

The following month, Regan laid out his genius strategy in a piece called "Live Better Together” and convinced journalist Josh Israel to pen a puff piece entitled, "The Audacious New Proposal to Save the Labor Movement." According to Israel, Regan is planning to take his "audacious" ballot initiative strategy to a national level… and will remake the labor movement!

Except it won't.

In fact, it’ll now land Regan a ticket to the Big House in California.

What happened?

It turns out that Regan's bait-and-switch ballot initiative maneuver generated an angry public backlash in California. It's not hard to understand why. After all, people don't usually like to get lied to… and that's exactly what Regan did.

In early 2014, Regan and SEIU-UHW staffers traversed California and asked legislators, community organizations, and hundreds of thousands of voters to sign on to consumer-friendly ballot initiatives that would have capped executives’ fatcat salaries and reduced patients’ hospital bills. Under state law, the public can qualify proposed new laws for the statewide ballot by collecting a sufficient number of signatures from voters.

However… just before the deadline for filing voters' signatures with state election officials, Regan decided to toss the signatures in the trash in exchange for his own secret deal with hospital bosses. It turns out that voters' signatures were simply a bargaining chip that Regan used during his private negotiations with hospital bosses. 

"Sorry about that, José Q. Public and Leslie P. Legislator. We decided to use your signatures like so many poker chips at the casino table. We ditched you like a basket of hot potatoes. But yo, stay tuned, we’re gonna ask you to sign other fake ballot initiatives so we can use you again. How many times can we play you? Let's see. We're SEIU!”

Strangely enough, it turns out that the public ain’t so keen on being used by Diamond Dave and his purple gang.

Multiple California newspapers -- including the Los Angeles Times, San Jose Mercury News, Orange County Register, and San Diego Union Tribune -- published editorials against SEIU-UHW with titles like “SEIU Is Abusing Ballot System."

In August, California state legislators overwhelmingly passed Senate Bill 1253, which was signed by the governor in September. The new legislation, authored by the most powerful Democrat in the California Senate, criminalizes Regan's bait-and-switch ballot initiative maneuver. According to the State of California:

This bill makes it a crime for a proponent of a statewide initiative measure to seek, solicit, bargain for, or obtain any money or thing of value of or from any person, firm, or corporation for the purpose of withdrawing an initiative petition after filing it with the appropriate elections official.

That means that Diamond Dave can no longer trade away ballot initiatives for his own gain.

What will happen to Regan if he violates the new law?

A $5,000 fine or imprisonment for up to three years… or both.

Way to go, Dave! 

There's nothing quite like burning turf with California voters, legislators, community organizations, newspapers… and then having the state legislature turn your genius strategy into a criminal act. You're the man! A f*cking Einstein!

Btw, stay tuned to see what happens to Meg Niemi, an acolyte of Diamond Dave's, who’s attempting to use the same dishonest bait-and-switch ballot initiative strategy in Oregon.

Will SEIU's latest experience prompt it to finally build democratic, worker-run unions? 

Little chance of that. Keep your eye out for SEIU's next half-baked shortcut scheme to "rebuild the labor movement."

Survey Says: SEIU-UHW Is in Bed with CEOs

Is Dave Regan’s partnership deal with the California Hospital Association a "visionary" agreement that’ll help healthcare workers and the public? Or is it SEIU’s latest deep dive into bed with hospital industry CEOs?

“California Healthline” -- a daily news service run by the nonprofit California Healthcare Foundation -- recently conducted a two-week online public survey. Survey results? More than 75 percent of respondents say SEIU-UHW "is getting too close to hospital management."

Here are the complete results:

There’s a second chapter to this interesting story... which traces the path of millions of purple dollars to a clueless DC-based journalist.

At the same time that the public was panning Regan’s sell-out deal with hospital CEOs, a journalist named Josh Israel penned an article in "Think Progress" that calls Regan’s proposal an “Audacious New Proposal to Save the Labor Movement.”

Tasty is not kidding.

According to the article, Regan told Josh Israel that “a ‘new model of unionism’ is essential.” Regan calls this new model "Live Better Together." (No joke.)

So why is "Think Progress" promoting SEIU’s dangerous and deceitful bullsh*t?

Apparently, SEIU couldn't convince an independent journalist to do its dirty work.

So officials inside the Purple Palace turned to "Think Progress." Which just happens to be run by the "Center for American Progress” in Washington DC. Which just happens to have pocketed more than $1 million in payments from SEIU during the past two years, according to SEIU’s DOL Form LM-2!

As always, it doesn't take much scratching at the surface to uncover the trail of purple dollars to the mendacious promoters of purple propaganda.