BREAKING: SEIU-UHW Ordered to Withdraw Statewide Ballot Initiative due to Dave Regan’s Violations of Secret Pact with California Hospital Association

An arbitrator has ruled that SEIU-UHW President Dave Regan violated the terms of his secret “partnership” deal with the California Hospital Association (CHA) by filing a California ballot initiative that seeks to cap hospital executives’ salaries, according to recently filed court records.

The arbitrator has ordered SEIU-UHW to withdraw its 2016 Executive Compensation Initiative, which SEIU-UHW filed this spring after spending at least $5 million to gather signatures to qualify the measure for the November 2016 ballot.

CHA’s attorneys describe the arbitrator’s decision the following way in a document filed with the court on June 16, 2016 (see full copy below):

On June 6, 2016 the Arbitrator issued an opinion and partial final award prohibiting UHW and its agents from pursuing, sponsoring or supporting the 2016 Executive Compensation Initiative, which required UHW and its agents to immediately withdraw the 2016 Executive Compensation Initiative from the ballot qualification process and take any other acts necessary to terminate their pursuit, sponsorship, or support of that initiative.

On June 24, 2016 at 2:00pm, Sacramento County (Calif.) Superior Court Judge David Brown will conduct a hearing to finalize the arbitrator’s decision.

SEIU-UHW’s attorneys have filed a last-ditch attempt to “vacate” the arbitrator’s decision. Yesterday (June 16), both the CHA and SEIU-UHW delivered lengthy legal briefs to the judge in advance of next week’s hearing. Additional legal briefs are due next week.

What’s the basis for the arbitrator’s decision against SEIU-UHW?

 

SEIU-UHW's Dave Regan

In May of 2014, Regan and CHA CEO Duane Dauner signed a secret partnership deal containing a far-reaching gag clause that, for example, prohibits SEIU-UHW from making comments “raising concerns about… executive compensation in health care.” 

The gag clause also blocks SEIU-UHW from “sponsoring or supporting… initiatives adverse to the California hospital industry,” among other prohibitions.

Regan, who co-authored and signed the secret partnership deal, nonetheless decided to violate its terms when, in November of 2015, he filed a statewide ballot initiative that seeks to cap hospital executives’ salaries at $450,000 per year. 

At that time, the CHA had essentially abandoned Regan and the partnership after Regan failed to deliver on a promise to deposit billions more dollars of Medicaid funding into hospital executives’ pockets.

It’s the third time in four years that Regan has filed the same initiative, which Regan hopes will leverage the CHA into an act of industrial love-making that’s a cynical money-for-members quid pro quo that sells out patients, workers, and taxpayers.

 

CHA's Duane Dauner

Following SEIU-UHW’s filing of the executive-compensation ballot measure in November 2015, the CHA went to court to compel SEIU-UHW to submit its violations of the terms of the secret partnership agreement to binding arbitration. 

In March of 2016, a judge ordered SEIU-UHW into arbitration, which then led to the arbitrator’s decision, issued just days ago.

For more than a year, Regan’s partnership deal with Dauner was a closely guarded secret. Regan famously refused to show it to SEIU-UHW’s members, staff, and even to the union’s Executive Board.

In June of 2015, NUHW obtained a copy of the secret deal and filed a complaint with California Attorney General Kamala Harris alleging that the deal’s gag clause -- which blocks SEIU-UHW from "pursuing, sponsoring or supporting any legislation, initiative, regulatory, or other efforts that are adverse to the interests" of hospital corporations -- violates California law by blocking healthcare workers from reporting patient-care violations to government oversight agencies.

The secret deal also prohibits SEIU-UHW members from conducting strikes against California’s healthcare corporations.

In January of 2016, the CHA was forced to disclose a copy of the partnership agreement -- called the “Code of Conduct” -- when the CHA sued SEIU-UHW in California Superior Court to compel arbitration. These records confirmed the authenticity of the documents disclosed earlier by NUHW.

Stay tuned for more developments.

  California Hospital Association's Petition to Confirm Arbitration Award vs. SEIU-UHW 06-16-2016

More Implosions Hit SEIU-UHW Dave Regan's Secret Deal with the California Hospital Association... and Expose Hidden Documents

More ear-splitting implosions are rocking Dave Regan's "groundbreaking" partnership with the California Hospital Association… quickly transforming it into a pile of twisted, smoking rubble.

Here's what's happening.

In recent weeks, the CHA has filed two counter-lawsuits against SEIU-UHW in response to Regan's November 2015 lawsuit against the CHA.

One of the CHA's suits -- filed last week -- says SEIU-UHW's original lawsuit should be tossed out because Regan, in his secret deal with the CHA, signed an "arbitration clause" that prohibits him from taking disputes to the courts. It also asserts that Regan violated the deal's "gag clause," which SEIU-UHW famously denied even existed.

So, in a stroke of poetic justice, the CHA has been forced to hand over a copy of Regan's secret deal in order to prove its case! A source snatched copies from the court and sent them to Tasty.

For nearly two years, Regan has stubbornly refused to allow journalists and the public to even catch a glimpse of the deal. In fact, he refused to show it to SEIU-UHW's members and even its "Executive Board," the union's top governing body.

Last year, NUHW filed a complaint with California Attorney General Kamala Harris over Regan's gag clause. That complaint was based on an unsigned version of the deal that was leaked to NUHW. At the time of the complaint, SEIU-UHW officials vigorously challenged the authenticity of the unsigned version.

Now… we have a SIGNED version of the deal with Dave's "John Henry" at the bottom! (See a full copy below.)

The CHA lawsuit also contains a trove of previously unseen documents…  including a one-page "Side Letter" signed by Regan and the CHA's Duane Dauner on May 5, 2014.

The documents detail the deal's corrupt "money-for-members" quid pro quo in which Regan agreed to deliver $6 billion in public Medicaid funds to hospital CEOs in exchange for the right to unionize 60,000 California hospital workers without employer opposition.  

Regan agreed to force the newly unionized workers into cheap, pre-negotiated labor contracts with substandard wages and benefits, a gag clause, and a ban on strikes.

Regan’s newly outed "Side Letter" also details the creation of a $100 million political slush fund -- using $20 million of SEIU-UHW members' dues money -- to help hospital CEOs boost their profits at taxpayer expense. 

Here are the two documents. More to follow in the days ahead.

  Side Letter to SEIU-UHW's Secret Deal with the California Hospital Association: May 5, 2014 by tastysternburger

  SEIU-UHW's "Money-for-Members" Deal with the California Hospital Association: May 5, 2014

Internal Recording #2: The California Hospital Association Discusses its Secret ‘Money-for-Workers’ Deal with SEIU-UHW

Check this out.

A source has sent a second excerpt from an internal conference call held recently by the California Hospital Association regarding its secret deal with SEIU-UHW, which is the subject of a complaint submitted to California Attorney General Kamala Harris.

The new recording is quite revealing.

We hear a description -- direct from top execs inside the hospital industry's Chamber of Commerce -- of the basic terms of the secret deal between hospital CEOs and SEIU-UHW’s Dave Regan.

According to the recording, the SEIU-CHA deal is basically a 'money-for-workers' transaction.

SEIU-UHW must deliver $4.4 billion a year in new taxpayer-funded Medicaid revenues to California’s hospital corporations… which are already enjoying big profits. (Last week, Kaiser Permanente reported $2 billion in profits during the first six months of 2015.)

And in return for delivering this enormous sum to the bosses ($4.4 billion), SEIU-UHW can basically purchase the right to unionize tens of thousands of California hospital workers. The workers would then be subject to stripped-down wages and benefits, a gag clause, and limited workplace rights.

(Note: In California, Medicaid is referred to as "Medi-Cal.")

The recording below also offers hints about the apparent troubles brewing between the CHA and SEIU-UHW. Note: The beginning of the video is silent while background information is presented to viewers. The audio begins at 45 seconds.