AFT Trounces SEIU in Runoff Election at Washington Hospital

Last week, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) thrashed SEIU Local 49 in a runoff election for 900 workers at 450-bed PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center in Vancouver, Washington.

Tally sheet from NLRB vote count

Here are the vote totals, according to NLRB records:

AFT:  319 votes
SEIU Local 49:  110 votes
Challenged Ballots:  1 ballot
Voided Ballots:  4 ballots             

The runoff election -- which took place December 14-15 -- followed a late-November election in which AFT's Oregon Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals was the top vote-getter yet failed to secure an outright majority as required by NLRB rules.

In last week’s runoff, workers’ support for SEIU dropped sharply. In fact, SEIU’s vote total dropped by more than one-third -- from 171 in the November election to only 110 in last week’s vote.

On December 16, the AFT issued a press release quoting President Randi Weingarten: "I'm thrilled to welcome the service and maintenance workers at PeaceHealth Southwest into the AFT family... The AFT continues to grow as a healthcare union..."

SEIU Local 49 is headed by Meg “I Love the Boss” Niemi, a close ally of SEIU-UHW’s Dave Regan. Niemi is also a member of SEIU’s International Executive Board.

For more information, see "PeaceHealth employees vote for union choice" (The Columbian, December 19, 2016) and “PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center workers vote to join AFT” (NW Labor Press, December 19, 2016).

AFT Beats SEIU in Hospital Election in Washington State

Late last month, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) bested SEIU Local 49 in a head-to-head election for 900 non-union hospital workers in Vancouver, Washington, according to NLRB records and press reports.

Here’s the final tally of the election at PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center held November 21-22:

AFT’s Oregon Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals:  297 votes
SEIU Local 49:  176 votes
No Union:  171 votes
Challenged Ballots:  24 votes

SEIU barely got more votes than the "No Union" option on the ballot. A runoff election between AFT and SEIU is scheduled for next week on December 14 and 15.

SEIU Local 49 is headed by Meg “I Love the Boss” Niemi, a close ally of SEIU-UHW’s Dave Regan. Niemi is also a member of SEIU’s International Executive Board.

For more coverage of the election, see The Colombian (Vancouver, WA), “PeaceHealth Workers to Unionize” (December 7, 2016).

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."

Kaiser's Partnership Pals Hold Birthday Celebration as Rebellion Breaks Out in Partnership Ranks

Wellness walks? Dance-a-thons? Contract buddies? Purple pedometers?

Meg Niemi and Dennis Dabney

In case you thought you'd seen it all, here's the latest from the Disneyland world of partnership bargaining, which resumed this week at the San Jose Marriott Hotel (April 28-30).

It comes from the twitter account of Meg Niemi, the President of SEIU Local 49. Niemi was last seen hugging Kaiser Permanente's top HR executive, Dennis Dabney, during recent bargaining meetings.

On Friday, Meg sent out the following tweet after SEIU members delivered "happy birthday” cards to Scott Allen, Kaiser’s Director of Labor Relations in Washington and Oregon, to celebrate the partnership's birthday. Looks like the officials atop the partnership unions are gearing up for a real knockdown drag-out fight with the Boss, right?

Here's the pic, with the smiling HR official standing in the middle. (Btw, not too many signatures on those b-day cards, right?)

Interestingly, it looks like another partnership union didn't get the memo about the all-smiles-and-hugs approach to Kaiser and its HR department.

UFCW Local 400 -- which is part of the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions and a “partnership” union – has sued Kaiser in U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland for violating its members’ contract, according to a Courthouse News article published April 10, 2015.

Local 400 -- whose members include RNs, Nurse Practitioners, Physician Assistants, Mental Health Professionals, Substance Abuse Counselors, Audiologists and other professionals at 33 Kaiser outpatient facilities in DC, Maryland and Virginia -- says Kaiser is violating basic provisions of its labor contract and giving substandard care to patients so it can boost its profits.

The union has filed more than 60 grievances in an effort to get Kaiser to fix the problems. But Kaiser won't even follow the contract's grievance procedure!  That's why Local 400 is suing Kaiser in federal court.

Yesterday, UFCW Local 400 posted the following statement on its website: “Kaiser Worker Treatment Cause of Concern.” 

The statement details problems with off-the-clock work, inadequate staffing levels that underminethe quality of care, Kaiser’s profiteering at the expense of patients, and the HMO’s refusal to give benefited positions to workers. Here are some excerpts:

Once a model of labor-management cooperation, Kaiser Permanente has made troubling changes in the way it treats its health professionals, bringing in managers lacking experience in a union environment, disregarding the terms of the collective bargaining agreement, and focusing more on profits than the well-being of its employees and patients. 

As a result, an unprecedented number of grievances have been filed in the Mid-Atlantic region over the past year.

“Kaiser was once a model employer and we hope it will be again, but right now it’ s anything but,” said Local 400 Secretary-Treasurer Lavoris ”Mikki” Harris... 

“Kaiser’s recent behavior leads me to wonder whether the for-profit cart is dragging the non-profit horse,” Harris said. “As a result, Kaiser’s vaunted Labor-Management Partnership is not what it once was, with Kaiser’s health professionals being treated not as its most valuable resource, but rather as a cost to be minimized. Together, we will reverse this unfortunate turn of events.”

Way to go, Local 400! 

It sounds like the local’s members -- many of whom do the same work as NUHW’s members in California – have borrowed a page from the red union's playbook. 

More to come? Stay tuned.

Kaiser's "Partnership" Bargaining Begins as Goofy Hugs Delegates

This week, the "partnership unions" are holding their first bargaining session with Kaiser Permanente at the Manhattan Beach Marriott Hotel in Southern California (April 14-16).

Wanna have a glimpse at partnership “bargaining”?

Check out the following photos, tweets and messages from SEIU-UHW’s Dave Regan, Kaiser CEO Bernard Tyson, Kaiser Coalition Exec. Dir. Hal Ruddick, and others. They come from the "bargaining kickoff" held earlier this month (March 30-April 1) as well as the partnership unions' "Union Delegate Conference" at Disneyland (March 27-29).

Staffers from the Labor Management Partnership were so thrilled by the speeches of top union and Kaiser leaders that they tweeted excerpts to the outside world. Here's an interesting excerpt from SEIU-UHW President Dave Regan's speech: "Negotiations are not a debate and tantrums don't work."

Hmm. So if you can't actually "debate" the Boss across the bargaining table about workers' wages, health benefits, staffing levels, pensions, etc... then WTF are contract "negotiations" for? 

Hal Ruddick, the Chief Negotiator for the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions, absolutely loved Diamond Dave's quote! In fact, he tweeted it himself. Way to go, Hal!

Here's another revealing quote from Regan: "We have chosen strategic collaboration." Here, Regan is referencing this infamous interview on NBC television, where he reported that our economy no longer has "employers" and "workers" -- only partners who work in a "teamwork economy." 

Btw, Regan really hates it when workers criticize management. (Ohh, and that goes for all of you SEIU-UHW members who are getting layoff notices from Kaiser despite the company's $3.1 billion in profits last year. Stop criticizing, dammit. Partnership really works).

Here's Ruddick, one of Regan's lieutenants, speaking to the crowd about "leading."

Here's the multi-million-dollar CEO of Kaiser, Bernard Tyson, doing a panel discussion with Hal Ruddick and Kathleen Theobald, the Executive Director of Kaiser Permanente Nurse Anesthetists Association (KPNAA), during the Union Delegates Conference.

Interestingly, even though they're management, Tyson and other Kaiser execs attended the Coalition's "Union Delegates Conference," where "delegates" are presumably supposed to prepare their bargaining strategy for negotiations with the Boss.

Instead... the partnership unions turned the delegates conference into a full-blown propaganda party for Kaiser's fatcat execs, who are systematically working to slash and burn workers' health benefits, pensions, and wages.

Here's Meg Niemi, the President of SEIU Local 49, hugging Kaiser's top HR official, Dennis Dabney. Dabney, who favors $5,000 dollar suits, decided to dress down for the workers.

Here's CEO Tyson at the Union Delegates Conference.

Check this out. The partnership unions and Kaiser even served a "partnership" cake to the delegates!

In case you're wondering... CEO Tyson had a "great" time at the Union Delegate Conference, according to his tweet.

Before the conference was over, the partnership unions placed posters of Tyson in the lobby areas of the Union Delegates Conference. Remember -- Tyson is trying to eliminate workers' pension plan even though Kaiser gives him 9 separate pension plans!

All in all, the delegates -- who are supposed to safeguard the interests of 90,000 Kaiser workers -- had a super awesome time.

And in case Regan, Ruddick and Tyson weren't entertaining enough, the LMP staff even brought along Goofy and other Disney characters to work the delegates!

Wow! This partnership sure is "innovative!"

Fight for $15? Whoops! SEIU-UHW’s Dave Regan didn’t get the memo.

National headlines have highlighted the “Fight for $15” to win long-overdue wage increases for fast food workers. SEIU, in classic fashion, has planted its flag atop the movement with Mary Kay Henry gleefully tweeting about her undying support for a livable wage of $15 an hour.

And then there’s Dave Regan… who apparently is not too good at math.  

It turns out that Regan is paying hundreds of signature-gatherers as little as $10 an hour (with no benefits) to qualify his fake ballot propositions for California’s November ballot, according to staffers on the campaign.

It’s classic SEIU, right?

“Do as I say, not as I do.”

The signature-gatherers are required to collect between 90 and 110 signatures during a six-hour shift. If they fail to meet the quota, they're fired.

In similar campaigns, signature-gatherers are paid a flat dollar amount per signature, which would produce higher take-home pay than what Regan’s currently paying. Instead, Regan is paying a wage that’s far below what SEIU itself considers livable… and far less than Regan’s salary of $300,000 a year.

Insiders report that Regan will spend $5 million on his signature-gathering effort. Most of the money will land in the bank account of "Democracy Resources," a political consulting firm based in Portland, Oregon that’s staffed by some ex-SEIU staffers.

In 2012, Regan paid the firm $4.2 million to collect signatures for the first round of his fake ballot measure maneuver, which he promptly yanked off the ballot so he could have partnership talks with hospital CEOs.

The following year, Regan paid Democracy Resources an unknown sum to knock on Kaiser Permanente workers’ front doors during the giant NLRB election for 45,000 workers.

Ted Blaszak, Democracy Resources

This year, Regan’s BFF, Meg Niemi, also hired the firm to collect signatures for her so-called “consumer oriented” ballot measures, which she happily traded away in exchange for partnership talks with some of Oregon’s hospital bosses. (Uh, sorry consumers.)

Democracy Resources is headed by Portland resident Ted Blaszak, who apparently spends way too much time watching “Portlandia.”

James Musumeci, one of the firm's top staffers, formerly worked for SEIU and TruCorps, a consulting firm co-founded by SEIU’s Jim Philliou that has pocketed beaucoup bucks from Regan.

“The fast-food workers are fighting for all of us,” said SEIU President Mary Kay Henry about the "Fight for $15" campaign.

Hmmm… wonder who will fight for SEIU’s $10-an-hour signature gatherers?

SEIU-UHW's DOL Form LM-2, 2012

SEIU-UHW staffer afflicted by foot-in-mouth disease

SEIU-UHW's Sean Wherley

This week’s "Homer Simpson Award" goes to Sean Wherley, a media spokesperson for SEIU-UHW and Dave Regan.

On February 20, a reporter from the Los Angeles Times asked Wherley whether SEIU-UHW is actually sincere about reforming the healthcare industry… or whether it's simply using several statewide ballot initiatives as bargaining chips in SEIU’s secret negotiations with hospital bosses.

Here’s an excerpt from the Los Angeles Times with Wherley’s response:

The association has said the union is using the initiatives as leverage in their negotiations with the state's hospitals around organizing efforts. Sean Wherley, a union spokesman, said the ballot measures were not bargaining chips. "This is purely an effort to rein in runaway healthcare costs in California," he said.

Uhhh… really??

Apparently... Sean “I Never Lie” Wherley is not super skilled at reading news headlines. 

On the same exact day that he was interviewed by the Times (February 20), SEIU Local 49 in Oregon was announcing it had executed SEIU’s latest horse-trading maneuver with the hospital industry. In that deal, SEIU agreed to withdraw its statewide ballot initiatives in exchange for secret "partnership" talks with hospital executives.

 

D’oh!

And it turns out that Wherley is not simply Internet-challenged, he's also suffering from early-onset Alzheimer's.

At the precise moment that he responded to the LA Times reporter's questions, Wherley somehow forgot that in 2012, Regan did exactly that Wherley is denying! Whoops! And he somehow forgot that Regan, on a recorded conference call, recently stated in very blunt terms that he's trying to do it again in 2014!

So congrats to Wherley, an aspiring comedian, for turning himself and SEIU into the punch lines for the week!