SEIU-UHW’s Dave Regan Suffers Defeat as Union Members, Attorney General, and SEIU Locals Run the Other Way

Today, SEIU-UHW’s Dave Regan suffered a thumping defeat when the California Attorney General approved the sale of six hospitals owned by the Daughters of Charity Health System to Prime Healthcare. The AG rejected SEIU-UHW’s bid to transfer the hospitals to Blue Wolf Capital Partners, a private equity firm in New York City.

For many months, Regan has waged an all-out effort to block the sale to Prime after that company refused to sign Regan's sweetheart unionization deal with the California Hospital Association. During a tape-recorded SEIU conference call last May, Regan famously announced he would wage a campaign to bring Prime "to heel,” according to the Los Angeles Times.

Last fall, Regan launched an expensive political, PR, and "Astroturf” campaign to block Prime from buying the hospitals. The campaign included buying TV ads and busing hundreds of purple-shirted homecare workers from three counties away to fill the chairs in the Attorney General's public hearings that were intended to gather input from the local community.

Regan was forced to bus in the homecare workers because his position was wildly unpopular among SEIU-UHW’s 1,600 members at the six hospitals. Without the sale, the hospitals would likely go bankrupt and put the 1,600 workers’ jobs and pensions in jeopardy. 

Midway through the process, workers also learned that Regan had secretly signed a backroom deal with Blue Wolf Capital to cut workers' pay and benefits by 15% if Blue Wolf got ahold of the hospitals.

When the Attorney General finally conducted hearings on the proposed sale, SEIU-UHW’s own members stood at the microphone and voiced their opposition to Regan. They also delivered petitions signed by more than half of SEIU-UHW’s members opposing Regan's position. 

At O'Connor Hospital in San Jose, Calif. nearly half of SEIU-UHW’s shop stewards resigned their positions to protest Regan's decision to ignore the membership and their livelihoods.

Below, check out a 30-second video of a former SEIU-UHW Chief Shop Steward who describes how SEIU used its members as "pawns" in its own political game. He says: “I'm ashamed to say that I'm an SEIU member because they're not looking out for their own members.”

That's not all. 

After losing the support of his own members, Regan also lost the support of other SEIU unions in California. For example, both SEIU Local 121 and SEIU Local 87 publicly supported the sale of the hospitals to Prime, and formally opposed Regan's position.

Here's the video:

Executive Board Member Attacks SEIU-UHW's Dave Regan for Secretly Aiding Big Business

Dave loves being in the Boss's pocket

Check out this story.

In an online article entitled “Wrong Allies and Wrong Leadership,” a homecare worker who’s a member of SEIU-UHW’s Executive Board describes how Dave Regan is secretly helping union-busting business groups by giving them rent-free space inside SEIU-UHW’s offices!

And that’s not all.

The homecare worker, who describes Regan as “undemocratic” and "all about selling the power of our union to interests which are at odds with our membership," names one of the slates that will challenge Regan in next year’s officer elections at SEIU-UHW. The slate -- Member Directions 2014 Caucus -- is part of the burgeoning “Dump Dave” movement.

Below, Tasty has posted excerpts from the homecare worker’s article.

Several background notes. 

The Golden Gate Restaurant Association is the Chamber of Commerce of the San Francisco Bay Area’s restaurant industry. It fights unionization and attacks worker-friendly legislation. The GGRA waged an infamous years-long legal effort to overturn a universal healthcare ordinance passed by San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors. This first-in-the-nation legislation extended health insurance to two-thirds of San Francisco’s uninsured residents by requiring businesses to either provide health coverage to their workers or pay into a fund so the county can care for its residents.

The Building Owners and Management Association (BOMA) is the Chamber of Commerce of the commercial real estate industry. Its members are the owners of the skyscrapers in downtown San Francisco. BOMA is the arch-enemy of SEIU Local 87, which represents the janitors who clean the skyscrapers. Here’s an article about BOMA’s hiring of strikebreakers to try to break a recent strike by SEIU Local 87’s members.

Finally, here are the excerpts from the article by Brad Wiedmaier, a homecare worker and a member of SEIU-UHW’s Executive Board.

SEIU-UHW President Dave Regan has moved the "Alliance for Jobs and Sustainable Growth" (AJSG) into the San Francisco UHW Hall and Office. This was done without consulting one single member of the union leadership or rank and file. This follows repeated request for a review of the participation by the Union in the Alliance which has no organizational sanction. The Alliance is being granted space without rent. This act raises two serious questions. First, this shows that Dave Regan and the political department have chosen to sneak the Alliance into the building without any membership consultation or endorsement. This act reflects on the undemocratic functioning of UHW. Second, this cripples our union by joining in a coalition with a group like the Alliance, that holds positions which are mostly at odds with the interests of the membership.

Examining the forces in this Alliance (AJSG) and who they are endorsing shows a politics at odds with our union's ranks. The Alliance prominently features the Golden Gate Restaurant Association (GGRA) which fought the Healthy San Francisco county health plan (which our Home-Care members rely on). The GGRA fought all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court and fortunately for our members the GGRA lost. Another lead group in the Alliance is the Building Owners & Managers Association which works tirelessly against rent control. Our members rely on rent control to reside in San Francisco. And the BOMA is dedicated to the eradication of rent control. Also, the Alliance has endorsed Carmen Chu for SF Assessor in the November 2013 election. Chu refused to vote against, increasing home-care health premiums, when she held a seat on the SF Board of Supervisor. Now the Alliance will be supporting her out of our own union hall.

The participation of the union in the Alliance (AJSG) illustrates Dave Regan's non-dedication to the interests of the members of SEIU-UHW. This political coalition shows that to Regan, union members come second to back room political deal-making. There has never been a COPE (Committee on Political Education) under Regan at SEIU-UHW. Instead of taking care of what members need, Regan is all about selling the power of our union to interests which are at odds with our membership. It's all about being a big player beyond the need to stand up for the membership. Sneaking the Alliance into the San Francisco SEIU-UHW Hall was a necessity for Regan to continue to cut the membership out of any political say in their own organization. This coalition of UHW with the Alliance shows that the Regan team is an imposed alien clique that must hide its political moves from the rank and file. Now is the time to begin to look for an alternative allies and leadership for SEIU-UHW. Now is the time to begin to build a united members' opposition for the UHW 2014 general election.