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?

SEIU’s Neal Bisno: “No idea what Dave was thinking”

SEIU-UHW’s Dave Regan is facing mounting waves of backlash after teaming up with hospital corporations to undermine California’s law on nurse-to-patient staffing ratios. In fact, Tasty hears that SEIU RNs in California are so angry they’ve begun contacting other unions for help.

And that’s not all. SEIU RNs from other states are also up in arms. Why? They’re trying to pass their own versions of nurse-to-patient ratio legislation that’s patterned after California’s first-in-the-nation law.

Confronted by the blowback, SEIU officials are back-pedalling away from Regan as quickly as they can. And as they beat their hasty retreat, they’re repeatedly tossing Regan under the bus.

Check out this statement by SEIU Local 121’s Executive Director Sue Weinstein, who discusses the “vocal and passionate reaction by our Registered Nurse members” against Regan’s ratio-busting efforts. The statement says:

We are calling on UHW to declare nurse-to-patient staffing ratios “off limits” in its ongoing work with the California Hospital Association as they explore cost savings and revenue-generating initiatives.

Despite her criticism, Weinstein says she LOVES Regan’s “visionary agreement with the California Hospital Association,” which “holds exciting promise for SEIU and the labor movement.” Hmmm. It sounds like Weinstein actually supported Regan’s deal with the CHA… until she was against it. Nothing like some late-onset cold feet to send Weinstein running for the hills.

Meanwhile, a source sent Tasty an interesting email from Neal Bisno, the president of SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania and a member of SEIU’s International Executive Board. Here’s an excerpt:

No idea what Dave was thinking - you can rest assured that our local and SEIU are strongly opposed to any suspension or other dimunition of any aspect of the hard-won CA RN to patient ratios law.  We have every intention of continuing to fight for identical legislation. This is a patient safety and patient lives issue, a valuing of nurses issue, a nurses union issue. Unfortunate incident, and rest assured a subject of intense reaction from SEIU Nurse Alliance leaders and members, including myself, inside our union.

Thud!!    That, my friends, is the sound of bus tires rolling over Regan like a well-worn speed bump.

Finally, here’s more news coverage about Regan’s collusion with industry CEOs. The article from “Beyond Chron” features quotes from RoseAnn DeMoro (the Executive Director of the California Nurses Association). She calls Regan “an embarrassment to the labor movement,” “overtly disgraceful,” and describes his arguments as “idiotic” and “drivel.”

She also recounts details from the “emergency” conference call convened by the California Labor Federation’s Art Pulaski during which Regan “made an impassioned speech on behalf of the CA hospital association…"

The article issues this challenge to SEIU President Mary Kay Henry:

Dave Regan is the proverbial “5th Column” in California labor. He has battled UNITE HERE, SEIU Local 1021, NUHW and now CNA on behalf of a vision that the rest of the labor movement rejects...

National SEIU President Mary Kay Henry’s passivity in response to Regan’s shenanigans is remarkable. If she believes silence is the best way to get him to change course, she's been proven wrong time and again. Henry's passivity empowers Regan and is undermining SEIU in California.

Well, Mary Kay?

Concessions in Cali -- SEIU-style

It’s been quite a couple of weeks! About 1,000 Canadian healthcare workers won three stunning election victories after a two-year struggle against SEIU. And California workers scored a giant legal victory to re-run two elections for 44,000 Kaiser workers.

To top it off, check out this late-breaking story that helps explain why workers are struggling so hard to leave SEIU.

In Southern California, SEIU represents 6,800 Registered Nurses and professionals through SEIU Local 121. At Providence Tarzana Medical Center, SEIU just accepted a two-year wage freeze for its 600 members without even letting its members vote on the issue… and without organizing any kind of fightback against the hospital.

SEIU – led by SEIU staffer Judy Serlin – has spent the last year trying to negotiate a successor contract with the hospital.

What’s up next for the RNs and professionals at Providence Tarzana? SEIU is considering a 6% cut to its members’ wage scales. Check out this leaflet that SEIU is distributing to its members. It contains crazy clip art (see above) and jewels like these:

Our team has already agreed to freeze wages for two years.

What this means is that Tarzana RNs and Professionals won’t receive any raises – no wage increases and no step increases. It also means that our wage scale that we fought so hard for over the years will be reduced by a total of 6 percent by 2012.

So, in a couple of years when you’re sitting down to lunch with your nursing school buddies who work at other hospitals, make sure it’s their treat because they’ll be making a lot more than you will.

And if that’s not pathetic enough, SEIU’s leaflet actually quotes the BOSS, allowing him to explain to SEIU members why they should accept a 6% wage cut. (Tasty is not kidding.)

“The realities are, the nurses are very well paid here,” said Providence Attorney and Lead Negotiator Doug Hart during Thursday’s bargaining.

WTF!!

After SEIU distributed the leaflet to its members, someone ran into SEIU Negotiator Judy Serlin and asked: “Judy, what’s going on?” Judy’s response: “I don’t know. I was in the Alps…”

In the Alps? Was Judy on a juicy junket to Davos with SEIU President Emeritus Andy Stern? Is Judy simply trying to dodge the blame for SEIU’s total ineffectiveness at fighting for its members? Or did Judy simply stop taking her meds? Tasty wants to know… Tarzana workers??