How Many SEIU-UHW Senior Staffers Can Dance on the Head of Dave Regan’s Pin?

Tasty got ahold of an interesting document that offers more details about the sky-high salaries Dave Regan pays himself and his buddies inside SEIU-UHW.

According to the document (a 2017 pay scale for SEIU-UHW’s “Senior Staff”), the union has installed no fewer than eight separate layers of highly paid “senior staffers” with titles like “Senior Management-Level V,” “Chief of Staff,” and “President.”

Their annual salaries range from $120,000 to $227,000. A copy is below.

So much for “Fight for $15.” 

Apparently, SEIU-UHW managers favor the motto: “Sitting for $75.”

Just in case SEIU-UHW wasn’t already larded up with beaucoup overpaid bureaucrats, in 2017 Regan decided to add two more layers of phat managers atop the teetering, top-heavy union: Senior Management-Levels III and IV.

SEIU-UHW’s salaries are stunningly high:  Regan earns more than the Presidents of at least two international unions, the United Auto Workers and the United Steelworkers.

So… it’s obvious why Regan pays himself so much money. But why is he lavishing six-figure salaries on senior staffers?

A source explains it this way: “It costs a lot of money to buy people’s loyalty.”

If staffers don’t like the union’s leader or his vision, then how do you keep them on the job? You bribe them by paying sky-high salaries. Golden handcuffs, as they say.

Other unions have a radically different vision that's more democratic and egalitarian. For example, at NUHW, the union’s constitution prohibits the president from earning more than the highest-paid rank-and-file member.

Regan’s salary structure recalls recent critiques of SEIU’s brand of “neoliberal unionism.” Last September, the authors of one piece in Jacobin Magazine called on the labor movement to confront SEIU:

The proliferation of this model of unionism would spell disaster for the American labor movement. Our movement’s success depends on how widely and how militantly we can organize workers to fight corporate power and the 1 percent, not embrace them. 

Union members and leaders must do everything in their power to halt the march of neoliberal unionism, before they march the labor movement straight into its grave.

  SEIU-UHW Senior Staff Wage Scale: 2017 by tastysternburger on Scribd

Dave Regan: "I want a higher salary than the presidents of the Steelworkers and UAW"

SEIU-UHW's Dave Regan

Should SEIU-UHW President Dave Regan earn more than the international presidents of the United Auto Workers at the United Steel Workers?

Doesn’t make sense, right?

After all, Leo Gerard (USW) and Dennis Williams (UAW) lead international unions with four to six times as many members as Regan’s local union in California. In 2016, the UAW had 415,963 members while the USW had 548,033.

Nonetheless, that didn’t stop “Wall Street” Dave Regan from pocketing a higher salary in 2016, according to the unions’ DOL Forms LM-2.

In fact, SEIU-UHW’s second-highest paid official, Dave Kieffer, also earned more than the USW’s Gerard and the UAW’s Williams.

Here’s a rundown of their pay, according to Forms LM-2:

Dave Regan, SEIU-UHW President:  $224,706

Dave Kieffer, SEIU-UHW Director of Governmental Relations:  $210,909

Leo Gerard, International President of United Steelworkers:  $207,289

Dennis Williams, International President of United Auto Workers:  $184,159

SEIU-UHW's David Kieffer

A quick glance through SEIU-UHW’s recently filed disclosure report reveals that ten SEIU-UHW officials pocketed more than $150,000 during 2016. The list is below.

And take a look at their job descriptions.

Is it really necessary for one local union to have a Director of Governmental Relations, a Director of Public Affairs, a Director of Healthcare Policy and Advocacy, and a Political Director -- all earning more than $150K a year?

• Dave Regan, President:  $224,706
• Dave Kieffer, Director of Governmental Relations:  $210,909
• Kathy Ochoa, Director of Healthcare Policy and Advocacy:  $179,572
• Stan Lyles, Vice President:  $176,230
• Steve Trossman, Director of Public Affairs:  $170,494
• David Miller, Assistant to the President for Strategic Campaigns:   $168,974
• Myriam Escamilla, Hospital Division Director:   $162,415
• Greg Pullman, Chief of Staff:  $153,980
• Chokri Bensaid, Kaiser Division Director:  $152,860
• Cass Gualvez, Organizing Director:   $152,521
• Arianna Jimenez, Political Director:   $152,227

Glad there are unions like NUHW, whose constitution speaks volumes about the union's democratic values by prohibiting the union's president from earning more than the highest-paid rank-and-file member.