SEIU-UHW's Dave Regan Drives Split Even Wider with Kaiser Unions

Here’s more news about Monday’s implosion of the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions (CKPU).

What did Dave Regan do to cause eight international unions -- including the Teamsters, the Steelworkers, UFCW, AFSCME and the American Federation of Teachers -- to quit the Coalition?

Here’s how the Northwest Labor Press describes it:

At a meeting of CKPU unions in August 2017 in Portland, SEIU-UHW pushed for a change to the CKPU’s bylaws to give more decision-making weight to unions based on their size. CKPU’s decision-making process had always before been based on consensus among its constituent unions—even though they varied in size from dozens to tens of thousands of members. CKPU had negotiated five national collective bargaining agreements with Kaiser using that process.

Though the discussion reportedly devolved into a shouting match at times, participating unions agreed to a compromise that gave somewhat greater weight to larger unions.

Then, according to several sources, SEIU-UHW asked Kaiser to bargain with them as the sole representative of the Coalition. Kaiser refused.

…The final straw was a March 19 meeting of the coalition unions, at which SEIU UHW brought up the decision-making process again, threatening to block agreement if it wasn’t revised further.

(Don McIntosh, “Kaiser Permanente union coalition splits,” Northwest Labor Press, March 27, 2018)

How are the unions responding to Monday’s blow-up?

Regan appears to be channeling Donald Trump. Rather than trying to leave open a path for possible reconciliation, he’s been busy thumbing his nose at his former union partners inside the Coalition.

"Frankly they are much smaller,” Regan told Bloomberg News. “They will have their work cut out for them. I think what they’re going to discover is that they made a mistake. They will regret what they’ve done.”

(“Kaiser Permanente Labor Partnership Fractures After 20 Years,” Bloomberg, March 28, 2018)

In internal talking points, SEIU-UHW instructed its organizers to talk to rank-and-file Kaiser workers about “Why the small unions left the coalition.” SEIU-UHW is telling its members that “a cluster of small unions... left the Coalition because they wanted the right to cut a weak deal with Kaiser over the objections of the majority… The majority of us in the Coalition said NO WAY.  So the small unions left the Coalition to go it their own way.”

A member of SEIU-UHW's bargaining team

Meanwhile, SEIU-UHW posted photos of its Kaiser bargaining team members holding signs that say: “We are the Real Coalition.”

Will Regan soon begin calling his former union partners “Little Marco” or “the Fake Coalition”? Too soon to say.

Of course, Regan's claim that he is somehow valiantly defending workers against backroom deals is a bit difficult to swallow. After all, Diamond Dave is the unrivaled king of secret sellout deals with pin-striped bosses. 

Just ask Regan's own Executive Board about his secret deal with the California Hospital Association. Dave's deal imposed a massive gag clause on workers, barred workers from striking, forced workers into pre-negotiated contracts with stripped-down wages and benefits, and even blocked workers from speaking publicly about hospital companies' profits and executive salaries. 

After signing the deal, Regan famously refused to show a copy to the members of his own union's Executive Board. A copy of the deal, with Regan's signature at the bottom, later emerged in a lawsuit with all of Regan's dirty deeds on full display.

How are others responding to the breakup of Kaiser's partnership unions?

Today, NUHW circulated an e-mail to its members recalling Regan’s lengthy history of cutting backroom deals with employers. Here’s an excerpt:

NUHW never joined the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions because we understood from the start that Dave Regan was intent on controlling the coalition to promote the interests of SEIU-UHW leaders rather than the interests of Kaiser workers and patients.

Unfortunately, current SEIU leaders are not interested in winning good contracts. Their primary goal is to increase their membership and their dues income. To achieve that goal, they have been willing to sacrifice the welfare of their own members in exchange for agreements with employers that give them enhanced organizing rights. Ever since Regan took over SEIU-UHW in 2009, he has allowed the standards we fought hard to win to be steadily whittled away and agreed to takeaways that NUHW has refused to accept in our contracts.

Judge: SEIU-UHW's Dave Regan Must Submit to Binding Arbitration over Missing $34 Million

SEIU-UHW’s Dave Regan has lost another court battle against the California Hospital Association (CHA).  

Last Friday, a judge ordered SEIU-UHW to submit to binding arbitration over $34 million that Regan squirreled away inside a secret “partnership” organization. A copy of the judge’s order, issued November 18, 2016, is pasted below. In September, Tasty described the CHA’s lawsuit to recover the millions that Regan is sitting on.

Where does the money come from?

In 2014, Regan and CHA’s Duane Dauner signed their secret partnership deal and also agreed to create a secret new organization to carry out joint projects. 

How was the organization funded? 

Regan and Dauner diverted a combined $50 million from their respective organizations’ treasuries and steered the massive haul of cash into the secret group, named “Caring for Californians.”

In late 2015, Regan’s partnership with the CHA collapsed. Under the terms of the secret deal (detailed in the so-called “Code of Conduct”), the remaining unspent portion of the $50 million was supposed to be returned to SEIU-UHW and CHA. That was supposed to happen on January 1, 2016.

However, Regan -- in an apparent fit of vindictiveness -- refused to return the money to either organization. Instead, he has allowed the money (including SEIU-UHW’s portion, totaling $6.9 million) to be frittered away on no-show jobs, unused offices in Sacramento, an expensive Executive Director, etc. 

So, CHA sued to get its money back.

On Friday, November 18, a judge issued a five-page ruling (see below) siding with CHA and ordering SEIU-UHW and Regan to submit to binding arbitration over the $34 million. Here’s an excerpt from the judge’s decision. The term “CFC” refers to “Caring for Californians,” the secret partnership organization holding the $34 million.

In December 2015, the [Code of Conduct] Agreement terminated pursuant to its terms, and CFC has had no ongoing work. The CFC continues to spend approximately $40,000 per month on operating expenses. CHA has requested that UHW agree to redistribute the unencumbered CFC funds, but UHW has refused. As of September 2016, CFC has approximately $34 million in its accounts that is not currently encumbered, thus $27.2 million would be returned to CHA and $6.87 million would be returned to UHW.

CHA's arbitration complaint alleges that UHW breached the Agreement by refusing to agree to the return of the unencumbered funds. CHA's complaint apparently seeks an "order compelling UHW to agree to the redistribution of funds, or, in lieu of UHW's agreement, an order directing the redistribution of the funds."

…the petition to compel arbitration is GRANTED.

If Regan loses the arbitration, SEIU-UHW will be forced to return the money and pay expensive legal fees to CHA.

This latest lawsuit offers yet another window onto Regan's collusive, backroom deals with employers that represent Dollar Dave's primary mode of operation. The lawsuit once again raises questions like these: 

• Why is SEIU-UHW, one of California's largest healthcare workers' unions, pooling $50 million with the hospital industry's Chamber of Commerce? 
• Why is one of SEIU's main leaders signing secret deals that are hidden from SEIU's own members?
• What other deals has SEIU-UHW signed with employers that have not yet been revealed?

Stay tuned 

  Judge Orders SEIU-UHW to Submit to Arbitration under secret agreement with California Hospital Association:... by tastysternburger on Scribd

SEIU-UHW’s Dave Regan Misfires (AGAIN) on Ballot Initiative

Dave Regan, president of SEIU-UHW, has committed another embarrassing ballot-initiative blunder.

In February of 2016, soon after his secret partnership with the California Hospital Association (CHA) exploded in flames, Regan filed a ballot initiative in Arizona designed to cap hospital executives’ salaries. Regan hoped the initiative would pressure several large multi-state hospital companies to convince CHA's Duane Dauner to ink another deal with him.

The Arizona initiative, “The Hospital Executive Compensation Act,” is virtually identical to a ballot measure Regan has filed repeatedly and unsuccessfully in California.

Beginning early in 2016, Regan spent massive amounts of SEIU-UHW members’ dues money to hire paid circulators to collect 281,000 signatures from Arizona voters to qualify the measure for the ballot.

However, Regan apparently forgot to make sure the signature-gatherers were actually legally qualified to collect signatures. D’OH!!

Under Arizona law, paid signature-gatherers must register with the Secretary of State’s office and provide an Arizona address.

This summer, when Regan triumphantly filed his 281,000 signatures with state officials, the ballot measure’s opponents quickly noticed that many signature-gatherers had not complied with state law. They sued SEIU-UHW in Maricopa County Superior Court to disqualify the signatures and thereby invalidate the initiative.

In August, just one day before a judge was set to hear the lawsuit, Regan threw in the towel and withdrew his initiative.

In news articles, including this one in the Arizona Capitol Times (“Backers of Hospital Exec Pay Cap Initiative Dropping Effort,” August 15, 2016), opponents celebrated Regan’s formidable f*ck-up. They said SEIU-UHW’s decision to withdraw the initiative “proves that the concerns about the validity of petition signatures were valid.”

 

Dave "Signature Man" Regan

This, of course, is not Regan’s first multi-million dollar mistake.

In June, a Sacramento Superior Court Judge ordered Regan to withdraw a nearly identical initiative from next Tuesday’s California ballot because it violated a gag clause that Regan himself secretly signed with the California Hospital Association. 

Regan's gag clause -- which he refused to show to SEIU-UHW's Executive Board -- prohibited the union from “raising concerns about… executive compensation in health care” and blocked SEIU-UHW from supporting any legislation, initiative, or regulatory action "adverse to the California hospital industry."

In late June, Regan was forced to dump his California initiative after having spent at least $5 million of SEIU-UHW members’ dues to collect voters’ signatures.

In 2012, Regan was forced to withdraw yet another ballot initiative after the Los Angeles Times discovered that Regan had inserted hidden loopholes in the initiative’s legal language designed to exempt two giant hospital corporations -- which control 25% of California’s hospitals -- from the new requirements.

And earlier this year, Dishonest Dave snatched TV headlines by allegedly assaulting a process server trying to deliver legal records to Regan’s home on behalf of the California Hospital Association.

How does the saying go about the gang that can’t shoot straight?

Maybe SEIU-UHW members should ask Dave to refund all the money he’s pissed down the drain via his f*ck-ups, sell-outs and failures, which now tallies more than $30 million by Tasty’s count.

Here’s another question. Why is Regan still collecting a paycheck? After all, would your boss keep you on the job if you repeatedly screwed up at a cost of millions and millions of dollars?

BREAKING: Judge Confirms Arbitrator’s Decision Requiring SEIU-UHW to Withdraw California Ballot Initiative

Sacramento County Superior Court

This afternoon, a Sacramento County Superior Court judge confirmed an arbitrator’s June 6th decision that orders SEIU-UHW’s Dave Regan to withdraw a statewide ballot initiative by June 30 or face tens of millions of dollars in fines, according to court records and sources who attended the hearing.

Judge David Brown announced his decision at the end of a hearing during which attorneys from SEIU-UHW and the California Hospital Association (CHA) argued their positions.

Yesterday, the judge issued a tentative ruling on the matter, according to the Los Angeles Times (John Myers, “Sacramento Judge Moves to Cancel a November Ballot Initiative Limiting Salaries of Hospital CEOs,” June 23, 2016).

SEIU-UHW’s spokesperson Steve Trossman told the Times that SEIU-UHW “will decide next week whether to appeal the judge's ruling or allow the initiative to be scrapped.”

The Superior Court judge’s ruling represents a massive defeat for Regan.

In 2014, Regan leapt into bed with hospital CEOs to forge a secret deal that sold out workers, patients, and the public. Regan triumphantly called the sell-out deal a “visionary” agreement that would transform U.S. labor relations and the healthcare industry.  Yeah right.

By late 2015, Regan found himself with nothing to show for his sordid act of lovemaking with the fatcat CEOs.

So, in November of 2015, Regan decided to file a statewide ballot initiative targetING his CEO pals and their multi-million-dollar salaries. Unfortunately, Regan forgot about the far-reaching gag clause that he’d written and signed… and which specifically blocks him from filing such a ballot initiative. 

Doh!

Regan must now carefully contemplate his next chess move after flawlessly steering SEIU-UHW into a tight-ass corner with no way out. 

Thanks to Regan, SEIU-UHW’s members are trapped in a no-win situation where they will watch as somewhere between $5 million and $50 million of their dues money is unceremoniously flushed down the toilet.

Way to go, Dave!

Stay tuned for Dave’s next Einstein move.

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

Dave Regan Plays Hide n' Seek with California Hospital Association

Here's the latest in the legal battle between SEIU-UHW and the California Hospital Association (CHA)… which has now spread across three California courthouses and features SEIU-UHW President Dave Regan’s alleged arm-breaking assault against a process server.

In the latest development, Regan has instructed his high-priced attorneys to play a game of legal "hide n’ seek" with the CHA.

Here's what's happening.

In November, SEIU-UHW filed a lawsuit against CHA CEO Duane Dauner in Sacramento Superior Court. The suit angrily attacked Dauner (Dave’s former BFF) for ditching SEIU-UHW in order to team up with Laphonza Butler and the SEIU California State Council.

In response, the CHA filed a countersuit in the same courthouse. The CHA asked the judge to consolidate the two lawsuits into a single case so all of the interrelated issues could be handled together.

Days later, Regan mysteriously dropped his lawsuit… only to refile it a week later in Los Angeles County Superior Court, some 400 miles away.

Apparently, Regan realized his lawsuit would soon be tossed by the judge, so he launched a game of legal hide n’ seek that involves SEIU-UHW's $500-an-hour attorneys ducking and hiding behind the shrubs, fenceposts and garbage cans of the legal world.

In recent days, the CHA responded by asking a Los Angeles judge to send Regan’s lawsuit back to Sacramento.

Here are some excerpts from the CHA's March 25 request to the Los Angeles judge, with a full copy below.

Take note of how the CHA describes Regan's 21st century vision of labor relations in which SEIU pursues "cooperation," rather than "confrontation," with healthcare corporations because of workers' "aligned interests" with the millionaire bosses and shareholders who employ them.

Defendants [CHA] move to transfer venue to Sacramento County, which is undoubtedly the "proper county" for this case and was the county where these defendants were sued over the same set of facts only a few months ago….

As noted, this is not the first time Mr. Dauner has faced a meritless action seeking to remove him as director and Co-Chair of [Caring for Californians, a Labor Management Committee]… In November 2015, UHW filed an action in Sacramento County, purportedly on behalf of CFC, seeking the same relief sought here under a different statute. After CHA moved to intervene in that action, UHW voluntarily dismissed its complaint… A week later, Mr. Regan filed this action.

Mr. Regan's complaint is as clear an example of forum shopping as can be imagined. The Corporations Code, however, prohibits that conduct. The Court should transfer this action to Sacramento County…

In 2014, UHW, CHA, and a number of California hospitals and health systems entered into an agreement titled the "Code of Conduct" that sought to align the interests of employers and employees and "create a new model for labor relations that is based on cooperation rather than confrontation." The Code of Conduct mandated the creation of a joint advocacy committee to function as a Labor Management Cooperation Committee... which UHW and CHA would jointly controlled to advance their common interest.

  California Hospital Association's Motion to Transfer Venue of SEIU-UHW Lawsuit: 03-25-2016

SEIU-UHW's Dave Regan Runs for Hills, Dropping Lawsuit against Hospital Association

SEIU-UHW President Dave Regan has suffered yet another setback in his $25 million quest to forge a secret "partnership" with the California Hospital Association (CHA).

According to court records, Regan has voluntarily dropped a lawsuit that SEIU-UHW filed against CHA’s top officials just 12 weeks ago.

Here's what's going on:

In November, CHA officials announced they were ditching Regan in favor of their new pals at the SEIU California State Council and the California Teachers Association. Like a jilted lover, Regan angrily sued CHA CEO Duane Dauner in Sacramento County Superior Court, alleging Dauner violated their secret "partnership" deal and was a "saboteur."

The CHA then counter-sued Regan, asserting that SEIU-UHW is barred from filing any lawsuits against the CHA due to a secret gag clause signed by Regan.

The gag clause, which has now emerged in court documents, not only prohibits SEIU-UHW from suing hospitals or their execs, it also blocks the purple union from "raising concerns about... executive compensation in health care," initiating or supporting legislation that's "adverse to the interests of the hospital industry," saying "derogatory" things about corporations and their bosses, etc.

When a process server attempted to deliver legal documents to Regan's home on behalf of the CHA, Regan allegedly pushed the process server down the stairs of his home, breaking his arm. The District Attorney will decide whether to file criminal charges against Regan, according to CBS News.

As for the dueling lawsuits in Superior Court, it looks like the CHA has come out on top.

Earlier this month, SEIU-UHW quietly dropped the lawsuit it filed just weeks earlier amidst beaucoup hoopla.

Here's an excerpt from a sworn declaration submitted to the judge by Matthew Silveira, an attorney for the CHA, describing the phone call and e-mail he received from SEIU-UHW's attorneys announcing "that UHW had filed a Request for Dismissal of this action in its entirety."

Additional court records (see below) confirm that SEIU-UHW has voluntarily withdrawn its entire lawsuit against the CHA.

Bruce Harland: Adios!

So what happened?

Tasty’s hunch is that Ragin’ Dave Regan and his hack attorney, Bruce Harland of Weinberg, Roger and Rosenfeld, simply f*cked up. 

Back in November, they were so hot to sue the CHA that they simply failed to pay attention to the massive gag clause and arbitration clause that plainly blocked SEIU-UHW from filing a suit. 

Harland actually helped to negotiate the gag clause. Go figure.

Perhaps that's why Regan, in mid-January, dumped Harland and replaced him with a second firm, Prometheus Partners of San Francisco.

In February, SEIU-UHW’s new attorney Eduardo Roy submitted a two-page filing to the court stating:

"…UHW has submitted to the Court a Request for Dismissal. Because UHW is voluntarily dismissing its action, there is no threat that CHA's interests could be impaired…"

Here's the full document. Stay tuned.

  SEIU-UHW's Request for Dismissal of Lawsuit versus the California Hospital Association: 02-04-2016

SEIU-UHW's Dave Regan and California Hospital CEOs Borrow a Page from Ronald Reagan's Playbook

Reagan's "Peacekeeper"

Here's more news about SEIU-UHW's secret deal with the California Hospital Association (CHA).

According to a complaint that NUHW recently filed with California Attorney General Kamala Harris, SEIU-UHW and hospital CEOs recently set up a corporate entity to implement the terms of their secret partnership deal. The new corporation is responsible for enforcing the gag clauses that reportedly block workers from reporting patient-care violations to local, state, and federal agencies.

The corporation is governed by a board of directors that includes Regan and hospital CEOs.

What to call the newly formed company responsible for gagging tens of thousands of hospital workers?

Well, Regan and his pin-striped industry pals decided to borrow a page from Ronald Reagan’s playbook by naming their new corporation "Caring for Californians." 

In the 1980s, Reagan famously named a newly developed U.S. intercontinental ballistic missile, which carries up to ten 300-kiloton nuclear warheads, "The Peacekeeper."

Here's a letter printed on "Caring for Californians" letterhead. The company's office is located in the same building as the California Hospital Association. Both Reagan and the CHA's CEO Duane Dauner signed the letter as the "Co-Chairs" of "Caring for Californians." 

The letter also notes that Greg Adams (the President of Kaiser Permanente’s Northern California Region) is the "Treasurer" of "Caring for Californians." More records are below.

  Caring for Californians, "Letter of Authorization," May 1, 2015

Arianna Jimenez

Here are two filings that "Caring for Californians" made with the California Secretary of State, including its "Articles of Incorporation." 

The documents again name Duane Dauner and Kaiser's Greg Adams as key officers of the new company. 

One of the records also names SEIU-UHW's Arianna Jimenez as the "Secretary" of the company. Jimenez is UHW’s "Statewide Political Director" and a member of the union's "Executive Committee."

  Caring for Californians: "Articles of Incorporation" and "Statement of Information" fro...

An SEIU Document Sheds Light on Dave Regan's Proposed Deal with the California Hospital Industry

 

A source has provided a document that sheds more light on Dave Regan’s proposed partnership deal with the California hospital industry.

To date, Tasty’s sources have described only several features of the deal: a ban on strikes, the implementation of pre-negotiated “template” labor contracts on workers, and the elimination of many job classifications in order to give companies greater ability to "flex" and "multi-task" workers.

What else is in Regan’s deal?

Well, check out the terms of a similar partnership deal/unionization pact that SEIU was negotiating with California's nursing home industry in 2007 (see full document below).

The document emerged from the dark recesses of SEIU’s secret negotiations after Sal Rosselli and his reformers blew the whistle on SEIU's corrupt back-room deal… which caused Andy Stern, Mary Kay Henry and the Purple Palace to launch their effort to oust Rosselli and his reformers via a bogus trusteeship.

SEIU's Dave Kieffer

The document details the terms of a partnership deal under discussion between California’s nursing home bosses and SEIU’s Dave Kieffer, who was the intellectual architect and lead negotiator of the 2007 deal. Kieffer is reportedly playing a similar role in SEIU-UHW’s current negotiations with the California's hospital industry.

The document is nothing less than stunning. 

It contains a lengthy list of favors (euphemistically called “policy benchmarks”) that SEIU would have been required to accomplish in order to get “100% neutrality” at the Bosses’ nursing homes across the state. (“100% neutrality” means the right to organize all of the Bosses’ workers without any resistance).

In this case, the Boss is like a pet owner holding out taste treats in mid-air while telling his salivating purple poodle, “Jump HIGHER!”

So... what dirty deeds was SEIU prepared to perform for its corporate paymasters? The list is  jaw-dropping.

Item #1 required SEIU to betray California’s elderly and disabled nursing home residents by helping the Boss to re-write California's laws so nursing home companies would pay far less money to their patients when they killed, maimed, injured or abused them. Here's how it's described in the document below, with the term "facility" referring to a nursing home:

Reform tort law to set hard caps on non-economic punitive damages for elder abuse claims. Prevent all other legislation that expands potential liability of a facility.

Here are some additional items from Kieffer’s document:

Item #4 requires SEIU to steer $3 billion of additional Medicaid funding into the Bosses’ pockets.

Item # 5: “Prevent all consumer activist regulation and enforcement aimed at mandating quality care through greater punishment.”

Items 5, 6, 8 and 9 require SEIU to push through a variety of back-door maneuvers to undermine  minimum-staffing laws that are designed to protect the safety and health of nursing homes residents.

On the second page, item #8 prohibits SEIU from saying anything bad about the Boss… ever! It reads: “No negative rhetoric ever…”

Freeman was sentenced to jail for corruption

Item #9 requires SEIU to establish only one statewide SEIU  union in California guided by “Tyrone Freeman’s vision/philosophy.” WTF! In a reference to Sal Rosselli, the language states: “No Bay Area exceptions,” meaning the Boss demanded that SEIU remove Rosselli in order to do business.  Like the Purple Palace, the Boss prefers to deal only with corrupt and incompetent union leaders like Freeman.

Item #11: “No strikes, slowdowns, etc ever for any reason.”

Item #12: “Only long-term template CBAs, else letter disclaiming interest placed in escrow and available if union seeks changes in provisions.” (The term "CBAs" refers to collective bargaining agreements.)

Item #13: “Union is happy to have little or no role in workplace decision-making.”

Under the section entitled “Collective Bargaining Agreement”…

Item #1: “50 year collective bargaining agreement per the current template with ‘no strike’…”

Item #2: “No cap or limitations on economic return to employers.” (That is, SEIU would agree to allow the Boss to make as much profit as possible.)

Item #9: “No ability for union to demand 100% paid health care or use of union pension plan.”

Totally stunning, right? 

SEIU-UHW's Dave Regan

What's important to note about SEIU's deals is that SEIU not only sells out workers, it also throws patients and the public interest under the wheels of the purple bus. 

For example... SEIU's deals typically include gag clauses that block workers from criticizing healthcare corporations even when they jeopardize the health of patients. They also include provisions that require SEIU to fully embrace corporations' disgusting anti-consumer policy and legislative agenda.

It's a dirty deal with the devil... which SEIU is fully willing to accept.

In fact, Californians have already seen the consequences of SEIU's deals with the devil during Regan's trusteeship. 

Last year, Regan teamed up with the California Hospital Association to try to roll back California's landmark nurse-to-patient staffing law... even though this would have hurt thousands of SEIU's own members who are Registered Nurses.

More recently, Regan directed SEIU-UHW's political organizers to lobby alongside Kaiser Permanente to kill a bill introduced by UNITE HERE and multiple other unions that sought to hold down health insurance premiums by forcing companies like Kaiser to be more transparent about its price hikes on consumers.

All of this begs the question... what else is in Regan's proposed partnership agreement with the California hospital industry?

   A Proposed Deal for a Partnership between SEIU and the California Nursing Home Industry in 2007. Dated Marc...