More on SEIU's Transfer of California Longterm Care Workers

Here’s additional news, analysis, and commentary on SEIU's transfer of California long-term care workers as well as the "leaked memo" authored by SEIU-UHW’s Dave Regan: (1) an excerpt from labor journalist Cal Winslow’s article and (2) NUHW’s perspective on the situation.

Late last week, Winslow -- author of "Labor’s Civil War in California" -- published "SEIU: Pawns in Their Game" in CounterPunch and Beyond Chron. Here’s an excerpt:

The announcement of the new union itself came from the desk of Mary Kay Henry, the President of SEIU. Good news? SEIU is always about being the biggest, triumphalist in its campaigns – and gimmicks…

The details? Just how will all this happen? Well, we’ll have to wait. So will the workers. Not to worry, however; according to the mailer, “We are developing an orderly transition plan and will be in regular communication with you and all affected members over the next few months.” Questions? “Please call 844-259-1694. Your fellow union members are standing by to take your call.”

I called and was informed that eight members were ahead of me but “your call is important to us.” However, I could leave a question and receive a call back “within two business days.” I held on and after 16 minutes spoke to Minh, a “staff organizer” in Los Angeles. I asked him if it was indeed a done deal he said yes. And would the new local be headed by Laphonza Butler, a Henry protégé, now of Local 6364, “yes, at this point… it is still a process in transition.” And would there be any informational meetings in my area, North Bay, Santa Rosa? “No, none were scheduled.”

…Widely despised in trade union circles, not to mention amongst his own members, Regan came to California in 2008, parachuted in by Andy Stern, then President of SEIU, to take command of a trusteed UHW. Since then he has established himself as a friend of the hospital bosses par excellence, a grantor of concessions, champion of partnerships. His latest secret deal has been with Kaiser Permanente and its hospitals, one that stops the public (and the authorities) from knowing about quality of care problems in the state’s massive healthcare industry.

Finally, here’s NUHW’s take:

"Corporate Collaborator" Dave Regan undercut by SEIU International; SEIU-UHW members caught in crossfire

"In the labor movement, there are two kinds of leaders — those who fight big corporations, and those who collaborate with them," Consumer Watchdog President Jamie Court wrote in the Huffington Post this week. "The poster child for the collaborators just had half his membership taken away.

"David Regan, head of United Healthcare Workers West, who inked sweetheart deals with California's largest HMO, Kaiser and its hospitals, to keep quality-of-care problems hush-hush, and only fought for corporations' political goals, lost 70,000 of his 150,000 members recently. 

"It's a fitting fate for one of labor's biggest corporate sellouts."

Mary Kay Henry, president of SEIU International, is shoring up her power base within the union by unilaterally cutting SEIU–UHW in half and moving 70,000 home care workers into a new local. SEIU–UHW members not only didn't get to vote on the move, they were not even aware of it until the deal was done. 

Those who remember the 2009 trusteeship of SEIU–UHW will appreciate the irony of this latest fiasco, which Cal Winslow has dissected in his latest article, "Pawns in SEIU's Game," published this week by CounterPunch and BeyondChron.  

This same top-down decision to eviscerate SEIU–UHW was the basis for the trusteeship that resulted in the ouster of the union's previous leaders, who went on to form democratic, member-led NUHW with the support of thousands of SEIU–UHW members. It was clear then that the transfer was purely a political move, a scheme by SEIU International's then President Andy Stern and then Vice President Mary Kay Henry to get rid of the democratic leadership of SEIU–UHW and put it firmly under the control of SEIU International in Washington DC.

And if anyone doubted that fact, it was later made abundantly clear when Stern and Henry decided not to follow through on the move once they'd installed their friend Dave Regan as president of SEIU–UHW. 

Stern has since moved on to join the ranks of corporate America, leaving Mary Kay Henry in charge, and now she's resurrected the scheme, this time to undermine her former protégé, Regan, who has responded with an outlandishly hypocritical memo that rails against the very same actions that helped get him his job in 2009. Regan was in favor of carving up SEIU–UHW when it worked in his favor but calls it "a massive betrayal" now that it doesn't.

Click here to read Dave Regan's memo. If you think it sounds familiar, it is. These are the same arguments voiced by NUHW leaders when they were ousted from SEIU–UHW by Regan, Henry, and Stern six years ago. 

One could almost find it amusing if it weren't so tragic. A once democratic union that was built through decades of struggle has been steadily undermined over the past six years until it has become a corporatized branch of the autocratic SEIU International. And now, with the transfer of half of SEIU–UHW's membership into a new local, the dismantling of what was once the biggest, strongest, proudest healthcare union in California is nearly complete. 

Our condolences to SEIU–UHW members, who remain trapped in an undemocratic and increasingly corporate-minded union whose leaders protect their own power at the expense of the workers they ostensibly represent. 

Leaked Memo In Full: Dave Regan on Internal War with SEIU

Check out Dave Regan’s leaked memo, first described in a June 17th article in the San Francisco Business Times. Tasty has pasted it below.

In the memo -- "Who’s Gonna Bell the Cat? The Tyranny of the Majority: Ethics and Values in SEIU?” -- Regan catapults himself to new heights of hypocrisy by tearfully condemning SEIU's decision to transfer 65,000 SEIU-UHW long-term care workers to a new statewide union.

In 2009, Regan not only supported this transfer, he was a top SEIU staffers in DC who designed, promoted, and executed the plan to carry out the transfer of these same 65,000 workers. Later, SEIU President Andy Stern rewarded Regan for his political hatchet job by appointing him to head SEIU-UHW after its pro-democracy leadership had been removed.

As far as Regan's hypocrisy, the president of a consumer rights organization describes it this way in a piece published yesterday in the Huffington Post:

Regan has "issued one of the more hypocritical memos ever written... In a long, dressed-up whine about his fate, he complained about payoffs, gag clauses, and everything being for sale, including souls. These are the very strategies Regan made his bones with in the union movement."

In Dave’s delusional memo, Regan tries to reinvent himself as a crusader for union democracy, transparency, and worker rights. Regan pretends to leap onto the stage as a hero who’s being victimized by a tyrannical despot. Cloaked in self-righteous armor, he climbs atop his high horse and tearfully moans and groans about the horrific crimes and injustices that, uhh, he himself actually perpetrated against these same workers.

And in case that’s not enough, Dave heaves another steaming shovelful of bullsh*t atop his dungheap of hypocrisy.

Remember the recent revelations about the gag clause that Regan secretly signed with the California Hospital Association?

Well, Dave didn't blink an eye when, with the stroke of his pen, he gagged more 80,000 hospital workers from reporting patient-care violations to government investigators. But now, he's crying crocodile tears over an internal SEIU gag rule (which he reportedly agreed to) that's supposed to stop him, a graduate of Cornell University, from airing SEIU's dirty laundry with the outside world.

Cry me a river, muthafuka!

And spare me your morally righteous bullsh*t.

As Jamie Court, the president of Consumer Watchdog, noted in his Huffington Post article:

In the labor movement, there are two kinds of leaders -- those who fight big corporations, and those who collaborate with them. The poster child for the collaborators just had half his membership taken away.

David Regan, head of United Healthcare Workers West, who inked sweetheart deals with California's largest HMO, Kaiser and its hospitals, to keep quality of care problems hush-hush, and only fought for corporations' political goals, lost 70,000 of his 150,000 members recently.

It's a fitting fate for one of labor's biggest corporate sellouts.

Here's the full piece:

  Dave Regan: "Who’s Gonna Bell the Cat? The Tyranny of the Majority: Ethics and Values in SEIU?" (...

Leaked Memo: SEIU-UHW’s Dave Regan Wages Internal War against Mary Kay Henry and SEIU

Dave Regan’s faintly concealed anger towards SEIU President Mary Kay Henry, which is contained in a June 6 letter to long-term care workers, has now burst into the open thanks to a leaked memo.

Today, the San Francisco Business Times published this article: 

“'Massive Betrayal': Leaked Memo Reveals SEIU's Internal War over Health Care Workers.”

So who’s the author of the seven-page "leaked memo"?

Dave Regan!

Here are some excerpts from the San Francisco Business Times article (the full article is below. Btw, the leaked memo has not yet surfaced publicly):

Regan said the local's leadership first officially heard about the plan to downsize UHW in January, but believes it was hatched last October and has roots in years of enmity between local and national leaders.

"We are absolutely clear this decision is malicious and undertaken with the full knowledge that the interests of California healthcare workers are being sacrificed to the political needs of Mary Kay Henry," Regan wrote. "We are ashamed and embarrassed for our Union."

The decision "marks the first time in my 25 years in SEIU (that) the union has knowingly, intentionally and willfully taken a major action that is contrary to the basic interests of the membership," Regan wrote in a highly opinionated seven-page missive obtained by the San Francisco Business Times.

"To put it bluntly," he added, "this decision is a massive betrayal of our stated principles and values. 

By writing the missive, which was undated but clearly written after May 21, Regan noted that he may be violating a "gag order" by SEIU's leadership forbidding officers and staffers from speaking "candidly and completely" about the decision to wrest half of his membership away.

Another quote indicates Regan may be actively working to undermine SEIU’s efforts in California.

"The effort to win the hearts and minds of UHW homecare leaders and members will be a challenging task, given their strong attachment to their UHW identity," he wrote. "This effort will not be done in weeks or even months.”

Of course, Regan's righteous indignation is tainted by so much hypocrisy (and plain old bullsh*t) that it's hard to know where to start.

Dave Regan

Regan says SEIU’s decision "marks the first time in my 25 years in SEIU (that) the union has knowingly, intentionally and willfully taken a major action that is contrary to the basic interests of the membership."

Regan apparently has forgotten about the undemocratic and disastrous trusteeship that he himself imposed on California healthcare workers in 2009. Since parachuting into California, Regan has a eliminated the defined benefit pensions of more than 25,000 SEIU-UHW members and replaced them with 401(k)s. He's accomplished this disgusting feat by brazenly lying to workers and violating SEIU-UHW's own constitution… as he famously did to 4,000 workers at the Daughters of Charity Health System.

Today, Regan professes to feel heartfelt pain that SEIU officials are harming "the interests of California healthcare workers." 

Gimme a break.

Remember, this is the same guy who, soon after parachuting into California as Andy Stern’s trustee, promptly fired several thousand democratically elected SEIU-UHW Shop Stewards and then imposed "loyalty oaths" on union members.

He reportedly directed a campaign of threats, intimidation and even violence against rank-and-file workers who favored joining another union… and even had his staff attack 85-year-old labor icon Dolores Huerta and make death threats against workers.

 

Mary Kay Henry

This is the same guy who liquidated SEIU-UHW members’ $4.1 million strike fund in the waning days of the trusteeship, when Regan exercised total control over the union’s finances.

This is the same guy who has refused to allow SEIU-UHW’s own Executive Board to see a copy of the secret deal he signed with the California Hospital Association, which reportedly gags workers and forfeits their right to strike.

Today, Regan passionately defends the right of workers to stay in SEIU-UHW. But in 2008-09, he aggressively backed SEIU’s effort to transfer SEIU-UHW's long-term care workers into a separate union by arguing it would be better for workers.

How much integrity can Regan claim to have when he flip-flops so violently? Not much. 

Yo Dave, take a long hard look in the mirror.

Here's the full article:

San Francisco Business Times

'Massive betrayal': Leaked memo reveals SEIU's internal war over health care workers

Jun 17, 2015

Chris Rauber

California's largest health care union is being cut virtually in half by the Service Employees' International Union's senior leaders in Washington, D.C., a step its Oakland-based leader calls "devastating" to union members.

Dave Regan, president of the Oakland-based United Healthcare Workers' West local, which currently represents about 150,000 workers in the Golden State, said SEIU President Mary Kay Henry announced the move May 21. It will slice 70,000 home care workers from UHW and transfer them to another SEIU local, leaving about 80,000 hospital and clinic service workers in the rump UHW local.

The decision "marks the first time in my 25 years in SEIU (that) the union has knowingly, intentionally and willfully taken a major action that is contrary to the basic interests of the membership," Regan wrote in a highly opinionated seven-page missive obtained by the San Francisco Business Times.

"To put it bluntly," he added, "this decision is a massive betrayal of our stated principles and values.

By writing the missive, which was undated but clearly written after May 21, Regan noted that he may be violating a "gag order" by SEIU's leadership forbidding officers and staffers from speaking "candidly and completely" about the decision to wrest half of his membership away.

"I want to make it clear that I have offered my thoughts not in my capacity as the President of UHW," he wrote, "but rather in my capacity as an individual member of SEIU, who is protected by the SEIU Constitution."

Officials at UHW didn't immediately respond to requests for comment. But SEIU, which boasts 2 million members and 150 locals nationwide, provided a statement from Mary Kay Henry on Wednesday afternoon.

Henry's response focused on the need for good long-term-care jobs, without delving into Regan's allegations. "That's why SEIU has begun the process of uniting all long-term care members in California into one strong union with one clear goal," she said, "winning $15 an hour and a union for everyone in the state who provides care and support to seniors and people with disabilities."

The newly chartered Local 2015 will have more than 280,000 members, Henry said, making it the largest such union local in the nation.

Another SEIU memo, this one reportedly written April 14 by International Executive Vice President Kirk Adams, confirms that creation of the new long-term-care local in California is starting this month, and involves shifting more than 200,000 SEIU workers from their current locals to a single California unit focusing on nursing home and home care.

It also suggests that the fight between UHW and the national leadership will have extensive fallout.

"The effort to win the hearts and minds of UHW homecare leaders and members will be a challenging task, given their strong attachment to their UHW identity," he wrote. "This effort will not be done in weeks or even months.”

A long-brewing battle

Regan said the local's leadership first officially heard about the plan to downsize UHW in January, but believes it was hatched last October and has roots in years of enmity between local and national leaders.

"We are absolutely clear this decision is malicious and undertaken with the full knowledge that the interests of California healthcare workers are being sacrificed to the political needs of Mary Kay Henry," Regan wrote. "We are ashamed and embarrassed for our Union."

But he insisted the Oakland local will keep fighting for its controversial "partnership" with the California Hospital Association, designed to help UHW recruit more members; for enhanced state funding of the Medi-Cal program for the poor, and for a $15 per hour minimum wage via a planned November 2016 ballot initiative.

Ironically, the current hostility between Oakland-based UHW and the parent union echoes a similar battle six and a half years years ago when former longtime UHW President Sal Rosselli tangled with top leaders and left to start the upstart National Union of Healthcare Workers, which has battled SEIU and UHW ever since. The union leader who replaced the fiery Rosselli: Dave Regan.

When I reached Rosselli by phone, he thoroughly enjoyed the irony of the situation, noting that Regan is now tangling with Henry over the same issue that splintered the union almost seven years ago, whether long-term-care workers are better off in UHW and other broad health care locals or in a specialized unit.

SEIU-UHW's Dave Regan Rains on Mary Kay Henry's Big New Union

It turns out that SEIU-UHW’s Dave Regan is a sore loser.

Diamond Dave recently lost his battle with SEIU President Mary Kay Henry over the transfer of 65,000 long-term care workers into a new local union (SEIU Local 2015).

Check out the following letter sent by SEIU-UHW to its soon-to-be-transferred nursing home and home care members.

Obviously, Regan can’t blast Mary Kay head-on. He’s part of SEIU. And a full frontal attack would violate all of SEIU’s rules. Given those constraints, however, Regan does his best to piss all over Mary Kay’s decision and to inflame workers’ opposition to SEIU and Mary Kay Henry.

Just how angry is Dave? 

Take note of the first line (“Dear…”), where Dave has removed "SEIU" from the union's title. Further below, see SEIU’s counter-message to workers in a recently delivered glossy mailer extolling the wondrous virtues of SEIU Local 2015.

Stay tuned for more volleys in the ongoing "war" between Diamond Dave and Mary Kay...

Dear UHW member,

We are writing to inform you that our national organization, SEIU, has decided to remove the care and nursing home members from the local union you have always been a part of (SEIU-UHW), and put you in a new organization called SEIU Local 2015. The new organization will be run by leaders appointed by the SEIU President Mary Kay Henry. You may receive phone calls, mailings or visits from SEIU to give you more information about this…

The elected leaders of SEIU-UHW urged SEIU not to separate home care and nursing home workers from the hospital workers in our union and instead unite all healthcare workers in one powerful organization. The leaders of SEIU decided on a different path and soon you will be transitioned into SEIU Local 2015.

Mary Kay Henry to 283,000 CA Workers: “You will soon be joining SEIU Local 2015”

Here's confirmation that SEIU-UHW’s Dave Regan lost his "war" with SEIU’s Mary Kay Henry.

In a letter dated June 3, 2015, Mary Kay Henry announced that SEIU is transferring 283,000 of its California home care and nursing home workers into a new statewide local union called “SEIU Local 2015.”

For SEIU-UHW, this will result in the loss of approximately 65,000 of its members to a new local union that’s presumably headed by the president of SEIU Local 6434, Laphonza Butler.

This earlier post discusses some of the internal intrigue and politics behind the Henry's move.

The letter -- which comes from the “Desk of Mary Kay Henry” with her photo emblazoned on the letterhead – says:

"I'm writing with exciting news. SEIU has begun the process of uniting all long-term care members of California in one strong statewide local union… We are developing an orderly transition plan and will be in regular communication with you at all affected members over the next few months.”

Here's the letter (the home address has been blocked out with a piece of scrap paper).

Source: SEIU-UHW’s Dave Regan Caved in on Transfer of Long-Term Care Workers

Dave Regan has reportedly surrendered his sword to SEIU President Mary Kay Henry by agreeing to transfer SEIU-UHW's long-term care workers to SEIU Local 6434, according to one source whose report has not yet been confirmed.

Earlier this year, Henry appointed former SEIU Secretary-Treasurer Eliseo Medina to serve as a "hearing officer" to iron out the details of transferring the long-term care workers. Henry tasked Medina with producing a recommendation by June 2.

In recent months, Regan threatened Henry with "a war" and violated a gag order imposed by SEIU's International Executive Board. Regan also had SEIU-UHW's Executive Board pass a resolution that opposed the transfer of the workers and also labeled Henry "a disappointment."

Nonetheless, Tasty's source says Reagan recently threw in the towel after months of energetic chest-puffing and posturing that appears to have been little more than bluster.

More to follow.

SEIU-UHW's Dave Regan Fires Another Salvo in His Battle with Mary Kay Henry

SEIU-UHW’s Dave Regan has fired another salvo in his war with SEIU President Mary Kay Henry and SEIU's International Executive Board (IEB).

In January, SEIU's IEB ordered SEIU-UHW and SEIU Local 521 to finally carry out a six-year-old order to transfer their long-term care workers to SEIU Local 6434.

This week, California home care workers tell Tasty they’re receiving an SEIU-UHW "survey" in the mail that’s designed to build opposition to Mary Kay Henry and the IEB’s order. Here's a copy of the mailer, which says in part:

Below is a short survey about what you think nursing home, home care workers and our patients and clients need. This is our chance to shape the future of home care and healthcare in California...

How do you think your needs and your patient's/client’s needs will be better met? Choose one:

• Being united in a single, statewide healthcare union with ALL California hospital, nursing home and home care workers?

                    OR 

• Being separated from hospital workers and put into a different union of only home care and nursing home workers?

Regan also posted an electronic version of the survey on SEIU-UHW's website at http://www.seiu-uhw.org/betterfuture, where any member of the public can fill it out.

Regan’s "push poll" will undoubtedly cause SEIU officials to hit the roof. In March, the Purple Palace erupted in anger when Diamond Dave had SEIU-UHW’s Executive Board pass a resolution opposing the IEB’s order.

In addition to the survey, Tasty hears that Regan has assigned large numbers of SEIU-UHW staffers to organize home care and nursing home workers to oppose Mary Kay Henry and SEIU.

Will Regan try to use the results of the "survey" in his public battle with Mary Kay Henry? You betcha. But even if the survey had been conducted in a reliable fashion (which it wasn't), experience tells us you can't trust the results. Why? Because Diamond Dave loves to stuff the ballot box.

For example, Regan was famously apprehended while stuffing the ballot box in two unionization elections in Southern California at Chapman Medical Center and HCA’s Thousands Oaks Surgical Hospital. The NLRB documented the ballot-box-stuffing, overturned the elections, and cited SEIU-UHW for violating federal labor law.

Stay tuned.

Source: SEIU's Mary Kay Henry Moves to Transfer Homecare Workers Out of SEIU-UHW

What happened at last month’s meeting of SEIU’s International Executive Board (IEB) in Puerto Rico?

According to Tasty's sources, SEIU President Mary Kay Henry backed the transfer of SEIU-UHW’s homecare workers to SEIU Local 6434, which currently represents homecare and nursing home workers in California.

Tasty hears that when the news first reached him, SEIU-UHW President Dave Regan lost control of his bowels.

Why?

First of all, it's well known that Regan is plotting to seize Mary Kay Henry’s position at the Purple Palace. A transfer of homecare workers means Regan will lose the "delegated votes" of these 60,000 homecare members during future elections inside SEIU. (In SEIU, rank-and-file union members don't get to vote for SEIU’s president and International Executive Board -- instead, members' votes are assigned or "delegated" to local SEIU officials, who then cast the votes of tens of thousands of rank-and-file workers.)

Secondly, a transfer of the homecare workers means less dues money for "Wall Street" Dave.

Thirdly, it changes the political equation inside SEIU-UHW. Regan has relied on the votes of homecare workers to win SEIU-UHW’s internal elections. Without their votes, he’ll become more vulnerable to challengers.

So what’s Dave gonna do?

His first move appears to be to stall Mary Kay Henry’s plan. He reportedly requested that Henry put the transfer on hold for six months because, says Regan, the loss of the public-sector homecare workers will somehow diminish the "bargaining strength" of SEIU-UHW’s Kaiser workers, who are set to begin negotiations for a new contract in April.

Not exactly a persuasive argument, right? It's especially lame because SEIU-UHW’s upcoming contract negotiations with Kaiser Permanente are so tightly rigged that SEIU officials have already calendared the precise day in June when they will stand arm-in-arm with Kaiser execs and announce an "historic contract settlement." In fact, Regan and Kaiser’s executives have already scheduled the exact dates for SEIU-UHW workers' contract ratification votes. (More on this in a future post.)

What will happen if Regan resists the transfer of the homecare workers?

Tasty hopes that Mary Kay Henry and the IEB are busily preparing the legal papers to impose an emergency trusteeship on Regan. Of course, once the trusteeship is implemented, Mary Kay Henry can simply ignore the order to transfer the homecare workers for, uhh, at least a decade.

Remember, this is SEIU… where workers are pawns on a purple Monopoly board that’s shamelessly used by SEIU officials to pursue their personal quests for power, fame and money.

Dave Regan Pulls Bait-and-Switch on SEIU-UHW's Homecare Members

SEIU-UHW's Dave Regan

In recent weeks, the California Secretary of State posted an unremarkable notice on its website that has important implications for SEIU-UHW’s members… and offers an interesting window into the manipulative tactics that Dave Regan employed against the union's own membership to accomplish his ballot initiative deal with the California Hospital Association.

Last year, Regan not only launched two statewide ballot initiatives targeting the California Hospital Association. He also launched a signature-gathering campaign aimed at putting an initiative on the ballot to raise California's homecare workers’ wages by $2.00 per hour. It was called the Fair Wages and Training for Homecare Workers Act.

Why?

As Tasty explained at the time, Regan wanted to have an excuse to enlist SEIU-UHW’s 65,000 homecare workers in volunteer signature-gathering to help collect the 1.1 million signatures needed to qualify his CHA measures for the ballot.

In order to make sure his CHA initiatives got on the ballot, he spent millions of dollars of the union's funds to hire professional signature gatherers... which, according to Regan, allowed SEIU-UHW to easily surpass the number of signatures needed to qualify his two CHA measures. 

But Regan didn't apparently do the same thing for the homecare initiative. What happened?

That's where the Secretary of State's website comes in.

On July 11th, the Secretary of State reported that SEIU-UHW’s homecare initiative (Initiative #1637) failed to qualify for the ballot because it was nearly 100,000 signatures short of the minimum number of signatures needed.

Ouch!

What next? Time to get ready for Regan’s next bait-and-switch scheme.

Where is she now? Rebecca Malberg

SEIU's Rebecca Malberg

Remember Rebecca Malberg? 

In 2009, she was one of the East Coasters who parachuted into California with Dave Regan and served as a "Deputy Trustee” during SEIU’s infamous trusteeship of SEIU-UHW.  

Malberg -- who’s never been known as the sharpest knife in the drawer -- was rewarded for her blind loyalty to Regan with a seat on SEIU-UHW’s Executive Committee and a $150,000-a-year salary.

In a surprise move, Malberg recently announced she was jumping off Regan’s purple ship for a consulting gig.

Readers may recall Malberg for her role in the infamous Fresno homecare election. Back in mid-2009, she helped direct SEIU’s campaign of threats and lies against Fresno's homecare workers -- which included instructing SEIU organizers to threaten undocumented homecare workers with deportation unless they voted for SEIU.

In an earlier post, one of SEIU’s remorseful shocktroopers described Malberg’s role this way:

i am ashamed to say that i campaigned for seiu-uhw in fresno in 2009, and seiu-uhw staff - led by rebecca malberg, debbie schneider, greg pullman instructed other locals' staff and members to lie to fresno homecare workers.  we told them they would lose their benefits if they voted for nuhw.  We told them they would lose everything - their retirement, their health insurance, their voice.  it was so despicable, and unethical.  seiu-uhw "leaders" lied not only to the fresno workers, but the hundreds of rank and file leaders and staff from locals around the country who were organized or were dispatched to help. we stalked these fresno homecare workers for weeks... it was sickening, and i am sorry to have participated in such an illegal act of bullying and lies.

Where is Malberg now?

She recently took a job at a consulting firm called Harbage Consulting, which is headquartered in California's state capitol. The firm does political consulting; past clients include Arnold "The Terminator" Schwarzenegger. Harbage also consults with private and public-sector clients "with a focus on increasing value in healthcare delivery," according to the firm's website.

A Fresno homecare worker who was intimidated by SEIU

For any clients who are considering hiring Malberg, you might want to check out these reports -- including the conclusions of a government investigation -- about her role in SEIU’s campaign of threats, intimidation and ballot tampering aimed at pressuring low-wage homecare workers to vote for SEIU in an election.

The reports speak volumes about Malberg’s integrity and moral principles. After all… what kind of person would threaten low-wage immigrant homecare workers with deportation in order to win a vote?

Early Defeats for Regan's Dues Hike Spark More Reports of Dirty Tricks at SEIU-UHW Dues Vote

In California, workers report that Dave Regan’s effort to boost SEIU-UHW members’ top dues rate to $124 a month has already suffered a defeat at a number of hospitals where voting took place earlier this week.

At one Kaiser Permanente hospital in Northern California, Regan’s plan was defeated by a four-to-one margin: 155 to 42. At another Kaiser hospital in Southern California, it was defeated by a vote of 108 to 82.

However, workers are worried that Regan has more dirty tricks up his sleeves. 

On Facebook, homecare workers report that SEIU-UHW staffers are spreading misinformation in an effort to win support for the dues hike. SEIU-UHW’s staffers are reportedly phoning homecare workers and telling them they won’t have to pay any dues at all if they work fewer than 24 hours per month. 

But that’s a lie! 

Under Regan’s plan, every member will pay dues, even homecare workers earning just $150 in a month, who’ll be required to pay the minimum dues rate of $32 per month.

If a purple misinformation campaign doesn't work, workers fear Regan will opt for an even bigger illegal scheme. Homecare workers are casting mail-in ballots, which are being collected and stored by Regan’s staffers until they’re ultimately counted. This gives Regan a perfect opportunity to stuff the ballot box behind closed doors, say workers.

Finally... check out this “irony of ironies.”

Readers may recall that in 2009, the Purple Palace ordered the trusteeship of SEIU-UHW after the union’s board refused to transfer 60,000 homecare workers to Tyrone Freeman’s union without first letting those workers vote on whether or not they wanted to be transferred.

Nearly four years later, SEIU has never ever transferred the homecare workers.

And now, Regan is trying to use the homecare workers’ votes (both stuffed and unstuffed) to ram through a giant dues hike on the rest of the union’s membership!

Apparently, there’s no trick that’s too dirty for SEIU.

SEIU Quits Election for 7,000 Homecare Workers in Vermont

SEIU has withdrawn from a union election covering 7,000 homecare workers in Vermont after Purple Palace officials concluded they face certain defeat in a head-to-head contest against AFSCME. The mail-in election is scheduled to begin on September 9.  

The purple departure comes despite the fact that SEIU spent millions of dollars on a campaign that featured SEIU attack websites against AFSCME, statewide radio and newspaper ads, glossy mailers and robo calls, dozens of out-of-state staffers parachuted into the Green Mountain State, and political spending reportedly aimed at greasing the wheels with the state’s governor.

One SEIU website -- www.qualityhomecarevt.org -- featured videos with titles like “AFSCME: Tried & Failed.” SEIU shuttered the website after pulling the plug on its unsuccessful campaign.

Earlier this summer, the Purple Palace instructed its lawyers to use bogus legal maneuvers to stall the election in hopes of somehow convincing enough workers to support the Purple Palace, according to press reports.

One of SEIU's attack videos against AFSCME

The election was triggered in May when AFSCME filed a petition signed by 4,500 of Vermont’s 7,000 homecare workers. In late June, SEIU could only muster 2,000 cards, which nonetheless added SEIU's name to the ballot.  

Earlier, SEIU attempted to set the stage for its effort by trying to buy influence from the governor via a flood of political spending -- similar to SEIU’s influence-buying deals with former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, who’s now doing 14 years in a federal prison in Colorado.

Observers feared SEIU was preparing to sell out Vermonters’ efforts to win single-payer legislation.

SEIU’s desperate bid for Vermont’s homecare workers was fueled by the Purple Palace’s declining membership rolls. Last year, SEIU’s membership dropped by 45,000 members as the Purple Palace suffered $42 million in red ink.

SEIU’s failed campaign in Vermont was headed by Matt McDonald, an SEIU operative who parachuted into California in 2010 and was involved in SEIU’s campaign of law-breaking that overturned the NLRB’s election at Kaiser Permanente.

This isn’t SEIU’s first failed effort to recruit Vermonters. A decade ago, SEIU failed to affiliate the still-independent Vermont State Employees Association.

Stay tuned for more!