Top 10 SEIU Bloopers 2009 Part II

5. Threatening California's Progressives. Pretty soon after rolling in from DC, it became clear to Dave Regan et al. that California's labor and political leadership was not prepared to be SEIU's lapdog. Well, that did NOT sit well with SEIU who made these (among other) threats this year: threatening to leave the SF Labor Council over UNITE HERE Pres. Mike Casey's support of NUHW (b/t/w, SEIU also threated to leave 3 other labor councils, too); threatening to organize teachers at charter schools if NUHW held a fundraiser at the United Teachers of Los Angeles union hall (SEIU can't and won't raid the UTLA's jurisdiction: no staff, no will, no plan); threatening to cut off funding to the California Democratic Party because Party Chair John Burton was one of the sponsors of a NUHW fundraising event - this, even though hundreds of thousands of California's public-sector workers are members of SEIU and the Democratic Party controls both houses of the state legislature (not done yet, and probably an empty threat.)

4. Attacking Unite/Here. Not only is SEIU losing on every front of their "war" with Unite/Here (legally, politically, financially and with the workers) but now everyone in the whole labor movement hates SEIU! Oops! John Wilhelm called it "real widespread revulsion" at SEIU's approach to other unions. Andy, save everyone the trouble and pass out the Fund for Union Democracy donation envelopes everywhere you go, k?

3. Calling Academics "Not really High Value Targets." Potentially the most hilarious blooper of '09. The labor academics of the US sent SEIU a letter expressing concern about the SEIU v Unite/Here fight. SEIU sent a bunch of emails around internally basically saying: we should email these people, and by the way aren't they all such a bunch of out of touch losers? And then attached those internal emails to the SEIU? Tasty can't do it any more justice than Perez Stern did!

2. Removal of 90% of UHW Stewards. Human Nature, SEIU. You know what people don't like? When you say: Hey elect people to represent you. And then when they do, you say: Nope, not them. And then effectively fire them.

and Drumroll, please...

1. Underestimating the members of SEIU-UHW. Without a doubt the number one error SEIU has, is and will make is underestimating the resolve of UHW health care workers.

They thought we were confused when we signed those decertification petitons. They thought we would buckle under SEIU's lawsuits, ULPs, election delays, threats, elimination of our stewards, smear campaign and countless misleading emails, phone calls, flyers and mailers. They were wrong. Each day the majority of us are more and more sure that NUHW is our future and we are ready to leave those Zombies in the past.

And so, to all of you out there, Happy 2010. May this be the year that California's health care workers take back the power over their union.

Top 10 SEIU Bloopers, 2009 Part I

10. SRMH election. 13 votes? Dozens of staff, truckloads of glossy mailers... and 13 votes? And Dave Regan still gets a Christmas bonus? This fiasco is not unlike the Crothall/Tarzana Med Center election where SEIU reportedly sent in 21 staff for the 54 workers, and then had to ask for SEIU's name to be taken off the ballot for fear of not getting even a single vote!

9. Ruining EFCA for the whole Labor Movement. The boss tactics, the bullshit legal challenges, firing leaders, threatening loss of benefits if workers vote for the union--a cornucopia of violations. It would merely be embarrassing if it weren't about to play a starring role in 2010's national debate on labor law reform. You think the Chamber of Commerce hasn't already cut some ads on this? Andy, Tasty hopes you are smarter than you appear and there is a super secret plan at work on this one!

8. Fresno! Vote for us or we'll call ICE. While SEIU is holding on to a slim victory for the moment, the Fresno vote was a disaster for them from start to finish. Dave Regan's threatening speech, Rebecca Malberg's ineptitude, and the Ten Million Dollar price tag pale in comparison to the lowest of all SEIU tactics: If workers were not voting for the Zombies their immigration status was threatened.

7. Agreeing to Kaiser Layoffs and Pension cuts, and then pretending that they didn't agree. Ever do something so stupid that when you are called on it you have to be like: nuh-uh? Yeah, well SEIU did that with the Kaiser layoffs. The failure would be laughable, unless you are one of the laid off or soon to retire members who got screwed by SEIU.

6. The Quality of Staff that SEIU has in California. If you run a huge union with literally thousands of smart well trained well paid staff and then you pick a huge fight with one of your largest locals and the turf becomes a war zone--what do you do? If you are Andy Stern you lay off loads of staff, fire all of the staff at the local in question (even the ones who aren't really that against you,) and then send every loser from every under performing local in the country in to run thing. Major FAIL! (Oh, yeah, and you have the least talented communications staff ever!)

...more tomorrow.

The Boss files objections to SRMH election.

Gosh, SEIU is so busy being union busters that Tasty nearly forgot about the Boss! (Tasty wishes it were SEIU and the useless NLRB we could forget about, and go back to winning for workers against employers, but oh well!)

Well, at SRMH the boss has filed objections in an attempt to overturn the NUHW victory in the SRMH election.

Detailed coverage on Sonoma County's Red Revolt here and here.

Terri Fernandez screams at Kaiser RNs!

On Christmas Eve, Terri Fernandez, UHW Zombie and rep with a reported history of being aggressive towards members, was at Kaiser Sunset doing her job as rep-i.e. eating lunch in the cafeteria.

One of the Sunset RNs saw Terri's purple shirt and decided to introduce herself and say, "I'm one of the RNs and I pay your salary and I just thought you'd like to see the union that we're voting for." She then showed Terri a leaflet that had dozens of RNs pictured on it.

Terri was NOT amused by this and grabbed the leaflet and ripped it in half said "I don't want anything that you have. You're a thief."

Some other RNs attracted by the ruckus came over and they were also treated to the Fernandez warmth-Terri proceeded to stamp, point her fingers at both of them and repeat, "Thief, thief!"

The RN's, who remain unclear why their rep would call them thieves, turned to their Kaiser co-workers who are still waiting for a decert election from the board and pointed out that the lady in question was not an errant psych patient, but the woman who was supposed to represent them for the union.

Terri, Tasty thinks it sounds stressful out there, maybe it's time to go back to your old standby: medical leave! It worked for the 2 years before the Trusteeship!

oopsie!

SEIU-UHW spokeswoman Adriana Surfas states that in 2009, wage increases of the union's health care workers were double the national average. Surfas says she misspoke in a quote that appeared on page A1 in Thursday's paper.

Oh, Adriana.

I need your help, readers.

I am working on a TOP 10 Biggest SEIU Bloopers of 2009, and I am looking for your favorite SEIU FAILs.

email me to help tastysternburger@gmail.com

Merry Christmas

Betting that Santa brought Andy a big bag of coal for his stocking!