NLRB Overturns Illegal Unionization Scheme between SEIU-UHW and SoCal Hospital

The NLRB has found SEIU-UHW officials guilty of rigging an illegal unionization scheme with HCA, the nation’s largest hospital corporation, which forced 200 Southern California hospital workers to join SEIU earlier this year.

The findings -- which are documented in an official NLRB notice posted below -- recall a similar episode at Chapman Medical Center. In August of 2012, the NLRB reversed the results of a union-representation election for 220 of Chapman’s workers after determining that SEIU-UHW had illegally rigged the vote count in collusion with hospital executives.

SEIU-UHW’s track record of fraudulent elections raises obvious concerns as Dave Regan tries to negotiate a sweetheart unionization pact with the California Hospital Association that would allow SEIU-UHW to unionize 100,000 workers without any employer resistance but would force the workers into cheap, pre-negotiated contracts that ban strikes.

So what happened at the HCA hospital?

After HCA purchased Thousands Oaks Surgical Hospital, SEIU-UHW cut a deal with HCA executives that forced the hospital’s 200 Registered Nurses and other staff to join SEIU without a vote and forced them to immediately begin paying dues to SEIU.

In May, the hospital’s workers filed charges with the NLRB alleging that HCA executives and Dave Regan colluded to force the 200 workers into SEIU.

After an investigation, the NLRB overturned the unionization scheme and forced SEIU-UHW to post the following notice informing workers of their right to a democratic vote that allows them to elect the union of their choice.

   SEIU-UHW's NLRB Posting Notice resulting from illegal unionization scheme at an HCA Hospital (Thousand Oaks...

 

Union Staffer's Tweet Offers Window into SEIU's Secret Deal with Puerto Rican Governor

Bruce Raynor

From time to time, little fragments of information sneak through the internet to offer us interesting glimpses into the lives of SEIU’s top officials.

Here’s one.

A former staffer from the Change to Win Coalition recently tweeted the following message about his experiences with Bruce Raynor and Aníbal Acevedo Vilá, the former governor of Puerto Rico. Raynor, of course, is the guy who famously teamed up with SEIU President Andy Stern to unsuccessfully raid UNITE HERE.

Translation? 

This unfortunate union staffer was assigned to serve at the beck and call of Raynor and then-Governor Acevedo Vila… including fetching them icecream bars during the 2008 Democratic National Convention at Denver’s Mile High Stadium.

Gov. Anibal Acevedo Vila

At that moment, Acevedo Vila had been indicted on 24 counts of campaign finance violations.

He'd also been doing lots of dirty deeds for SEIU. 

Earlier that year, Acevedo Vila worked hand-in-glove with SEIU’s Dennis Rivera in an effort to take over the largest and most militant union in Puerto Rico: the 42,000-member Puerto Rican Teachers Union (La Federacion de Maestros de Puerto Rico or “FMPR”).

SEIU got the governor to issue a declaration decertifying the FMPR and then suspended the union’s right to collect membership dues. Next, the governor scheduled an election to allow the island’s 42,000 teachers to choose a union... but Gov. Acevedo Vila carefully rigged the election so that SEIU was the only union on the ballot!

So... it's no wonder that SEIU/Change to Win assigned its staffers to race through Mile High Stadium to buy icecream bars for the corrupt governor and SEIU officials!

What happened to Puerto Rico's teachers?

SEIU's Dennis Rivera

Fortunately, the teachers could smell a rat a mile away. When the ballots from the rigged election were counted in October of 2008, the teachers trounced SEIU… and sent Dennis Hickey Rivera and hundreds of purple-shirted staffers scurrying for the first flight back to the U.S. 

Quite a story... whose latest chapter was written by the tweet from the union staffer!

CEO's Leaked Email Details Sweetheart Unionization Proposal by SEIU-UHW's Dave Regan

Duane Dauner, CEO of CHA

A consumer rights organization in Los Angeles has posted a copy of an internal email from the CEO of the California Hospital Association (CHA) that describes Dave Regan’s attempt to secure a sweetheart unionization deal covering tens of thousands of healthcare workers.  

The email (see below) is authored by Duane Dauner, the CHA’s CEO, and was sent to hospital CEOs to report on Dauner's discussions with Regan. 

The third page of the document -- entitled “Year 1 Proposal” --  contains a list of 30,293 workers at 33 hospitals that Regan is trying to bring into SEIU-UHW under a deal that would force workers into cheap, pre-negotiated labor contracts. 

Today is the first time that Dauner's email has been publicly distributed. Earlier, unnamed sources described the email to Tasty and reporters at the Wall Street Journal and Los Angeles Times. 

Under Regan's proposed sweetheart deal, workers would be banned from striking and would no longer receive regular wage increases intended to keep pace with inflation.

According to Dauner's email, Regan was supposed to meet with hospital CEOs in October so he could discuss his proposed sweetheart deal with the industry. However, so few CEOs planned to attend the meeting that it was cancelled. Here’s an excerpt from Dauner’s email:

Due to lack of hospital executives' attendance at a meeting that was scheduled for today, the discussion session was canceled.

Today I had a conversation with Dave Regan, President of SEIU-UHW for California. He expressed disappointment and affirmed statements he has made on numerous occasions (dating back to the May 3, 2012 CHA-SEIU Strategic Agreement) that SEIU would file statewide ballot initiatives in October 2013 for the November 4, 2014 general election if progress is not made on SEIU’s goals as described in the Strategic Agreement under the category of "high road management-labor relations.” Specifically, SEIU expected elections covering 20,000 employees in hospitals under a mutually developed code of conduct. Thus far, no progress has been made towards agreements for elections.

I was advised today that four initiatives will be filed by mid-October (descriptions are attached). Also attached is a list of hospitals that SEIU proposes for agreements…

Here’s the full email.

   Email from Duane Dauner (CEO of the California Hospital Association) to Hospital CEOs regarding Sweetheart...

More Press on Dave Regan’s Effort to Ink Unionization Pact with California Hospital Industry

More details about Dave Regan's secret unionization pact have been revealed by the Los Angeles Times. 

In an article published Saturday, the Times confirms that Regan formally agreed to ban strikes by any workers who join SEIU-UHW. 

Regan also agreed to end guaranteed wage increases for workers;  instead, workers’ wages will be tied to the “quality of care."

According to the LA Times:

In a letter to individual healthcare chief executives on Nov. 21, Regan floated a new agreement that would include partly tying workers' pay to the quality of care, limiting layoffs and promising no strikes.

The latest reports point to the giant elephant in the room:  under Regan’s scheme, Duplicitous Dave will “pre-negotiate” all of the workers’ contracts without any input from the workers… or even a ratification vote.

In another new detail, Regan tells the Times he’s willing to spend $24 million of SEIU-UHW members’ dues money to win such a deal from the California Hospital Association:

Regan said the union is prepared to spend $4 million to collect signatures to qualify its measures for the ballot and up to $20 million to campaign for their passage. But the two sides are still talking, and the union could decide to pull the plug on the initiatives.

Regan recently boosted SEIU-UHW members’ maximum dues by $40 per month -- from $84 to $124 -- which will produce a multi-million-dollar windfall for SEIU-UHW's bank account. 

Finally, in a repeat performance, Regan and his spokesperson, Steve Trossman, continue to step all over each other in the article. First, Regan dishonestly claims that his ballot initiatives are not designed to win a unionization pact from California’s hospital bosses:

The union disputes Dauner's characterization that the initiatives were filed to force cooperation with its organizing efforts. Dave Regan, the union's president, said Dauner's characterization of the labor group's position is "very narrow, inaccurate and incredibly incomplete."

Next, Trossman makes Regan look like the liar that he is:

In a letter to individual healthcare chief executives on Nov. 21, Regan floated a new agreement that would include partly tying workers' pay to the quality of care, limiting layoffs and promising no strikes.

Although Regan's letter does not mention organizing efforts, they have been a "very explicit" part of the negotiations, said Steve Trossman, the union's communications director. "If we could reach an agreement" on the broad labor issues, he said, "then we would definitely consider dropping the initiatives."

It's the Laurel and Hardy show... courtesy of Dave and Steve!

The full article is available at this link on the LA Times website.

Where Is She Now…? SEIU’s Angela Hewett

SEIU's Hewett inside Kaiser cafeteria

When readers last sent news of her, Angela Hewett had quit her job at SEIU-UHW and taken a position as the Organizing Director at the American Association of University Professors (AAUP).

In an earlier post, Tasty described Hewett’s dramatic makeover. 

At SEIU-UHW, Hewett was best known for thuggery. Under Dave Regan’s guidance, she instructed SEIU-UHW’s stewards to turn Kaiser Permanente’s hospitals into “World War III” battlegrounds to try to stop workers from discussing their choices in an NLRB election between SEIU-UHW and NUHW.

Later, Hewett was captured on film as she screamed and beat her fists on tables inside the cafeteria at Kaiser Baldwin Park Medical Center in Los Angeles. Hewett was trying to stop 82-year-old labor legend Dolores Huerta, a co-founder of the United Farm Workers Union with Cesar Chavez, from talking to workers inside the hospital’s cafeteria filled with patients, family members and off-duty workers.

Well… it looks like Hewett’s job at the AAUP hasn’t turned out so well. Just months after she took the professorial job, Hewett is no longer an employee.

Tasty doesn’t have any details on Hewett’s departure… although he speculates that her Regan-inspired fist-pounding might have rubbed some of the professors the wrong way. Who would've guessed!

Angela Hewett during a quieter moment at the AAUP