Last Session of Kaiser's Partnership Bargaining Begins amidst Whispers of Cuts

Today, the partnership unions began their fourth and final bargaining session with Kaiser Permanente (June 3 to 5). 

On Friday June 5th, Kaiser and its partnering unions will announce a tentative agreement and will promptly begin issuing gobs of pre-prepared press releases, e-mails, website posts, videos, etc. detailed in a secret internal plan written last December by Kaiser's Office of Labor Management Partnership.

Then, ten days later (June 16-17), the partnership unions will complete their highly choreographed charade of bargaining by holding a "contract ratification conference" at the Sheraton Gateway LAX Hotel, where the rooms were reserved and paid for months ago.

Earlier this week, "Labor Notes" published the following article about the negotiations: "Will Kaiser's Labor Partnership Crack?"  The article's title may be a bit exaggerated, but the article accurately describes the basic situation:  Kaiser -- which has pocketed $15.5 billion in profits since 2009 -- is now seeking even more cuts from the partnership unions, and the partnership unions aren’t lifting a finger to fight their rich HMO boss.

SEIU-UHW -- the largest union in the partnership -- didn’t even conduct a bare-bones “contract campaign” among its membership.  An SEIU-UHW member who's quoted in the "Labor Notes" article says most union members don't even know that contract negotiations are taking place this year:

“If you were to walk into any Kaiser right now and say, ‘Are you guys bargaining?’” she says, “the majority would say ‘I don’t even know what you’re taking about’ or ‘I don’t know.’ That’s the truth.”

And SEIU-UHW's president, Dave Regan, and the partnership unions' Chief Negotiator, Hal Ruddick, apparently don't even believe in bargaining. Here's what Regan told members of the partnership unions' bargaining committee... and what Ruddick proudly re-tweeted:

Regan: "Negotiations are not a debate."

Meanwhile, several hints about Kaiser's proposed cuts are finally emerging from the tight-lipped partnership unions.

AFSCME’s United Nurses Associations of California (UNAC) -- which represents thousands of RNs in California -- recently posted an announcement on its website calling on nurses to attend a rally today in order "to protect our wages and benefits." (See below.) The website offers no details about the threatened cuts besides saying, “We need to create a sea of blue on June 3 and send a message to management that we are united to protect our wages, and active and retiree medical benefits!”

A day late and a dollar short.

UNAC’s rally appears to be a cynical ass-covering exercise orchestrated by union leaders. Later on, when workers complain about benefit cuts, the union leaders will say: “We asked you to attend a rally to fight the cuts. But not enough people showed up… so we had to accept them.”

Of course, history points us to the truth:  that the partnership union leaders secretly accepted the cuts months ago in backroom talks with Kaiser's execs, then deliberately kept workers in the dark until the 11th hour and 59th minute, and did absolutely nothing -- aside from a purple "walkathon," photo-ops with Contract Buddy, and yesterday’s lobbying fieldtrip for the California Hospital Association -- to engage workers in any sort of fight against their greedy, multi-billion-dollar boss. 

SEIU-UHW's Magical Mystery Bus Ride to Boss's Rally

Today, SEIU-UHW is trying to mobilize workers to attend a rally in Sacramento to lobby for billions more dollars for California's already-profitable hospital corporations, as Tasty reported in an earlier post. It’s part of Dave Regan’s deal with the California Hospital Association, which is the "Chamber of Commerce" of the hospital industry.

Sources say that SEIU-UHW has been having a tough time getting workers to sign up for the rally. Here's a picture from Kaiser Walnut Creek Medical Center this morning, where a total of 5 people reportedly got on SEIU-UHW’s bus.

Remember… so few people turned out despite the fact that SEIU-UHW is working hand-in-hand with hospital managers to excuse workers from their shifts so they can attend the rally.

So how will SEIU-UHW turn out enough people? Sources said the union is relying on low-paid public-sector home care workers, whom SEIU-UHW is paying to attend the rally.

At Kaiser Permanente, SEIU-UHW postponed the beginning of its final bargaining session (which was supposed to begin today) and sent out shamelessly dishonest messages to workers to try to get them to attend the rally. Basically, SEIU-UHW is telling its members that the best way for workers to "show their strength" to Kaiser at the bargaining table is to "get on the bus” to rally with the California Hospital Association. Here's the message:

It’s crunch time to win our new national agreement We’re making good progress in bargaining and believe we can reach a new National Agreement by the end of our next bargaining session. The discussion groups are close to finishing on key issues and we’re now moving into the economics, including our pay and benefits.

We want to win on all our bargaining priorities, right? We need to show Kaiser all SEIU-UHW members are united to win, and here are two ways to do it:

Sticker up! Each facility will have a sticker up day before our next bargaining session. We all need to wear our stickers.

Get on the bus to Sacramento on June 2 to call on the governor and legislators to fully fund Medi-Cal…  June 2 is the day before our last bargaining session; we have a great opportunity to show our strength as we head to the bargaining table.

YES, I'm Getting on the Bus!

It’s time to step up to win a great new national agreement at Kaiser, and to improve healthcare for all Californians. In unity, Your 2015 Kaiser National Bargaining Team

Pathetic, right?

Stay tuned for the inevitable SEIU-UHW e-mail announcing that 5,000 hospital workers descended on Sacramento to show their unbreakable unity and strength for, uhh, the California Hospital Association and its business priorities!

Hospital CEOs and SEIU-UHW: "Hey Workers! Get on the bus to lobby for the Boss"

A reader who works at Dignity Health in California sent the following note:

Hello Tasty,

I thought this might interest you.  It arrived in the mail yesterday.  I think I can say now that SEIU really is a company union.  This is of course right in the middle of contract negotiations.  We've seen SEIU reps here exactly once in the past three months - not that I enjoy seeing them anyway.

The attachment is a letter signed jointly by the hospital’s CEO and SEIU-UHW (see below).  Dignity recently mailed it to workers' homes in an envelope emblazoned with Dignity's logo.

The letter asks workers to attend a rally in the state capitol to lobby state officials to boost taxpayer-funded Medicaid revenues for the hospital industry by billions of dollars a year. According to the letter, hospital officials will excuse workers from their shifts on June 2nd so they can hop on an SEIU-UHW bus that’ll pick workers up in front of the hospital and take them to Sacramento… where they’ll hold “a massive capitol rally” to press legislators and the Governor to deposit billions more dollars into the industry's coffers.

This pro-industry political mobilization -- funded and organized by hospital CEOs and SEIU-UHW -- is supposed to turn out "more than 5,000 people," according to SEIU-UHW's website.

Hmm… but isn't the hospital industry already making tons of money?

Absolutely. 

Forbes recently reported in an article entitled "Hospital Profits Soar as Obamacare Prescribes More Paying Patients" (March 1, 2015) that “hospital operators continue to see profits and revenue not seen in a decade thanks to the Affordable Care Act…”

California’s hospital companies report booming 2014 profits, including Sutter Health ($458 million), Dignity Health ($913 million), and Kaiser Permanente ($3.1 billion).

So why is SEIU-UHW putting more money in the boss's pocket?

It's a result of Dave Regan's so-called "strategic partnership" with the industry, whereby Regan has become best buddies with company CEOs by making their companies more profitable while at the same time throwing workers and patients under the bus.

Regan's strategy was most recently manifested in his infamous 2014 deal with the California Hospital Association, which delivers a variety of body blows to hospital workers including gag clauses, pre-negotiated contracts, substandard wages and benefits, and a requirement that SEIU-UHW use its members, and at least $20 million of their union dues money, to push the industry's legislative agenda.

Will workers actually see some portion of the billions of dollars that Regan is helping put in the bosses’ pockets?

Regan reportedly failed to negotiate anything like that in his deal with the CHA. Instead, the opposite is true. Regan continues to negotiate cuts to SEIU-UHW members' health benefits, pensions, etc -- even wage freezes at Dignity hospitals -- despite the fact that hospital companies are enjoying unprecedented profits.

As the reader said: "I think I can say now that SEIU really is a company union.”

  Joint Letter from SEIU-UHW and Dignity Health to Hospital Workers to Join Pro-Industry Political Mobilizati...

Contract Buddy battles Mickey Mouse at Kaiser Partnership Bargaining

In case you’re wondering what's happening inside the Kaiser partnership negotiations, here are a few images and an inspiring video from the negotiations.

Remember... these are the same negotiations where SEIU-UHW's main contract spokesperson is a cartoon character called "Contract Buddy” …and SEIU’s only worker-mobilization effort has been a "walkathon" attended by a handful of workers.

Kaiser Permanente CEO Bernard Tyson -- who just announced that Kaiser pocketed $1 billion in profits during the first three months of 2015 -- seems very pleased with the Disneyfication of labor negotiations. Tyson even agreed to hang colorful worker-made trinkets atop his pinstriped suit to please the crowd.

Meanwhile, as workers’ bargaining teams are distracted by their Kaiser-paid weekends at Disneyland and dance-a-thons, SEIU-UHW's Dave Regan and the unions' other top officials cut secret deals with the bosses behind closed doors.

Kaiser CEO Tyson: "Check out my new partnership jewelry"

Regan's lieutenant: Hal Ruddick

SEIU-UHW Hospital Worker: "We Are Not Your Property!"

AFL-CIO's Rich Trumka and SEIU's Mary Kay Henry

Here's the latest chapter in a rapidly developing story that began when hundreds of California hospital workers recently requested an NLRB election so they can leave SEIU-UHW and join NUHW.

This week, a worker at Enloe Medical Center in Chico, Calif. (who also happens to be a former member of SEIU-UHW’s Executive Board) sent a zinger of a letter to SEIU President Mary Kay Henry about SEIU’s underhanded efforts to block 700 workers from holding an NLRB election (see the letter below).

As reported in a previous post, SEIU took a similar action against cafeteria workers at the U.S. Senate in Washington DC who are trying to join UNITE HERE.

What prompted the hospital worker to write to SEIU’s prez?

Well, soon after she and her co-workers requested an NLRB election, SEIU ran straight to AFL-CIO President Rich Trumka’s office in DC, where Trumka promptly agreed to do SEIU’s bidding by getting the NLRB to block the election.

Interesting, right? After all, SEIU isn’t even a member of the AFL-CIO.

A couple of weeks ago, labor journalist Steve Early reported on these developments and took Trumka to task for turning his back on "employee free choice." Here’s a link to Early’s article: “AFL-CIO Delays CA Hospital Vote: What Happened to Employee Free Choice?”

Which brings us to this week, when one of Enloe’s workers sent a blistering letter to SEIU’s Mary Kay Henry. The letter is excerpted immediately below. A full copy is at the bottom.

Dear SEIU President Mary Kay Henry,

I'm writing to you as a union member and a former member of SEIU-UHW Executive Board…

Since the trusteeship, our experience with SEIU at Enloe has been, to say the least, one big disappointment, and it seems to get worse with each passing day. We only see union representatives when they want us to do something for them, like pay COPE, go to a lobby day, or house visit home care workers. When it comes to our concerns and grievances, the union reps are nowhere to be seen. Sometimes we learn of secret deals they’ve made with management behind our backs. And the union reps often just lie straight to our faces.

My co-workers have zero confidence in SEIU and some have even come to hate all unions because of their experience with SEIU.

When we complain to our reps, they blame us or they blame the union higher-ups. When we complain to the higher-ups, they blame the reps. Either way, nothing gets done. Management continues to violate our contract while the union does nothing.

When the contract was renegotiated in 2012, SEIU made concessions in our seniority rights when bidding on vacancies, allowed the employer to unilaterally change hours for the sole purpose of avoiding paying shift differential, bargained away restrictions on management rights, and did not really fight for a fair wage increase. We were given almost no notice of the ratification vote and were not even shown what we were voting on.

As our current contract reached its expiration date, we filed a petition with the NLRB seeking to join a different union, NUHW.

You can imagine our frustration when we learned that the AFL-CIO and SEIU have made some sort of deal that would prevent us from choosing a different union – we thought we had that right under the National Labor Relations Act!

We don't know about all of the agreements that are made among the unions and the AFL-CIO, we just know our current union is no good, and we want a chance to join a better one. What is wrong with that? Why would you deny us our legal rights? Why would you hold us hostage in a union we have come to distrust? Why do you treat us like we are your property?

To add insult to injury, as soon as we filed to join a different union, after hardly ever seeing any SEIU reps for years, suddenly there are seven full-time "organizers" in our hospital! Are they here to help us with our grievances and to help us get ready for a contract fight? Hardly. All they do is harass us with phone calls and house visits, interrupt our work and our breaks, and threaten us…

Our employer does whatever they want with no resistance from our so-called union. As far as we can tell the only difference between being in SEIU and not having a union is that we pay 2% of our modest wages for the privilege of being ignored, disrespected, and lied to.

And now you've engineered a deal with the AFL-CIO to block a fair election! What are you afraid of? A healthy debate? A choice for workers? Why do you have to resort to legal maneuvering instead of standing on the quality of your work?

The hypocrisy of SEIU is astounding. You use our dues dollars to campaign for the rights of fast food workers to organize without fear of intimidation from their employers, and for all workers to have the right to fair union elections. Yet, when we want the same thing for ourselves, you and Dave Regan unleash a small army to call us, stalk us at our homes, and interrupt our work and our breaks with their threats, lies, intimidation and coercion. Is this the labor movement you are building? We want no part of it.

All we are asking from you now is that you and Dave Regan get your thugs out of our workplace, off our phones and away from our homes. Stop behaving like a union-busting boss and let us get on with our future!

WE ARE NOT YOUR PROPERTY!

Please write us back explaining why you would do such a thing to us, and how you will respond to our request.

  SEIU-UHW Member's Letter to SEIU President Mary Kay Henry on Failures by SEIU-UHW and SEIU's Hypo...

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.

Washington Post: SEIU Blocks UNITE HERE from Unionizing Low-Wage Workers, Then Abandons Workers

SEIU's HQ in DC: Just blocks from Senate cafeteria workers

A pair of articles in the Washington Post shines a spotlight on SEIU's campaign to block UNITE HERE from unionizing low-wage workers in Washington, DC.  

It's quite a story. 

And it's an interesting sequel to Steve Early’s recent article about similar issues in California involving SEIU-UHW, the AFL-CIO, and NUHW.

Last month, a WaPo columnist penned an article entitled, "The Homeless Man Who Works in the Senate." The column tells the story of 63-year-old Charles Gladden, a food service worker who’s worked at the U.S. Senate's cafeteria for the past eight years -- but has been homeless for the past five years due to low wages.

Gladden takes home only $360 for 40 hours of sweeping floors, mopping bathrooms, cleaning dishes, composting leftovers, and transporting laundry. At night he sleeps at the McPherson Square Metro Station just 2,000 feet from the White House.

Last week, another WaPo reporter published a follow-up story that poses an interesting question: Why are Mr. Gladden’s wages so low? Shouldn't he have a union?

 

Charles Gladden

It turns out that the food service workers in the cafeteria at the U.S. House of Representatives do, in fact, have a union. 

They've been members of Unite Here Local 23 for about 20 years and earn wages that have allowed some workers to buy homes, send their kids to college, etc.

So why are the conditions so horrible at the Senate cafeteria?

Here's where the story gets interesting.

It turns out that two years ago, the Senate cafeteria workers began organizing to join Unite Here. Last year, the workers were preparing to go public with their unionization effort when SEIU unfortunately got wind of their efforts. Rather than supporting the workers' campaign, says the journalist…

the Service Employees International Union sued Local 23, accusing it of violating a legal agreement the two unions had struck divvying up the city’s workplaces. Technically, public service employees were supposed to be SEIU’s turf.

“We were told we had to get out by SEIU because it was their jurisdiction,” says Local 23 President Jim Dupont. So Local 23 backed off. “It’s horrible for those workers. We have to go tell them no. They were so mad at us, and they have the right to be. It’s kind of a silly thing. There are plenty of people to organize.”

For the record, Unite Here has represented food service workers at the Smithsonian museums, the Nationals Park, other government agencies, and Washington DC's universities for many years.

So... after SEIU sued Unite Here and put an end to the workers' organizing campaign, did SEIU step up and try to improve workers' pay and benefits?

Nope.

Here's what has happened during the past year, according to the journalist:

Jaime Contreras: "We just haven't gotten there yet"

SEIU has not been actively working to help the Senate cafeteria workers actually unionize.

"It’s on our radar. We just haven’t gotten there yet,” says Jaime Contreras, director of the Capital Area District for the SEIU affiliate 32BJ.

For now, that means that Senate cafeteria workers will probably stay at lower wage benefit levels than their House counterparts.

This explains why the WaPo reporter gave the following piercing title to her article: “Why House cafeteria workers are paid better than Senate cafeteria workers. Hint: It has to do with a union.”

That “union,” of course, is SEIU.