CA Hospital Freezes Pay and Slashes Benefits for 1,200 SEIU-UHW Members

Remember SEIU's concessionary caravan?  Well, check out the latest news from El Camino Hospital in the San Francisco Bay Area... 

On Tuesday, hospital officials made deep cuts to the health insurance, retirement and other benefits for 1,200 members of SEIU-UHW. The cuts (see memo below) include...

“Implementation of 10 percent employee contribution toward health and dental premiums” (workers’ coverage used to be fully paid by the hospital); cutting retirement benefits for workers with 15-20 years of service; freezing wages for one year; cutting PTO accrual; cutting the maximum allowable PTO bank; eliminating workers’ education and training benefits; cutting holiday premium pay; and cutting per diem wage differentials.

Earlier this year, Dave Regan reportedly made a back-room deal that let management cut workers' benefits and freeze their pay in exchange for allowing SEIU-UHW to add hundreds more employees onto the union’s dues rolls.

Workers, of course, were none too happy when they started paying dues to SEIU at the same time that management and SEIU prepared to slash their pay and benefits. As one worker told the press: "What am I getting for my money? I'm getting absolutely zero."

That's why 500 of the hospital's workers filed petitions to decertify SEIU-UHW last month.  SEIU-UHW quickly deployed its attorneys to try to stop the decert election. And SEIU-UHW launched a fake “campaign” intended to show they were somehow fighting the cuts that Regan had already agreed to.

Meanwhile, hospital executives were itching to cash-in on their back-room deal with Dave Regan. Tasty guesses that the phone call went kinda like this: "Hey Dave," says the Boss. "We gave you tens of thousands of new dues dollars from our employees. It's time for you to deliver... Give us the pay freeze and benefits cuts."

So, according to a one-page announcement from management (see below), the hospital implemented the cuts on the 1,200 workers on Tuesday. Management's announcement starts this way:

“Last night, Tuesday, November 15, 2011, the El Camino Hospital Board of Directors declared impasse and voted to implement the Hospital’s last, best and final offer to SEIU/UHW-West (“SEIU”)…  SEIU has maintained that negotiations have not reached impasse despite the fact that they have offered no significant counterproposals to the Hospital...”

And all this... despite the fact that the hospital made $70 million in profits during the past two years. Looks like SEIU official are taking their campaign of crookin’ and concessions to a whole new level of criminality.

SEIU-UHW Staffers Sit on Their Hands While Kaiser Permanente Fires 33-Year Worker

SEIU-UHW's Hortencia Armendariz

Check out this story about five SEIU-UHW staffers who refused to lift a finger to help a worker at Kaiser Walnut Creek Medical Center who’d been escorted into the boss’s office and was getting terminated from the job she’s worked for the past 33 years.

According to gritty emails from SEIU-UHW shop stewards (see below), workers pleaded for help with the five SEIU-UHW staffers who simply refused to interrupt their meeting to assist the worker in distress. In the words of one SEIU-UHW shop steward, “I clearly could see that she [SEIU-UHW Field Rep Stacy Manuel] did not care at all for this member that was getting fired.”

The steward writes: “I went home sad because Annette had 33 years of service and did her job very well… And I will hate to see this happening over and over in the future, only for one reason: we are only a number.”

Another shop steward writes:  “I received a call from this member after termination as she has worked on my floor for more than 20 years. I agree this is UNacceptable… this is not the 1^st time this has happened and apparently not the last...”

“Unacceptable”?   How about CRIMINAL!  As far as Tasty can tell, Dave Regan’s SEIU-UHW has plenty of time to rig fraudulent union elections for corrupt officials like John Cuddihy, but can’t exert an ounce of effort to defend a 33-year employee from getting fired unjustly.

So, who were the SEIU-UHW staffers who let SEIU’s corporate partner destroy the worker’s livelihood? Tasty knows the name of three of them:  Hortencia Armendariz, a DIRECTOR of SEIU-UHW’s Kaiser Division; Jonathan Hernandez, a Field Rep who formerly worked at Teamsters Local 601 in Stockton, California; and Stacy Manuel, a Field Rep who was outed for impersonating staffers of the California Nurses Association as part of an SEIU raid in 2009.

Here’s a link to the original version of the emails, with the text printed below [Tasty inserted a few words in brackets to help readers].

Email from an SEIU-UHW Shop Steward to other Shop Stewards (dated October 24, 2011):

Today was terminated a Kaiser employee that had worked 33 years for Kaiser. Stacey Manuel, who is the lead of field reps, did not want that the field rep Jonathon represent the member that was getting fired today at 4:00pm.

Stacey said to me and [SEIU-UHW Shop Steward] Maria Moon that its a shop stewards job to sit on all terminations and that [SEIU-UHW Kaiser Division Director] Hortencia Almendarez was on the same page as her. I tried calling Hortencia but I was not successful. We had to beg Stacy and make her understand it was more important to save a member with a last-chance agreement, and we tried to knock some sense out of her, and Stacey continue to say no.  They were 4 SEIU workers along with Stacey and they said they were having a meeting. After 10 [minutes] of arguing, I said that I was going to go home and the member can blame SEIU for letting us down so heartless. I clearly could see that she did not care at all for this member that was getting fired.

Please let’s address this issue, because they want to use the field rep for other things. they said from now on we have to do from coaching to termination. my night was ruined for the lack of care for our members.

This is a big issue, not that we have not had a good field rep, but in other words having one is like not having anything.

And here’s an email (dated October 25, 2011) from a second SEIU-UHW Shop Steward:

I received a call from this member after termination as she worked on my floor for over 20 years. I agree this is UNacceptable and needs to be discussed urgently and I feel Kaiser Walnut Creek Steward Council needs a emergency meeting to address this issue. this is not the 1^st time this has happened and apparently not the last per Kaiser and Oakland SEIU-UHW

And here’s another email from a Shop Steward (dated October 25, 2011):

I went home sad because Annette had 33 years of service and did her job very well… And I will hate to see this happening over and over in the future, only for one reason: we are only a number.

Union Members Bolt SEIU Local 721 in Los Angeles

This just in... Tasty hears that 450 city attorneys just disaffiliated from SEIU Local 721 after SEIU officials attempted another end-run on union democracy. The 450 attorneys are members of the Los Angeles City Attorneys Association (LACAA), which had been part of SEIU Local 721.

Here’s what happened:

In April, LACAA's members overwhelmingly rejected a sell-out contract negotiated by SEIU’s Julie “Giveback” Butcher. The tentative agreement would have imposed 13 unpaid furlough days and cuts to members’ pension benefits. After the membership's rejection, SEIU officials quickly orchestrated an unauthorized "re-vote" of the already-rejected contract --just like what SEIU did at Luther Manor Nursing Home in Michigan.

This time, however, the geniuses at SEIU messed with the wrong crowd... ATTORNEYS!  

The city attorneys… after whacking SEIU upside the head with a few law books… quickly triggered various terms of their carefully crafted affiliation agreement to (1) stop payment of all union dues to SEIU and (2) to officially terminate their affiliation agreement with SEIU. Wham!

Adios, SEIU!

NUHW Blasts Kaiser Permanente... SEIU Cowers in Corner

Imagine this: You're suffering from severe depression, suicidal thoughts or an anxiety disorder. How'd you like to wait for weeks or months to get an appointment with a mental health professional simply because your HMO's fat-cat executives have refused to hire enough staff to care for you?

Well, today, NUHW members blasted Kaiser executives for these kinds of patient-care violations. NUHW published a 36-page report that got national press attention, including this article in USA Today and other coverage like this: "Kaiser Permanente Makes Billions in Profits While Overburdening Staff: Report."

Meanwhile, two independent organizations of mental health professionals issued letters backing NUHW's call for government investigations of Kaiser.

Where's SEIU on this? Well... not a peep from Kaiser's partner in crime. In fact, SEIU is so deep in bed with the Boss that they can't even contemplate uttering a criticism of Kaiser. Remember... SEIU is the union that recently teamed up with Kaiser managers to try to break workers' strike by threatening SEIU's own members with termination if they honored their co-workers' picket line! 

As far as NUHW's new report... Tasty recommends you take a look at it, along with video-taped testimony from patients and caregivers, available at this site. Way to go, NUHW members!

SEIU’s Andy Stern Hit with Latest SIGA Influence-Peddling Scandal

SEIU’s President Emeritus Andy Stern is back in the news -- this time in a lengthy investigative report in today’s Los Angeles Times.

What’s the latest scandal?  It’s new revelations about the influence-peddling that Stern and SIGA Technologies used to rig a $433 million no-bid contract from the federal government.  

Here’s the scoop: Soon after King Andy resigned as SEIU’s “President,” he jumped onto the board of directors of a pharmaceutical company called “SIGA Technologies.” During his first six months on the board, Stern pocketed 35,000 stock options and took home $116,094 in cash, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Why did SIGA want Stern on its board? Simple… because of all the personal relationships that Stern developed with top government officials while Stern was on SEIU’s payroll. SIGA, after all, was trying to win giant contract from federal officials. And Stern was happy as a pig in slop to convert his SEIU rolodex into wads of cash that he stuffed into his pockets.

So what are the latest revelations? The LA Times obtained a whole stack of internal emails, memos and records from the federal agency that gave SIGA the $433 million, no-bid contract. Here’s some of what they found:

“Cost, need questioned in $433-million smallpox drug deal.  A company controlled by a longtime political donor gets a no-bid contract to supply an experimental remedy for a threat that may not exist.”

One scientist who “battled smallpox outbreaks in Pakistan and has advised the Food and Drug Administration on the virus… called the plan to stockpile Siga's drug ‘a waste of time and a waste of money.’”

“In an internal memo in March, Dr. Richard J. Hatchett, chief medical officer for HHS' biodefense preparedness unit, said Siga's projected profit at that point was 180%, which he called ‘outrageous.’”

“In June 2010, Siga further heightened its presence in Washington by naming to its board Andrew Stern, former head of the Service Employees International Union and a frequent visitor to the Obama White House. The union is a wellspring of campaign money and volunteers for Democratic candidates.”

After a government negotiator fought SIGA’s demand for astronomical profits, SIGA used its political influence to replace the government’s negotiator with someone who would be more cooperative. A top government official then wrote a letter to SIGA’s CEO that said: "I trust this will be satisfactory to you."

There’s more… but you gotta read the article.

And that’s not all… There’s another layer of SEIU corruption that’s not even mentioned in the LA Times. It has to do with Andy Stern’s cozy relationship with Ron Perelman, a billionaire who’s one of the world’s richest people.

Perelman owns a controlling share of SIGA, as well as AlliedBarton, a giant security guard company. Observers speculate that Stern’s high-paid gig on SIGA’s board may be payback from an earlier deal between these two fat cats. In 2006, Stern agreed that SEIU would not organize 10,000 of AlliedBarton’s security guards in Philadelphia as part of an apparent sweetheart deal with Perelman… even though SEIU had been working with the low-paid guards for years to win a union.

It’s kinda like: ‘Hey, if you take a dive on these workers, the Big Boss will make sure to take care of you.’ There’s more info about this episode in an earlier post and an article by Ryan Grim, entitled “Andy Stern’s Bizarre Alliance with Private Equity and Biowarfare.”

Stay tuned for SEIU’s next corruption scandal!

SEIU Guts Pension for D.C. Workers Who Treat Kaiser Patients

Washington Hospital Center

In case workers are wondering about SEIU’s plans for upcoming negotiations with Kaiser Permanente, you might wanna check out the latest news from Washington, DC.

According to this article in the Washington Business Journal, SEIU just agreed to eliminate the defined-benefit pension for 1,700 workers at Washington Hospital Center, which helps care for 500,000 Kaiser members in the D.C. area as part of the hospital’s “expanded partnership” with Kaiser… which includes staffing the hospital with Kaiser doctors.

Here’s what the Washington Business Journal says about SEIU’s newly negotiated contract for the hospital’s 1,700 workers:

Workers made two key concessions: Union members will transition from a defined-benefits retirement program to a 403(b) plan, the nonprofit equivalent of a 401(k) program, and all employees will be transferred to a standardized paid-time off plan and the hospital's standard holiday program.

Tasty hears that SEIU’s pension cuts will slash workers’ retirement pay by tens of thousands of dollars per worker. Meanwhile, multiple sources -- including Kaiser executives like Henry Diaz -- report that Dave Regan has already signed a secret deal to make the same pension cuts for SEIU-UHW’s 43,000 Kaiser workers in California.

Tasty wonders whether Dangerous Dave Regan has the same attitude towards the cuts as Daniel Fields, Jr., the president of the SEIU Local 722 in D.C. who penned the deal that gutted his members’ retirement benefits. When a reporter asked “Junior” about his reaction to the deal, he responded this way:

"Well you know, a good contract is when both sides get screwed a little," Fields said.

Hmm… “Junior” apparently ain’t losing any sleep about his members getting “screwed a little”…  or “screwed a lot,” in this case. After all, the pension cuts won’t affect him. Both Junior and Regan have their own secure defined-benefit pension plan provided by SEIU’s Purple Palace… and funded by their members’ union dues.

Bottom line: Kaiser workers in California better watch out. What additional proof do you need about SEIU’s deal to gut your defined-benefit pension plan?

SEIU-UHW’s Doug Jones Does Face-Plant No. 2

Ever wonder what would happen to SEIU if they had to compete in honest elections? Well, check out this email from a reader in the San Francisco Bay Area. It describes what happened to Dave Regan and Co. when they couldn’t rig the election for a position at the Alameda County Central Labor Council.

For the last few months, SEIU-UHW staffer Doug Jones has been demanding a seat on the Executive Board of the Alameda County Labor Council, one of the most influential in the state. Jones didn't endear himself when he attacked California Nurses Association member Martha Kuhl, who is the Labor Council's Vice President. Back in the days of Local 250, Jones would have been a shoo-in. [A Tip to Tasty's Readers: before 2005, SEIU-UHW was called “Local 250.”] Local 250 always had a spot and was one of the most active and respected unions in the council. Not anymore. When a vacancy occurred last month, Dougie immediately threw his hat in the ring. Certain delegates recruited a member of a small chapter of the School Employees Association to run for the spot.

At Monday nights delegate meeting, there was an unusually heavy turnout. On a per capita vote, and with the backing of other SEIU Locals, who make up 30% of the council, our boy Doug LOST by a 2-to-1 margin. Almost every other union in the council showed up to register their disgust at SEIU-UHW's tactics. Support for NUHW in the Council is only growing. Doug didn't even bother to show up for his own election, which was probably a good thing. Several delegates were heard to exclaim that this probably meant that SEIU-UHW would quit the Council (again) and that it would be good riddance to bad rubbish.

Good riddance, Dougie!