SEIU-UHW's Excellent Dining with the Boss

Remember all the reports about workers who've been unjustly fired and screwed over... while getting zero support from Dave Regan's SEIU-UHW? They include this stunning case, which is described in emails written by SEIU’s own Shop Stewards.

Well, Tasty hears that Dave Regan has taken bold and decisive steps to address this problem. What did he do? He appointed one of the union's staffers to a new position called "Director of Representational Excellence"!  (Tasty is not kidding! Hmmm… what’s that saying about putting lipstick on a pig?).

So who's the Director of Excellence? Marcus Hatcher.  Tasty did a little checking on Hatcher, and unfortunately Hatcher is not so excellent… unless you consider bedding with the Boss to be “excellent.”

It turns out that Hatcher used to be the “Director of Field Representation” for SEIU Local 1107 in Las Vegas, where he negotiated contracts for workers at the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority and other worksites.

At most unions, it’s strictly prohibited for a union staffer to meet privately with the Boss or take gifts from the Boss, especially when the staffer is representing the Boss's workers. Unfortunately, it looks like Hatcher skipped this part of his “Ethics 101” class.

A receipt -- which was uncovered by CBS during its investigation of a corruption scandal involving executives at the Las Vegas Convention Authority – indicates that Hatcher had a private one-on-one lunch with Mark Olson, the Vice President of Human Resources at the Las Vegas Convention Authority, in 2009. SEIU’s 'Director of Field Representation' and the Boss’s 'V.P. of Human Resources' lunched at P.F. Chang’s inside Planet Hollywood on the Las Vegas Strip. According to a travel site, this “two-story eatery welcomes guests with a warm atmosphere of dark woods and earth tones.” Perfect place for intimate dining with the Boss!

And who paid for the meal? The Boss (who actually submitted Hatcher’s business card with the receipt). And what did the Boss get in return from Hatcher? Well, my friends, that’s the $64,000 question… and the reason why union staffers are not supposed to be dining with the Boss.

At most unions, Hatcher’s actions would be considered unethical and pathetic. But at Regan’s SEIU-UHW -- which has embraced back-room deals as its primary bargaining strategy -- Olson is now heralded as the “Minister of Excellence.”

P.S.  Are you one of the many SEIU-UHW members who can’t get a call back from the union… or who’s been waiting two years for the union to schedule your arbitration or hear about your grievance… or who’s been forced to file a “Duty of Fair Representation” charge (DFR) with the NLRB because SEIU-UHW simply refuses to help you and your co-workers? Well, Tasty thought you might wanna give a jingle to the “Director of Representational Excellence”!

Marcus D. Hatcher

SEIU-UHW Director of Representational Excellence

213-321-4506 (cell)

323-888-8221 (work)

mhatcher@seiu-uhw.org

More Workers Seek Exit from SEIU-UHW

In the latest blow to Dave Regan and Co, a group of 200 SEIU-UHW members has requested an NLRB election to decertify the union so they can become “non-union.”

The effort is underway at O’Connor Woods, a retirement facility located near Stockton in Northern California. Tasty hears that the workers -- including Certified Nursing Assistants, Patient Care Attendants, Housekeepers, Dietary Workers, Maintenance Workers and Laundry Workers -- are totally fed up with the SEIU-UHW's lack of support for its members. 

Here’s the NLRB form that records workers' request for a decertification election: "A substantial number of employees assert that the certified or currently recognized bargaining representative is no longer their representative."

 

SEIU’s Zac Altefogt Joins Purple Pinocchios

SEIU at Labor Notes and Zac Altefogt

Remember how SEIU officials rigged the contract-ratification votes at Luther Manor Nursing Home and Mercy Health Partners’ Hackley Hospital… even going so far as to stuff ballot boxes and block union members from voting?

Well, here’s what SEIU’s Communications Director Zac Altefogt told the Muskegon Chronicle after Hackley’s workers delivered a landslide defeat to SEIU in last week’s NLRB election:

“We're a democratic union, and that was their choice,” Altefogt said of a group that SEIU began representing in 2007 at the time of the Mercy-Hackley hospital merger. “We provided this group with a strong first contract. People can join a union or leave it at any time.”

Yeah right… Looks like Zac has conveniently forgotten how SEIU has blocked workers’ NLRB elections for up to 2 ½ years in an effort to stop them from leaving SEIU. Or how SEIU committed such severe violations of federal labor laws that a judge tossed out the largest private-sector union election in the past 70 years.  

Well, it turns out this isn’t the first time that Zac has massively misinformed the Michigan media. Readers might remember an infamous episode that took place in Dearborn, Michigan in 2008. That’s when SEIU sent busloads of people to attack a Labor Notes conference attended by union reformers from 50 unions throughout the U.S.  During the attack, SEIU knocked workers to the floor and even bloodied a 67-year-old woman who ended up in a nearby hospital's emergency room. And tragically, an SEIU homecare worker named David Smith died of a heart attack during SEIU’s assault.

So how did Zac -- after summoning every ounce of integrity -- describe SEIU’s attack on the Labor Notes conference to Detroit’s Metro Times newspaper?

"It was a peaceful protest," says Zac Altefogt, spokesman for SEIU Healthcare Michigan.

Just recently, Tasty discovered that Zac knew the event wasn’t gonna be a peaceful even before it happened. Here’s a message that Zac sent through SEIU Healthcare Michigan’s twitter account in the days leading up to the attack: "Getting ready to RAID the RAD!"   “RAD” refers to Rose Ann DeMoro (the Executive Director of the California Nurses Association), who was gonna speak at the conference and was the focus of SEIU’s attack that day.

As you can see, it's no great wonder that "Zac" rhymes with "hack" -- because he's a big one.

P.S.  For analysis of last week’s election at Hackley Hospital, check out this article by journalist Mike Elk in In These Times.

SEIU-UHW: Let's Slash Your Health Benefits!

As promised, Tasty is passing along more information about the concessions that SEIU-UHW officials are trying to push down the throats of workers at Catholic Healthcare West (CHW) and other California hospital chains. Here's what's going on:

In late August, CHW's CEO Lloyd Dean sent an ominous email to employees announcing that the company is “going to contain costs” by “reforming our health and pension benefits – all of us will be asked to take greater responsibility for our retirement and health plans.” Here's an excerpt from the email (full version is here):

In the weeks following the CEO's email, SEIU-UHW's Hal Ruddick began negotiations with CHW for a new contract for 13,000 SEIU-UHW members. Here's what a worker wrote about the first bargaining session:

Could you post information regarding the new Wellness Program. Apparently, on the 1st day of bargaining, SEIU came to the bargaining team and suggested this bad idea and folks bit into it, but some rejected and was outvoted. This has never been introduced to the membership. The scary part about it, SEIU wants to help the boss cut costs on the back of members that have chronic illness, and they’re calling on Kaiser, Daughters of Charity and Sutter to join in this campaign.

Well, folks… it’s true. SEIU-UHW is pushing “Wellness Programs” as part of its so-called bargaining program dubbed “Let’s Get Healthy California!” An SEIU-UHW press release penned by SEIU-UHW's Elizabeth Brennan put it this way: “During contract negotiations, union members will prioritize concrete proposals such as wellness programs to improve the health of workers in their hospitals and lower costs.”  

In fact, SEIU-UHW’s Executive Board even passed a resolution announcing their plans to negotiate “Wellness Programs” with employers. Here's an excerpt from the resolution (full version is here):

So what exactly are “Wellness Programs”?  They’re the latest corporate scheme to push more health insurance costs onto workers’ backs. Tasty urges readers to check out this article in the New York Times. It describes how companies are using Wellness Programs to impose financial penalties on “unhealthy” workers -- those who have high cholesterol, high blood glucose levels or who’re considered to be overweight, smokers, etc. For example, after Wal-Mart implemented its “Wellness Program,” the company began charging smokers an additional $2,000 per year for their health coverage, according to the New York Times.

Last year, SEIU-UHW officials allowed Sutter Health to implement a "Wellness Program" in Northern California. The program measures each employee’s “body mass index” (BMI) to determine if they’re “overweight.” It also gathers information on each employee’s sexual orientation, amount of alcohol and tobacco they consume, etc. At first, the program appears to be aimed simply at offering incentives to “get healthy.” But after the companies get their foot in the door, they can impose thousands of dollars of costs on employees... like they've done at Wal-Mart, Safeway, Home Depot, etc.

SEIU's effort to mislead workers about Wellness Programs is classic "SEIU." The Boss calls it "cost-containment" ... and SEIU says its a "healthy provision for members that will improve the health of our communities." Looks like Hal Ruddick is trying to repeat last year's campaign, when he used blatant misinformation to "sell" a $217 million cut to workers' pensions. 

Tasty hears that CHW has wanted to implement a Wellness Program for a long time. Prior to SEIU’s trusteeship, CHW officials proposed Wellness Programs during negotiations in 2004 and 2008. But each time, SEIU-UHW’s old leadership knocked down the proposals because they were bad for the union's members. However, once Dave Regan and other out-of-state SEIU officials took over the union, CHW realized it now had a weak bargaining partner who was willing to slash workers' pensions and benefits... even though the company is making millions in profits.

Or, as CHW's Chief Financial Officer described it during his webcast with bond investors: "We are addressing cost structure in discussions with our partners at SEIU who have exhibited a keen understanding of the complexity of healthcare delivery and reimbursement today, and we expect to have further productive discussion over the next many months."

SEIU-UHW Plans More Cuts at Catholic Healthcare West

Remember the $217 million in pension cuts that SEIU accepted at Catholic Healthcare West (CHW) in California? SEIU-UHW officials eliminated workers’ defined-benefit pension plan and replaced it with a 401(k)-style plan… and then lied to workers so they could implement the changes.

Well… guess what? SEIU-UHW officials have returned to the bargaining table with CHW, and they’re planning to make even more cuts to 13,000 workers’ health and retirement benefits.

Where did Tasty get the info about the cuts?   From the BOSS!

Check out a recording of a December 2nd conference call between CHW’s executives and corporate bond investors. During this “investor relations webcast,” Michael Blaszyk (CHW’s Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer) describes how CHW executives are "in discussions with our partners at SEIU" to address the company’s "workforce cost structure" and “right-size our workforce.” He also brags about the $50 million in savings that CHW has already enjoyed as a result of the pension cuts that SEIU's Hal Ruddick and Dave Regan accepted last year.

Here’s a 1 ½-minute excerpt from CHW’s webcast along with a rough transcript of Blaszyk’s statements (the excerpt includes the beginning of the webcast plus a section from later on). Readers can go here to see the full webcast, which is about 40 minutes long.

Blaszyk: "As you would expect, a key element to addressing our cost structure is workforce management... Given the declining rate of increase in revenue anticipation, we are responding by right-sizing our workforce ... As part of this effort, we are addressing cost structure in discussions with our partners at SEIU, and ultimately at the CNA. These partners have exhibited a keen understanding of the complexity of healthcare delivery and reimbursement today, and we expect to have further productive discussion over the next many months. We have already moved to adjust our pension plan design to reduce our liability and pension costs. We have been successful in reducing pension expense by $50 million."

So what kind of cuts is SEIU making? Well, CHW’s webcast includes graphics like this one:

CHW's webcast lays out a plan for cutting SEIU-UHW members’ pay and benefits in 2012, and then trying to impose the same cuts on the California Nurses Association’s members in 2013. Unlike SEIU (which loves selling out workers in back-room deals with the Boss), the CNA has teamed up with NUHW to fight pension and health insurance cuts at Kaiser Permanente. In fact, last September, 21,000 members of NUHW and CNA held the largest strike in Kaiser’s history. Meanwhile, SEIU worked side-by-side with Kaiser management to try to break the strike.

Why is CHW making the cuts? Because SEIU is weak and in bed with the Boss. So is CHW hurting for money? Hardly. Last year, CHW made $917 million in profits last year, nearly doubling its profits from the prior year.

Stay tuned. Tasty plans to give more details on the benefits cuts that SEIU's already discussed with CHW officials.

Michigan Hospital Workers Join NUHW in Landslide Vote!

Today, technical workers at Mercy Health Partner's Hackley Hospital in Muskegon joined NUHW in a blow-out election victory over SEIU. The final tally of the NLRB election was 65 (NUHW), 9 (SEIU) and 3 (No Union). A total of 92 workers were eligible to vote in the election.

The technical workers first asked the NLRB to hold an election nine months ago, but SEIU officials worked overtime to block and stall the election while they ran rigged contract-ratification votes. Meanwhile, Dave Regan flew Amado David and other California staffers to Michigan to beg workers to stay in SEIU.

The Hackley caregivers are the second group of Michigan workers to join NUHW in recent months. In September, workers at Luther Manor Nursing Home in Saginaw voted by a two-to-one margin to join NUHW.

SEIU's local union in Michigan is well-known for its corruption and ineffectiveness. In 2008, Rickman Jackson was removed as President of SEIU Healthcare Michigan after stealing more than $30,000 from SEIU members. SEIU’s top officials promptly appointed him to a $130,000-a-year staff position inside the Purple Palace.

Jackson’s replacement in Michigan, Marge Faville, is well known for nepotism and corruption… including a $160,000-a-year salary, a union-paid SUV and a union-paid apartment -- despite the fact that most of the union’s members earn only $8 an hour.

Faville is reportedly so busy stuffing wads of cash into her pockets that she's forgotten to have SEIU staffers actually respond to members’ calls for help or to make sure employers are actually honoring their union contracts.

Sounds like NUHW members will be getting more calls from Michigan workers! Congratulations, Hackley workers!

Top Stories of 2011

Here's a look at some of the top stories of 2011:

Crookin' at Kaiser:  In early 2011, two federal judges forced Kaiser Permanente to pay millions of dollars of wages it illegally withheld from 2,500 Southern California workers after they voted to leave SEIU and join NUHW. And in July, an Administrative Law Judge found SEIU guilty of violating federal labor law during the giant election covering 43,000 Kaiser workers. The NLRB ordered a re-run election that hasn’t been scheduled because it's investigating even more violations, including allegations that Kaiser illegally funded dozens of SEIU's election campaign staffers during the election. So, while 2010 was the year of massive law-breaking by Kaiser and SEIU, the year of 2011 will be remembered as pay-back time. As 2011 drew to a close, Kaiser and SEIU were so nervous about the re-run election that they launched a super defensive Wizard-of-Oz themed PR campaign!

Jumping off the Purple Bus:  In 2011, thousands of workers from California, Michigan and Canada voted to leave SEIU and join independent unions. In California, workers at a half-dozen hospitals and nursing homes voted to join NUHW, including workers at San Francisco's largest hospital. SEIU also suffered losses in San Diego and Los Angeles… and is facing a home-grown decertification effort by 1,200 unhappy members of SEIU-UHW in Northern California. In Canada, an independent union has won five elections against SEIU since July. Next? In early January, workers at a Michigan hospital will be voting on whether to leave SEIU and join NUHW.

Crookin’ at SEIU-UHW:  After denying Kaiser workers a fair election in 2010, Dave Regan continued to show his true colors in 2011. Federal records revealed how "Wall Street" Dave nearly tripled his salary to $300,000 after taking over SEIU-UHW… and how he handed out salaries of $150,000-$200,000 to Steve Trossman, Hal Ruddick and other SEIU staffers. Last summer, the U.S. Department of Labor released records revealing how Regan liquidated members' $4.1 million pension fund in March of 2011. And last fall, SEIU-UHW’s internal financial records showed how Regan has turned SEIU-UHW into a profit-making machine, apparently by hiking union dues and cutting representation for SEIU-UHW members.

Concessionary Caravan: SEIU’s concessionary bargaining was another big story in 2011 -- from Children’s Hospital in Oakland, Providence Tarzana Medical Center, University Medical Center (Las Vegas) and Washington Hospital Center (D.C.) to Santa Clara, San Diego and San Joaquin Counties. Perhaps the biggest story was the $217 million pension cut that SEIU-UHW negotiated for 13,000 workers at Catholic Healthcare West (CHW)... along with the campaign of lies that SEIU's Hal Ruddick engineered to implement the cuts.

Ballot Stuffing, Rigged Elections and Un-Representation: Another big story in 2011 was SEIU’s endless effort to rig elections and deny support for its own members – from Walnut Creek, San Francisco and Los Angeles to Saginaw and Muskegon in Michigan. One of the saddest stories involved SEIU staffers sitting on their hands while Kaiser officials fired a worker with 33 years on the job…

Ass-Kicking & Numbers-Taking:  Finally, NUHW members made headlines by launching aggressive bargaining campaigns and strikes at hospitals across California, including Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital and USC University Hospital. At Providence Tarzana Medical Center, NUHW members bargained a contract that’s far superior to SEIU’s contract for 600 RNs at the same facility. And at Kaiser Permanente, NUHW members have sparked a growing multi-union fight against Kaiser Permanente – including the largest strike in the U.S. healthcare industry of 2011 by 21,000 workers!   

P.S. Of course, the year wouldn’t have been complete without the cast of pathetic SEIU officials who added a certain comic relief to 2011:  Josie Mooney, Steve Matthews, Andy Stern, Tyrone Freeman, Michelle Ringuette, Bill Lloyd, Brandi Madewell, Dave Kieffer and JonPaul McClellan.