Is Kaiser Hiding Its Latest Profit Report from Workers?

A reader sent along this tidbit, which offers an interesting window into Kaiser Permanente’s negotiations with SEIU and the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions.  

Last week, Kaiser was supposed to announce its profit for the first three months of 2012. Strangely, the giant HMO has been as quiet as a mouse. No numbers. No press release. Nada.

Why? Observers speculate that SEIU and Kaiser don’t want news of Kaiser’s profits to hit the streets at the same time they’re signing a deal to slash workers’ benefits. Today, Kaiser and the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions are scheduled to complete their carefully choreographed negotiations for a new National Agreement.

Apparently, the last thing that Dave Regan, John August and Kaiser’s fatcat execs want is a headline that reads: “Flush with First Quarter Profits, Kaiser and SEIU Ink Deal to Slash Workers’ Benefits.” Last year, Kaiser pocketed $921 million in profits during the first quarter.

So… instead of announcing its profits, Kaiser has populated its media web page with riveting press releases like these:

• “Is It Possible To Walk And Work At The Same Time?”

• “The West Wing Cast Reunites in Support of Every Body Walk! Campaign”

• “Kaiser Permanente Launches Mix It Up Online Nutrition Program to Encourage Better Eating in the Workplace”

What is “Mix It Up Online Nutrition Program?” It’s a new-fangled “team salad day” kinda thing... but over the internet. It involves a “virtual blender,” “Produce Pals,” and “friendly team competition.” Here’s what Kaiser says: 

Employees sign up online and earn points for the produce choices they make. The easy-to-remember daily selections include more than 120 possible fruits and vegetables. Your employees click on images of the foods they’ve eaten and drag them to a virtual blender. The blender calculates the percentage of each color of produce eaten and a summary page tracks all the points earned… The team challenge component taps into the power of social networks.

Mix it up? How about “Cough it up” ...as in, cough up the news on your profits, Kaiser and SEIU-UHW!

The Boss Loves SEIU-UHW’s 21st-Century Contract

It turns out that SEIU-UHW’s sell-out contract with the Daughters of Charity Health System is getting rave reviews… from the Boss!

Just hours after Dave Regan rammed SEIU’s contract down workers’ throats through an unconstitutional ratification vote, the billion-dollar company’s chief negotiator issued a press release where she gushed about how the company’s new contract with SEIU “moves employees to more modern, streamlined pension and medical benefit plans.” The negotiator goes on to say: “I commend SEIU-UHW for joining DCHS in this important step forward.”

“More modern, streamlined benefits?” That’s one way to put it. Actually, Regan’s new contract freezes workers’ defined-pension pension plan, forces them into a 401(k) plan, and compels employees to pay as much as $900 a month for health insurance for their families.

Not so "modern," right? Although John August would say it’s positively “21^st Century.” Looks like Dave Regan, John August and the Bosses are singing from the same sheet of music!

Secret Website Reveals Plan for SEIU's Negotiations with Kaiser Permanente

What’s the latest from the SEIU/Coalition’s negotiations with Kaiser Permanente?

This week, SEIU officials will conclude their tightly choreographed “negotiations” with Kaiser. Meanwhile, Dave Regan is desperately trying to organize workers to support SEIU-UHW by telling them that negotiations are somehow teetering on the edge of a dangerous precipice. A recent email from SEIU-UHW put it this way:

Dear ___,

So here’s what’s up. Despite lots of progress and agreements on specific goals, Kaiser management at national bargaining is stalling on our most important priorities… It’s time to come together. Wear your purple and your sticker ant stay tuned for other plans in your facility to give Kaiser that extra push it needs…

Tomorrow (May 8), SEIU-UHW is telling workers to join rallies at three Kaiser hospitals to “take action to show Kaiser we are united and not going to back down.”

Sounds like the negotiations are in flux, right? Not quite. 

Unfortunately, Dishonest Dave conveniently forgot to tell workers about this interesting website, which reveals that SEIU and the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions have already scheduled an "endorsement conference" for May 18-19 at the Sheraton Gateway LAX in Los Angeles. 

What’s the purpose of the conference? According to the website, it's to discuss “our newly negotiated National Agreement” as well as “ideas about our contract implementation process.”

And that’s not all. Dave Regan and John August have already created the agenda for the “Endorsement Conference.”

Here’s the text from the website’s main page:

Join us at the Sheraton Gateway LAX for our third and final delegate conference of 2012 from May 18-May19. Learn about the content of our newly-negotiated National Agreement, which promises to be as transformational as our previous agreements. Ask questions about its impact on our benefits, our health, workforce development program, union membership growth and our partnership. Discuss our ratification. Provide your ideas about our contract implementation process. 

So... if there's one thing that Kaiser workers can say with certainty, it's that you can't trust anything that SEIU officials tell you. In fact, if you want the truth, it's usually the exact opposite from what SEIU says. 

Way to go, Dishonest Dave!

A Re-Run Election for Fresno's 10,000 Homecare Workers?

Mary Kay Henry, Medina, Regan and Hudson in Fresno (June 2009)

Tasty hears that a decision issued last month by California’s Public Employment Relations Board has SEIU officials in a panic. Why? Because it may trigger a re-run election for 10,000 homecare workers in Fresno due to SEIU’s threats and intimidation against workers during the workers' 2009 decertification election.

Here’s what’s going on.

In 2009, SEIU parachuted 1,000 staffers from the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico into Fresno County and spent an estimated $10 million on the election between NUHW and SEIU-UHW. 

SEIU's Mary Kay Henry, Eliseo Medina and Gerry Hudson all flew into Fresno to help manage the campaign. And at the start of the campaign, SEIU’s Dave Regan delivered an infamous, violence-filled speech to the 1,000 SEIU staffers and officials assembled at the county fairgrounds.

During the election, SEIU’s purple-clad staffers followed Regan’s instructions to a “T.” They bullied homecare workers, took workers' mail-in ballots from their mail boxes and marked them, kicked in workers’ screen doors to steal signs supporting NUHW, and told workers they'd lose their jobs if they voted for NUHW. Check out this short video where workers describe what they experienced: 

And that's not all. SEIU's organizers even threatened immigrant homecare with deportation unless they voted for SEIU. Check out this TV news coverage on CBS:

When the ballots were finally counted, officials reported that SEIU had narrowly edged NUHW by 233 votes. NUHW formally challenged SEIU’s illegal conduct with California's Public Employment Relations Board (PERB), the agency that oversaw the election. 

A lower-level PERB agent initially dismissed NUHW’s challenge, but the PERB’s full board later reviewed the matter and backed NUHW’s position. Last month, PERB’s board ordered the agency to issue a formal complaint against SEIU's conduct during the election.

PERB's 18-page decision states: “NUHW’s allegations state a prima facie case of interference with employee rights.” It goes on to say: 

We conclude that SEIU’s alleged conduct weighed in its totality may have interfered with employees’ right freely to choose a representative or constituted a serious irregularity in the running of the election. Thus, we remand the case for issuance of a complaint consistent with this decision. (p. 12)

You can see the full decision below. 

What’s next? Tasty hears that Regan and SEIU-UHW will likely face a full-fledged hearing in front of a judge to determine whether SEIU broke the law and whether a re-run election should be ordered. Last year, an Administrative Law Judge famously overturned the results of an NLRB election for 43,000 Kaiser Permanente workers because of SEIU-UHW's illegal threats against those workers. 

Looks like more of Regan's chickens are coming home to roost!

Decision by California's Public Employment Relations Board to Issue Complaint against SEIU in 2009 Fresno H...

 

More Info on SEIU-UHW's Cuts at Daughters of Charity

A source gave Tasty more details about two of the cuts that SEIU-UHW officials accepted at the Daughters of Charity Health System. Of course, these are the same cuts that SEIU then tried to ram down workers' throats through an unconstitutional 'ramrod' ratification vote.

First, SEIU-UHW allowed the company to implement a "Wellness Program" for the SEIU's 3,000 members. Under this program, workers will be forced to pay penalties of more than $5,000 a year if they don't comply with the company's "wellness assessments."

Check out the following chart, prepared by SEIU-UHW officials, that describes the "Wellness penalties" now facing workers at O'Connor Hospital in San Jose, CA. Note that "Fam" refers to "family health coverage," "EE" refers to "employee-only health coverage," etc.

In addition, Regan and Co. let company officials freeze workers' defined-benefit pension plan and replace it with a cheap 401(k) plan. Pasted below is the exact contract language that SEIU's Julie Kwiek approved. Note that the "RPA Plan" is the new 401(k) plan. The "Daughters of Charity Retirement Plan" and the "RPHE" are the defined-benefit pension plans that have covered employees at the various hospitals for many years.

And that's not all. Tasty has learned that Dave Regan and Co. also approved a two-tiered system of retirement benefits under the new 401(k) plan. Basically, employees hired after January 1, 2013 will receive even lower 401(k) benefits than those hired before that date.

What's even more disgusting? These massive pension and health insurance cuts are the reductions that Dave Regan handed over to the company in order to impose a scheme to prevent workers from leaving SEIU-UHW.

Would You Spend $5.5 Million on This?

Get ready for SEIU’s next campaign of dishonesty and deception.

Last week, Tasty described how Dave Regan was desperately seeking a face-saving maneuver to hide the fact that he wasted $5.5 million of SEIU-UHW members’ dues money on two statewide ballot initiatives that were destined for failure from the outset.

Well, today, Regan launched a cover-up scheme that’s so pathetic, it’s laughable. 

In a press release, Regan explained that he’s decided to drop SEIU-UHW’s ballot initiatives because he’s reached a “visionary agreement” with the California Hospital Association.

So what’s the California Hospital Association (CHA)? It’s the ‘Chamber of Commerce’ for California’s hospital industry and is dominated by California’s multi-billion-dollar hospital corporations.

So what does Regan’s "visionary agreement" actually say? Not much… besides committing SEIU to pimp for the Big Bosses and their cost-cutting agenda. Here are some excerpts:

Talks between CHA and SEIU-UHW have focused on establishing a new vision for health care in California, public policy priorities and organizational relationships. These discussions have resulted in an understanding that hospitals and SEIU-UHW embrace many of the same goals and values…

Hmm… that’s interesting. Do these “same goals and values” include slashing workers’ pensions and health benefits, like the cuts that Kaiser Permanente, Dignity Health and the Daughters of Charity Health System are actively imposing on SEIU-UHW’s own members?

Here’s another excerpt:

The agreement calls for CHA and SEIU-UHW to develop and advocate public policies that benefit patients and promote efficiency and cost-effectiveness…

Sounds like the Boss talking, right?

CHA also is joining SEIU-UHW in the promotion of a healthier California by supporting its "Let's Get Healthy California" campaign to reduce chronic disease and improve the health status of Californians for future generations.

Bosses love Wellness Programs. And now they’ve got SEIU to do the dirty work of pushing these programs on workers… just like they did at the Daughters of Charity.

Tasty searched through the rest of Regan’s press release, but he can’t find anything of meaning or substance. That didn’t stop SEIU’s Steve Trossman from larding the press release with more superlatives than you can shake a stick it. In fact, the press release says Regan’s agreement is not just “visionary,” it’s also “comprehensive,” “strategic,” “historic,” “farsighted,” “unprecedented”… 

Talk about putting lipstick on a pig! But then again, you need a lot of lipstick to cover up a $5.5 million boneheaded blunder!

SEIU's Dirty, Backroom Deal at Daughters of Charity Health Systerm

Here’s the latest news from the SEIU’s exercise in “union democracy” at the Daughters of Charity Health System in California.

As Tasty reported last night, dozens of workers sent letters to Dave Regan and Mary Kay Henry to protest SEIU’s unconstitutional contract-ratification vote.

Regan and Henry basically ignored the letters. Late last night, they announced that “the membership” had enthusiastically ratified an SEIU contract that will eliminate workers’ pension plan and slash their health benefits.

And today, SEIU-UHW officials announced their “victory” to workers while company officials handed out slices of cake to workers to celebrate “your new contract.” (Tasty is not kidding).

Of course, workers are still scratching their heads and wondering what’s actually IN the contract. You see, Regan and Co. are STILL refusing to give workers copies of the actual agreement.  

Fortunately, an inside source sent Tasty a block-buster excerpt that reveals the dirty deal behind SEIU’s sell-out contract. It turns out that SEIU-UHW officials -- including Chief Negotiator Julie Kwiek -- traded away workers’ hard-earned pensions and health benefits for a new arrangement that’s designed to lock workers inside SEIU.

Perhaps you’ve heard of a “Golden Parachute.” Well this is a “Purple Ball-and-Chain.”  

Here’s how it works. For decades, each of the five Daughters of Charity hospitals has been a separate “bargaining unit,” which means that workers at each hospital have the right to vote separately on whether to leave SEIU-UHW if they want to. For example, several months ago, 750 workers at Seton Medical Center requested an NLRB election to leave SEIU-UHW and join NUHW.

But under SEIU’s new deal, workers would no longer have this option. Instead, SEIU’s deal merges all five hospitals into a single, statewide “bargaining unit” of 3,000 workers. In order for any of the hospitals to leave SEIU-UHW, a majority of this entire statewide “bargaining unit” of 3,000 workers would have to vote to leave.

This purple ball-and-chain was Regan’s top priority during negotiations. And in order to get it, he gave away workers’ pension plan and health benefits. And guess what? The entire, disgusting deal is captured in the following side letter. 

SEIU-UHW's Dirty Side Letter with Daughters of Charity Health System 2012