Worker: "SEIU Said They'd Fight for Us... But They Didn't Even Throw a Punch"

In California, SEIU is making more headlines as a result of another stunningly pathetic performance at the bargaining table. 

Last week, the leaders of SEIU Local 1000, which represents 95,000 state employees, signed a tentative agreement with California officials for a three-year labor contract.

Here’s some background.

Local 1000’s members haven’t had a pay increase since 2007. In fact, the local’s leaders have bargained only three raises since 2001. Meanwhile, SEIU has accepted contract language that forces workers to contribute more of their wages to their pensions. And in the recent difficult years of the recession, workers got hit with furloughs that cut workers’ take-home pay by between 5%-14%.

This year, however, the state's coffers are overflowing with tax revenues. A recent article in the New York Times put it this way: “California Faces a New Quandary, Too Much Money.” On Friday, California’s legislature approved an annual budget that’ll produce a surplus estimated at somewhere between $1.2 billion to $4.4 billion. 

So… this should be a perfect opportunity for SEIU to finally win some justice for its members, right? Plus, the Democratic Party controls both houses of the state legislature and the governor’s office.

Did SEIU actually win something for its members?

Here’s how one SEIU member put it to the Sacramento Bee:

The SEIU agreement left state worker Ernie Medina disappointed, especially in light of [SEIU Local 1000 President Yvonne] Walker's tough talk.

"She said she would fight for us," said Medina, "but I don't see where she even threw a punch."

Under SEIU’s deal, workers will get another year of wage freezes during the first year of the contract; a 2 percent increase on July 1, 2014 if – and only if -- the state “achieves certain revenue targets;” and a 2.5 percent raise in 2015.

Observers are especially stunned by SEIU’s willingness to tie its members’ future wage increase to mysterious budget “triggers” that are entirely controlled by the Boss. According to the Sacramento Bee:

It remains unclear exactly how the fiscal triggers in the new contract work.

Here’s what the state’s H.R. Department told the newspaper:

"Revenues have to be consistent with meeting the state's obligations" for the 2014 raise to take effect, said Pat McConahay, spokeswoman for [Gov. Jerry] Brown's Department of Human Resources. "And that's determined by the Department of Finance."

Sounds like workers will be getting a wage freeze in 2014. 

So what’s SEIU saying about the so-called “triggers” that it negotiated?

The union's announcement, meanwhile, didn't explain what factors would trigger the earlier raise. The local didn't respond to The Bee's texts and messages requesting comment.

Meanwhile, the head of another union of state employees says that in the past, state negotiators proposed this sort of arrangement to the unions, but none of the unions actually ever accepted the idea of tying their wage increases to “triggers:”

Bruce Blanning, the longtime executive director of the state engineers' union, said he has seen state labor proposals contingent on certain economic factors in the past, but that they weren't put into contracts.

"They were too difficult to measure," Blanning said.

Way to go, SEIU!

Latest News from SEIU's Attempted Trusteeship of Local 50 in California

Here’s the latest news from SEIU’s attempt to impose a trusteeship on Local 50, which represents 5,400 food service workers at Disneyland in California.

In a repeat performance, SEIU parachuted purple staffers from the East Coast to try to seize control of the union after Local 50 formally disaffiliated from SEIU. Check out this video of staffers from SEIU’s “Workers United,” who've been assigned to carry out 24/7 surveillance of Local 50's office from a parked car.

But wait... not so fast! 

Here’s what happened when Local 50 called the cops on SEIU's stalkers!

Busted!

Meanwhile, Local 50’s lawsuit against SEIU is moving forward in the courts. SEIU has assigned the same union-busting lawyer -- Glenn Rothner from Rothner, Segall and Greenstone -- who was assigned to the Purple Palace's trusteeship of SEIU-UHW in 2009. Rothner has apparently decided to build a career out of waging legal wars against worker-led unions... in exchange for a fat paycheck from the Purple Palace.

In fact, during SEIU's trusteeship of California's healthcare workers, SEIU lawyer Edgar James even tried to forcibly break down the doors of one union office… which was famously captured in this video by members of SEIU-UHW.

SEIU's Edgar Romney -- a D.C. official who claims to be the “Trustee” of Local 50  -- continues to pal around with the business-suited executives over at Disneyland. Recently, Disneyland's H.R. Department decided to allow SEIU to put three purple staffers inside Disneyland's gated walls to carry out SEIU’s usual campaign of lies and threats against the union's rank-and-file members. Tasty smells a Regan-styled backroom deal.

Here’s a pic of three of SEIU's staffers, who are wearing ID badges handed out by management, as they await orders from the Purple Palace and keep a watchful eye out for Mickey and Goofy.

Judge Rules on Tyrone Freeman’s Effort to Appeal Guilty Verdict in SEIU Corruption Trial

Here’s the latest news from a federal court in California, where in January a jury convicted SEIU’s Tyrone Freeman of 14 criminal counts of embezzlement, theft of labor union assets, mail fraud, filing false tax returns, and making a false statement to a federally insured financial institution.

After the verdict, Freeman’s gold-plated attorneys -- who are funded by an unnamed deep-pocketed supporter -- filed a motion to acquit Freeman on all 14 counts or, alternatively, to require a do-over of Freeman’s whole trial.

On May 30, a judge issued a 41-page ruling in response to Freeman’s motion for acquittal (see the full decision below). The bottom line? The judge upheld 11 of Freeman’s 14 guilty verdicts, and “vacated” three counts.

Freeman, who faced a maximum jail sentence of 180 years for the 14 counts, now faces a maximum penalty of 164 years… although he won’t get anything near that amount of time.

So… why did the judge “vacate” three of Freeman’s guilty verdicts?

The first one was vacated on the most technical of technicalities. The judge found that the grand jury charged Freeman with stealing money from SEIU Local 6434 to pay for his tropical wedding, when in fact Freeman had stolen the money from SEIU Local 434B!

For those who aren’t familiar with the background, these two unions are virtually identical -- Andy Stern appointed Freeman as the President of Local 434B, which later on changed its name to Local 6434.

Freeman’s attorneys didn’t even contest the facts of Freeman's criminal acts -- that Freeman used the union’s credit card to pay for his tropical wedding in Hawaii, where he married his Executive Assistant. 

In fact, during the trial, U.S. prosecutors presented mountains of evidence to show how Freeman billed thousands of dollars to the union’s low-income members including the newlywed couple’s one-week stay at the Marriott Ko Olina Beach Club, a $600 bill from the poolside bar, the rental of a Hummer H3 SUV, and a 60-minute massage at the Marriott.

The other two “vacated” counts charged Freeman with under-reporting his income in his IRS tax returns. On May 30, the judge ruled that prosecutors did not introduce enough evidence to explain a specific gap in Freeman’s income that was reported on Freeman's W-2 form and his pay stubs.

What’s next?

The next step is sentencing… unless Freeman’s secretly funded lawyers are somehow able to pull a rabbit out of their hats.

Stay tuned!

   Judge's Order on Tyrone Freeman's Request for Acquittal on 14 Criminal Counts. 5-30-2013. US District Court...

NUHW Defeats SEIU-UHW in Today’s NLRB Election at Kaiser Permanente

Earlier today, Kaiser Permanente’s optical workers in Northern California voted by an overwhelming majority to be represented by NUHW.

Approximately 370 workers were eligible to vote in today’s NLRB election, and they voted for NUHW by more than a two-to-one margin. 

Here are the results:

NUHW:  214

SEIU-UHW:  103

No Union:  3

Challenged Ballots:  22

In 2010, this same unit of optical workers voted to decertify SEIU-UHW and join NUHW. Also in 2010, four other units of Kaiser workers bolted the Purple Palace and joined NUHW. 

Together, these 4,000 workers have fought the same benefit cuts that SEIU-UHW has already accepted from Kaiser, including cuts to workers' retiree health coverage.

In response to the workers’ fight-back campaign, SEIU-UHW teamed up with Kaiser to try to force the optical workers back into SEIU-UHW. 

SEIU-UHW poured untold amounts of money into their decertification campaign -- including weekly mailers, robocalls, live phone calls, fake telephone surveys, websites, purple buses, etc. SEIU-UHW staffers also worked hand-in-hand with Kaiser's managers to try to break the NUHW workers’ strikes.

Meanwhile, Kaiser has given every possible advantage to their “partner,” including giving SEIU-UHW free access to the optical worksites in order to carry out the purple campaign.

So… has Kaiser’s and SEIU-UHW’s joint campaign undermined optical workers’ support for NUHW?

Nope! According to today’s election results, optical workers’ support for NUHW has actually grown stronger since 2010.

In the 2010 election, NUHW won by a margin of 52% to 48% (154 votes to 142 votes). Today, NUHW won by a margin of approximately 70% to 30% (214 votes to 103 votes)... and with an even higher turnout among voters.

Tasty hears that NUHW’s margin of victory would have been far bigger, but SEIU-UHW’s Greg Maron blocked the NLRB from counting 5% of the ballots by frivolously challenging NUHW supporters’ right to vote. Maron (whom workers charitably refer to as “Greg Moron”) even challenged the voting rights of optical Shop Stewards who’ve worked at Kaiser for more than a dozen years!

According to workers, Moron and SEIU-UHW staffer Justine Fout couldn’t even scare up a single Kaiser worker to attend the vote count with SEIU-UHW.

Congrats to the optical workers!

Fyi, in case you're interested, here’s NUHW’s post on the election.

California Appeals Court: Civil Lawsuit against Top SEIU Officials for Campaign of Violence Must Go Forward

On Friday, a California appeals court announced an important legal victory for four rank-and-file healthcare workers and three NUHW officers in their lawsuit against SEIU. Tasted has pasted a copy of the decision below.

The unanimous decision, issued by a panel of appeals judges, orders a lower court to go forward with a civil lawsuit against SEIU’s top officials including President Mary Kay Henry, Secretary-Treasurer Eliseo Medina, President Emeritus Andy Stern, former Secretary-Treasurer Anna Burger and SEIU-UHW President Dave Regan.

The lawsuit alleges that SEIU violated civil rights laws by carrying out a plan of assault, battery, intimidation, threat and coercion in an effort to silence SEIU's critics.

Here are the details:

In 2011, the rank-and-file workers and NUHW officers filed the lawsuit against SEIU. (Interestingly, some of the rank-and-file workers are actually SEIU’s own members.)  

Next, SEIU’s attorneys got a judge to improperly toss out the lawsuit. The workers and NUHW’s officers fought back and just won a unanimous decision from an appeals court that orders the lower court to proceed with the lawsuit. In addition, the judges forced SEIU to repay nearly $60,000 to the workers and NUHW officers along with unspecified costs for the appeals process.

The lawsuit was triggered by SEIU’s multiple acts of violence, threats and intimidation against NUHW supporters during SEIU’s infamous trusteeship of SEIU-UHW.

According to the appeals judges’ decision, the original lawsuit contains 25 paragraphs alleging “specific acts of assault, battery, intimidation, threat and coercion directed at plaintiffs and other NUHW supporters by persons purportedly affiliated with the SEIU.” These acts include…

SEIU agents threw eggs and water bottles at plaintiffs and other NUHW supporters at a Los Angeles event in November 2009.

SEIU hired armed security guards who surveilled, videotaped, and intimidated them.

SEIU agents have made multiple death threats to plaintiff Glasper, followed her to medical appointments, physically grabbed her NUHW badge, and threatened and attempted to strike her.

SEIU agents yelled at, pushed, assaulted, and threatened defendants Borsos, Rosselli, and Cornejo, and NUHW supporter, Dolores Huerta, at numerous other workplace meetings with health care employees.

And that's just the beginning!

SEIU said these acts of violence were simply “free speech,” and then attempted to get the lawsuit tossed out of court. The appeals judges unanimously rejected SEIU’s argument, writing:

Defendants [SEIU] maintain all or most of these allegations were also "constitutionally-protected speech activities" taking place in connection with a public issue--the labor dispute between SEIU and NUHW. We disagree. Conduct illegal as a matter of law is not protected… Threats of violence or bodily injury are not protected activities...

The allegations against nondefendant SEIU members included multiple and repeated acts of assault and battery, threats of violence and death, property damage, and physically accosting and surrounding NUHW supporters in a threatening manner. The gravamen of all three of plaintiffs' causes of action is illegal conduct--violence, assault, threats of physical harm, intimidation, and coercion--that is constitutionally unprotected. (p. 7)

The appeals judges' decision also contains this excerpt referring to both SEIU President Mary Kay Henry and SEIU-UHW’s Dave Regan:

These paragraphs alleged, inter alia, (1) defendants had a policy and practice of utilizing physical intimidation against individuals and other unions they came to perceive as their "'enemies'" in the labor movement; (2) defendants had carried out their policy of intimidation on specified occasions to break into and attack meetings held by enemy unions and individuals other than plaintiffs; (3) at a January 2009 meeting with SEIU agents in Las Vegas, individual defendant Henry instructed members on tactics of intimidation to be used against plaintiffs and their supporters and told the members, "You are SEIU's warriors!"; and (4) in a campaign leading up to a representation election in Fresno between SEIU and NUWH, defendant Regan instructed a large gathering of SEIU agents to intimidate NUWH supporters, to "give them an ass-whipping," to "drive a stake through [their] hearts," to "bury them . . . in the ground," and to threaten Hispanic workers that the immigration service would be called on them if they did not vote for SEIU.  (p. 3)

Regan's speech to his "old school" friends in Fresno was famously captured in multiple YouTube videos, including this one.

What’s next?

The lower court will now go forward with the lawsuit. Hmm... Tasty would love to see Mary Kay Henry, Andy Stern and Dave Regan squirming on the witness stand!

Stay tuned!

   California Appeals Court: Unanimous Decision Ordering Lower Court to Proceed with Civil Rights Lawsuit agai...