Thug Regan Does Not Heart Mike Casey

It looks like Mike Casey has well and truly pissed off Thug Regan.

And what, praytell, was Casey's crime? Acting on principle...

to sflc re seiu 8-17-09

This whole story was covered in part by Randy Shaw at BeyondChron, but it's nice to get some backstory and documentation to some of the stuff in Shaw's story from last week.

When I told Regan that it was SEIU that brought Casey into the home health care decertification campaign by handing out a flyer calling him a liar, the trustee replied “he is a liar.” Regan went on to call Casey “lying, conniving, and despicable,” and said that his support for NUHW is “beyond contempt.”

Geez, Thug Regan. Why don't you tell us what you really think? Later on...

According to Regan, “Mike Casey wants to yell and scream about how he’s fighting these hotels, but he doesn’t want help from SEIU.” Regan would not tell Casey about SEIU’s specific plans to attack Local 2, but one possibility is for SEIU to send letters to Local 2 members accusing Casey of acting against his members’ interests, a tactic SEIU used months ago to little effect.

Oh, you mean like this one? Yeah, that'll go over big with the Local 2 membership.

Regan repeatedly emphasized that he could not understand why progressives would support Local 2’s decision to help decertify another union. He refused to accept that Local 2 was responding to SEIU raids against UNITE HERE bargaining units in Puerto Rico, San Antonio and elsewhere, saying that this had nothing to do with the SEIU-NUHW fight.

In fact, Regan argued to Casey last Saturday that it was it was “flat out wrong” for Local 2 to support the organizing of a competing union (NUHW) in the homecare industry. But when challenged that SEIU was doing precisely that against UNITE HERE – organizing a competing union in the gaming, hotel and food service industry – he said that should be resolved at the International Union level.

Yo, Thug - it kinda sucks when people use your own tactics against you, don't it?

Regan expressed anger to me over how San Francisco’s progressive community is backing Casey in this fight. He clearly does not understand Local 2’s historic role in local struggles, or realize that Local 2 is not a top-down union, that Casey does not act alone, and that the rank and file strongly supports NUHW’s campaign.

The passage above suggests that Regan still hasn't internalized what happened down in Fresno, or the fact that, at least out west, we still have actual member-driven unions, instead of the semi-corporate dictatorships like District 1199 or the various Frankenlocals that SEIU is so fond of setting up.

He also does not remember the substantial support Local 2 received from the former leadership of Local 250/UHW (now in charge of NUHW) when the SF hotel workers went out on their protracted strike. It was specifically because of actions taken by the former UHW leadership that Local 2 was able to ride out the hotel management in that strike and bring them back to the table. This is a debt of honor that does not go away with time, and it is not a thing that SEIU can just intrude upon by changing the locks of the door.

I guess Thug Regan just doesn't understand why the Little People will not willingly lay down and appreciate the process of getting Screwed By SEIU.

Hoof-In-Mouth Syndrome

Thug Regan once again manages to shove his foot so far down his throat he's getting Athlete's Stomach. From the Fresno Business Journal:

The National Union of Healthcare Workers announced its intention to file charges today against rival union Service Employees International Union.

The announcement comes after SEIU won the employee election 2,938 to 2,705.

In an election that brought attention to proposed budget cuts that would affect the wages of health care workers across California, several allegations have been made by NUHW against SEIU, including vandalism, violence and illegal campaign tactics.

“Some of the things I’ve heard (are) just preposterous,” said Dave Regan, an executive vice president with SEIU. “When you lose, and you tell everyone you have to win, there’s wild allegations and sour grapes.”

Sarah Jones, a spokesperson for NUHW said charges will be filed with the California Public Employees Relations Board against SEIU, alleging interference with the voting process. Charges will also be filed against the state mediation service election officer.

Both unions had representatives present to observe the ballot counting — which was done twice.

Erika Monterroza, a public information officer with the State Mediation and Conciliation Service, said 100 to 150 ballots were challenged, but both sides later agreed to drop the challenge. Monterroza said the challenged ballots wouldn’t make a difference in the outcome.

“Throughout the election, SEIU demonstrated an appalling disregard for the truth and the law,” said Jones.

Regan said SEIU is undeterred by the allegations, and the organization will continue to take steps to work for health care workers in the state.

“They predicted a victory and they lost,” Regan said. “They have to figure out a way to talk away the facts.”

Here, kitty-kitty-kitty...



Do we remember the 5000-vote prediction? Do we remember Thug Regan stating he didn't want a 52-48 SEIU victory (which it is at least for now)? Do we remember Thug Regan stating he didn't want a SEIU win by a "just a few hundred votes" (when it stands right now at 233)?

Are there any SEIU "facts" that ole Thug Regan wants to walk back from?

SF Labor Council to Purple Plague: Get Bent!

Maybe it's just something in the water that comes out of Crystal Springs, but it seems that the labor bigwigs in San Francisco just aren't interested in tugging at their forelocks whenever any of the cloven-hooved minions of Our Glorious Maximum Leader open their traps...

In a further sign of SEIU’s growing estrangement from the labor movement, the San Francisco Labor Council has rejected SEIU’s threat to withdraw 40% of its Council funding unless UNITE HERE Local 2 drops its support for NUHW’s decertification campaign against SEIU’s home health care workers. At an August 21 Executive Board meeting, representatives of several unions took turns castigating SEIU-UHW Trustee Dave Regan for threatening the Council’s funding, while praising Local 2’s historic commitment to worker rights. Although Regan had threatened the “immediate withdrawal” of SEIU’s $17,000 monthly Council contribution during an August 15 meeting with Local 2 officials, he now denied that SEIU had decided to withdraw funding. Instead, he said that he had requested to meet with Local 2 to see how SEIU-UHW could help UNITE HERE in its contract fight against San Francisco’s hotels. Most striking about the meeting was the widespread criticism of SEIU’s bullying tactics, and the strong defense of Local 2’s efforts to help NUHW decertify SEIU’s local home health care workers.

As the epicenter of labor’s internal wars shifts to San Francisco, SEIU now finds itself in deep trouble with the powerful San Francisco Labor Council. Labor officials were angered by SEIU’s threat to withdraw its Council funding, and did not respond well to what Teachers Union President Dennis Kelly described as “the two faced-ness of (Dave) Regan’s presentation and by the threats and bullying.”

Thug Regan described as a "bully"? As "two-faced"? Somehow, I think we've seen that before...

The Council was brought into the SEIU-UNITE HERE fight after Dave Regan told Local 2 officials that SEIU was withdrawing its monthly per capita contributions “effective immediately” in retaliation for Council President Mike Casey’s support for NUHW’s campaign to decertify SEIU’s local home health care workers. Although Regan denied at the Council meeting that any decision to withdraw funds had been made, I confirmed with Local 2’s Northern California Organizing Director Tho Do that her notes of the Regan meeting confirmed that he said SEIU’s dues would be withdrawn “effective immediately.”

Translation: THUG REGAN IS A LYING SACK OF CRAP.

Not wanting to have his individual union’s decisions negatively impact the Council, Casey began the August 22 meeting by offering his resignation as President. It was unanimously refused, with much of the Council irate over SEIU’s tactics. John Ulrich, of United Food and Commercial Workers 101, told the Council, “for SEIU to continue to try and extort CLC’s (Central Labor Councils) over issues is terrible.” Ulrich stated that he “belongs to four Labor Councils, and SEIU has pulled this kind of threat in three of those councils many times over the years over different issues.”

Casey made it clear that he felt that NUHW “is the true voice of homecare workers in California,” and that “it was Sal Rosselli, former UHW staff and the union’s rank-and-file leadership, not SEIU, who did the work on behalf of homecare workers in San Francisco.” In an ominous sign for SEIU’s relationship to the broader labor movement, nobody criticized Local 2’s support of NUHW’s de-certification. Nor did any dispute Casey’s crediting Rosselli’s team for the gains of the home health care workers who will soon be choosing between SEIU and NUHW as their representative.

To the Purple Plaguers: The above passage is what is known as "Solidarity." It is the end result of actions taken in the past which are consistent with your values, and which help others while helping yourself. This is what you utterly lack, having cast your fate to the winds of corporate look-a-like "unionism."

And like I've said before, Mike Casey is a stand-up guy.

In order to protect its finances, the Labor Council has initiated a “Solidarity Pledge” whereby unions are being asked to agree to provide additional funding to that if SEIU leaves their will not be a shortfall. Plumbers chief Larry Mazzola, who announced at the end of the August 22 meeting that his union would “step up” to fill any funding gap, kicked off this strategy.

According to Labor Council Vice-President Conny Ford, since Mazzola got the ball rolling the solidarity pledges are “going great.” Ford told me that in response to her single e-mail message about the pledge, “people are either signing up or saying that they are awaiting ratification of the proposed dues increase from their executive boards.” Ford said she had not heard from a single union that they did not want to pledge higher dues to protect the Council from SEIU’s withdrawal.

In addition, Local 2’s support among other unions continues to grow. IBEW 1245 Business Manager Tom Dalzell is providing Local 2 with two fulltime organizers to help on its contract fight, and is also providing the services of longtime former SEIU organizing strategist Fred Ross, Jr., who now works for IBEW.

See above regarding the concept of "Solidarity"...

As the AFL-CIO convention opens on September 13, the union unity exhibited at the San Francisco Labor Council over the dispute between SEIU and UNITE HERE could well emerge at the national level. SEIU’s former Change to Win partners at UNITE HERE and the Laborers Union are negotiating to rejoin the AFL-CIO, and the UFCW – whose San Francisco representatives strongly backed Local 2 against SEIU — may not be far behind.

Incoming AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka recently gave an interview in the Las Vegas Sun in which he vowed to move labor in a different direction than that promoted by SEIU President Andy Stern. Trumka noted “the difference between me and (Stern) is that he believes you can look at that system and play within that box by accommodating employers. I believe that the system has to be changed because it’s designed for employers to win and workers, every time, to lose.”

Whereas Dave Regan told the Labor Council that this “tag line” about SEIU and “top down unionism and corporate unionism” hasn’t “been his experience,” most labor leaders are not happy over SEIU’s vaunted “partnerships” with Wal-Mart, Big Pharma and other corporate interests. Trumka and international union presidents are increasingly joining UNITE HERE and NUHW’s critique of SEIU’s approach, which could soon result in a labor movement with nearly all unions on one page and SEIU on another.

SEIU has been AFL-CIO's best recruiter of late, as well as NUHW's and UNITE/HERE's. However, the Purple Kool-Aid is strong, and it will not be until it is almost too late for SEIU for their "leadership" to realize that Andy Stern is almost single-handedly destroying years of goodwill so painstakingly put up.

Shaw On Fresno: "SEIU's Vietnam?"

Randy Shaw at BeyondChron has weighed in on the Fresno vote, and he has found the SEIU effort wanting...

Just as Vietnam revealed the United States’ inability to impose its will on other nations, Fresno has exposed SEIU’s vulnerability in California. The fact that SEIU had to parachute in so many top staffers from outside California to run its Fresno campaign raises serious questions about the union’s hold on the state – which includes a full third of its entire membership.

Two years ago, Sal Rosselli and Tyrone Freeman were SEIU’s two most powerful California leaders; today, Rosselli heads NUHW and Freeman has departed from SEIU after resigning in disgrace. Tracy Zeloff, SEIU’s longtime State Council leader in California, announced during the Fresno campaign that she was resigning to pursue other interests.

Eliseo Medina and Dave Regan were brought in to run SEIU-UHW after Rosselli’s departure, but Medina has far too many other important responsibilities to focus exclusively on California, and Regan has little if any experience west of Ohio. And after Regan’s widely publicized and embarrassing pre-election call on SEIU organizers to “administer an old-school ass-whipping” to workers who support NUHW, one senses that he should have awaited the Fresno outcome before relocating his family to California.

SEIU is fighting NUHW on the latter’s home turf, and without strong indigenous leadership. That’s why SEIU’s massive effort to break the spirit of NUHW in Fresno made sense – SEIU clearly understood that if NUHW came out of Fresno with a win, or with only a narrow defeat, it was only a matter of time before much of SEIU’s health care and hospital workers voted to leave as well.

And like the United States in Vietnam, SEIU lacks the local leadership to forestall future defeats.

Most everyone who has been studying this whole situation has concluded that NUHW has withstood SEIU's best shot and have come out of Fresno marked, but still standing and ready to fight on. This is indeed a far cry from the result that Thug Regan wished for when he made his call for an "old-school ass whipping."

Perhaps Thug Regan was being inadvertently prophetic when he stated that “this is not an election that we want to win 52 to 48, or by a few hundred votes," because that is precisely what happened down in Fresno - the current margin is a 52-48 percentage "victory" for SEIU (2938 to 2705) and the margin was just over two hundred votes. There are still some votes (90 or so) that are still at issue, and there evidently is also an issue of some 500 or so ballots remaining uncounted, either because of the failure of SMCS to provide replacements for ballots that had "disappeared" or ballots which were taped shut instead of glued shut.

As a rule, I am ordinarily loath to push for legal means to displace the stated intent of voters, even if those voters were misinformed as to the consequences of their actions. To be sure, the SEIU tactics down in Fresno were underhanded at best, maybe even illegal at worst, but I would be hard-pressed to advocate a "legal" remedy to an issue where the voters have spoken - even though I wholeheartedly disagree with what the voters said with their votes.

That's not to say that the Fresno vote should not be appealed and looked over quite carefully. When you have a 200-vote margin, and there are 600 votes that have yet to be determined, there is no way anyone can realistically call the matter closed. The failure of SMCS to provide replacement ballots in adequate time is particularly disturbing, as it would be a simple matter indeed to "block" a NUHW supporter from voting by merely "disappearing" the ballot, which is easily done in rural areas.

The bottom line, though, is this: SEIU had to win this vote, bigtime.

They failed, bigtime.

And to this day, they probably still do not know the reason why they came so close to losing. So long as SEIU maintains this willful ignorance of the will of its subjects, they will continue to have to spend millions of dollars and thousands of man-hours in order to maintain an uneasy status quo that need not have ever happened in the first place.

And SEIU has only themselves to blame for that.

Sinking Ship, Meet Escaping Rats

We've been hearing about the "brain drain" that has happened ever since UHW became Zombie UHW, with the lion's share of that experience going over to the NUHW side.

However, the SEIU "drain" just keeps going unplugged. The Plague has most recently lost Josie Mooney to the CA State Employees Association CA School Employees Association (thanks to an alert reader!), and it rumour now has it that they are preparing to move the Zombie UHW deputy trustee, Kim Evon, down to Tyrone Freeman's infamous SEIU Local 6434, which has proven to be the shining gate to unemployment.

Now, with all this shuffling around and people in very high positions going on to greener (or at least drier) pastures, you would think that the Zombies would make sure that they keep the long-term employees who stayed through the trusteeship transition around, if for no other reason than they are familiar voices and names that the members would recognize, and further that they are the familiar voices and names that the managers would recognize in the event of necessary representation activities.

But of course, for SEIU, all that was predicated on two things: 1) Taking the SEIU Loyalty Oath, and 2) Doing anything and everything that Thug Regan and Esquirol Medina tells ya to do. Dissension in the ranks is not to be tolerated, see? Rats such as this need to be tossed off the ship even if they may want to stay on until the last, final moment.

And so we come to the case of Greg Tegenkamp, a long-term Zombie UHW field rep and organizer who goes back to the Local 250 days, but who decided to stay on with Zombie UHW instead of leaving in protest when the trusteeship was imposed. As matters evolved, he was being asked to do more and more things that he felt were not in the interests of the people he was charged to serve as a field rep and organizer.

It took being required to partake in the Fresno IHSS fight - and the process of SEIU phone banking in that effort - to bring matters to a boil for Mr. Tegenkamp, as he relates in his E-mail to Thug Regan:

__________

May 31, 2009
Dave Regan, Trustee
United Healthcare Workers West, SEIU
560 Thomas L. Berkeley Way
Oakland, California 94612

Dear Mr. Regan:

This letter is to inform you of my decision not to participate in the Fresno Home Care Blitz and to help you understand the reason for my decision, First, I must tell you a little about myself and my involvement in the labor movement.
(snip)
In 1997, I started working for Local 250, one of the few Unions whose vision inspired me to apply. ‘When I started, Local 250 had around 30,000 members and today, it has close to 150,000, with about 100,000 in the former jurisdiction of 250. When I started, we were at the early stages of changing from a business union to a member-driven union. Martinez Kaiser, one of my facilities, had only two stewards. Walnut Creek had about a dozen, but one really controlled everything. I received upward to 20 calls a day from members, on average. At the time of the trusteeship, these facilities had about 30 and 50 stewards respectively. I now receive less than 10 calls a week from members. Some facilities are better organized than others, and there remains a vestige of the old servicing model in some. In Southern California, the transformation started later and the growing pains have been hard, but real progress was being made and people were getting past the feelings that the North was imposing its ways on the South.

UHW before the trusteeship, was a vibrant organization that really did put members first and did really believe in Union democracy. For two years prior to the trusteeship, we all know the International and UHW were engaged in an internal dispute about policy and direction of the Union. No matter how that dispute is framed and no matter what side one may have been on in that dispute, one thing is indisputable: the International Union spent an unprecedented amount of resources attacking one of its Local Unions. I have been active in the labor movement for over 30 years and I have never seen anything like it. Some of the glossy mailers sent to our members' homes and even sent to non-members who we were attempting to organize were worse than anything I had seen from union-busting law firms. To this day it is hard for me to fathom how someone who is the leader of a large international union could endorse such action.

Nonetheless, I did not resign from UHW upon trusteeship, as many of those who I admire did. I knew there would be chaos and I knew there would be confusion, mistrust and anger among our steward leaders and members. I feared that representation of our members would suffer and I chose to stay in order to do what I could to avoid this from happening. I did not quite know what to expect from the trustees, but I hoped they would accept me for my contributions and in return I would keep an open mind and perhaps, in time, through their actions, they would earn my trust.

I suppose I hoped for too much. What I see is some of the stewards and staff least respected by members being promoted to positions of authority, solely because they have an ax to grind with the previous leaders. What I hear is the current leaders referring to members as “idiots” because they support NUHW. What I don’t see is very many real leaders stepping forward in support of SEIU. What I don’t hear is any commitment to real democracy. Sure, you want more members on the Local Organizing Committee than were on the previous Executive Board, so you can say how inclusive you are, but it is very clear that the only voice these members will have is to repeat what ever message the trustees decide, which is currently "Destroy NUHW at all costs". If you cannot pledge to carry that message don’t bother applying. The Executive Board set policy, the LOC can only follow the policy set by the trustees.

This all brings us back to the Fresno Blitz and my decision not to participate. Simply, I refuse to lie to members to get them to do something, because this is manipulation. Furthermore an organizing campaign that relies on manipulation evinces no more than a cynical disrespect for members. The telephone script for the Fresno phone-banking contains many misrepresentations and some straight, flat out lies. It is a lie, for example, that the former leaders "were removed for misusing members' money." The truth, and you know the truth, is that the former leaders were removed for not co-operating with the transfer of the long term care members to a local where the leader was removed for misusing member's money to enrich himself, his wife, his wife’s family and his friends. It is also a lie, although one of omission, not to tell the members that if they vote to "remain" in UHW they are really voting to be moved out of UHW into Tyrone's old local. If SEIU is indeed the better choice for the Fresno Homecare members, why are we not focusing on the reasons they should remain in SEIU? Why do we need to lie and misrepresent and vilify the opposition leadership?

The other day while phone banking, I sort of got into it with somebody named James Hunter. I had overheard him leaving a message, saying that the NUHW folks were taking peoples' ballots from them and if they tried to take "your ballot" to call some 559 number. I asked him where this was on the script and how could they be taking ballots when ballots hadn't even been mailed yet. He showed me where the script said they would "probably" engage in this behavior. He also said this was how NUHW won the Doctor's Hospital election, by going door to door and taking people's ballots. I asked rhetorically if this was how a 7:1 victory was achieved. He said he worked on the campaign arid his experience talking to workers, the election should have been about even.. He went away for a few minutes and care back citing Kim Evon’s e-mail as proof of his assertions, since Kim said at least three times that the election was "tainted" it must be true.

I avoided repeating the lies and misrepresentation when I phoned, but I overheard others, with unchecked imaginations, expanding on what was on the script. I cannot blame them, because they have been whipped into a state of frenzy by you and others in high positions within the trusteeship. I have heard you exhort the troops to share your "righteous indignation" right after you told us all that we were "doing the Lord's work" (your frequent religious sermonizing I find personally offensive, by the way) by fighting to destroy NUHW. The former leaders of UHW have been called thieves, liars, power hungry, self-aggrandizing, opportunistic, satanic and worse. For those of us still with SEIU who know the former leaders, we know these to be lies. And the latest epithet being bandied about is that they are "union busters". I guess that makes Dolores Huerta, an icon of the labor movement, a union buster, since she supports NUHW. Does it make Andy Stern a union-buster? How are the raids of UNITE-HERE or, in the past, CNA, different front what NUHW is doing?

You talk to us about the values of UHW and speak of your admiration for Nelson Mandela for not seeking retribution against those who imprisoned him and tell our lost-time members to hold out an olive branch to NUHW supporters. Yet you follow that up with saying you are not done yet with efforts to get Josh Wiser removed from his position with SEIU 1000, simply because he was a former UHW staff member who left in support of NUHW. No retribution there. And for a different audience, you said that SEIU's attorneys would be thoroughly examining every document returned by the former leaders and it was your hope that they would be caught withholding something so they could go to jail where they belonged. I guess one day it might be New Testament and turn the other cheek, but for now it's all Old Testament and an eye for an eye.

I refuse to compromise my values and principles by being part of a dishonest campaign. Furthermore, I have yet to hear anything to convince me that SEIU is the better choice for these members. How can I be expected to sell SEIU when the only facts I can rely on are SEIU has lots of members and lots of money and NUHW doesn’t.

Shortly after the trusteeship I was placed on paid administrative leave because I refused to sign a sort of "loyalty" letter. After 30 days, I was allowed to return to work with the understanding that my role would be centered on representational issues within Kaiser, not only at my facility, but also in assisting other areas who had no experienced reps and assisting with regional bargaining. I understood it to be a condition of my employment that I support SEIU but I also made it clear I would nor do anything unethical or morally repugnant. I expressed it as my sincerest desire to remain with SEIU so I could continue to organize the members at Kaiser to fight the boss (albeit in the peculiar way we fight the boss in the LMP), and not to be embroiled in the Sal v. Andy dispute. I know I have been performing my role well and I wish to continue doing so, without being required to participate in the negative campaigning. Perhaps this is not possible and you will wish to terminate my employment. I can accept that consequence for myself. But 1 will be touched with added sadness for the members whom it has been my privilege to represent for the last 12 years, as their immediate interests continue to be neglected.

Please let me know your decision. I will be reporting to my facility tomorrow.

Yours truly,
Greg Tegenkamp
Lead Field Representative/Organizer

Cc: Mary Grillo Greg Maron

__________

Greg Tegenkamp was fired by SEIU on Monday, June 8th.

Fresno Updates

Click over to Perez' place for Fresno updates from the ground.

One interesting piece came to me from Sadie at NUHW, tho...

Workers fear SEIU’s violent “shock and awe” tactics on Day One of union election

SEIU has been condemned by the AFL-CIO for using violence against other unions—SEIU Trustee with record of violence tells staff, "We gotta put them in the ground and bury them"

Fresno, Calif.—Today is the first day of a highly contested union election for 10,000 homecare workers in Fresno County who are trying to leave the Washington, D.C.-based SEIU, a union that has been condemned by the AFL-CIO for using violence in inter-union conflicts. The stakes have never been higher for SEIU officials, who are desperately trying to stop a movement of nearly 100,000 healthcare workers in California who are organizing to quit SEIU and join the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW).

Current and former SEIU organizers have reported SEIU’s use of so-called “shock and awe” teams to incite violence, including stalking, threatening and intimidating supporters of opposing unions. With 900 paid SEIU staff from across the country in Fresno County today, workers are worried about a repeat of recent violent attacks.

At an SEIU meeting yesterday, SEIU-UHW Trustee Dave Regan encouraged hundreds of SEIU staff to "administer an old-school ass-whipping" to NUHW supporters. "In other words, what we gotta do here, my old-school friends, is we have to administer an old-school ass-whipping over the next two weeks," he said. "I know everybody knows what means. We gotta give a butt-whipping they will never forget," he added. "We gotta put them in the ground and bury them."

Last April, Regan led 300 SEIU staff in storming a peaceful union conference in Michigan, injuring several workers and prompting AFL-CIO President John Sweeney to condemn the assault. "There is no justification—none—for the violent attack orchestrated by SEIU at the Labor Notes conference,” he said.

During the same conflict, an SEIU organizer reported being assigned with a team to mob CNA supporters at California hospitals and scream insults at them to provoke a physical response. SEIU organizers then called police and the media, accusing the victim of assaulting them.

Several Fresno homecare providers have recently reported being harassed with calls to their homes in the middle of the night by callers fraudulently claiming to be with NUHW in an apparent effort to incite false anger at NUHW in the days before the election. Homecare workers are concerned that SEIU staff may also impersonate NUHW supporters to harass workers in person at their homes.

Homecare providers have also reported being threatened by SEIU staff that they will lose their jobs or have their pay or hours cut if they vote to join NUHW, a threat that is illegal under federal labor law.

Of course, it can't be said often enough that Thug Regan, the individual quoted above as wanting to give NUHW a "butt whipping they will never forget", and who wishes to "put (NUHW) in the ground and bury them" is one of the individuals who was responsible for the infamous disruption of the Labor Notes conference in Dearborn, MI, in April of 2008. Regan even bragged on it about a month later. One passage of Regan's "explanation" caught my eye, though:

Union-busting is union-busting and, yes, it is disgusting. If Labor Notes and their apologists want to convince themselves otherwise, through tortured rationalizations about "democracy" or fabricated claims of "violence," so be it. We are having none of it. The votes, which were set to take place in March, would have been the largest set of private sector healthcare elections in the history of the state of Ohio. If the labor movement is to survive we need more, not less, of these sorts of breakthroughs.

Considering the scale at which Kaiser and CHW were going to have elections for their workers to determine their own futures, he really needs to take a look at the NUHW/SEIU dustup and figure out which side is interested in democracy and more democratic breakthroughs, and which side is currently "union-busting."

But it is the height of arrogance for someone of Regan's background, with his proven propensity for instigating violence, to come into a community from outside and start talking to other outsiders about butt-whippings and burying people, when the purpose of what this election is determining who can provide the best representation for a group of people who provide care to one of the most vulnerable segments of our society.

The upcoming two weeks in Fresno is about those workers, and their best interests, and not about SEIU pride.

Dave Regan should be ashamed of himself. But that, of course, would require that he had any kind of sense of shame to begin with.

A link to the unedited Regan speech can be found here.

It probably sounded better in the original German, but you can get the idea.

When In Doubt, Vandalize...

It has to be tough for the SEIU scab patrol to go out into the field and run into people who just don't think the way that they do. Heck, when you run into something like that less than 48 hours after having been told by Thug Regan how to play by "old school" rules, and you are confronted with someone showing NUHW support on their door, what's a scab to do?

Lesalie Kyle, a homecare provider in North Clovis, was shocked yesterday to see a man wearing a purple SEIU t-shirt kick in her door's screen and shove a handful of SEIU literature in front of the sign she had posted showing her support for the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW).

“I was driving away when I saw a man in purple walking up to my door, so I stopped to see what he was doing,” said Ms. Kyle. “I had an NUHW sign behind my locked screen door because I didn’t want SEIU harassing me at home. He rang the bell, and when no one answered he kicked my screen in and put a bunch of SEIU flyers in front of the sign. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. SEIU kicked in my screen and vandalized my door.”

On Monday, SEIU-UHW Trustee Dave Regan encouraged hundreds of SEIU staff to "administer an old-school ass-whipping" to NUHW supporters. (YouTube: http://is.gd/LVV6) "We gotta put them in the ground and bury them,” he said. (http://is.gd/LVWu)

SEIU-UHW Trustee Dave Regan has a history of using violence in conflicts with other unions. Last April, Regan led 300 SEIU staff in storming a peaceful union conference in Michigan, injuring several workers and prompting AFL-CIO President John Sweeney to condemn the assault. "There is no justification—none—for the violent attack orchestrated by SEIU at the Labor Notes conference,” Sweeney said.

Regan has brought more than 900 SEIU staff to Fresno to fight his latest war against homecare providers who earn $10.25 caring for seniors and people with disabilities. SEIU is in Fresno this week to try to stop a movement of nearly 100,000 SEIU members in California who are dumping the scandal-plagued union to join the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW). Monday was the first day of an election for Fresno’s 10,000 homecare providers to join NUHW.

“We knew SEIU-UHW was desperate to hang onto our dues money, but I can’t believe they would resort to this,” said Flo Furlow, an elected leader of NUHW and Fresno homecare worker. “This disrespect is exactly why we’re joining NUHW instead. We demand that SEIU release the name of the staff member who was assigned to visit Ms. Kyle’s home yesterday.”

I would not hope that anyone would hold their breath waiting for The Plague to supply us with the name/number of the vandal who broke down Ms. Kyle's door. Besides, all they will do is turn around and claim that it was actually a NUHW supporter posing as a SEIU supporter doing this in order to discredit SEIU and make people mad at them. After all, when it comes to "posing", nobody does it better than The Plague...

Local homecare providers have also reported seeing SEIU staff swapping their purple SEIU t-shirts for red t-shirts—NUHW’s trademark color—in an attempt to gain access to the homes of NUHW supporters. (Photo: http://is.gd/LVXw)

The Ballad Of Brave Sir Regan

Dedicated to the NUHW volunteers and staff who have finally shepherded a vote through the NLRB process...



The Ballad of Brave Sir Regan

Bravely bold Sir Regan rode forth from Washington.
He was not afraid to represent, O brave Sir Regan!
He had no problem with being labeled a thug,

Brave, brave, brave, brave Sir Regan!

He was not the least bit scared to look like a dope,
To do Andy’s bidding, this was his best true hope;
He’d have his speeches spread all over YouTube;
With lawyers so fine, the Red Scourge was eternally screwed.

It was so easy to like the lawyers if you were brave Sir Regan!

He came out to Fresno and roared forth, "Old School!"
But his public pronouncement made him look like a fool.
But then the NLRB removed the roadblocks,
And Los Al got their chance to vote, and…

Brave Sir Regan ran away.
Bravely ran away, away!
When losing reared its ugly head,
He bravely turned his tail and fled.

Yes, brave Sir Regan turned about
And gallantly he chickened out.
Bravely taking to his feet,
Zombie UHW beat a very brave retreat,

Bravest of the brave, Sir Regan!

He is packing it in and they’re packing it up
And sneaking away and clamming up.
He’s leaving Los Al to the evil Red Scourge,
Until Andy once again tells him to get the urge!

Burma Shave.

The Alinsky Factor, Part Four of Four

Overall grades at the bottom...

RULE 10: "If you push a negative hard enough, it will push through and become a positive." Violence from the other side can win the public to your side because the public sympathizes with the underdog. (Unions used this tactic. Peaceful [albeit loud] demonstrations during the heyday of unions in the early to mid-20th Century incurred management's wrath, often in the form of violence that eventually brought public sympathy to their side.)

SEIU: Zombie UHW made a feeble attempt at this in the SF IHSS petition drive, but as usual they horrendously overstated the actual impact of their "evidence" and protracted it out to the entire group at hand. Much like their premature claim of absolute majority at Fresno, this fell on largely deaf ears. They are now trying the same thing with their most recent "NUHW is falling apart" meme, and that has been absolutely blown up by Randy Shaw over at BeyondChron. Grade: D

NUHW: The Red Tide would get a better grade for this had they pushed the SEIU violence and vandalism meme more down in Fresno than they did. SEIU's actions with people down in Fresno who did not agree with them was (in my opinion) criminal, and this should have been pounded upon on a daily basis in the local media - especially after Thug Regan opened his pie hole and started talking about how SEIU would administer the "major league ass-whipping" to NUHW. Still and all, SEIU really can't help their thuggishness, and it is to be hoped that NUHW will continue to press that meme in the elections to come. Grade: C

RULE 11: "The price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative." Never let the enemy score points because you're caught without a solution to the problem. (Old saw: If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem. Activist organizations have an agenda, and their strategy is to hold a place at the table, to be given a forum to wield their power. So, they have to have a compromise solution.)

SEIU: There's only so many times you can say, "NUHW sucks" and get away with it, especially when your people get steamrolled in the contract negotiation rooms, as was seen at Alameda, at Hawkins, and now most recently at KaiPerm. Grade: F

NUHW: Without a doubt, this has been where NUHW and its organization has shone at its brightest. NUHW has been able to step in and assist the IHSS consortiums in both Sacramento and San Francisco with their funding, and has been able to explicitly state exactly what and how they would do things differently than Zombie UHW has done so far with Alameda and with Kaiser. Grade: A

RULE 12: Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it." Cut off the support network and isolate the target from sympathy. Go after people and not institutions; people hurt faster than institutions. (This is cruel, but very effective. Direct, personalized criticism and ridicule works.)

SEIU: The Great Big Lie has been, so far, decently effective for people who do not pay attention to such things. Once people are educated as to what actually went on in the years prior to the trusteeship, that effectiveness decreases rapidly. Fortunately for SEIU and Zombie UHW, their unwillingness to be transparent in union activities has succeeded in keeping people out of the loop and uneducated. Grade: B

NUHW: Considering the people involved with SEIU, including Thug Regan, Our Glorious Maximum Leader, Esquirol Medina, Ogren the Ogre, Freeman My Man, Annelle Grajeda, Diane Barton, and all the other various hangers-on and assorted dolts that surround the Zombie UHW power base, it's practically impossible to not have a target to freeze and polarize. If anything, SEIU presents too much of a target-rich environment. Grade: B

OVERALL GRADES:
SEIU: D, C, B, B, D, D, D, C, C, D, F, B -- > C- overall
NUHW: C-, B, D, D, B, A, D, C, B, C, A, B -- > C+ overall

The grades above are, of course, entirely subjective, however I have tried to be as objective in my assessment (especially of NUHW) as possible. As the "radical" in the equation, it would have been hoped that NUHW would have scored better on some of the rules, especially those regarding pressing the attack and regarding pushing the negative through to the positive.

Andy Stern Cares Not For State Borders...

The vengeance of Andy Stern evidently is now to be vented upon the Washington State Labor Council. And what, praytell, was the malefaction that got them such notice from Our Glorious Maximum Leader?

The WSLC invited Sal Rosselli to speak at their annual convention - for roughly 15 minutes:

The Washington State Labor Council—the local labor lobby which represents AFL-CIO unions— has come under fire from the other big union lobby in town, the SEIU.

PubliCola got a copy of an angry letter that the Service Employees International Union sent to WSCL president Rick Bender yesterday saying the WSLC may be "undermin[ing] our ability to work together and maintain unity." (The letter is signed by four local SEIU presidents, including high profile SEIU 775 leader David Rolf.)

At issue: The WSLC invited an ousted SEIU leader, Sal Rosselli, to speak at the WSCL’s August 6-8 convention in Wenatchee.

The letter—also singed by SEIU Local 6 president Sergio Selinas, Local 925 president Kim Cook, and Local 1948/PSE president George Dockins—lists SEIU’s complaints about Roselli, including, they say, "improperly diverting $3 million in members’ dues money to a bogus non-profit organization."

WSLC spokeswoman Kathy Cummings defends the decision to bring Rosselli, telling PubliCola that "he’s a great trade unionist. And they’re [SEIU] making a bigger deal out of this than it really is. This is a 15-minute information session."

Cummings says Rosselli headed up SEIU when it was the fastest growing union in California, and that he’s simply speaking to the WSLC delegates for 15 minutes.

The letter in question is signed by four Purple Plague presidents (no telling at this time if they were elected or selected), and it is basically a page and a half of moldy-oldie SEIU anti-Rosselli exaggerated talking points, followed by this nice little passage:

SEIU members in Washington State – many of whom have talked directly with members who were negatively impacted by Sal Roselli’s poor leadership in California, are outraged by this invitation and will not allow Roselli to come speak to union members here without making sure that they know the full story.

Since Roselli has nothing to add to any conversation about organizing or politics in Washington State, there is no possible motivation for this invitation other than as a direct and hostile attack on SEIU.

We have a lot of work to do in the months and years ahead – to hold politicians accountable to working families, advance a progressive agenda in the legislature, and win economic and social justice for all Washingtonians. Let’s avoid unnecessary and divisive actions that get in the way of this work.

We strongly urge you to withdraw your invitation of Sal Roselli so we can continue to work together to solve the problems facing working families in Washington State.

Translation: Sure is a nice convention y'all are planning to have. Wouldn't want anything bad to happen to it...

Yes, folks, it's true. In AndyWorld, Sal Rosselli is now officially to be persona non grata anywhere outside of the Great State of California when it comes to speaking about labor issues, and woe betide any organization that would even dare to invite such an individual to speak at their convention. Such bannings evidently now will be rigorously enforced by the SEIU Thug KultureKorps.

Of course, this plays in nicely with how we all know SEIU reacts when any labor group has a speaker that they do not agree with, or whom they perceive as a threat to their organization. Right, Thug Regan?

Thug Regan In His Own Words

Courtesy of Paul Delahanty on his dKos diary...







Again, a link to the entire speech is provided below.

Let's see, now:

Vulgar? Check.
Arrogant? Check.
Dismissive of his opponents? Check.
Unhappy to be where he is right now? Check.
No earthly clue of what this fight is truly all about? You damn well betcha.

The Alinsky Factor, Part One of Four

A book from the early 1970's is now getting much scrutiny of late in political circles. That book is entitled, "Rules For Radicals" by Saul Alinsky. This book has been alleged to be one of the founding sets of principles behind the Obama candidacy in the 2008 presidential election, and some of the tenets therein are now being adopted by other "grass roots" movements.

So let's take a look at those rules, and how they may or may not pertain to those of us stuck here in Hotel California...

RULE 1: "Power is not only what you have, but what the enemy thinks you have." Power is derived from 2 main sources - money and people. "Have-Nots" must build power from flesh and blood. (These are two things of which there is a plentiful supply. Government and corporations always have a difficult time appealing to people, and usually do so almost exclusively with economic arguments.)

SEIU: Much has been made of the vaunted SEIU ground game, and they attempted to show that off in the Fresno battle by parachuting in somewhere between 500 and 1000 people, and spent upwards of $10M to defend the Fresno IHSS consortium. The thought process is that SEIU's ability to bring in so many people on short notice keeps other upstart organizations from trying to fight SEIU toe-to-toe. This tactic may be effective back east, but it is woefully inadequate out here on the Left Coast. Quite simply put, people aren't scared of SEIU any more, as the San Francisco Labor Council so vividly proved. Grade: D

NUHW: The Reds have had to take advantage of the latter source - people. With one-tenth the manpower and 5% of the monetary resources, NUHW came within 250 or so votes of knocking off SEIU. NUHW has defeated SEIU at Doctor's, but has lost votes at Hawkins and a couple of nursing homes in the wake of the Fresno defeat. In the time since, there have been reported difficulties in getting enough signatures for the San Francisco IHSS fight. Whether it is because people are marshalling their energies for the upcoming Kaiser campaign, or for other reasons, the steam seems to have gone out of NUHW's sails of late. The potential to raise peoples hopes and ambitions still remains, but there is a sense of inevitability building in to some folks which is quite difficult to breach once it has gained a foothold. Grade: C-

RULE 2: "Never go outside the expertise of your people." It results in confusion, fear and retreat. Feeling secure adds to the backbone of anyone. (Organizations under attack wonder why radicals don't address the "real" issues. This is why. They avoid things with which they have no knowledge.)

SEIU: One of the biggest mistakes SEIU made in the immediate aftermath of the trusteeship was to insist on a loyalty oath to SEIU, with termination of any and all stewards who show the slightest bit of disloyalty to the Purple People Beaters. Esquirol Medina and Thug Regan sent out the letter (along with Esquirol Medina's robocall to the membership) swearing up-and-down that nothing would change, when we all knew what would happen - and happen it did. As a result, Zombie UHW lost its best and brightest stewards, and has had to replace them with stewards who may or may not be the best, but certainly are not the brightest - and none of whom enjoy the unqualified support of the rank and file. The resultant feeling of insecurity has only been exacerbated by SEIU's inexcusable decision to partner with KaiPerm in laying off 1600 people. The end result of this is that the only thing SEIU has been able to do of late is to put out press release after press release, trying to convince people that they are still large and in charge. It is admittedly what SEIU is really good at, even if nobody with half a brain believes what they say. Grade: C

NUHW: The Reds have, by and large, stayed within the expertise of their people, but of late that has not been of much help as there has been no real structure to NUHW's activities of late, as was seen by the anemic response to the SEIU "We Didn't Really Negotiate For Layoffs (eventhoughwereallydid), We Promise!!!" Informational Picket Tour of California. NUHW stewards at several KaiPerm facilities have been forced to take a lower profile, but their refusal to play along with the LMP game has resulted in most all LMP and UBT groups to grind to a halt. Unfortunately, right now, you can't fight something with nothing. Grade: D

RULE 3: "Whenever possible, go outside the expertise of the enemy." Look for ways to increase insecurity, anxiety and uncertainty. (This happens all the time. Watch how many organizations under attack are blind-sided by seemingly irrelevant arguments that they are then forced to address.)

SEIU: This isn't really SEIU's bag, except for their propensity to tell the One Big Lie in the wake of the Marshall Hearings. However, because every presser they put out gets automatically repeated nationwide, their One Big Lie tends to reverberate much louder than is warranted. This, combined with NUHW's inability of late to bring the final vote across the line, has contributed to a great sense of unease within the NUHW support base. Grade: B

NUHW: Team Red has picked up several unlikely allies and collaborators in this process, including Paul Pringle at the Los Angeles Times, Randy Shaw at BeyondChron, and several different website directors who are collectively clowning SEIU from stem to stern, including UNITE/HERE (with the "Wrong Way SEIU" site), SMART (with the "SEIU-SMART" website) and now the "Purple People Beaters" website that just popped up. (Ed: I'd forgotton about the hopefully only temporarily departed PerezStern) It is notable that as it stands right now, there is only one separate pro-SEIU website going right now, whose author is quite possibly functionally illiterate, at least based strictly on his writing style; this individual is pretty much only capable of regurgitating SEIU press releases...of course, without links or attribution. Grade: B


More in a later post...

Scenes From A Zombie FAIL Board

From time to time, when circumstances put me in a KP facility that is not my own, I will travel around and see if I can find a Zombie UHW bulletin board, if for no other reason than to see how information is traveling amongst the minions supporting the brain-sucking undead. This is typically called "Opposition Research."

However, in this case, it was more like a trip down Memory Lane...



Lots of info, but something doesn't quite look right, particularly that green one right in the middle...



Wow. The two-tier wage is history. Good thing to know. Perhaps someone should let the security guards know about that.

There's another point of focal interest, something to do with the responsibilities of a steward...



Hmm. You see a lot in there about providing service to the members, but nothing about swearing eternal loyalty to SEIU.

This next one, though, is the clincher: It has a message to the troops, stating that UHW is "your union." That message was sent out from none other than Sal Rosselli...



Does anyone suspect that maybe a SEIU strategery for winning the upcoming Kaiser election is to pretend that Sal is still in charge of UHW, and that NUHW is actually being run by Thug Regan and Esquirol Medina?

Or are the post-trusteeship "stewards" at this particular Kaiser facility just too damn lazy, and cannot be bothered with actually keeping their membership up-to-date on what Zombie UHW is doing to for them?

And if you are wondering what those horizontal white sheets in the bottom of the case are, they are notices from the local NUHW folks as to what SEIU has been up to. I suppose, in this KaiPerm facility, it is up to the NUHW supporters to keep the Zombie UHW supporters up to date.

Zombie UHW Punks Out of Los Alamitos Election

The NLRB finally lets an election take place, and instead of offering itself to the voters, Zombie UHW is running away instead and ceding the EVS workers at Los Alamitos Hospital to NUHW...

In the first contest between SEIU and the National Union of Healthcare Workers overseen by the NLRB, SEIU has abandoned its effort after failing to win any support among environmental services workers at Los Alamitos Hospital.

Employees of Los Alamitos Hospital subcontractor Hospital Housekeeping Systems (HHS) had never been part of a union before they filed petitions to join NUHW in March. Now that SEIU has withdrawn their effort to divide HHS employees, the workers will vote to choose between NUHW and “No Union” on Sept. 28.

“SEIU never intended to represent us, they just wanted to stop us from forming a union with NUHW,” said Mercedes Cornejo, a housekeeper at the hospital. “I can’t believe that so-called union leaders would try to stand in the way of workers like me who want a voice to protect our wages and jobs.”

An election had been scheduled for May, but SEIU filed frivolous “blocking charges” with the NLRB to delay the election. When the NLRB lifted the blocking charge, SEIU petitioned for a spot on the ballot with signatures of support from only two workers.

This is not the first time SEIU officials have tried to block non-union workers from joining NUHW. Worker at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital have been organizing since 2003 to win a free and fair election agreement with the St. Joseph Health System. Management finally promised to negotiate ground rules, and a strong majority signed cards to join NUHW in March.

Frivolous blocking charges filed by SEIU delayed Santa Rosa Memorial workers’ election for almost five months, during which time nearly 200 workers at Memorial have been laid off, their pay has been frozen, and workers there are now in danger of losing their sick time. Just after the NLRB lifted the first blocking charge, SEIU tried to file another. When that effort failed, SEIU officials filed to intervene.

“SEIU officials think if they can’t have us, no one can,” said Noelle Preston, a dietary aide at Santa Rosa Memorial. “But healthcare workers aren’t property. NUHW was founded by healthcare workers, for healthcare workers, and it’s our choice to be part of a union that we control.”

The workers down at LosAl deserve some serious props for hanging in with their convictions and their co-workers. Now it's up to them to cement this apparent result with an overwhelming pro-NUHW vote - and make sure that SEIU does not try to pollute the voting pool by supporting LosAl management with any kind of "no union" push.

By the way, folks, this isn't the first time that SEIU has run away when they knew they weren't going to win. It seems Thug Regan and the Zombies just don't have the heart to take "no" for an answer.

Another History of the NUHW-SEIU Battle Royal...

Dan Clawson at Z Magazine has penned a lengthy piece which really puts the whole NUHW-SEIU battle into perspective, and also contrasts nicely with the two approaches now being taken by the two sides when it comes to the Fresno IHSS battle...

SEIU, headed by Andy Stern, is the nation's fastest growing, most visible, most politically potent labor union. Almost every story about SEIU is about some new way that it is on the offensive, launching one or another surprising new initiative, demonstrating its power and creativity. But this is a story about how SEIU is on the receiving end, seemingly outflanked by a new breakaway union, the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW), which appears to be winning unprecedented support from workers and leaving SEIU flat-footed—although SEIU's power and resources may yet enable it to win.

Talking to leaders of the two sides in this dispute is a window into two different visions of the labor movement. When NUHW leaders talk, it is all about the workers and what the workers want; when SEIU leaders talk, it is about the need for labor to be powerful. If a union is about power and raising wages "for" workers, SEIU can make a compelling case. If a union is about building a better world and developing people's ability to control their own lives, not once every four years, but day-to-day at the workplace—NUHW is far more appealing. The remarkable fact is that in California workers are choosing to try to build something more democratic and responsive, rather than stick with the security and power of the national SEIU.

Check the rest - it's a worthy read. Thug Regan once again gloriously shoves his foot down his throat, telling the author to "Don't get fixated on the (signature) cards; I can't understand why people are so fixated on the cards."

Spin Cycle - Zombie UHW

From Zombie UHW:

Fresno Homecare Workers Vote to Stay with SEIU UHW

Fresno County home care workers have voted to stay in our union, SEIU UHW. Mail-in ballots were counted by election officials today in Fresno.

Members decided that staying united with SEIU's 2.1 million members makes them stronger and is the best way to fight the threat of state and county cuts to the home care program.

The tally comes after two weeks of mail-in balloting and vigorous informational efforts by SEIU UHW and a group led by ousted union leaders seeking to convince workers to change unions. Nearly a thousand SEIU activists from Fresno, other California communities, and across the nation came to support Fresno workers.

"As in most elections, the voters have a way of cutting through the noise and sorting things out," said Eliseo Medina, an SEIU Executive Vice President and SEIU UHW Trustee. "Their votes speak loudly that SEIU UHW members want a strong, united union so that together they can build a better future for themselves and the consumers they serve."

This is actually remarkably understated considering the level of importance that SEIU has put on this election. However, it is ironic that Esquirol Medina is talking about "cutting through the noise" when it is his organization that was making all of the noise in this election.

Note again that even though they are ahead in the polling, they were not willing to provide the actual numbers - probably because the actual numbers stand in stark contrast to what Thug Regan was promising SEIU would generate in his infamous speech.

SEIU Pensions - Fully Funded for Officers, Not for Us...

There are three different "levels" of pension funds that SEIU is directly responsible for - one fund for SEIU rank-and-file in certain unions, one fund for SEIU employees, and one fund for SEIU officers. However, they are all jointly invested in one single trust, with one single set of trustees for each fund, with Andy Stern sitting at the head of each of those boards of trustees.

Anyone wanna guess which, of those three funds, is the only one that is currently fully funded at 100% of the requirement to pay future responsibilities?

If you guessed "the SEIU officers" pension fund, you guessed correctly.



So you say, that doesn't affect everyone in SEIU, does it? Well, let's take a look at how some other locally-controlled SEIU industry-specific pension plans are doing:



Fine, the Plague would say: It's just the economy, ya see? Everyone's pension funding is down because of the economy, right? Wrong. Look at the dates in the image above - Each of those funds (with a couple of exceptions) were floating in the high 70s to low 90s but all started a generalized downward trend in SEIU Pension funding when Our Glorious Maximum Leader was elected to the SEIU presidency in 1996 - even though we had large upward swings in the economy in the late 1990s and throughout the middle of the first decade of the 2000's. And those trendlines do not reflect what has happened to those pension funds in the wake of the Mortgage Meltdown.

Right now, it appears that the only SEIU-controlled pension fund that is fully funded is the one dedicated for the officers of SEIU.

Anyone want to guess what the Zombie UHW pension fund looks like nowadays, now that both Thug Regan and Esquirol Medina are both pulling down quarter-mill salaries for basically nothing?

"Stronger Together," indeed...

Sickening Desperation...

This story, courtesy of NUHW, truly makes me want to vomit. It is truly amazing, the level to which SEIU has sunk in order to keep people (and their monthly dues) captive...

“They ignored my doctor’s orders”

Virginia is a homecare patient who is confined to her bed due to a variety of illnesses, including the need for constant bottled oxygen due to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. In just the last few days, SEIU has harassed and threatened Virginia and her family so many times that her health has been negatively impacted. Here is her story, in her own words:

“My family has begged SEIU to leave me alone, but they have refused. We’ve explained to them that I’m confined to my bed because the doctor thinks it’s too dangerous for me to walk. Almost every day they’ve come to my door and demand that I come and speak to them. My family even said to them, don’t you understand that every time you knock on our door you wake her up, and she needs her rest in order to heal.

“Instead of respecting my doctor’s orders, they started yelling at my niece. I could hear them from my room. Two women from SEIU said that if I didn’t come out and talk with them by the end of the month, I would no longer be eligible for services.

“If I weren’t eligible for homecare, I would probably end up in a nursing home. It makes me upset and scared that they would threaten me with that. No one wants to live like that. I’d rather be dead than end up in a nursing home. Honestly I think it has affected my health. Every time I think I hear a knock I’m afraid it’s them again. It’s awful.

“NUHW is fighting for my right to live in dignity in my home with my family. They’re fighting to make sure that those who need it continue to receive the services we need. SEIU is using it as a threat. SEIU needs to stop these aggressive tactics. There’s a lot of very ill people in Fresno, and if SEIU is this aggressive with other people too, I’m afraid of what could happen.”

This is a lady who has put a face and a name to some absolutely shameful, and IMHO borderline criminal, tactics on the part of the Purple Plague - all for the purpose of trying to get their way.

These are NOT the actions of an organization that is confident in its mission.

These are NOT the actions of an organization whose first and primary purpose is to serve its constituents.

These ARE, however, the actions of an organization that has absolutely lost its bearings, and believes that only the transient possession of power over people's wallets will serve their perceived need.

Given the above story, there was no earthly way that this lady's caregivers were going to vote for SEIU, but instead of either quietly trying to persuade, or accepting the judgment of that particular worker, the SEIU reps in the story above decided, instead, to invade the harmony of a home where people are just trying to get well and to get by.

In short, the SEIU reps in the story above were yelling at the family of a critically ill woman because they would not vote the way SEIU wants them to vote.

It is personally sickening to me to have to send SEIU money every month in order for A-holes like that to have a job.

For what it's worth, on behalf of the actual rank-and-file current members of Zombie UHW who are now stuck in Hotel California, and who are thus by extension funding the salary of those reps in the story above, I would like to publicly apologize to Virginia and to her family for what SEIU has done to them in order to, as they put it, "protect worker rights."

Folks, there are no "worker rights" that need protection enough to engage in conduct like we saw outlined above. Whomever is responsible for the above acts should be immediately and publicly terminated by SEIU. Alas, Thug Regan will probably just give them a big, wet, sloppy kiss for what only he would perceive as a job well done.

Jackholes.

When In Doubt, Vandilize - Part Deux

The SEIU Thug approach to organizing has evidently caught on down Fresno way, as we have now a second report of NUHW signage being stolen and replaced with UHW trash...

In two separate incidents this week, workers for the Service Employees International Union have been accused of acts of vandalism toward opposing union supporters.

Home care workers in Clovis and Kerman who support the National Union of Healthcare Workers say people have come to their door, torn down signs in support of NUHW and replaced them with flyers in support of SEIU.

Today marked the day when 10,000 workers in the Fresno area would begin receiving ballots in the mail. The election is to determine if workers want to remain members of SEIU or join NUHW.

“I was extremely upset,” said Silbenia Conley of Kerman. She said she witnessed a heavyset African-American male come to her door, allegedly tear down a red NUHW support sign, replace it with a SEIU magnetized sign, then speed off in a newer silver-gray Chevy Malibu. “I was cussing. That (sign) was given to me,” Conley said.

Conley and her husband are both in-home care workers, and she said she doesn’t know how SEIU received their home address.

Conley made a police report following the incident, and said Kerman police told her that it was considered theft since the man took her sign.

In a separate incident, Lesalie Kyle of Clovis said she witnessed a man wearing a purple SEIU t-shirt allegedly kick in the screen on her front door, then place several SEIU flyers in front of her NUHW support poster.

“I couldn’t believe what I was seeing,” Kyle said.

Pete Janhunen, a spokesperson for SEIU, said that workers that help with the campaign are told clearly to conduct themselves in a professional manner.

“We are very confident that our people are conducting themselves in the most professional manner possible,” Janhunen said. He went on to say that any allegations of inappropriate or criminal behavior would be looked into by SEIU and the organization would take the proper actions against the offender.

However, Janhunen also said that any chance NUHW has had to launch a claim against SEIU, it has done so.

“To claim that we have people that would have come here to intimidate is nothing short of outrageous,” Janhunen said.

Oh, I dunno, Pete, maybe we should listen again to the words of the man whom Our Glorious Maximum Leader has put in charge of the Zombie UHW Fresno campaign...



In any event, it beggars belief that this organizer (with physical description and vehicle description provided in the story above, and assuredly many more details in the possession of the police in Kerman) thinks that by stealing someone's property that they can get them to change their mind to his way of thinking.

That type of "thought" process comes from the top - from Dave Regan - and as such, considering Regan's proven track record, as well as with now proof of multiple incidents, Pete Janhunen's claims of UHW innocence ring quite hollow indeed.

How Do You Spell "Judas"? C-N-A...

Hold on to your huevos, folks, because Sierra's going on a rant here...

At the beginning of the Great California Union Foodfight, the prior officials of UHW who broke off and formed NUHW were receiving material and much-appreciated support from the California Nurses Association. At that time, the CNA was embroiled in a years-long feud with SEIU over who was best to organize nurses around the country.

Well, back in late March, to the surprise of just about everybody in the labor world, and with no notice to NUHW whatsoever about what was going on, CNA and SEIU came to a truce. Not much was written in the meantime about what the thought processes were inside CNA that would bring them to common cause with an organization that bused in thugs to break up an appearance by their president, RoseAnn Demoro, in Dearborn, MI, back in April of 2008. (By the way, a shout-out goes to Chief SEIU Thug Dave Regan for that little piece of "union democracy in action")

The folks at Labor Notes evidently still have a cozy relationship with CNA/NNOC, so much so that one of their reporters, Mark Brenner, got an interview with CNA's co-president, Deborah Burger, in this month's issue of Labor Notes. Ms. Burger, speaking I can only presume in her capacity as co-president of CNA, and therefore as a part of the decision-making inner circle of that organization, let everyone in the labor community know just how obtuse and out-of-touch she is with reality - and just how easily her organization was able to bring itself to collect 30 pieces of silver in order to betray their former comrades-in-arms at NUHW...

LN: How did you move so quickly to reach an accord?

DB: Because we understand what our bigger goal is. We could keep feuding forever, or we could come to an understanding about jurisdiction and say, that is the past, let’s move on. Especially when you look at the organizing opportunities with the Employee Free Choice Act and with the new administration not being as antagonistic. Nurses are very practical and they understand the bigger picture.

And I think it was mainly because Andy Stern also realized, “Look, I can either continue fighting with these nurses, or I can look at the bigger picture and see that I get two-thirds, they get a third, and we’re done.”

And it isn’t a small accomplishment for us. We have exclusive jurisdiction on all nursing issues in nursing practice.

LN: Why is that important?

DB: We won’t have anybody undermining, say, our ratios bill [that mandates specific nurse-patient ratios in California]. At one point SEIU was trying to water down the ratio bill, putting forward ratios for all health care workers. We’ll fight with the employers to make sure we have the support staff we need, but when it really comes down to scope of practice, doing the medications, doing the assessments, they need to be RN ratios.

LN: What are the key advantages for CNA in this new accord?

DB: The obvious one is the end of this ongoing war with SEIU. Then we’ve agreed that when it comes to facing the employer, we will present a united front on key principles and not undermine each other’s positions on working conditions, benefits, all those kinds of things.

It frees up a huge amount of time that would be used on internal fighting amongst ourselves to go out and organize and fight the employer. Of course, with Andy, he has a unique way of dealing with the employer, but it is to his advantage to have us as an ally because we’re not afraid of speaking out against an employer.

LN: Is this going to change CNA’s approach to striking deals with employers?

DB: No, because in the agreement they don’t interfere with our internal structure, programs, and campaigns, and we don’t interfere with theirs. So the employer knows that when they’re dealing with CNA, nothing has changed in that respect.

We’re not changing our approach to the employer, our approach to politicians, to single payer. That’s the beauty of the deal. We did not have to compromise our core principles in order to have this treaty.

I can only figure that the only way CNA did not compromise its core principles is that CNA did not have any to begin with.

LN: From the rank-and-file level how did people react? One month you have a cover story on your magazine with an SEIU label on a purple poison bottle, and now there is this deal. Was it confusing?

DB: Nurses are very practical. But they understand that when there is a core principle that we need to fight for, we’ll take on anyone. We’ll take on our own employers, which is not a comfortable position to be in. If you’re a nurse in some of these communities you can get blackballed. So nurses understand taking a stand and being in a very uncomfortable position.

We’ve kept them informed on all the issues. Our nurses that are our elected leaders are also working nurses. I work at Kaiser 20 hours a week. So we have a unique position, relating to nurses in our facilities. So when we say we’re at war with SEIU because they’re going to Ohio and they’ve cut this sweetheart deal where they’re going to get the nurses, our nurses say, “Wait a minute.”

So when we said we struck a treaty with Andy, they go, “OK, that’s good. But is there an escape clause? Can you trust him?” They are saying, “Let’s move forward with our eyes wide open.” And they trust us as leaders because we have not come back and said, “Oops, we messed up and you’re all having massive takeaways and massive layoffs as a result of the deal we cut.”

If this individual has, as she said, spent 20 hours a week inside a Kaiser facility with the rank-and-file members of Zombie UHW who are now stuck in Hotel California, then for her to even contemplate the prospect of trusting Andy Stern or his minions suggests to me that she quite possibly should have her nursing license suspended on the basis of wanton blindness to anything and everything around her.

That's assuming, of course, that she is not utterly full of crap when she says that she spends 20 hours a week as a nurse in the Kaiser Santa Rosa Medical Center.

LN: How is the agreement going to work logistically in terms of coordinating with SEIU nurses?

DB: It’s complex trying to meld organizations because of the culture and the leadership and making sure everybody has a voice at the table. There are, I’m sure, nurses in SEIU that feel that they’re well represented. They’re trying to see how they fit into that structure. It’s like two separate families with kids getting married. It’s like you aren’t the youngest any more, you have to give up certain privileges and rights you had in one family structure to move into a new family.

The thing that will help us work together is that we have a common language that we use when we’re taking care of patients, when we’re fighting the employer for patient protections. In some states the protections for nurses and other health care workers in calling out patient abuses or unsafe hospital conditions are not as strong as they are in California as a result of our work. Being able to work on the ratio campaign, being able to work on comparable worth and whistleblower protections--there will be those projects that we’ll be able to bring them in on, so that they won’t feel like they are outsiders anymore. It’s more the formal structures that we have to figure out.

Let's get this on the record right now: With Andy Stern driving this bus, it's gonna be him that does the "figuring" in this relationship. But do go on...

LN: I imagine there is some work to do on the SEIU side. At the SEIU convention last summer, SEIU nurses had plenty to say about the CNA.

DB: You are at war and you say things at war that you can’t really say when you’ve worked out a treaty.

That's probably why CNA tried so desperately to make all of their anti-SEIU propaganda disappear. Too bad other organizations besides yours were taking note of what was going on between CNA and SEIU. And when in doubt, there's always the Google cache and the Wayback Machine.

LN: Lots of folks in the labor movement saw conditions over the last year pushing CNA and UHW, now NUHW, closer. There was lots of speculation about what this could mean nationally. What are the implications of your deal with SEIU for the efforts of NUHW activists to leave SEIU?

DB: We’ve had a long-term relationship with UHW. Part of it goes way back to the Summit Hospital strike, where we were striking to make sure that workers could honor picket lines. We’ve worked with them extremely closely. We’ve developed personal relationships with lots of leaders there. When we were going through our own struggle to take control of our union, and when the old CNA leadership fired our labor staff—they virtually gutted our collective bargaining program—Local 250 (UHW's predecessor) supported us. They provided us office space and and support. This allowed us to play it out in the courts with a lawyer that did brilliant pro bono work for us. So there is a loyalty there that we can’t sever because we made this deal with Andy Stern.

We are constrained by the agreement not to provide any financial assistance to NUHW and we’re honoring that commitment. But by the same token, at the facilities nurses are supporting their co-workers and their ability to get the representation of their choice. We’re making sure we don’t interfere with that. And we’re not obligated by the terms of our agreement with SEIU to interfere with that, so we are keeping hands off. Nurses who choose to help NUHW at the facility level can continue to do so. We’re not saying, “you can’t do that.”

We certainly do hope that somehow they do come to some agreement. It certainly looks like there is a lot of testosterone flying around right now. I have to think that both sides have what they perceive as principled stands.

I really don't want to bring out the WTF cat on this one, but this almost begs for that to be done. Instead, I will provide for Ms. Burger an example of all of the "testosterone flying around right now" on the NUHW side of the issue:







Wow. That's some dosage of testosterone there. I'd better get a progesterone shot in order to counteract it, otherwise I'm gonna be forced to go kill me a deer and eat it raw.

Moving on...

LN: Do you see this as a missed opportunity for you to form a national alliance with a health care union that has more in common with your vision of health care organizing than SEIU does?

DB: I haven’t seen it as a missed opportunity yet. Because I don’t see that we’ve totally blocked us working with NUHW. If NUHW and SEIU could eventually bury the hatchet, then we’d be able to work with both groups.

If you have to believe that both parties, as you said before, are operating from principled stands, then how can there be any kind of accommodation that would allow you to work with both groups? The only way that Andy Stern is going to bury the hatchet with Sal Rosselli is if he buries the hatchet in Sal's forehead. He's as much as said so, proclaiming that the Fresno IHSS fight will be the NUHW's "death knell." That doesn't suggest to me someone who is looking to compromise.

Quite bluntly, CNA has sided with SEIU, therefore they are the standing enemy of NUHW in my eyes. I will never, ever trust a CNA rep, because they've already proven that they can turn around and stab me (and my union brothers and sisters) in the back at the merest hint of what they perceive to be a better deal for themselves.

LN: The reason people raise this is because, as you know when you left the ANA yourselves, there is a window in which things take time to sort themselves out because of the way labor law works, the way the courts work. There is a real question mark in the early moments of these fights about how they are going to go. Finding allies who can provide you with institutional support or money to help with transitional staffing, that can make the difference between survival and not. Some people argue this is that critical time for NUHW.

DB: Getting an all-RN union nationally—getting that from SEIU is no small feat. We, as nurses, are not about to jeopardize that. Because we believe that [NUHW President] Sal Rosselli and Andy Stern can work out their deal.

We understand the politics of the deal we made. But we have to do what’s right for the nursing profession, what’s right for our patients, and that is to form the national nurses union. And in the long run Andy and Sal will do what they need to survive, and other unions will help NUHW. And we’ll all move forward together.

During the Obama campaign labor came together despite all of their fights, when it came to promoting a cause they really believed in. They were able to check the guns at the door. We plan on working together with both groups eventually, because at some point they will come to some kind of agreement.

We’ve been thwarted in trying to get an all-RN union for decades. We can’t let the infighting of two other unions, however principled their fight is, come between us and forming a national nurses union that will speak on behalf of social justice, patient protections, nursing advocacy—all of those things that have been put aside because we belonged to an organization that was essentially funded by the hospital association. However the other politics falls out, we have to keep an eye on the bigger picture, which is single payer.

Jaysus, lady! Have you been paying attention to what Zombie UHW has been doing at the Kaiser facilities up and down the state?!? You are letting your desire to jam single payer down everyone's throat that you are willing to sell out your once and former allies in order to make a temporary gain in an issue that will never, ever, come to pass?

Memo to Deborah Burger: THERE IS NO COMPROMISE! SEIU demands only ONE thing - complete and total capitulation. We, of NUHW, are not going to give it, because unlike you and your organization, we still have principles over which we will fight. Your outfit once was like that, as well.

LN: Under the terms of your deal, SEIU will back single payer at the state level in a few places. But on the national level they’ve been opposed to backing single payer.

DB: What they did say is that they would advocate for trials of single payer in five states. What those five states are we don’t know; it would be nice if California was one of them.

LN: You see the contradiction that people are raising about the deal on single payer?

DB: I do, but there are lots of contradictions. The world is filled with them. The reality is that single payer has been and will always be on our agenda. We won’t compromise on that. We can’t! We’re nurses and we see the problems in our face every single day.

LN: But Stern has been much more pragmatic, arguing that we can’t copy the system from other countries. People read the agreement as putting you in a much more advantageous position around state-level health care policy, but SEIU is still doing what they’ve always done.

DB: People need to stop reading too much into the agreement. It is exactly what it is. We have worked out a détente with Mr. Stern and we will go forward. It does not preclude us from being still out there on our core issues.

We could never have made that agreement if we had to compromise. It would not have happened. Our members wouldn’t let us do it, for one thing. There is too much at stake in a nurse’s daily work life to compromise on that. I could not look my patients in the eye and say, “I sold you out in order to get a national nurses union.”

That is why we organize nurses well, that’s why we have the patient support that we do, that is why we have the community support we do. It’s because we cannot compromise on those principles. Andy Stern knows that. Our employers know that.

You cannot have principles if you are willing to sell them to the likes of Andy Stern. Once you have crossed that line, there is NO TURNING BACK, no matter how much you like to frame the issue.

LN: Can the pact last?

DB: There are so many forces that are aligning right now to advance both unions, to advance unions in general. This is an opportunity, and shame on us if we miss it.

Your alignment with Andy Stern, and away from NUHW, has set your organization back several steps in the eyes of the labor world, and the shame that you have bestowed upon yourselves now and in the future will only grow greater as NUHW grows and lets everyone know that, at its moment of decision based on principle, CNA sold out to Andy Stern and his 30 pieces of silver.

When that realization comes to you, perhaps then you will know shame like you have never before experienced in your life.

And you will only have yourselves to blame.