Perez Be Back!

Go give Perez some linky love!

Olympia Spanked, Courtesy of NUHW

There’s more to union activities than just gathering people into a group and negotiating on their collective behalf. There is also a duty to protect the interests of those whom you are charged to protect – this comes as the price of being allowed to negotiate on their behalf and to collect periodic dues.

The duty for fair representation is one of the areas where Zombie UHW has utterly and completely failed during the trusteeship, as the stack of DFR’s sitting at the Labor Board offices can readily attest.

One of the most egregious examples of SEIU failing in its duty to fairly represent its dues-paying workers was highlighted over at Perez’s place, and involved Will Brennan down at the Olympia Medical Center, who was suspended without pay for the mere act of talking to people about NUHW. Not surprisingly, Zombie UHW would not take up for Brennan; as it turns out, it was a SEIU representative who actually colluded with Olympia’s HR people to discipline and ultimately to terminate Will Brennan’s employment. The full back-story of this can be found on Perez Stern by clicking here.

This is where NUHW comes in, and this is where Olympia Medical Center gets spanked.






My only regret in this case is that Zombie UHW didn’t get called out by the NLRB for their collusion in getting Will Brennan and others disciplined for exercising their clearly-delineated rights in the workplace.

Kudos go out to the NUHW reps for making sure this wrong got set to right.

Baghdad Michelle Furiously Backfills...

...and fails miserably.

From: Michelle Ringuette
Sent: Monday, July 27, 2009 12:04 PM
To: Nancy MacLean
Cc: Javier Morillo
Subject: Re: Open Letter Regarding the SEIU-UNITE HERE Dispute

Professor McLean-

I just want to apologize for what Javier accidentally forwarded to you. My tone was flip and I was tired, as it had been a very long few weeks. It was in no way meant to convey the contempt that you suggest here, but I certainly see how it reads that way.

When it was suggested to me that Workers United workers were interested in reaching out directly to signers of the letter, I agreed that it would be a good thing for the workers to be able to speak their mind. Many are frustrated that their struggle has been mischaracterized. I would rather that workers take on employers (the high value target, in my lexicon) who are exploiting this situation, but I respect that they should be free to tell their stories to people who have weighed in.

To your point, I recognize that you are not interested in receiving more emails from us that show that many people want to see this dispute resolved. I am sincerely interested, as I understand that what we do looks like "spin", in how we can share more information with you and others who are committed to the labor movement. I recognize that the barrage of emails feels like spam, hence my snarky use of the term, but I am sincerely at a loss as to how to address your real concerns stated below.

Again, I apologize for what reads like dismissiveness. I would be most interested in listening, not talking, if you wanted to follow up on this.

Sincerely,

Michelle Ringuette

Nice to see Baghdad Michelle placing the blame where she believes it really lies - on Javier Morillo.

"The wheels on the bus go bump-bump-bump..."

P.S. Welcome back, Perez!

It's Tough To Stand Up...

...when you are up to your neck in slime.

Paul Garver unloads on SEIU, and this is delicious in the extreme from first to last...

Eight hundred organizers from SEIU locals in California and other states have flooded into the small Central Valley city of Fresno. Rallying at the Fresno Fair Grounds (site of the first of the California internment camps for Japanese-Americans in 1942), the conscripts were provided with SEIU T-shirts and purple paraphenalia, water bottles, and speeches (view report on speech by SEIU-UHW trustee Dave Regan) exhorting them to kick the asses, whip the butts, and drive a stake through the heart of the rival National Union of Health Workers (NUHW). They will make daily house calls on the 10,000 homecare workers who are currently members of SEIU-UHW, which national SEIU put into trusteeship in January. The workers have petitioned for representation by the NUHW, founded by deposed UHW leaders and shop stewards. UHW first organized the Fresno homecare workers and won a good first contract in 2002-2003.

A much smaller number of volunteer organizers represent the NUHW. One of their elected leaders within the Fresno homecare unit is Florine Furlow, who was arrested at a sit-in at a Woolworth’s lunch counter in Little Rock in 1960, who in an op-ed article in the Fresno Bee views her union struggle as a continuation of her campaigns for civil rights and disability rights. Other volunteer organizers include Dana Simon, who had coordinated the original 2002-3 organizing and contract campaigns in Fresno and a month ago resigned his SEIU position as lead organizer for Massachusetts hospitals to protest SEIU’s actions in California. Another is Fred Ross, Jr., a long-time union organizer beginning with the UFW, who also wrote of his resignation from SEIU on Talking Union. As reported by Randy Shaw on this blog, former UFW leaders are divided. Delores Huerta supports the NUHW, while Eliseo Medina is SEIU-UHW’s co-trustee along with Dave Regan.

The 10,000 homecare workers are mailing back their ballots from June 1 to 15 to choose between SEIU-UHW and NUHW as their collective bargaining representative. In a sense they are choosing between Goliath and David. Goliath has the troop numbers and the deep pockets. David lacks these resources. In other respects as well, the battlefield is favorable for Goliath. The fiscal crisis in California is posing an imminent threat to the precarious gains of the Fresno homecare workers. SEIU-UHW already lost an arbitration to maintain the wage level, but claims that its political connections in Washington and Sacramento can help restore them. Inundating Fresno homecare workers with house calls, television messages and other propaganda may not persuade them to love or support SEIU, but as every union-busting management consultant knows, you do not have to persuade workers to get them to vote against change – you merely have to confuse them and paralyze their wills. In the tumult and stress of a chaotic campaign, many will choose “no union” -or in this case the “incumbent” union- in a desperate attempt to ease the tension. The unit of Fresno homecare workers is relatively new to the labor movement – its members work in isolated individual households and lack the work relationships that facilitate communication and can bolster group solidarity among co-workers in hospitals and nursing homes.

The stakes are high both for SEIU and for the NUHW. The NUHW might survive an electoral defeat in Fresno, and live to fight on at Kaiser and other large institutional settings where its support is more firmly based. And if SEIU fails to “drive a stake through the heart” of NUHW in Fresno, it will surely keep on trying. But even SEIU’s resources are not infinite. Some of its 800 conscripts in Fresno are already proving reluctant and might be hard to mobilize for a similar effort in the future. Local 99 SEIU staffers, for instance, signed a letter demanding neutrality in the SEIU/NUHW conflict and picketed the union office in protest against assignment to Fresno. Others are posting critical reports on the pro-NUHW PerezStern blog site.

Moreover SEIU is increasingly engaged on another costly national front, against UniteHere. SEIU has had to loan $1 million to its Workers United conference that split off from UniteHere to support its internal battle with the larger group that remained within that union. Workers United has only about 100,000 dues paying members, and will likely have to seek further relief from making per capita payments to SEIU. So long as a settlement is not reached over financial issues, control of the Amalgamated Bank and jurisdictional issues, SEIU may find its battle against UniteHere to be more draining than expected.

This is probably why SEIU has chosen to run such a massive effort amounting to overkill to crush the NUHW insurgency in Fresno. But even electoral victory in Fresno would not in itself restore SEIU’s moral legitimacy that is being eroded by its repeated involvement in fratricidal inter- and intra-union conflicts. SEIU had amassed considerable political, financial and moral capital over decades of organizing workers and fighting progressive campaigns over issues.

Would it be tragic for SEIU and for the entire progressive movement if the “real SEIU” is represented only by the face of Dave Regan talking trash on the Fresno fairgrounds? Is the “real SEIU” better represented by Flo Furlow, Dana Simon and Fred Ross, Jr? Read their articles and listen to their speeches on the links provided to answer these questions for yourself.

The question truly does beg to be asked after this article - why is SEIU fighting so hard, and pressing themselves in such a manner, to the end of keeping 10,000 people in their clutches?

Probably because even SEIU now knows that once one or two groups of people break free, the floodgates will open, and the weaknesses of the SEIU management-friendly union approach will be laid bare for all to see.

SEIU believes that the strength of the union is in the leadership, while NUHW believes that the strenght is found in the membership.

The contrast could not be more clear.

The SEIU Ethics Commission

Perez Stern has come up with a draft copy of the recommendations that the SEIU Ethics Commission is going to make to the IEB. I can't do enough justice to that report to summarize it here, so click on over to Perez, but make sure that you have your barf bags, as well as your Buzzword Bingo cards, at the ready.

KaiPerm Has a New Definition of "Neutrality"...

During the runup to the NLRB decision regarding KP employees, KP put out a statement to its employees indicating its desire for neutrality where the Great California Union Foodfight is concerned.

Of course, anyone connected with Kaiser knows that what one of the HQ buildings says does not necessarily translate to the other HQ buildings, or out to the field management representatives.

The result is what was submitted to Perez Stern yesterday by a Kaiser Roseville employee who just happened to be visiting her co-worker husband on her off day at the KRMC Eureka campus...

After lunch, I came onto campus because like a good Kaiser employee, I use my days off for appointments. I had seen a group of SEIU organizers in the hospital, stopped to ask what they were doing, in a very non-confrontational way, and then went about my business. They went one way, I went another.

As I walked in the door to MOB2, which is where my Department is, and also where my appointment was, I was met at the front elevator by HR. She was very confrontational, asked me if I was on paid time, and why I was wearing a Kaiser badge ( I guess it's illegal to wear a badge when you're not on paid time. Who knew?) We had a few words, and while she was on the phone, trying to figure out which rule I had broken, I headed upstairs to my department, believing the conversation was over.

I hadn't been in my department more than three minutes, when the receptionist came in the back and told me there was somebody waiting for me out front. I was dumbfounded that she had followed me to my own department. Before I knew it, here she comes. Demanding I leave immediately. Of course, I argued the point, told her I was a Kaiser employee and had a right to be there. I asked her to show me a written policy that says I am not allowed on campus during off hours. Her response was "I'm telling you to leave". She actually told me it was because I was "wearing my organizing T-Shirt and my Kaiser badge". I responded that even if I leave the work area, I am also a Kaiser member and have a right to be on campus. At that point, she asked me "well do you have an appointment?"

Now, I'm not usually an individual who lies, when asked a direct question, so I told her "as a matter of fact yes, I'm here for a screening test". Knowing she couldn't make me leave, she decided to just stick to me like glue, I guess. She "offered" to escort me to my appointment. NOW! So we went, she waited for me to register and sat in the adjacent waiting area until I was called back for my appointment. I was so upset about this treatment, I asked the tech to let me leave out of a back door. For all I know, she's still sitting there, waiting for me to exit, so she can escort me right out the door.

Does this sound like the "neutrality" Kaiser is pretending to honor, while we sort out our Union woes? It sounds to me like those "organizer/reps" from SEIU went running to HR with their tails between their legs at the sight of my NUHW T-Shirt and the obliging HR department is acting as their body guards. It's sorry enough that they are always seen in packs. They are too intimidated by the workers they claim to be protecting to come on campus alone. Now they have HR at their beck and call as well? Watch out folks, YOU COULD BE NEXT!"

The HR weenies had better get out their dictionaries and have a good gander at the definition of "neutrality". While they're at it, they should also probably look up "customer service," for the individual quoted above is not just a KP employee, she is also a KP customer.

Dear Sam...

Dear Sam:

I have just seen a copy of your letter to the Sacramento Kaiser personnel regarding your attempt to reconstruct a steward council.

What you evidently do not know, or just refuse to understand, is that each and every member of the former Sacramento steward council was elected by their peers.

The reason that the peer-elected stewards resigned en masse is that they do not support Your Union, primarily because Your Union has decided to collectively turn the UHW membership into serfs with absolutely no rights under any constitutional framework.

Yes, that's right, I said "Your Union." And to paraphrase your letter to the SAC folks, if that enrages you, too damn bad.

You see, Sam, you came in here with absolutely no clue about the history of UHW, nor any clue of what made UHW work, or why UHW was so damn successful prior to your misbegotten Trusteeship.

One of the core reasons for the success of UHW was an implicit knowledge amongst the rank-and-file members that they had a voice in what is going on in the workplace. One of the primary ways the rank-and-file members express that voice is in direct elections of their stewards. And once those stewards were elected, they had free reign to represent their peers in any manner they saw fit, whether it was in line with UHW thinking or not. They were not silenced for expressing a different opinion. They were not fired because they did not toe the SEIU line.

Your pitiful appeal to the Sacramento membership for stewards to come out of the woodwork and support your Tinpot Trusteeship will only guarantee one thing, that being that those who become stewards at Sacramento will bear the imprimatur so many people placed upon the departed 43rd President of the United States: "Selected, Not Elected."

And as we all saw with the departed 43rd POTUS, it is very tough to maintain any sort of moral leadership when a large chunk of the people he or she is supposed to represent does not have any faith in the process by which he or she rose to that position.

Right, wrong or indifferent, SEIU no longer enjoys the support of a majority of UHW-covered workers. You celebrate the recent NLRB decision, but numbers don't lie: There are about 48,000 UHW-covered workers, and 28,000 (55%) of them signed the petition to get out of SEIU. Simple human nature suggests that a rather large chunk of the remaining 20,000 is pretty evenly split between those who wish to stay in SEIU, and those who do not give a rip either way. If a free and fair election is staged, SEIU would probably lose to the tune of 65% to 35%. Fortunately for you, that election was called off due to a legal technicality.

You also need to realize that if EFCA was the law right now, you would be out of a job, because SEIU would have long since been kicked to the street.

You right now are Sacramento's "face" of SEIU, and judging by the content of that letter you wrote, you seem to fit right in with the SEIU mindset. Put quite bluntly, Sam, you have forgotten (or as I suspect, you never have learned) that YOU in SEIU exist to serve US in the rank-and-file, and not the other way around.

You might think that you and Your Union won a great victory last week at the NLRB, but all you managed to do was to put off the inevitable.

Good luck trying to cobble together a "steward council" there at Sacramento - 'cuz you're gonna need it.

And if you want some proper education about Your Union, log onto "¡Adios, Andy!" and get yourself educated about the issues surrounding the Trusteeship - because again, judging from that letter you sent out, you desperately need it.

Regards,

SierraSpartan

The New Face of Zombie UHW...

Behold the new "face" of the Kaiser division of Zombie UHW. Courtesy of PerezStern, this is Diane Barton, who evidently has been named "Chief Steward" down at Santa Clara, and who has evidently been nominated by Zombie UHW to be the spokesperson for those of us Kaiser workers who are stuck in Hotel California:

"I couldn't be happier with the NLRB's decision after all the months of harassment and deception by people trying to decertify our union," Diane Barton, SEIU UHW Chief Steward, Kaiser Santa Clara. "The government's decision just validates that we have a strong, secure union at Kaiser with SEIU UHW. Now it's time for us to get ready to bargain a great contract in 2010 together with the rest of the 26 unions in the Kaiser Coalition of Unions."

You wanna talk about "deception," Diane? How about 28,000 names having been submitted to NLRB asking for a vote out of 48,000 eligible to do so, or about 58% of all eligible voters signing the petition asking for a vote on the issue? When 58% of the eligible members of any organization want out, calling that a "strong, secure union" is the quintessential definition of "Deception."

By the way, Diane, how'd you get to your exalted position of "Chief Steward," anyway? Were you elected by your peers as was the case before the Trusteeship, or were you appointed by Zombie UHW after the Trusteeship was imposed? And if that is the case, that you were appointed after the Trusteeship, would you volunteer to put yourself up for re-election as a "Chief Steward" to make sure that your position was actually the stated will of the employees at Kaiser Santa Clara? Or would you take the example of your Purple Plague bosses and try to hide behind technicalities and legalities in order to thwart the stated will of the people you are purported to allegedly represent?

I think I have a sneaking suspicion of which path Diane Barton would take on the above question.

Yes, my friends, Diane Barton probably already knows quite well how to define "Deception" - and all she has to do is to look in the mirror in order to do it.

Dear Andy...

The Infamous Perez Stern has sources within the Purple Plague that I could only dream of, but this resignation letter that a SEIU senior organizer from out in New York sent to Our Glorious Maximum Leader is too good not to share. What is special about this particular individual's resignation letter is that she, Audra Makuch, was an organizer in Local 250 (the NorCal predecessor to UHW), and was in the Emergency Services division at the time that the paramedics in Local 250 voted to decertify from 250 and organize within NEMSA. So I think it's pretty clear that she a) has some experience with what the Purple Plague is doing here in California, and b) also has an emotional stake in what is going down.

Well, enough got to be enough for Ms. Makuch, and she decided to find herself another gig. But before doing so, she sent off a letter to Our Glorious Maximum Leader, and decided to make it public...

Andy:

Today is my last day at SEIU. I can't tell you how disappointing it was for me to decide to leave. I have been helping health care workers join our union, first at Local 250/UHW and then at the International, for over 7 years. For the most part it has been a job that inspired me everyday. I have never been so challenged in my life.

Last week, in my last meaningful task at SEIU I spent the week in DC working with members who were in town to talk to their congressional reps about the Free Choice act. It was absolutely the best of what SEIU is and can be. Member leaders articulated both why the union is good and why the current process to get a union is not only undemocratic but gives the power to one or two men who happen to be the boss. What was going on at that conference was in sharp contrast to what you and the other leaders of this union were doing at that same time in California (UHW, et al), keeping corrupt leaders on staff (Rickman Jackson, Annelle Grajeda) but laying off the union's organizers, and most alarmingly interfering in UNITE/HERE's internal struggles. You are not a CEO and unions do not pull hostile takeovers on each other.

The biggest struggle in labor is the tension between organizing on scale with huge employers and remaining democratic and meaningful organizations for our members. These are not either/or's. In fact, many local unions in SEIU have been successful in that quest, including UHW. As you know, I was on staff there for nearly 5 years and of course part of my reaction is emotional, and if you knew the talent you were casting out, yours would be too. More than that, I am appalled that your answer to UHW's critique is to destroy the local. Not only is that a ridiculous reaction, it is also a terrible use of resources. 91,000 workers so far have filed petitions to decertify SEIU. We are spending all of our time meddling in other union's internal politics (CNA, UNITE/HERE), trying to destroy what once was among the most functional local in the country, and we are not planning meaningful organizing in Healthcare. No wonder we are laying off those organizers, we're apparently out of the business of organizing workers.

I know that I am not the only staff member leaving SEIU, whether by choice or by lay off. There is a terrible morale problem here. So many of our staff have put their lives on hold to organize workers into this union, and well they should. But can you imagine living in hotels, going home once or twice a month and having no control over your schedule--for what? To ask the boss to fire UHW stewards? Or to ask nurses to run against their elected leadership? Or, is it to try to decertify some of this country's best union hotels in Las Vegas?

Most of us, the best of us, come to this work to push people into taking power back at their workplace and in their lives. We have done too little of that recently. SEIU will lose many good staff in this period, and the union will suffer for it. I can not say enough how wonderful so many of the SEIU staff are. I have learned so much from working with so many of them. They and our members deserve better than this.

Ultimately, I will put my trust into our members; I urge them to hold their local and national leaders accountable. We all desperately need them to do that.

Audra Makuch
Campaign Coordinator

I suppose it is a good thing that some senior SEIU staff are taking note of what is going out here in Cali, and are making known their objections to it to Brother Stern. It's just regrettable that they have to do that while on their way out the door.

The Sincerest Form of Flattery...

It appears that PerezStern has himself an imitator, calling himself Perez Roselli. (The site is called xPerezRoselli.blogspot.com - I guess the "x" is punning on Sal Roselli's status as ex-president of UHW).

The imitator has a big, pretty site, with all of 10 (ten) posts in toto since its inception last week. Most of the posts have attached to them pretty pictures of North Coast Redwoods or the wildlife that resides therein, AND ALL OF THE RECENT POSTING ACTIVITY ON THERE IS IN ALL CAPS, TO LEND EXTRA SPECIAL IMPORTANCE TO WHAT THE AUTHOR IS TRYING TO SAY!!!1!1ELEVEN!!!!

Well, there's no accounting for taste, or for literacy. What there is accounting for, though, is absolute rank hypocrisy on the part of SEIU partisans. Take, for instance, Perez Roselli's definition of "scab" -

DEFINITION OF SCAB: THE LOWEST FORM OF LIFE WHO TRIES TO RAID ANOTHER UNION'S MEMBERS OR MORE COMMONLY KNOWN AS N(O)UHW.

I would have to imagine that Perez Roselli would have to include Our Glorious Maximum Leader in that rather loose definition of "scab" then...

(Images courtesy of PerezStern)




I wonder if Perez Roselli would care to update his definition of "scab" now...

Pick A Side, and Go With It...

You gotta hand it to the Purple Plague - it seems that their proximity to Obama has made them believe that they can say or do anything and nobody will make any kind of attempt to compare it to their past statements.

We all remember all the various flyers and other justifications for the Trusteeship, but they almost all boil down to one concept - There Must Be Unity In Labor!

So what has the Purple Plague decided to do?

Actively intervene in the possible divorce of UNITE/HERE.



Unbelievable.

Anyone who has been paying attention knows how the Purple Plague reacts whenever anyone in a red NUHW shirt shows up and starts talking to people.

It will be entertaining to see if purple-shirted SEIU scabs start squealing about "Unfair Labor Practices!" if and when loyal UNITE/HERE stewards tell then to get lost.

Lawyers, Guns and Money...

Well, folks, it's happened.

Evidently, Nice Scarf is decidedly not happy with getting out-organized throughout the Kaiser and CHW systems by a start-up union consisting of people who are working on a voluntary basis.

So, in true Washington fashion, he has turned to the lawsuit as a means of bludgeoning the UHW membership into line.

The lawsuit alleges the former officers engaged in:

* Theft of UHW property
* Destruction of UHW documents and records
* Extended occupation of UHW buildings
* Misappropriation of UHW proprietary membership e-mail lists and other records used to “raid” UHW members for their new organization and
* A widespread and coordinated campaign of intimidation against employees who chose to stick with UHW after the trusteeship.

“At a time when our members in California are facing a budget crisis and social service cuts that directly threaten the men and women who rely on our members’ care, the former leaders of this local have taken every stop imaginable to set up roadblocks and hurdles,” Dave Regan, another UHW trustee, said in a press statement.

I don't even know where to begin with the above list, except as to say that if that is the best that Nice Scarf's lawyers can do, then their case is absolutely DOA. The only "widespread and coordinated campaign of intimidation" that I know of is being carried out by Perez Stern, and Perez is merely using the actions of SEIU trusteeship scabs to point out what buttholes they really are.

I guess it just pisses Nice Scarf off to no end that the UHW rank-and-file membership is actually making a solid case for getting out of SEIU, and that the only way SEIU now has of holding onto the rank-and-file of its second-largest local is to use lawyers, guns and money to do his dirty work.

We're Not Worthy!!!

Why, may you ask?

Because Perez is in the house.

Go forth and check out PerezStern.blogspot.com (the site has been added to the links on the right side). This should be required reading for anybody caught up in the SEIU-UHW heist.

For a quick taste, behold the loyalty oath that all remaining SEIU-UHW staff employees are required to sign (click to enlarge):



All your thoughts are belong to us, so says our Glorious Maximum Leader...