Randy Shaw on the UNITE/HERE Divorce...

...also has some things to say about Our Glorious Maximum Leader:

Just as the assassination of the Archduke Ferdinand plunged allied countries into World War I, so has Raynor’s frustrated ambitions brought SEIU and HERE into open warfare and destroyed the Change to Win Labor Federation. While Stern insists that SEIU is not engaged in any attacks against HERE, Wilhelm filed anti-raiding charges with Change to Win against SEIU on April 3 on the grounds that said union was “interfering with the collective bargaining relationships of UNITEHERE members.”

Reports are rampant of SEIU members infiltrating HERE-organized facilities in Phoenix and Pittsburgh, and while SEIU disputes these claims, the fact that they are so widely believed means that Raynor has succeeded in creating a major and likely permanent rift between the two unions most aligned on immigrant rights, EFCA and a range of progressive issues.

Good work, Bruce. Just as the UFW and the Teamsters were not morally and politically equal when they battled for farmworkers allegiance in the 1960’s and 1970’s, nor are UNITE and HERE equally at fault here. If Raynor wanted out, he could have acted with respect. Instead, he has opened up a Pandora’s Box of false accusations which will hurt union organizing and the labor movement for years to come.

Mr. Shaw was puzzled as to why the union press isn't investigating this story further, and theorizes that nobody wants to be caught in the middle of a budding, nasty fight - and he then proceeds to wade into the middle of the fight, and finds both Bruce Raynor and Andy Stern wanting.

Well, The Plague cares not for your opinion, sir. All that is required of you proles in the press is to pay heed and commit all required slavish devotion to Our Glorious Maximum Leader, for he is Andy, Whom Can Do No Wrong.

Central Coast Rebellion

NUHW seems to be a communicable disease down there on the Central Coast - only once you get it, you're cured of Zombie-itis.

It seems that not long after workers at Salinas-Natividad Medical Center (with their colleagues in Monterey County) decided to file for recognition in NUHW, workers at both Hazel Hawkins Memorial Hospital in Hollister, and at Watsonville Community Hospital in southern Santa Cruz County have filed to be represented by NUHW.

The Watsonville petition has to go through NLRB, but the Hazel Hawkins petition goes through the California Public Employee Relations Board, as the employees at Hawkins are working for a county hospital in Hollister. We will see how quickly the forces of bureaucracy work at those respective bodies.

Update on 4/7: From the Santa Cruz Sentinel...

Health care workers at Watsonville Community Hospital are taking sides in the dispute between their bargaining agent, Service Employees International Union, and National Union of Healthcare Workers, an upstart organization formed in January by leaders unhappy with SEIU.

"An overwhelming majority of us have signed petitions to choose NUHW as our union," said Kermit Butch Cole, a surgery technician for 19 years. "We need a union we can trust, where we have a voice to stand up for ourselves and our patients."

Cole, 65, said he received a letter Monday from SEIU asking him to resign his position as shop steward, a role he's had for 17 years. He's not about to go quietly.

"SEIU has the right to remove me, but until they do, I'm the steward," he said, noting he was elected by co-workers.

(snip)

Cole said SEIU has been pressuring workers, telling them if they voted for a new union, they would be fired and lose health insurance.

Health care workers pay about $64 a month in union dues, Cole said, which adds up to about $30 million a year in area dues going to SEIU's headquarters.

"If we don't have to send that $30 million to Washington, D.C., we'd be able to reduce dues by 25 percent," he said, adding. "We decided we don't want automatic dues deduction, we want SEIU to bill us."

Their three-year contract at Watsonville Community Hospital expires July 31; negotiations have not begun.

Note the date of the WCH contract expiry - July 31 of this year. SEIU's going to have one hell of a time trying to fold that one into the contract bar language.

For All That'll Get Ya...

John Wilhelm of UNITE/HERE has filed a complaint against SEIU to the leadership council of Change to Win.

To: Change to Win Leadership Council

As Co-President of UNITE HERE International Union, I write to ask that you accept this letter as a request for mutual aid and support under Article XVII under the Change To Win Constitution and as a formal complaint against SEIU pursuant to Article XVI “Procedures for Resolving Disputes.”

The Change to Win Constitution mandates under Article XVII, Sections 1 & 2 that:

“Each affiliate of this alliance agrees that it shall not divide workers’ strength by engaging in activity that disrupts the established representation rights of any affiliate …”

“…all of the affiliated unions within the alliance …shall use the full power and the resources of the alliance to protect the interests of the aggrieved union and the affected workers.”

As you all know, UNITE HERE is experiencing an across the board assault on its jurisdiction and its membership by SEIU. I ask that the affiliated unions use their full strength and power to protect the interests of UNITE HERE, as provided under Article 17.

Additionally, UNITE HERE seeks redress under Article XV, Section 1 which states in part:

“Each affiliate shall respect the established collective bargaining relationship of every other affiliate. No affiliate shall organize or attempt to represent employees as to whom an established collective bargaining relationship exists with any other affiliate.”

A UNITE HERE splinter group allied with Bruce Raynor claims to have merged with SEIU on March 22, 2009. Prior to and after that date, SEIU has interfered in our collective bargaining relationships in multiple locations nationwide. This interference has taken many forms including but not limited to SEIU staff and elected leaders encouraging UNITE HERE members to secede from UNITE HERE, SEIU staff pursuing NLRB “RC” petitions in UNITE HERE workplaces, and otherwise interfering with the established collective bargaining relationships with UNITE HERE members. Attached please find documents in support of this claim and which identify the locations and bargaining units at issue.

In another brazen example, SEIU is barraging UNITE HERE members with mail and phone calls urging “no” votes on dues increases. Let me stress that this activity extends throughout UNITE HERE.

Second, UNITE HERE seeks redress under Article XV, Section 4 which states in part:

“No Affiliate shall, in connection with any organizational campaign, circulate or cause to be circulated any charge or report that is designed to bring or has the effect of bringing another affiliate into public disrepute or of otherwise adversely affecting the reputation of such affiliate or the alliance.”

SEIU in concert with the Raynor splinter group has orchestrated a months long communications program, designed by Steve Rosenthal, which has defamed UNITE HERE leaders among its membership through the coordinated use of robo-calls, live telephone calls, direct mail, and home visits. SEIU participated in the planning and execution of these attacks. The intent of this communications program is to vilify the elected leadership of UNITE HERE and agitate UNITE HERE members to secede from their union.

These defamatory attacks against UNITE HERE include baseless charges against UNITE HERE elected leaders of “corruption,” “wasteful spending,” “intimidation,” and “mismanagement.”

While I recognize that the Chair of Change to Win ordinarily has certain roles regarding Article XVI procedures, I ask that the Chair, an SEIU officer,recuse herself from any involvement in this matter and that the Leadership Council itself act immediately to process the complaint.

UNITE HERE further asks that the Article XVI mediation step be skipped and that the process move immediately to arbitration since there have been numerous unsuccessful attempts to solve this dispute by mediation already.

Thank you.

John W. Wilhelm

President/Hospitality, UNITE HERE

cc. Andrew Stern, SEIU

Oh, by the way, the "Chair" of Change to SternBurger that Mr. Wilhelm refers to in the above letter is Anna Burger. Asking a SEIU officer to recuse themselves from something in which SEIU might actually be found at fault is right up there with asking them to cut off their arm. Three words for that one: Not. Gonna. Happen.

Good luck with that letter there, John. I'm sure that the leadership of Change to SternBurger will give it all the attention that it merits from her point of view. It's probably just pro-forma anyway, since the remains of UNITE/HERE have asked for readmission to AFL-CIO.

That is, of course, if SEIU will allow them to disaffiliate from Change to SternBurger.

Andy's Internal Irony Detector Evidently Is Broken...

Once again, Our Glorious Maximum Leader was speaking in public, and once again the Irony Meters were pinging harder than a volume meter at a Metallica concert. And once again, Andy was entirely oblivious to the absolute jaw-dropping level of hypocrisy coming out of his piehole.

Today's victim is Steve Early, who went to the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University on the evening of April 1st to hear Nice Scarf give a talk on "A Country That Works" (and yes, that is the title of the book that was published in October of 2006), and Mr. Early evidently decided to take one for the team, and attend this riveting speech, and provide a report for the nice folks at Talking Union. It does go a bit long, but Mr. Early lays out just how hypocritical La Stern is in his dealings with other organizations. Eventually, he gets to some issues that hit close to us here in Hotel California...

So, when it comes time for questions, I hit the mike with a gentle reminder that Stern’s four-year old federation, Change To Win, seems to have forgotten one of its founding principles-namely, that unions should stick to their own jurisdiction, instead of poaching on the turf of others? Could Stern’s current designs on hotels, casinos, and other culinary work sites be the reason why his former partner is now calling him a brazen, imperialistic, messianic union czar?

Stern jokes that this is just what John “calls me on a good day.” He then explains, in unconvincing fashion, that a recent convergence in corporate ownership of hotels and other commercial real estate properties has created a fortuitous jurisdictional overlap between Wilhelm’s organization and his own. With a look of total innocence and sincerity, Stern professes “no desire to compete in organizing hotels.” Instead, he envisions a bright future in which SEIU and what’s left of Wilhelm’s union will work together cooperatively, “just as we do with AFSCME in home care.” (Since only one question/statement per customer is allowed–and Andy looks eager to change the subject-I don’t get a chance to point out that SEIU and the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees -AFSCME–have, in fact, feuded over home-based workers in California, Illinois, Iowa, and other states.)

In response to later queries from the floor, Stern does equally well in the unintended humor department. For example, a student asks him what makes for a good union. First on Andy’s list: “If I was being hypothetical, I’d say democracy”-an answer that produced not a titter of laughter, although it should have elicited major guffawing, given how hypothetical democracy is in SEIU these days. Several questions later, a Harvard worker, employed at the law school, hits the jackpot with a question about Stern’s stance on salary cuts for Harvard bosses, including its new president Drew Gilpin Faust. Like her predecessor Larry Summers, Faust earns nearly $600,000 a year-not as much as Wilhelm and Raynor combined, but close. Rather than laying off SEIU janitors, as Harvard is doing now, shouldn’t the university cut costs by paying its top brass less, the worker wants to know. Thinking perhaps of future Harvard invitations-or maybe just a longer stint, someday, at the Kennedy School– Stern refuses to play populist with the president’s pay. “I really don’t like pitting people against each other, ” he asserts demurely, a statement that John Wilhelm and many others may find hard to believe.

One could probably explain Andy's quotes above to the fact that it was April Fool's Day when he was speaking, but I believe that Andy actually thinks people are buying his BS.

I'm still waiting for that "democracy" thing to kick in here at Zombie UHW - but I guess Stern and his minions are still too busy not "pitting people against each other" to let democracy take root around these parts.

Ah, well. One can keep hoping, right?

"Worker's World: Sternlandia"

Courtesy of a worker at Alameda County Medical Center (more commonly known as Highland Hospital in Oakland), here is a view of how things go (and what the future holds for those of us in Zombie UHW) when you Completely Go Purple...

Welcome to Worker’s World your new reorganized, pasteurized, homogenized, deskilled, retrained and reconstituted union. No, we don’t have anyone who can write a grievance or negotiate a contract; we replaced them with a call center. No, we don’t answer the phone, we just told you and we have a call center. No, we can’t help you keep your job our employees are too busy trying to keep their own jobs.

Here in Workers World we’re using your hard earned dues to invest in the future, it’s the new fresh young faces of SEIU, they wear tummy Ts, and they have piercings, the ooze enthusiasm and raw sexuality. Go team! Go union! These new “organizers” have enthusiasm of drunken soccer fans. Unfortunately, they have the intellectual capacity of rabbits and the manners of frat boys, but can they follow orders. So what, if dues paying members have to remind them not to interrupt while grown-ups are talking, these kids work hard, they work cheap and they don’t ask questions.

You see, the problem with the labor movement is all those whiney union members leaving all those negative messages like, my boss wants to fire me or my boss refused to pay me. Uncle Andy has National Agenda he can’t spend time and money on whiners, let them go to voice mail. At Worker’s World we say why have employees; when you can have a call center.

Sternlandia makes labor a real corporate player like McDonalds or Wal-Mart and they’ve learned from the corporate model, why invest in people when you can invest in plastic? SEIU is proud to say they have branded and distributed more purple and yellow plastic shwag than any other labor union. SEIU proudly leads the labor movement in plastic pollution. Don’t worry, Uncle Andy will not stop there, no sir? Next year CEO Stern has set bold and exciting corporate goals, watch out Mc Donald’s here comes SEIU. The Unity Meal: a bologna sandwich in a purple plastic bag with a yellow plastic folk served at a soup kitchen to former union members who lost their jobs because SEIU forgot to check their phone messages.

Enjoyable from first to last.

One Thousand Virtual Cocktails to you, Madame, for one of the best anti-SEIU takedowns I've seen from the rank-and-file standpoint.

Add Another Hospital to the NUHW List...

It looks like Zombie UHW is not the only SEIU local to be having some internal trouble here in Hotel California...

Monterey County employees to announce petition to leave SEIU

Monterey County employees will announce they have filed petitions to join the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW) and leave their old union, SEIU Local 521 at 11:30 a.m. today in front of the ER entrance at Natividad Medical Center, 1441 Constitution Blvd., Salinas.

Included in the filing are 800 healthcare workers at Natividad Medical Center, as well as more than 2,000 other public service workers including 911 dispatchers, child support workers, and sanitation workers.

Natividad is not just a podunk hospital either - it's about 175 beds, and serves as the county hospital for Monterey County - probably the reason why it is covered by the guvmint-oriented SEIU 521 instead of the privately-oriented Zombie UHW.

We're still waiting for all those SEIU fans out there to tell us why we should remain happy guests in the Hotel California...

The Stewards Fight Back...

Watch the vid below, and you will be able to see what miserable sacks of crap the trusteeship have been.



Special honors go to Greg Moron (my apologies, Greg Maron) for being stupid enough to leave a "you're fired" message on a steward's digital voice mail, while also indicating that he would also be telling management - that's some real, good union brotherhood there, Greggie. Next time take one of your wife's anti-PMS pills so you can get up the hormones enough to tell it to her face, ya wanker...

A Look at Life Inside the Hotel California...

The Nation is a magazine that has long been a lapdog for Our Glorious Maximum Leader. A search on "Andy Stern" on The Nation's website will return phraseology like "far-reaching," "visionary," "charismatic," "very bright" - along with criticisms which are almost always couched in either/or propositions, like "savior or sellout", "not shy about speaking his mind," and the like.

It evidently has gotten to the point that one of The Nation's readers decided to write a letter to let the editors of that fine publication know that not everyone out here in California is as enamored of Nice Scarf as those nice folks back on the East Coast think we should be...

When it comes to SEIU and Andy Stern, The Nation is afraid to speak truth to power. In editorials and articles, you continue to treat SEIU as a legitimate labor union and Stern as a legitimate labor leader. SEIU can no longer be considered a real labor union. The widespread corruption, SEIU's anti-democratic structure and Stern's dictatorial style have resulted in a situation where a large part of the union is effectively in trusteeship, denying SEIU members the right to elect their local leaders and an effective voice in the running of the union. Almost all 600,000 SEIU members in California are in locals under trusteeship for corruption (Local 6434), speaking out against corruption (UHW West), or in locals unilaterally merged by Stern over two years ago whose leaders are Stern appointees and where there's yet to be an election scheduled (Locals 221, 521, 721 and 1021), or in locals whose leaders are entrenched Stern appointed loyalists (local 1877).

Coming on the heels of the UHW trusteeship and the blocking of the upstart National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW) election petitions, Stern's most recent outrage, an effective annexation of UNITE and a despicable raid on HERE, should be the cause of loud public condemnation by labor leaders and pro-labor progressives. Instead, the silence is deafening. Silence equals complicity. Under US and International law, workers have the right to choose their own union and, by their actions, Stern and SEIU are violating that right.

Employee Free Choice is not only the right to join a union, but the right to choose which union. The CNA-SEIU pact is an odd one in that Stern's brand of corporatist, corrupt, top-down unionism is fundamentally incompatible with the CNA's tradition of militancy and support for single payer. CNA Executive Director Rose Ann DeMoro has made some some very strong (and accurate) criticisms of Stern, but the most telling and truthful is that Stern is a scab. Stern's battle with the new National Union of Healthcare Workers is what forced him to settle with CNA on the CNA's terms. The CNA-SEIU deal will hold until Stern sees an advantage to himself in breaking it. DeMoro is smart and is likely already prepared for it.

So, when will the Nation stop being a fig leaf for SEIU and Stern, and start standing up for workers' rights?

Charlie Ridgell, Oakland CA

03/28/2009 @ 10:42am

It is indeed worth considering that the great majority of SEIU "members" in California now no longer enjoy any sort of voting rights as would be typical in the normal union. SEIU union halls, once a place of welcome for the membership, have been turned into locked offices, and in some cases like the Zombie UHW SoCal headquarters the resemblance is more like the Green Zone in Baghdad.

One Thousand Cocktails to Mr. Charlie Ridgell of Oakland, CA, for letting people back east know that not everyone is happy here in Hotel California.

It's no secret that one of the parts of "union democracy" is actually having the chance to vote on something.

Why is SEIU so afraid of its members actually expressing their collective opinion?

Freeman, You Magnificent Bastard!

Paul Pringle is seriously all up in Andy Stern's grill of late...

The union of low-wage caregivers that Tyrone Freeman once headed has taken him to court to demand restitution of more than $1.1 million -- dues money that allegedly financed his lifestyle of $175 glasses of cognac, $250 bottles of wine and a $3,400 trip to the NFL's Pro Bowl in Hawaii.

The lawsuit filed by a Los Angeles-based chapter of the Service Employees International Union opens another legal front in a scandal that dates to last summer and remains the subject of a federal criminal investigation.

In the civil complaint, brought in Los Angeles County Superior Court, the United Long-Term Care Workers accuses Freeman of misappropriating funds in a broad scheme to enrich himself and his relatives. Named as co-defendants are his wife, Pilar Planells; his mother-in-law, Carmen Planells; and the video and day-care companies they operated out of their homes.

The suit, which also seeks unspecified punitive damages and legal costs, alleges breach of contract and fiduciary duty and conversion of union funds for personal benefit.

Freeman and the Planellses could not be reached for comment, and Freeman's lawyer did not respond to interview requests.

No word on whether Rickman Jackson or Annelle Grajeda had any comment either.

Any story involving the SEIU has to go to Baghdad Michelle for comment, and as always she does not fail to disappoint...

"We are going to do absolutely everything in our power to make sure that he is held accountable to the members," SEIU spokeswoman Michelle Ringuette said Tuesday.

Thanks for that vote of confidence regarding accountability to members there, Michelle.

When you figure out how to make SEIU accountable to the UHW members who want out of the Purple Prison, you get back to us on that "accountability" thing, mmmKay?

The Latest Word from the NLRB...

Briefs have been filed earlier this week in the NLRB filing regarding KaiPerm and whether or not the employees would be allowed to conduct a vote to kick out Zombie UHW.

What is interesting is who filed on whose behalf. Specifically, one of the founders of the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions, Peter DiCicco, filed a brief in this case on behalf of NUHW. The Coalition itself remained silent on the issue.

Also, Mary Ann Thode, former president of KP-NorCal, also filed a brief in this case on behalf of NUHW. There was no other filing one way or the other from Kaiser.

Optimistic views have a decision in this regard coming down in about two weeks. SEIU is, of course, throwing up logical roadblocks all over the place. At issue is whether or not then-UHW and KaiPerm entered into a three-year or a five-year contract back in 2005. Checking back to page 124 of the UHW contract book, Article XXV states that...

Except as otherwise specifically provided, this Agreement shall be effective as of October 1, 2005, and shall continue in effect through the month, day, and year as specified in the National Agreement, Section 3: Scope of The Agreement, D. Duration, Renewal and Reopening, and shall be automatically renewed from year to year thereafter, unless amended, modified, changed, or terminated.

So we go to the National Agreement, and it says...

D. DURATION, RENEWAL AND REOPENING
1. The duration of this Agreement is October 1, 2005 through September 30, 2008. It shall automatically renew itself for an additional two year period (October 1, 2008 through September 30, 2010), unless either the Coalition (by its Executive Director) or Kaiser Permanente (by its Vice President for the LMP) gives the other party written Notice of Reopening no later than ninety (90) days and no earlier than one hundred, twenty (120) days prior to October 1, 2008.

SEIU is evidently trying to claim that, since there was a "wage reopener" negotiation back in 2008 prior to the initial expiration, that we have in effect a three-year contract and then two separate one-year contracts, neither of which can be breached under the contract bar language.

However, we look later in that same section above...

a) If this Agreement is reopened pursuant to Paragraphs D.1. and D.2., above, and the parties reach agreement with respect to the Reopener Subjects before October 1, 2008, this Agreement shall automatically renew itself for an additional two-year period, and any and all agreed upon changes with respect to Reopener Subjects shall
be incorporated into this Agreement and the Relevant Local Agreements.

b) If this Agreement is reopened pursuant to Paragraphs D.1. and D.2., above, and no agreement is reached with respect to the Reopener Subjects before October 1, 2008, this Agreement shall automatically renew itself for an additional two-year period on all other existing terms and conditions, provided, however, that the parties may continue to negotiate concerning the Reopener Subjects until such time as agreement is reached on those subjects or negotiations conclude. Any and all changes resulting from such continued negotiations shall be incorporated into this Agreement and the Relevant Local Agreements.

The bottom line? The agreement went for three years, and if there was no wage reopener then it would automatically extend for two years. If there was a wage reopener, then it would automatically extend for two years.

No matter how SEIU tries to slice it, this is a five-year contract, and we're well outside the initial three years. If NLRB plays straight, we're gonna have us an election real soon.

The word (theoretically) should come down later this week, plus or minus any obstructionist tactics from Stern and his shysters.

I have a feeling...

...Somebody's Watching Me!

Hey, SEIU and Zombie UHW partisans - I can tell you're logging on here.



Why don't y'all take a moment and tell us why being being in SEIU is everything it's cracked up to be?

And while you're at it, maybe you can tell the folks why y'all are taking time checking out this little old blog rather than helping protect union jobs like you were supposed to be doing down at Rady...

Andy Sez...

Quoth Our Glorious Maximum Leader:

It's simple: If you support democracy, you should support the right to debate legislation that could improve the lives of millions of working Americans, pump $49 billion into the economy at a time when we desperately need it, and that's supported by the vast majority of the public.

We look forward to working with Sen. Specter and the rest of the Congress to find ways to give workers the free choice to join a union free from intimidation and harassment.

Yo, Andy: If you support democracy, you should support the right of 100K-plus of your dues-paying members who want to make a choice that is supported by the vast majority of those members.

Quoth Anna Burger:

Allowing workers the choice to join together, free from intimidation and harassment, to bargain for job security, better wages and health care will stimulate our economy and put working families back on the path of prosperity.

Yo, Anna: We who support NUHW are trying desperately to join together, free from intimidation and harrassment, to bargain for job security, better wages, and continued health care (not to mention restoring the pension rights y'all have taken away from us).

Why won't SEIU allow us the vote?