More "binding arbitration" for SEIU from the rest of the labor movement!
Tuesday, June 30
Thank you... and fuck you!
30 staff at Local 6434 just returned from mandatory 14 hours a day, seven days a week scabbing in Fresno to find themselves laid off. SEIU told staff it wasn't about money, they just wanted to go to an "All field, no service" model. But of course, they made no effort to reposition staff into the new roles.
Staff at Local 99 still have jobs however - they'll be sent to Sacramento for three months starting July 1 to try to "administer an old school ass whipping" to Sacramento County homecare workers trying to join NUHW.
How much clearer can it get to SEIU staff? You're disposable cannon fodder for Stern and Regan's collapsing empire.
SEIU unites the labor movement!
The UNITE HERE convention kicked off yesterday, with labor leaders telling delegates what they really think!
(Picture by a reader)
"The raider is known to some as Darth Vader of the Labor Movement"
-Vince Giblin, President of the Operating Engineers (who referred to Stern as Vader 36 times)
"For another union to come onto your turf and take advantage of what you’ve built, that is piracy on the seas of organized labor."... "What SEIU is doing is bullshit!"
-Gerry McEntee, President of AFSCME (Who then led a chant of "Bullshit!" from the crowd!)
"What happens in this fight WE have with SEIU will determine what kind of labor movement we have. When someone comes after UNITE HERE, they come after the Laborers."... "We didn’t join Change to Win to raid and hijack another union’s members."
-Terry O’Sullivan, President of LIUNA
"A two headed fight: a fight with the boss and a fight with the boss’s lackey union."
- John Wilhelm, President of UNITE HERE
SEIU meanwhile sent a truck to circle the convention center sadly with a sign saying "Binding Arbitration Now!"
Perez thinks they just got their "binding arbitration"!
(Picture by a reader)
"The raider is known to some as Darth Vader of the Labor Movement"
-Vince Giblin, President of the Operating Engineers (who referred to Stern as Vader 36 times)
"For another union to come onto your turf and take advantage of what you’ve built, that is piracy on the seas of organized labor."... "What SEIU is doing is bullshit!"
-Gerry McEntee, President of AFSCME (Who then led a chant of "Bullshit!" from the crowd!)
"What happens in this fight WE have with SEIU will determine what kind of labor movement we have. When someone comes after UNITE HERE, they come after the Laborers."... "We didn’t join Change to Win to raid and hijack another union’s members."
-Terry O’Sullivan, President of LIUNA
"A two headed fight: a fight with the boss and a fight with the boss’s lackey union."
- John Wilhelm, President of UNITE HERE
SEIU meanwhile sent a truck to circle the convention center sadly with a sign saying "Binding Arbitration Now!"
Perez thinks they just got their "binding arbitration"!
Monday, June 29
Don't leave...or else!
Perez had almost forgotten about them both, but it looks like deputy trustees Hal Ruddick and Lisa Gude are in the spotlight again - this time in both Illinois and Californiraq!
Hal and Lisa, who are from SEIU Healthcare Illinois-Indiana, have been previously featured for the lies and intimidation they've used to try to impose the trusteeship. For those who missed it, Hal is the one who was caught red-handed by CHW's elected bargaining committee in the middle of a secret conference call, as well as the one called out repeatedly on his lies by workers. Lisa distinguished herself by scheduling secret contract negotiations with nursing home bosses and excluding elected bargaining committee members from the negotiating table.
So what are these two Chicago deputies up to now? Well, Perez hears they're using their skills to manipulate their own staff and create headaches in their home local...
As Perez hears it, in January Lisa and Hal brought a number of organizers from SEIU Healthcare IL/IN to work on the trusteeship of UHW. Now some of these staff are tired of being "deployed", and want to retreat to Illinois. But of course, UHW is short on staff, and the trustees don't want them to leave. So in order to manipulate them into staying in Californiraq, Hal and Lisa have begun telling them about impending job cuts at the mid west local. '"If you go back to Illinois now, you'll get laid off. Better to stay here in Californiraq."
Oh, but it turns out there are no planned layoffs at the local! Apparently, Lisa and Hal forgot about those things called "cellphones." After they lied to staff here in Californiraq, telephone lines started buzzing and managers in Illinois had to quash rapidly spreading rumors about layoffs.
So at the end of the day, Hal and Lisa accomplished a two-fer: not only were their lies exposed to staffers here in Californiraq, but they also undermined their own local in Illinois and burned more bridges with their former co-workers!
What a real gift Hal and Lisa have a real gift for clear-headed strategic thinking! Perez is so glad they're in charge of negotiating for the futures of thousands of UHW members!
Hal and Lisa, who are from SEIU Healthcare Illinois-Indiana, have been previously featured for the lies and intimidation they've used to try to impose the trusteeship. For those who missed it, Hal is the one who was caught red-handed by CHW's elected bargaining committee in the middle of a secret conference call, as well as the one called out repeatedly on his lies by workers. Lisa distinguished herself by scheduling secret contract negotiations with nursing home bosses and excluding elected bargaining committee members from the negotiating table.
So what are these two Chicago deputies up to now? Well, Perez hears they're using their skills to manipulate their own staff and create headaches in their home local...
As Perez hears it, in January Lisa and Hal brought a number of organizers from SEIU Healthcare IL/IN to work on the trusteeship of UHW. Now some of these staff are tired of being "deployed", and want to retreat to Illinois. But of course, UHW is short on staff, and the trustees don't want them to leave. So in order to manipulate them into staying in Californiraq, Hal and Lisa have begun telling them about impending job cuts at the mid west local. '"If you go back to Illinois now, you'll get laid off. Better to stay here in Californiraq."
Oh, but it turns out there are no planned layoffs at the local! Apparently, Lisa and Hal forgot about those things called "cellphones." After they lied to staff here in Californiraq, telephone lines started buzzing and managers in Illinois had to quash rapidly spreading rumors about layoffs.
So at the end of the day, Hal and Lisa accomplished a two-fer: not only were their lies exposed to staffers here in Californiraq, but they also undermined their own local in Illinois and burned more bridges with their former co-workers!
What a real gift Hal and Lisa have a real gift for clear-headed strategic thinking! Perez is so glad they're in charge of negotiating for the futures of thousands of UHW members!
Well qualified!
A reader writes to say that it's fitting that Linda Temple, former administrative assistant to the UHW Organizing Department is playing a leading role in the post trusteeship Zombie UHW and is apparently Amado David's right hand woman.
Apparently her last job was working as a clerk at a warehouse where she helped the boss bust the union and helped fight her fellow employees' basic rights to organize and improve their lives. At pre-zombie UHW she openly admitted and talked about her anti union activities to the disgust of other staff.
So no wonder Amado David hired her back! Her experience is exactly what SEIU is looking for these days!
Apparently her last job was working as a clerk at a warehouse where she helped the boss bust the union and helped fight her fellow employees' basic rights to organize and improve their lives. At pre-zombie UHW she openly admitted and talked about her anti union activities to the disgust of other staff.
So no wonder Amado David hired her back! Her experience is exactly what SEIU is looking for these days!
Saturday, June 27
Out of the frying pan...
Perez was surprised to hear the rumor that former public sector organizing director Neneki Lee's new West Coast job will be the unglamorous role of staff director at Local 99 in Los Angeles. Neneki, who was also trustee of Local 1984 in Georgia, just moved out to Californiraq with partner Laphonza Butler, who Stern will appoint as the new president/trustee of Local 6434.
Neneki is likely to have her hands full at Local 99, where management is locked in difficult negotiations with the staff union - staff recently voted down management's "last, best and final" offer. The main sticking point is health insurance, staff want to get rid of Local 99's two-tier system, which provides a deluxe PPO plan for managers, and a Kaiser plan for everyone else! The staff union requested that everyone be allowed to enroll in in the PPO plan, but management rejected the proposal.
Since staffers voted down the "last, best and final" offer, Local 99 Executive Director Bill Lloyd has started boss-style one-on-one meetings with staff members. Hey, Neneki - guess what your first assignment will be?
Neneki is likely to have her hands full at Local 99, where management is locked in difficult negotiations with the staff union - staff recently voted down management's "last, best and final" offer. The main sticking point is health insurance, staff want to get rid of Local 99's two-tier system, which provides a deluxe PPO plan for managers, and a Kaiser plan for everyone else! The staff union requested that everyone be allowed to enroll in in the PPO plan, but management rejected the proposal.
Since staffers voted down the "last, best and final" offer, Local 99 Executive Director Bill Lloyd has started boss-style one-on-one meetings with staff members. Hey, Neneki - guess what your first assignment will be?
Friday, June 26
Confessions from within The Evil Empire...
From a galaxy far, far, away (but quite a bit like our own), to "Stop the Politics" this Friday, Perez is proud to bring you...
Confessions of A Storm Trooper!
The following reflect the sentiments of a storm trooper during the period in which he was employed by The Evil Empire. The following are excerpts from the journal he kept during that time.
January 5, 2009
My first official day as a storm trooper for the empire has proved uneventful. I was fitted for purple body armor and indoctrinated as to the origins of the empire and its leader, the one referred to as the Dark Lord. I was also taught the manner in which to address the “subjects” of the empire. Apparently, the interests of the empire are strengthened by those who pay tribute to the empire; in exchange for some type of service that the subjects are expected to primarily be able to perform on their own?
I was also informed that I would be provided a fuel allowance for my star cruiser, lodgings in the galaxy’s finest hotels and empire memorabilia to disseminate throughout the galaxy to the empire’s subjects. I’m not sure yet as to why I would need to stay in a hotel for an “extended period of time.” I guess only time will tell...
January 24, 2009
Took part in my first “Blitz” today. Apparently, when targeting potential subjects that have failed to demonstrate the required enthusiasm to pay tribute to the empire they must be convinced/forced into compliance by an army of storm troopers. I participated in a number of house visits throughout the day and have been informed that harassing people in the wee hours of the morning is an “effective way to contact and persuade” subjects as to the benefits of paying tribute to the empire. I was encouraged to jump fences, camp out in front of targeted subjects homes and “assess” (funny, it sounded as is the subjects were numbers and not actual human beings) as many of the targeted subjects as possible. I’m not sure if the empire is capable of ascertaining the difference between “persistence” and conditions that elicit restraining orders...
February 6, 2009
Great news! I have been informed today that I am to take part in the empire’s battle against the rebel forces which seek to upset the power balance in the galaxy! I have heard so much as to the intensity of the struggle between the rebels, who foolishly seek to establish a democratically operated organization which seeks to represent the concerns of the galaxy’s workers. I have been informed by my commanders that I will be working in another part of the galaxy for an undetermined amount of time...
On a slightly less positive note, my commanders are fond of calling meetings to discuss the overall status of the empire, unruly subjects, potential subjects and introducing new methods of “role play” designed to make dealing with the empire’s subjects easier (as I have been told that sometimes subjects can become audacious enough to question the empire’s affinity for not providing any services or accountability for its actions). I’m beginning to wonder why there is so much unrest among the subjects of the empire; perhaps they just don’t understand that with so many subjects across the galaxy addressing the individual needs of any particular galaxy worker is an absurdity. Besides, once the Dark Lord has spoken there is no point in challenging his awesome authority or fear inducing rhetoric...
February 9, 2009
Arrived at the scene where I will be fighting the rebels after a 30 minute lesson as to the intentions of the self-righteous rebels and the contract which has caused the conditions of the rebellion. I’m not sure if I understand the contract in its entirety (hell, I’m convinced my commander doesn’t even understand it) but I am expected to defend it in the interests of the empire and stop the advance of the rebels by any means necessary...
March 2, 2009
I have been battling the rebels at a galaxy health center for several weeks now. Thus far, they have yet to demonstrate the financial ability to compete with the free spending ways of the empire. In fact, there is only one rebel who occasionally frequents the health center in which I am currently fighting...and if rumor is correct, the rebel is not even getting paid for his efforts! To think that one would work without pay- what could be the reasons behind such folly? There’s no way that the rebel actually believes in the convictions of his organization or that the galaxy’s workers should actually have a voice in the organizations which represent the conditions between them and their employers?
Also, I have been told that I am “listening to the subjects too much” and that the objective of my fighting is not in efforts to improve the conditions for the empire’s subjects but to defeat the rebels so that the subjects continue to pay tribute...
April 4, 2009
Worked a Saturday in order to chart the galaxy workers which work at the health center where I am fighting the rebel forces. I was confused as to the motives behind such activity as I already have a list of all the galaxy workers for which I am responsible. I asked why an entire day was devoted to enlarging a list I already possessed and was told “it’s always been this way” and that my lack of enthusiasm for our corporate encouraged arts and crafts fetish was not appreciated. I wonder how the subjects would feel if they knew that thousands of their tribute dollars each year went towards Arts & Crafts Saturdays? It’s a good thing we’ll never be audited...any semblance of financial accountability is the last thing the empire needs. Besides, the Dark Lord is also engaged in a battle with galaxy hotel workers and is far too great to address the concerns of his ungrateful subjects.
I have begun to grow weary of the long hours of which I am subjected to because I am “on salary” as well as probation and “should just be happy that I have a job.” My commanders have proved incapable of demonstrating any sense of time management and seem perplexed as to why working 50+ hours a week away from home is not welcomed with blind obedience and a smile. My fellow storm troopers are too scared to say anything and I have been reprimanded (both in front of them and privately) for daring to challenge the authority of the empire...
May 11, 2009
Today I participated in my first Subject Appreciation Day (The mere thought of it is laughable as well as insulting!). My commanders are convinced that hot dogs and key chains are adequate means of silencing the groveling of the subjects, at least temporarily. Rather than performing an organizational self-critique my fellow storm troopers and I barbecued in a parking lot and distributed the empire’s memorabilia.
Unfortunately, I have fallen out of graces with my commanders who now regularly chastise me for exhibiting a lack of visible support for the empire. In fact, I have even been accused of “working for the rebel forces”, being far too “friendly” with the subjects and failing to realize that subjects who don’t love the empire have only themselves to blame. I am having a tough time being evaluated by commanders with less education, people skills and compassion for the subjects of the empire than many of the young storm troopers which it has hired. Unlike the lowly storm troopers, my commanders answer to nobody. They routinely change established deadlines due to their inability to meet them, have no qualms making those beneath them work at all hours of the day and night and seem content in their smug evaluations of the inadequacies of exhausted storm troopers...
June 5, 2009
I resigned from the empire today. I turned in my body armor, brief case and “sensitive documents”. I always wondered why employers were so hesitant to provide health care coverage for their employers and I now know why. Continuing to work for the empire would have undoubtedly led to a series of strokes and/or heart attacks in the very near future and done immeasurable psychological damage; as consistent lying and the daily manipulation of others can not be good for one’s mental health.
I could no longer work under the evil and hypocritical veil of oblivion which governs the day to day actions of the empire. I am now content to except the inevitability of my employment at a coffee shop or book store which can only pay me a small portion of what I was making working for the empire.
I can only hope that the rebels are successful in igniting rebellion among the subjects of the empire and that the Dark Lord does not succeed in increasing his sinister grasp on the throats of the galaxy’s workers...
Confessions of A Storm Trooper!
The following reflect the sentiments of a storm trooper during the period in which he was employed by The Evil Empire. The following are excerpts from the journal he kept during that time.
January 5, 2009My first official day as a storm trooper for the empire has proved uneventful. I was fitted for purple body armor and indoctrinated as to the origins of the empire and its leader, the one referred to as the Dark Lord. I was also taught the manner in which to address the “subjects” of the empire. Apparently, the interests of the empire are strengthened by those who pay tribute to the empire; in exchange for some type of service that the subjects are expected to primarily be able to perform on their own?
I was also informed that I would be provided a fuel allowance for my star cruiser, lodgings in the galaxy’s finest hotels and empire memorabilia to disseminate throughout the galaxy to the empire’s subjects. I’m not sure yet as to why I would need to stay in a hotel for an “extended period of time.” I guess only time will tell...
January 24, 2009
Took part in my first “Blitz” today. Apparently, when targeting potential subjects that have failed to demonstrate the required enthusiasm to pay tribute to the empire they must be convinced/forced into compliance by an army of storm troopers. I participated in a number of house visits throughout the day and have been informed that harassing people in the wee hours of the morning is an “effective way to contact and persuade” subjects as to the benefits of paying tribute to the empire. I was encouraged to jump fences, camp out in front of targeted subjects homes and “assess” (funny, it sounded as is the subjects were numbers and not actual human beings) as many of the targeted subjects as possible. I’m not sure if the empire is capable of ascertaining the difference between “persistence” and conditions that elicit restraining orders...
February 6, 2009
Great news! I have been informed today that I am to take part in the empire’s battle against the rebel forces which seek to upset the power balance in the galaxy! I have heard so much as to the intensity of the struggle between the rebels, who foolishly seek to establish a democratically operated organization which seeks to represent the concerns of the galaxy’s workers. I have been informed by my commanders that I will be working in another part of the galaxy for an undetermined amount of time...
On a slightly less positive note, my commanders are fond of calling meetings to discuss the overall status of the empire, unruly subjects, potential subjects and introducing new methods of “role play” designed to make dealing with the empire’s subjects easier (as I have been told that sometimes subjects can become audacious enough to question the empire’s affinity for not providing any services or accountability for its actions). I’m beginning to wonder why there is so much unrest among the subjects of the empire; perhaps they just don’t understand that with so many subjects across the galaxy addressing the individual needs of any particular galaxy worker is an absurdity. Besides, once the Dark Lord has spoken there is no point in challenging his awesome authority or fear inducing rhetoric...
February 9, 2009
Arrived at the scene where I will be fighting the rebels after a 30 minute lesson as to the intentions of the self-righteous rebels and the contract which has caused the conditions of the rebellion. I’m not sure if I understand the contract in its entirety (hell, I’m convinced my commander doesn’t even understand it) but I am expected to defend it in the interests of the empire and stop the advance of the rebels by any means necessary...
March 2, 2009
I have been battling the rebels at a galaxy health center for several weeks now. Thus far, they have yet to demonstrate the financial ability to compete with the free spending ways of the empire. In fact, there is only one rebel who occasionally frequents the health center in which I am currently fighting...and if rumor is correct, the rebel is not even getting paid for his efforts! To think that one would work without pay- what could be the reasons behind such folly? There’s no way that the rebel actually believes in the convictions of his organization or that the galaxy’s workers should actually have a voice in the organizations which represent the conditions between them and their employers?
Also, I have been told that I am “listening to the subjects too much” and that the objective of my fighting is not in efforts to improve the conditions for the empire’s subjects but to defeat the rebels so that the subjects continue to pay tribute...
April 4, 2009
Worked a Saturday in order to chart the galaxy workers which work at the health center where I am fighting the rebel forces. I was confused as to the motives behind such activity as I already have a list of all the galaxy workers for which I am responsible. I asked why an entire day was devoted to enlarging a list I already possessed and was told “it’s always been this way” and that my lack of enthusiasm for our corporate encouraged arts and crafts fetish was not appreciated. I wonder how the subjects would feel if they knew that thousands of their tribute dollars each year went towards Arts & Crafts Saturdays? It’s a good thing we’ll never be audited...any semblance of financial accountability is the last thing the empire needs. Besides, the Dark Lord is also engaged in a battle with galaxy hotel workers and is far too great to address the concerns of his ungrateful subjects.
I have begun to grow weary of the long hours of which I am subjected to because I am “on salary” as well as probation and “should just be happy that I have a job.” My commanders have proved incapable of demonstrating any sense of time management and seem perplexed as to why working 50+ hours a week away from home is not welcomed with blind obedience and a smile. My fellow storm troopers are too scared to say anything and I have been reprimanded (both in front of them and privately) for daring to challenge the authority of the empire...
May 11, 2009
Today I participated in my first Subject Appreciation Day (The mere thought of it is laughable as well as insulting!). My commanders are convinced that hot dogs and key chains are adequate means of silencing the groveling of the subjects, at least temporarily. Rather than performing an organizational self-critique my fellow storm troopers and I barbecued in a parking lot and distributed the empire’s memorabilia.
Unfortunately, I have fallen out of graces with my commanders who now regularly chastise me for exhibiting a lack of visible support for the empire. In fact, I have even been accused of “working for the rebel forces”, being far too “friendly” with the subjects and failing to realize that subjects who don’t love the empire have only themselves to blame. I am having a tough time being evaluated by commanders with less education, people skills and compassion for the subjects of the empire than many of the young storm troopers which it has hired. Unlike the lowly storm troopers, my commanders answer to nobody. They routinely change established deadlines due to their inability to meet them, have no qualms making those beneath them work at all hours of the day and night and seem content in their smug evaluations of the inadequacies of exhausted storm troopers...
June 5, 2009
I resigned from the empire today. I turned in my body armor, brief case and “sensitive documents”. I always wondered why employers were so hesitant to provide health care coverage for their employers and I now know why. Continuing to work for the empire would have undoubtedly led to a series of strokes and/or heart attacks in the very near future and done immeasurable psychological damage; as consistent lying and the daily manipulation of others can not be good for one’s mental health.
I could no longer work under the evil and hypocritical veil of oblivion which governs the day to day actions of the empire. I am now content to except the inevitability of my employment at a coffee shop or book store which can only pay me a small portion of what I was making working for the empire.
I can only hope that the rebels are successful in igniting rebellion among the subjects of the empire and that the Dark Lord does not succeed in increasing his sinister grasp on the throats of the galaxy’s workers...
Should Perez start searching under his couch cushions?
Is there any truth to the rumor that SEIU in Californiraq are about to launch a "special assessments" program, raising dues to make up for their deficit spending?
Answers to the usual address...
Answers to the usual address...
Dave and Eliseo get "creative"!
What to do if no one in the real press is covering your pyrrhic victory in Fresno the way you'd like them to?
What to do if every article on the election says "SEIU borrows business' anti-union tactics" or "Is Fresno SEIU's Vietnam?" instead of the nice things you wish they'd say?
Well why not write your own "article", just like Dave and Eliseo (or their PR hacks in Washington DC) did for an email to their list this week? You can just pretend it's a real article, and it can say anything you like, even lies!
-----
From: Eliseo Medina and Dave Regan, SEIU UHW trustees online@seiu-uhw.org
Subject: What Our Victory in Fresno Means
To: xxxxx@xxxxx.xxx
Date: Thursday, June 25, 2009, 10:04 AM
Now that the dust is settled, we thought you'd be interested in this article about the Fresno home care election victory, what it signifies, and what it means going forward.
Fresno Members Choose SEIU UHW
Old-Guard NUHW Officials Show Their Disrespect for Home Care Workers
By Eliseo Medina and Dave Regan
In a closely watched union election in Fresno County, home care workers have spoken: They want to stay united in the Service Employees International Union -- United Healthcare Workers-West (SEIU UHW). Their votes show they want a strong, united union so that together they can focus on what's really important -- fighting the proposed cuts to home care services at the state and local levels to protect consumers and workers.
The recently concluded mail ballot election was between SEIU UHW and NUHW, which was started by old-guard union officials who were removed from office in SEIU UHW for, among other things, improperly diverting $3 million in members' dues to a bogus non-profit organization. The old-guard officers include former president Sal Rosselli...
What to do if every article on the election says "SEIU borrows business' anti-union tactics" or "Is Fresno SEIU's Vietnam?" instead of the nice things you wish they'd say?
Well why not write your own "article", just like Dave and Eliseo (or their PR hacks in Washington DC) did for an email to their list this week? You can just pretend it's a real article, and it can say anything you like, even lies!
-----
From: Eliseo Medina and Dave Regan, SEIU UHW trustees online@seiu-uhw.org
Subject: What Our Victory in Fresno Means
To: xxxxx@xxxxx.xxx
Date: Thursday, June 25, 2009, 10:04 AM
Now that the dust is settled, we thought you'd be interested in this article about the Fresno home care election victory, what it signifies, and what it means going forward.
Fresno Members Choose SEIU UHW
Old-Guard NUHW Officials Show Their Disrespect for Home Care Workers
By Eliseo Medina and Dave Regan
In a closely watched union election in Fresno County, home care workers have spoken: They want to stay united in the Service Employees International Union -- United Healthcare Workers-West (SEIU UHW). Their votes show they want a strong, united union so that together they can focus on what's really important -- fighting the proposed cuts to home care services at the state and local levels to protect consumers and workers.
The recently concluded mail ballot election was between SEIU UHW and NUHW, which was started by old-guard union officials who were removed from office in SEIU UHW for, among other things, improperly diverting $3 million in members' dues to a bogus non-profit organization. The old-guard officers include former president Sal Rosselli...
Wednesday, June 24
Who's it?
So if Dave is thrown under the Barney bus as Perez predicted yesterday, who will Andy set up as his next Californiraq trustee? Let's consider some possibilities...
Mary Kay Henry? Unlikely. Trustee was a long-shot career move when Dave took it on, it's looking like an even worse bet now. Besides, Perez thinks she's too preoccupied with positioning herself to battle Anna Burger for the SEIU presidency when Andy finally resigns. Mary Kay wouldn't want to be stuck in California, away from "face time" with influential people elsewhere in the country.
Dennis Hickey/Rivera? Nope. He was initially supposed to be a trustee of UHW, but backed out the day before the trusteeship - Perez bets he's still thankful every day!
Gerry Hudson? Possible, but that was the rumor before Dave and Eliseo took the jobs and it never happened. Gerry looked super uncomfortable at the Fresno rally, but at least he'd have his "sister" Mary Kay around. He has some serious liabilities though, In 2007, he refused to honor petitions signed by thousands of California nursing home workers and instead bargained secretly with the state's nursing home bosses. He's also never led a local union or bargained a contract, but that isn't usually a barrier to a Stern appointment!
Tom DeBruin? Probably not. While Tom has experience running a small local in Pennsylvania, he's best known in California for his role on Stern's secret "skunk team" that colluded with anti-union bosses to try to implode UHW. He also didn't fare too well as a "monitor" at UHW before the trusteeship (CHW workers kicked him out of their bargaining), but he was at least willing to try when few were.
David Rolf? Rolf is the dark horse candidate! A strong Stern loyalist, he was sent by Andy to run Local 775 in Washington. Rolf sent a large number of staff to the Fresno campaign, has worked in California and had a little cameo at the Fresno rally. However, it's a big liability that he engineered a secret 10-year deal with nursing home bosses that sells out residents and locks workers into horrible "template" contracts. Rolf's other liabilities? He's just as arrogant as Regan and has a personality that's as icy as Anna Burger's.
Looks like it'll be a tough selection process for Andy. Maybe he should just come out here himself?
Mary Kay Henry? Unlikely. Trustee was a long-shot career move when Dave took it on, it's looking like an even worse bet now. Besides, Perez thinks she's too preoccupied with positioning herself to battle Anna Burger for the SEIU presidency when Andy finally resigns. Mary Kay wouldn't want to be stuck in California, away from "face time" with influential people elsewhere in the country.
Dennis Hickey/Rivera? Nope. He was initially supposed to be a trustee of UHW, but backed out the day before the trusteeship - Perez bets he's still thankful every day!
Gerry Hudson? Possible, but that was the rumor before Dave and Eliseo took the jobs and it never happened. Gerry looked super uncomfortable at the Fresno rally, but at least he'd have his "sister" Mary Kay around. He has some serious liabilities though, In 2007, he refused to honor petitions signed by thousands of California nursing home workers and instead bargained secretly with the state's nursing home bosses. He's also never led a local union or bargained a contract, but that isn't usually a barrier to a Stern appointment!
Tom DeBruin? Probably not. While Tom has experience running a small local in Pennsylvania, he's best known in California for his role on Stern's secret "skunk team" that colluded with anti-union bosses to try to implode UHW. He also didn't fare too well as a "monitor" at UHW before the trusteeship (CHW workers kicked him out of their bargaining), but he was at least willing to try when few were.
David Rolf? Rolf is the dark horse candidate! A strong Stern loyalist, he was sent by Andy to run Local 775 in Washington. Rolf sent a large number of staff to the Fresno campaign, has worked in California and had a little cameo at the Fresno rally. However, it's a big liability that he engineered a secret 10-year deal with nursing home bosses that sells out residents and locks workers into horrible "template" contracts. Rolf's other liabilities? He's just as arrogant as Regan and has a personality that's as icy as Anna Burger's.
Looks like it'll be a tough selection process for Andy. Maybe he should just come out here himself?
File this under "Huh?"
Does Andy Stern have more diverse expertise than we thought, or is it all just a bizarre mistake? Perez isn't quite sure...
Thanks to a very observant reader for spotting this!
Thanks to a very observant reader for spotting this!
Tuesday, June 23
Fres-Sooner or later!
Sarah Jones (speaking) and other Fresno homecare workers at their press conference this Monday.
Half of Fresno's hotel rooms were being extra deep cleaned this past weekend, as the last SEIU scabs finally left town! While it can't have been a big shock to those running the campaign, readers say SEIU's close and dubious margin of victory was a shock to most at SEIU.
It's been said many times over, but I'll say it again, $10 million to lie, threaten, and intimidate your way to a 200 vote margin is no victory. While obviously everyone at NUHW wanted a huge win, and homecare workers are now faced (at least for now) with a union that's failed to stop their wage cuts and still promises to shove them into Local 6434, there's no doubt that this is the worse possible outcome for SEIU, which is now on the defensive against legal challenges and just plain looking bad to everyone!
Here's how homecare workers say SEIU clawed their way to that "victory"...
- Threatening to deport a member (a US citizen) and his father and consumer (a legal resident).
- Yelling and physically threatening - "I was at the door of a fellow homecare provider, explaining why I was voting for NUHW," said Phally Pov, a provider and NUHW volunteer. "An SEIU organizer saw us and ran around the corner. Minutes later two huge men pulled up in a car, jumped out, and started coming toward us and yelling. They yelled over me and wouldn’t let me talk with the provider. I noticed that the men smelled strongly of marijuana. I was afraid for my safety, and the provider I was visiting was visibly shaken. They threatened the member that if he voted for NUHW he would lose his benefits. When they were finished yelling at us, they handed the other provider a t-shirt and told him he’d better vote for SEIU-UHW."
- Vandalizing - "I saw a man in purple walking up to my door," said Lesalie Kyle, a provider in North Clovis. "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 door in and put a bunch of SEIU flyers in front of the sign."
- Stealing NUHW signs put up by providers (readers say that CalTex crew scab Al Chavez has been bragging about doing just that).
There's a lot more where that came from, and unsurprisingly, NUHW are filing charges and demanding a re-run of the election. They're also asking that the state count hundreds of ballots send in late by workers who didn't get a ballot and had to call for one - it's actually possible that those ballots could tip the count!
No wonder that the media are now calling Fresno "SEIU's Vietnam", although Perez thinks that's the whole of Californiraq! (here's a situation so bad it deserves mixed metaphors!)
The Fall Guy?
Inevitably, Perez hears that Andy is none too pleased with Dave Regan's performance as UHW's trustee, and may now be considering giving Dave the axe...
By any standard, Dave has been a big flop. He spent $10 million of members' money in Fresno, and declared a landslide victory after just five days of the 15-day voting period. If the election results are overturned, it will be because of the vandalism, threats, and intimidation committed by SEIU organizers after Dave instructed them to administer an "old school ass whipping". Police reports and victims' testimonials are again the fruits of Dave's machismo, just as they were at the Labor Notes conference in Dearborn, (quips abound about Dave's body count, but that's a story for another day...) If election officials order a re-run of the Fresno election, chances are slim that SEIU will be able to pull together another $10 million and 1,000 volunteers from locals across the country, but doubly so if Dave stays on as the face of the trusteeship.
Aside from bungling the Fresno election, Dave has been totally ineffective on the political front. Failing to stop devastating cuts to homecare workers' wages, he was outsmarted and outmaneuvered by NUHW, which won approval for a plan to stop cuts for homecare workers in Sacramento and San Francisco Counties.
But perhaps Dave could have blamed Rebecca Malberg for his homecare failures if it hadn't been for his violent, butt-whipping YouTube performance, which has apparently earned SEIU bad PR (literally) across the globe. It's not too helpful for SEIU's plummeting image as a "21st century progressive union" when one of its top officers is all over the internet yelling about driving stakes into the hearts of rank-and-file members!
So you can understand why Dave's stock is not too high in the penthouse offices of SEIU's DC HQ. Perez hears that Mary Kay Henry has already begun a whisper campaign to undermine Dave among SEIU's top leaders, just as she's reputed to have done with previous rivals. Just how long can it be before Dave becomes the fall guy for SEIU's failures in Californiraq?
By any standard, Dave has been a big flop. He spent $10 million of members' money in Fresno, and declared a landslide victory after just five days of the 15-day voting period. If the election results are overturned, it will be because of the vandalism, threats, and intimidation committed by SEIU organizers after Dave instructed them to administer an "old school ass whipping". Police reports and victims' testimonials are again the fruits of Dave's machismo, just as they were at the Labor Notes conference in Dearborn, (quips abound about Dave's body count, but that's a story for another day...) If election officials order a re-run of the Fresno election, chances are slim that SEIU will be able to pull together another $10 million and 1,000 volunteers from locals across the country, but doubly so if Dave stays on as the face of the trusteeship.Aside from bungling the Fresno election, Dave has been totally ineffective on the political front. Failing to stop devastating cuts to homecare workers' wages, he was outsmarted and outmaneuvered by NUHW, which won approval for a plan to stop cuts for homecare workers in Sacramento and San Francisco Counties.
But perhaps Dave could have blamed Rebecca Malberg for his homecare failures if it hadn't been for his violent, butt-whipping YouTube performance, which has apparently earned SEIU bad PR (literally) across the globe. It's not too helpful for SEIU's plummeting image as a "21st century progressive union" when one of its top officers is all over the internet yelling about driving stakes into the hearts of rank-and-file members!
So you can understand why Dave's stock is not too high in the penthouse offices of SEIU's DC HQ. Perez hears that Mary Kay Henry has already begun a whisper campaign to undermine Dave among SEIU's top leaders, just as she's reputed to have done with previous rivals. Just how long can it be before Dave becomes the fall guy for SEIU's failures in Californiraq?
Friday, June 19
Fresno update...
As of 5pm the count stands at 2569 to 2769, but the PERB will not say which union is down by 200 votes! There are still about 500 assorted challenges to be dealt with, and this may or may not get wrapped up tonight.
No sign of Mary Kay or Dave at the count, poor Rebecca Malberg seems to be SEIU's most senior staffer there. Readers say the mood from both sides is serious and quiet, but SEIU look especially pale.
Something's been punctured, but it's not "the heart of the thing that is NUHW"!
Update at 7pm...
The vote is still not final, but it's clear that SEIU will take the official count by about 200 votes (at $3,600 each!). It's likely that NUHW will then file challenges based on all the kind of things we've seen on the blog the past few weeks, and very possibly overturn the election.
What a terrible return on SEIU's $10 million investment - 200 votes is just about a coin toss!
So in summary... for NUHW and their supporters this is both a big disappointment and a very good sign, for Fresno homecare workers it's a huge loss, and for SEIU it's a disaster that Perez predicts will have a string of consequences!
No sign of Mary Kay or Dave at the count, poor Rebecca Malberg seems to be SEIU's most senior staffer there. Readers say the mood from both sides is serious and quiet, but SEIU look especially pale.
Something's been punctured, but it's not "the heart of the thing that is NUHW"!
Update at 7pm...
The vote is still not final, but it's clear that SEIU will take the official count by about 200 votes (at $3,600 each!). It's likely that NUHW will then file challenges based on all the kind of things we've seen on the blog the past few weeks, and very possibly overturn the election.
What a terrible return on SEIU's $10 million investment - 200 votes is just about a coin toss!
So in summary... for NUHW and their supporters this is both a big disappointment and a very good sign, for Fresno homecare workers it's a huge loss, and for SEIU it's a disaster that Perez predicts will have a string of consequences!
Thursday, June 18
So who's going to win?
That's what everyone really wants to know about this week, isn't it?
Well the short answer is that Perez doesn't know for sure, but he does know who's going to lose. As John Wilhelm would say, "let's recap"...
Last week Perez heard that SEIU felt that if their numbers were right they'd win, but that no one senior trusted the numbers. Since then Perez has heard a much lower estimate of the total votes cast, which makes SEIU's numbers obviously way off. And while NUHW were basing their numbers on a very conservative count of votes actually mailed, and that count was coming from volunteers and members who were there because they cared about winning the election and building the union, SEIU were apparently using a vague mash-up of phone polling of "support", and numbers coming from staff who were under pressure to produce numbers and keep their jobs, and often just didn't want to be there.
And despite the premature dance party, and email victory announcement, the signs don't look good for SEIU this week. Dave has been lying low, and none of Zombie UHW's public pronouncements sound like those of a campaign looking to get the vote count certified and move on. Against the recommendation of an impartial arbitrator the Fresno Board of Supervisors voted this Wednesday to go ahead and cut homecare workers' wages anyway, an outrageous decision that clearly violates the union contract, but SEIU have been silent. What’s going on in there? What are they waiting for?
There are plenty of Monday morning quarterbacks at SEIU, and Perez bets they’re already hard at work figuring out how it all went wrong. From their perspective at least, SEIU should have been able to “put a stake through the heart of the thing that is NUHW” with this campaign. Homecare campaigns favor those with ample money and staff, and leadership among workers just doesn’t work the same way or count for as much as it does in a hospital or nursing home. Perez vomited into his mouth a little to see the SEIU claim that many homecare workers “didn’t even know they were in a union” because the former leader of UHW failed them so badly - senior SEIU staff know better than anyone just how little relationship most SEIU homecare members in other states have with their union, and how exponentially better things were at pre-zombie UHW. Many people believe that a huge part of the reason SEIU chose to “organize” homecare providers in the first place was that they saw them as easy dues units who could be brought in by political deals and glossy mailers, and would find it next to impossible to organize themselves to improve their union or leave it. In short, the Fresno campaign should have set NUHW’s weakest points against SEIU’s strongest, and made NUHW’s strengths almost irrelevant.
It’s predictable then, although still kind-of shocking that SEIU reportedly spent about $10 million on the Fresno election. That's $1,000 per worker, or alternatively, every cent that every Fresno County homecare worker has paid in dues for more than two years. NUHW meanwhile, spent about $20 per worker, and unless SEIU win by a 50 to 1 margin, it's going to look like exactly what it will be - a bought election. Big money didn't win over the teachers in Puerto Rico, or the EAA city workers in Los Angeles, but SEIU have still thrown money at this campaign because it's all they have. Now, unless they win so big they can make it look like they didn't need to spend the money, they're going to look weak AND dirty. Anything less than a massive vote for SEIU will be a clear sign that many members want out… and while NUHW isn't going away, what's to stop other unions too from figuring that if they can just bring just few more resources to the fight, SEIU is easy pickings?
Perez doesn’t know if that $10 million includes the wages of staff pulled from locals across the country, but that was a failure as well. First there's the open staff rebellion reported here the past few weeks - when have SEIU ever had to resort to posting guards at shopping malls to try to keep organizers in the field before? And then there's the grumbling from local leaders, the locals that refused to send staff, the locals that wiggled out of it as best they could, and the locals where managers joked together about sending the worst staff and lost-timers they had! You don't have to be a secret NUHW supporter to resent seeing your staff dispatched to fight the Fresno ground war… locals have their own unions to run and organizing to do. At Local 99 in Southern California, it looks like sending six reluctant scabs to Fresno against the protest of their staff union cost the local a decertification for 200 Head Start workers in Orange County - by eight votes! And as Obama starts to slip on some major campaign promises, what has the trusteeship done to the accountability campaigns, supposedly the union's all-out priority this year?
So, how much staff goodwill, and how much currency at the locals can the international possibly have left? Perez often hears that Andy Stern has lost the leadership he had a couple of years back, with junior staff disillusioned by the layoffs, senior staff seeing him as out of touch and full of BS, and locals tired of signing over money and control for nothing in return. A source says that mid-western healthcare locals are eying the whole Californiraq consolidation experiment in horror, and refusing to let the merger plan happen to them, or to give over more control of their finances. Many at the international see those locals as the heart of SEIU. What will happen now?
Think of poor Dave Regan, who left one of those solid locals to become the face of the trusteeship. Fresno started badly for him when he made himself the center of attention with his now famous "Wouldn't usually come to this cow-town"/"We're going to stomp them" speech, and it only got worse. One reader told Perez that Dave is now furious with Andy, feeling he's been stabbed in the back, sent to Fresno to die without the resources he needed to have a real shot at winning. Dave took a big gamble taking Californiraq on, and Perez hears that close friends have been telling him it was a bad move, and he should have stayed safely in the mid-west.
The “victory” announcements from SEIU at the end of the first week of the campaign were jarring for NUHW supporters who were still hard at work talking to homecare workers. But what else can you do when you need to return most of your staff to their locals by pre-arrangement and wrap up the main phase of your campaign? After pushing the start date of their blitz back a couple of times, SEIU had just a week to try to grind unwilling staff and mostly inexperienced members (dangerous when your script skirts a thin legal line) through getting as many votes as possible. How else to send them home?
Word is that many at the International moved on quickly from strategizing for Fresno to worrying about the hospital elections coming up. Obviously they don't see Fresno as a stake through NUHW's heart, but what's much more interesting is this: apparently senior international staff just don't trust anyone at Zombie UHW for an accurate report, and they have been secretly checking on UHW staff’s numbers and assessments. And the results say that things are much, much worse for SEIU at Kaiser and in the hospitals than Zombie UHW had reported.
Everything Perez hears says that SEIU feel they’ve burned a lot of non-renewable resources to get through Fresno – their reputation in California and their standing in the labor movement for starters - the Fresno campaign and the simultaneous attack on UNITE HERE have made it clear that SEIU’s downward spiral is the whole movement’s problem! And then there’s staff motivation, member support, local goodwill, money… SEIU just don’t know how they’re going to be able to do it all over again. While the mailers are still glossy and the robo-calls still pour in, this hasn't been the kind of slick campaign SEIU have become known for. It has been an edgy, nervous, make-do and try to hold it all together type of thing. There’s been a lack of palatable leadership, and major slip ups on some obvious things – like whoever thought it was a good idea to let Dave Regan and Nathan Selzer be the faces of this campaign?
So what can we expect to see tomorrow? Well, word is now that the count could be over by 1pm, but Perez suggests that you don't hold your breath for a firm answer. Even if the result is dramatic enough not to come down to challenges, it’s still very likely it will go to court.
On the one side there are clear signs that (unsurprisingly) SEIU broke election laws over and over. Beyond the obvious and well documented illegal threats, there are the multiple jaw dropping stories from the field, most of which Perez passed on posting so as not to taint any possible legal challenges or charges. These are stories about violence, intimidation, and open ballot theft. Some of them are documented with police reports, and there are a lot of them. And then there are the hundreds of workers who reported not receiving ballots (cow town or not, just how bad can the Fresno post office really be?)
And of course SEIU have what they always have (at least for now), money and lawyers. That ridiculous blitz was the money phase of their campaign, and now we can expect the lawyers to come in. Their strategy has always been to try to "starve NUHW out". One "high level" SEIU person is reported to have said that the public will get the election results from Iran before we get the results from Fresno.
So right now Perez is about 80% sure that NUHW have the numbers, and everything he's seeing and hearing says that SEIU aren't confident at all. But even beyond the result of the count tomorrow, there's just no way to see Fresno as anything other than a disaster for SEIU. Junior staff and some members might be gung-ho enough to boo Dolores Huerta on video, but there are many smart people in SEIU (and beyond) who can see just where all this is leading…
Perez bets Dave is glad today that he opted-out of that spicy food last night!
Well the short answer is that Perez doesn't know for sure, but he does know who's going to lose. As John Wilhelm would say, "let's recap"...
Last week Perez heard that SEIU felt that if their numbers were right they'd win, but that no one senior trusted the numbers. Since then Perez has heard a much lower estimate of the total votes cast, which makes SEIU's numbers obviously way off. And while NUHW were basing their numbers on a very conservative count of votes actually mailed, and that count was coming from volunteers and members who were there because they cared about winning the election and building the union, SEIU were apparently using a vague mash-up of phone polling of "support", and numbers coming from staff who were under pressure to produce numbers and keep their jobs, and often just didn't want to be there.
And despite the premature dance party, and email victory announcement, the signs don't look good for SEIU this week. Dave has been lying low, and none of Zombie UHW's public pronouncements sound like those of a campaign looking to get the vote count certified and move on. Against the recommendation of an impartial arbitrator the Fresno Board of Supervisors voted this Wednesday to go ahead and cut homecare workers' wages anyway, an outrageous decision that clearly violates the union contract, but SEIU have been silent. What’s going on in there? What are they waiting for?
There are plenty of Monday morning quarterbacks at SEIU, and Perez bets they’re already hard at work figuring out how it all went wrong. From their perspective at least, SEIU should have been able to “put a stake through the heart of the thing that is NUHW” with this campaign. Homecare campaigns favor those with ample money and staff, and leadership among workers just doesn’t work the same way or count for as much as it does in a hospital or nursing home. Perez vomited into his mouth a little to see the SEIU claim that many homecare workers “didn’t even know they were in a union” because the former leader of UHW failed them so badly - senior SEIU staff know better than anyone just how little relationship most SEIU homecare members in other states have with their union, and how exponentially better things were at pre-zombie UHW. Many people believe that a huge part of the reason SEIU chose to “organize” homecare providers in the first place was that they saw them as easy dues units who could be brought in by political deals and glossy mailers, and would find it next to impossible to organize themselves to improve their union or leave it. In short, the Fresno campaign should have set NUHW’s weakest points against SEIU’s strongest, and made NUHW’s strengths almost irrelevant.
It’s predictable then, although still kind-of shocking that SEIU reportedly spent about $10 million on the Fresno election. That's $1,000 per worker, or alternatively, every cent that every Fresno County homecare worker has paid in dues for more than two years. NUHW meanwhile, spent about $20 per worker, and unless SEIU win by a 50 to 1 margin, it's going to look like exactly what it will be - a bought election. Big money didn't win over the teachers in Puerto Rico, or the EAA city workers in Los Angeles, but SEIU have still thrown money at this campaign because it's all they have. Now, unless they win so big they can make it look like they didn't need to spend the money, they're going to look weak AND dirty. Anything less than a massive vote for SEIU will be a clear sign that many members want out… and while NUHW isn't going away, what's to stop other unions too from figuring that if they can just bring just few more resources to the fight, SEIU is easy pickings?
Perez doesn’t know if that $10 million includes the wages of staff pulled from locals across the country, but that was a failure as well. First there's the open staff rebellion reported here the past few weeks - when have SEIU ever had to resort to posting guards at shopping malls to try to keep organizers in the field before? And then there's the grumbling from local leaders, the locals that refused to send staff, the locals that wiggled out of it as best they could, and the locals where managers joked together about sending the worst staff and lost-timers they had! You don't have to be a secret NUHW supporter to resent seeing your staff dispatched to fight the Fresno ground war… locals have their own unions to run and organizing to do. At Local 99 in Southern California, it looks like sending six reluctant scabs to Fresno against the protest of their staff union cost the local a decertification for 200 Head Start workers in Orange County - by eight votes! And as Obama starts to slip on some major campaign promises, what has the trusteeship done to the accountability campaigns, supposedly the union's all-out priority this year?
So, how much staff goodwill, and how much currency at the locals can the international possibly have left? Perez often hears that Andy Stern has lost the leadership he had a couple of years back, with junior staff disillusioned by the layoffs, senior staff seeing him as out of touch and full of BS, and locals tired of signing over money and control for nothing in return. A source says that mid-western healthcare locals are eying the whole Californiraq consolidation experiment in horror, and refusing to let the merger plan happen to them, or to give over more control of their finances. Many at the international see those locals as the heart of SEIU. What will happen now?
Think of poor Dave Regan, who left one of those solid locals to become the face of the trusteeship. Fresno started badly for him when he made himself the center of attention with his now famous "Wouldn't usually come to this cow-town"/"We're going to stomp them" speech, and it only got worse. One reader told Perez that Dave is now furious with Andy, feeling he's been stabbed in the back, sent to Fresno to die without the resources he needed to have a real shot at winning. Dave took a big gamble taking Californiraq on, and Perez hears that close friends have been telling him it was a bad move, and he should have stayed safely in the mid-west.
The “victory” announcements from SEIU at the end of the first week of the campaign were jarring for NUHW supporters who were still hard at work talking to homecare workers. But what else can you do when you need to return most of your staff to their locals by pre-arrangement and wrap up the main phase of your campaign? After pushing the start date of their blitz back a couple of times, SEIU had just a week to try to grind unwilling staff and mostly inexperienced members (dangerous when your script skirts a thin legal line) through getting as many votes as possible. How else to send them home?
Word is that many at the International moved on quickly from strategizing for Fresno to worrying about the hospital elections coming up. Obviously they don't see Fresno as a stake through NUHW's heart, but what's much more interesting is this: apparently senior international staff just don't trust anyone at Zombie UHW for an accurate report, and they have been secretly checking on UHW staff’s numbers and assessments. And the results say that things are much, much worse for SEIU at Kaiser and in the hospitals than Zombie UHW had reported.
Everything Perez hears says that SEIU feel they’ve burned a lot of non-renewable resources to get through Fresno – their reputation in California and their standing in the labor movement for starters - the Fresno campaign and the simultaneous attack on UNITE HERE have made it clear that SEIU’s downward spiral is the whole movement’s problem! And then there’s staff motivation, member support, local goodwill, money… SEIU just don’t know how they’re going to be able to do it all over again. While the mailers are still glossy and the robo-calls still pour in, this hasn't been the kind of slick campaign SEIU have become known for. It has been an edgy, nervous, make-do and try to hold it all together type of thing. There’s been a lack of palatable leadership, and major slip ups on some obvious things – like whoever thought it was a good idea to let Dave Regan and Nathan Selzer be the faces of this campaign?
So what can we expect to see tomorrow? Well, word is now that the count could be over by 1pm, but Perez suggests that you don't hold your breath for a firm answer. Even if the result is dramatic enough not to come down to challenges, it’s still very likely it will go to court.
On the one side there are clear signs that (unsurprisingly) SEIU broke election laws over and over. Beyond the obvious and well documented illegal threats, there are the multiple jaw dropping stories from the field, most of which Perez passed on posting so as not to taint any possible legal challenges or charges. These are stories about violence, intimidation, and open ballot theft. Some of them are documented with police reports, and there are a lot of them. And then there are the hundreds of workers who reported not receiving ballots (cow town or not, just how bad can the Fresno post office really be?)
And of course SEIU have what they always have (at least for now), money and lawyers. That ridiculous blitz was the money phase of their campaign, and now we can expect the lawyers to come in. Their strategy has always been to try to "starve NUHW out". One "high level" SEIU person is reported to have said that the public will get the election results from Iran before we get the results from Fresno.
So right now Perez is about 80% sure that NUHW have the numbers, and everything he's seeing and hearing says that SEIU aren't confident at all. But even beyond the result of the count tomorrow, there's just no way to see Fresno as anything other than a disaster for SEIU. Junior staff and some members might be gung-ho enough to boo Dolores Huerta on video, but there are many smart people in SEIU (and beyond) who can see just where all this is leading…
Perez bets Dave is glad today that he opted-out of that spicy food last night!
Wednesday, June 17
While the rats are away, the mice at play!
It looks like while all the attention was on Fresno last week, SEIU scabs left behind at Walnut Creek had themselves a petty vandalism spree! Well, who can blame them, given the bad example set in Fresno?
A reader writes...
"I missed (lost timer) Carol Criss and (Zombie UHW rep) Joanie Grecko's visit on Thursday, but per my coworkers, they became very agitated when they saw NUHW materials on the wall of my cubicle and snatched them off in a near rage!"Apparently Joanie and Carol were at Walnut Creek to hold a meeting under the supervision of scab SEIU staffer Angela Hewitt (office 510 869 2283, cell 301 659 6478)...
"The meeting was sold as an update to the deployment, but nothing new on that, they went into their "SEIU good, NUHW bad" sell. My coworkers equated it as being in a used car lot with hard core sales pitches. Probably good that I was off, as it may have gotten ugly, as I would have called them out on every single lie.
After being informed of the numerous lies told, I printed out the NLRA for my coworkers, as well as a copy of our contract specialist's removal letter. She did NOT resign due to "personal reasons", as they tried to spin it.Per our lead, who was very upset to learn about what they did in my cubicle, "they are no longer welcome to come in here." She was also furious that they used the ruse of talking about the deployment as a way in, then went into the purple Kool-Aid hard core sales pitch. Oh, and two of my coworkers said about Joanie Grecko, with her aggression and HARD stare: "She creeped me out!"
Oh, but look what Carol and Joanie missed in their hurry to clear the cubicle!
Tuesday, June 16
Monday, June 15
How dirty are SEIU?
So dirty apparently that they tried to sneak someone's divorce papers out of the office by labeling them as Change to Win campaign documents!
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June 11, 2009
To: Change to Win Leadership Council
From: John W. Wilhelm, President
I have received Anna Burger's letter advising me that I will replace Bruce Raynor as UNITE HERE's representative on the Change to Win Leadership Council. As a founding member of Change to Win, I am honored to be re-joining the Leadership Council, and I look forward to working closely with you.
As we evaluate UNITE HERE's future relationship with Change to Win, as well as whether or not UNITE HERE will continue to participate in Change to Win's dispute resolution process, I have deep concerns about whether, in fact, Change to Win's leadership and staff is impartial toward UNITE HERE.
The current dispute between SEIU and UNITE HERE initially appeared to be an internal dispute within UNITE HERE, and would have been resolved by UNITE HERE's Constitutional processes. It became apparent in February 2009 that, in fact, this dispute is an unprecedented intrusion by SEIU into UNITE HERE's affairs. Now that the officers of UNITE HERE have regained control of our own offices, we have discovered documentary evidence that SEIU's involvement in UNITE HERE's affairs began in 2008, if not sooner.
It is disturbing that Change to Win officers and staff have been deeply involved in this intrusion into UNITE HERE's affairs. Anna Burger and Tom Woodruff have been involved in exhorting UNITE HERE members and affiliates to secede from UNITE HERE in violation of UNITE HERE's Constitution, as well as in the strategy of SEIU's unrelenting attack on UNITE HERE.
Michael Zucker, a Change to Win staff member, has been a key architect of the campaign for SEIU to raid UNITE HERE.
All of this can be documented, if any of you desire that.
I would have thought that Change to Win would have learned from the history of other organizations that a labor federation may not properly insert itself into the internal affairs of one of its affiliates, let alone allow itself to be harnessed by one affiliate in a campaign to take over or destroy another affiliate. Yet this is precisely what has happened in Change to Win.
The partisanship of the Change to Win staff was further demonstrated by something that happened at UNITE HERE headquarters in New York City on Monday, June 1. Several of the former UNITE HERE employees who resigned from the Union put various files in boxes and taped them shut. They marked the boxes to indicate that the contents belong to the Change to Win drugstore campaign. They sought to take the boxes out of the UNITE HERE headquarters but were prevented from doing so. Pat Szymanski asked, and Richard McCracken agreed, to let the boxes be transported away from UNITE HERE, but only after loyal UNITE HERE employees reviewed their contents to be sure that they did not include any contraband--documents not related to the drugstore campaign. It was also agreed that Change to Win lawyers would be present to watch this process, allegedly in accordance with a court order about Change to Win's maintaining control of the drugstore campaign documents. The process took place as agreed. Contraband was indeed found: the divorce records of a UNITE HERE officer and lists of past residences of two other UNITE HERE officers, all of whom have remained with our organization and are leaders in its current work. This was "opposition research" for the SEIU campaign to disrupt our organization. It was bad enough that the attempt was made to sneak these documents out of our office by people working on the Change to Win drugstore campaign. But what is most alarming is that the Change to Win lawyers reviewing the inspection of these documents insisted that these documents had to be turned over to Change to Win! There is no possible way that this opposition research had any connection to the drugstore campaign. No one could have asserted so in good faith. For lawyers to assert Change to Win ownership of such records betrays them as co-conspirators.
This partisanship in the Change to Win leadership and staff must be corrected. I would appreciate the view of the Leadership Council members, individually and collectively, on whether, and how, this will be corrected. Until then, as I am sure you can appreciate, UNITE HERE is not prepared to proceed with arbitration under the Change to Win processes.
I hope these issues can be fairly addressed, so that UNITE HERE can work with all of you in Change to Win to address the great challenges, and the great opportunities, that we face together, and to utilize Change to Win's dispute resolution processes with full confidence that they are fair and impartial.
cc: Change to Win Key Staff
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Oh wow!
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June 11, 2009
To: Change to Win Leadership Council
From: John W. Wilhelm, President
I have received Anna Burger's letter advising me that I will replace Bruce Raynor as UNITE HERE's representative on the Change to Win Leadership Council. As a founding member of Change to Win, I am honored to be re-joining the Leadership Council, and I look forward to working closely with you.
As we evaluate UNITE HERE's future relationship with Change to Win, as well as whether or not UNITE HERE will continue to participate in Change to Win's dispute resolution process, I have deep concerns about whether, in fact, Change to Win's leadership and staff is impartial toward UNITE HERE.
The current dispute between SEIU and UNITE HERE initially appeared to be an internal dispute within UNITE HERE, and would have been resolved by UNITE HERE's Constitutional processes. It became apparent in February 2009 that, in fact, this dispute is an unprecedented intrusion by SEIU into UNITE HERE's affairs. Now that the officers of UNITE HERE have regained control of our own offices, we have discovered documentary evidence that SEIU's involvement in UNITE HERE's affairs began in 2008, if not sooner.
It is disturbing that Change to Win officers and staff have been deeply involved in this intrusion into UNITE HERE's affairs. Anna Burger and Tom Woodruff have been involved in exhorting UNITE HERE members and affiliates to secede from UNITE HERE in violation of UNITE HERE's Constitution, as well as in the strategy of SEIU's unrelenting attack on UNITE HERE.
Michael Zucker, a Change to Win staff member, has been a key architect of the campaign for SEIU to raid UNITE HERE.
All of this can be documented, if any of you desire that.
I would have thought that Change to Win would have learned from the history of other organizations that a labor federation may not properly insert itself into the internal affairs of one of its affiliates, let alone allow itself to be harnessed by one affiliate in a campaign to take over or destroy another affiliate. Yet this is precisely what has happened in Change to Win.
The partisanship of the Change to Win staff was further demonstrated by something that happened at UNITE HERE headquarters in New York City on Monday, June 1. Several of the former UNITE HERE employees who resigned from the Union put various files in boxes and taped them shut. They marked the boxes to indicate that the contents belong to the Change to Win drugstore campaign. They sought to take the boxes out of the UNITE HERE headquarters but were prevented from doing so. Pat Szymanski asked, and Richard McCracken agreed, to let the boxes be transported away from UNITE HERE, but only after loyal UNITE HERE employees reviewed their contents to be sure that they did not include any contraband--documents not related to the drugstore campaign. It was also agreed that Change to Win lawyers would be present to watch this process, allegedly in accordance with a court order about Change to Win's maintaining control of the drugstore campaign documents. The process took place as agreed. Contraband was indeed found: the divorce records of a UNITE HERE officer and lists of past residences of two other UNITE HERE officers, all of whom have remained with our organization and are leaders in its current work. This was "opposition research" for the SEIU campaign to disrupt our organization. It was bad enough that the attempt was made to sneak these documents out of our office by people working on the Change to Win drugstore campaign. But what is most alarming is that the Change to Win lawyers reviewing the inspection of these documents insisted that these documents had to be turned over to Change to Win! There is no possible way that this opposition research had any connection to the drugstore campaign. No one could have asserted so in good faith. For lawyers to assert Change to Win ownership of such records betrays them as co-conspirators.
This partisanship in the Change to Win leadership and staff must be corrected. I would appreciate the view of the Leadership Council members, individually and collectively, on whether, and how, this will be corrected. Until then, as I am sure you can appreciate, UNITE HERE is not prepared to proceed with arbitration under the Change to Win processes.
I hope these issues can be fairly addressed, so that UNITE HERE can work with all of you in Change to Win to address the great challenges, and the great opportunities, that we face together, and to utilize Change to Win's dispute resolution processes with full confidence that they are fair and impartial.
cc: Change to Win Key Staff
-----
Oh wow!
Saturday, June 13
"In the house..." - SEIU Rally Part Three.
And here's the third and final video. The end cuts off Dave's speech, and overlaps with the video here.
"Our special gift" - SEIU Rally Part Two.
Here's where the SEIU scabs boo Dolores Huerta - what kind of a mindset does that take?
"Look at this beautiful army" - SEIU Rally Part One.
Very late (Perez's fault), but still very informative, here's part one of SEIU's Fresno campaign kick-off rally. It's awe inspiring, but not in the way they intended!
Friday, June 12
No purple spectacles in Californiraq!
This amazing cartoon was drawn by an NUHW supporter...
Many, many, thanks to the artist (and apologies for the delay).
Many, many, thanks to the artist (and apologies for the delay).
Where are they now? Carmen Planells.
Do you remember Carmen Planells?
Tyrone Freeman's mother in law, she was yet another bit player in the massive corruption scandal at Local 6434 last year.
Carmen ran a childcare center from her home, and was paid around $100,000 a year by the Homecare Workers Training Center. Her own moment in the spotlight was very brief...
"In a telephone interview, Carmen Planells said she still had the day-care contract. "Is there something wrong with that?" she said, before declining to answer more questions."And then a few more sordid details came out about the daycare center. One former 6434 staffer wrote...
"In regards to the child care. Having left my child there I can tell you for a FACT that she DID NOT watch the children of Home Care workers or trainees from the training center. The only children that were in that day care center were those of the staff.Well, after Freeman was removed and things were hushed up at the local, it seems Carmen wound up having to sell the home where she ran the daycare center. Nothing at all to celebrate, but an interesting postscript to the 6434 scandal.
In addition, to call that baby sweatshop that woman ran a day care is hyperbole. The bathroom was loaded with her belongings and not a training potty in sight. The kitchen was packed with boxes of cereal and other things, but not once did she ever cook for the children. In fact, I was told that I would have to supply food for my child. I also know that she was cited for leaving the babies in bouncers for too long and there were probably other violations.
The playroom (if you can call it that) for the children was probably 10 x 12 and most of the time when I went to pick my child up she was watching t.v. I think it is pretty incredible she was getting paid such a huge sum of money when obviously she was providing sub-standard care to these children. In addition, there was only one other aide at the most, who I was sure only got paid minimum wage."
And here's another one - did you know that when the 6434 story broke, Pilar and Tyrone were expecting their second child? Pilar was very pregnant and ready to pop any day. We all know what happened then - Tyrone was forced to resign, and 6434 was put under trusteeship by yet another hand-picked Stern appointee.
But what most people don't know is that Pilar and Tyrone had a beautiful baby boy... named Exodus!
exodus:Belated congratulations to Pilar and Tyrone!
n 1: a journey by a large group to escape from a hostile environment (syn: hegira, hejira)
2: the second book of the Old Testament: tells of the departure of the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt led by Moses; God gave them the Ten Commandments and the rest of Mosaic law on Mount Sinai during the Exodus (syn: Exodus)
TGIF!
And it's not just any Friday, it's the second-to-last day to mail ballots in the Fresno homecare election!
In recognition of all the hard work of NUHW activists and volunteers over the past few weeks, there will be no politics at all today!
So let's start off by seeing how SEIU themselves like to "Stop with the Politics" - a live band (is that the world's tiniest violin I see?), and how about a victory dance by our beloved leader Dave Reagan (sic)?
"So bad it's good!" says one reader.
In recognition of all the hard work of NUHW activists and volunteers over the past few weeks, there will be no politics at all today!
So let's start off by seeing how SEIU themselves like to "Stop with the Politics" - a live band (is that the world's tiniest violin I see?), and how about a victory dance by our beloved leader Dave Reagan (sic)?
"So bad it's good!" says one reader.
Thursday, June 11
No room for honesty at Zombie UHW.
Here's an email sent to Dave Regan by long-time labor activist and 12 year Kaiser rep Greg Tegenkamp. One reader who works at Kaiser describes Greg as her mentor as she learned how to be a good steward. Greg was fired on Monday.
-------
Sent via e-mail only
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.
I grew in a time when unions were strong and prevalent. Both my parents had good union jobs, but they never talked about being part of a union, probably because it was not something special or unusual. In 1972, I started working at a factory, where my mom had worked since 1958. Within a year, I was earning more than she was. All the men in the factory made more than the women and the women worked harder. The Union contract was set up that way. There were two basic categories of jobs: "Light Factory" and "Heavy Factory". Before 1968, these categories had been "Women's Jobs" and "Men’s Jobs". The law had changed but the reality had not. About this time, a handful of minority women started challenging the system and started demanding to be put in the better paying jobs. The Union leadership was all aging white men, who must have felt threatened by the challenges to the status quo, because they made an arrangement with the boss that would allow women to bid on the better paying jobs, but only if they were able to perform the most backbreaking entry level work for six mouths first. This, of course precluded most of the women, in particularly the older ones with seniority, from being able to advance.
The first Union meeting I attended was a rowdy one, with women voicing their outrage at the blatant discrimination and men screaming back that the women were trying to take their jobs from them. All the while, the Union leaders did nothing to bring their members together. To me, the issue was simple, and I stood up and said so. I said did not think that the women wanted to take the men's jobs away from them, but rather they just wanted to be paid better for the work that they did. If we all fought together against the boss to get the Light Factory jobs paid more in line with the Heavy Factory jobs, we would all win. I was shouted down by the Union leaders.
Eventually, this struggle for equality continued without the Union. The NAACP and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference became involved and helped organize the women and a few of us men to take action against the boss. The final action was an illegal sit down strike of about 100. The company (and the Union) relented and conceded to the demands of the workers. Shortly thereafter, my mom got one of the highest paying "men's jobs", which she held until she retired years later.
In 1976, I moved to California to go back to school and in 1978 1 took a part-time job at Emporium department store and became a member of Department Store Employees Union, Local 1100, UFCW. The Union was strong among the 300 or so members at the location where I worked and I soon became involved. I was a steward within a year, a bargaining team member in 1981, 1984 and 1987 and on the Executive Board from 1984 to 1988. In 1984, we went through a tremendous strike with our two largest Employer’s, Macy’s and Emporium, largely over the issue of two tier wages and benefits. We ended up losing over these issues, although the final settlement was better than the offer we struck over. In 1987, we again had difficult and protracted bargaining, with the Employers demanding many concessions and with our bargaining team and our members pushing back at every step. At the end, the International sent in representatives who took over bargaining and agreed to concessions that we were not prepared to agree to. Our members overwhelmingly rejected the tentative agreement. We went back to the table and got a little more for current members, who were not prepared to strike again, but lost more for future members with a third tier.
In 1988, The International Union put our small local in trusteeship, ostensibly for being severely behind in per capita payments. Representation suffered under the trusteeship and by the time it ended, members were so disgruntled that a slate made up entirely of rank-and-file defeated the slate put forward by the trustees by a margin of over two to one. I was the Secretary-Treasurer on that slate. We took office on January 2, 1990 and began immediately preparing for bargaining of our two major contracts which were set to expire in June. We began applying some of the organizing lessons we learned in running our campaign for office to running a campaign against the boss Because we were militant and organized members into numerous actions and also ran a corporate campaign, we were able to achieve a contact with no concessions.
Dining this time, we sought advice from others who bad been through similar struggles, such as Sheri Chiesa with H.E.R.E. Local 2 and Sal Rosselli with S.E.I.U. Local 250 and became convinced that the only way to continue to be successful was to transform our Union from one that had largely been following a Servicing Model to one that followed an Organizing Model. Our work in this transformation was stalled as we soon faced severe membership loss, brought about by closures of many of our smaller employers and by our largest employers moving over 3000 clerical and warehouse jobs to non-union locations. By 1993, we had no choice but to merge with four other locals. Their leaders did not share our vision and were perfectly content remaining a business union. After two frustrating years of trying to persuade them to change, I chose to leave to spend time with my newborn daughter.
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
-------
Sent via e-mail only
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.
I grew in a time when unions were strong and prevalent. Both my parents had good union jobs, but they never talked about being part of a union, probably because it was not something special or unusual. In 1972, I started working at a factory, where my mom had worked since 1958. Within a year, I was earning more than she was. All the men in the factory made more than the women and the women worked harder. The Union contract was set up that way. There were two basic categories of jobs: "Light Factory" and "Heavy Factory". Before 1968, these categories had been "Women's Jobs" and "Men’s Jobs". The law had changed but the reality had not. About this time, a handful of minority women started challenging the system and started demanding to be put in the better paying jobs. The Union leadership was all aging white men, who must have felt threatened by the challenges to the status quo, because they made an arrangement with the boss that would allow women to bid on the better paying jobs, but only if they were able to perform the most backbreaking entry level work for six mouths first. This, of course precluded most of the women, in particularly the older ones with seniority, from being able to advance.
The first Union meeting I attended was a rowdy one, with women voicing their outrage at the blatant discrimination and men screaming back that the women were trying to take their jobs from them. All the while, the Union leaders did nothing to bring their members together. To me, the issue was simple, and I stood up and said so. I said did not think that the women wanted to take the men's jobs away from them, but rather they just wanted to be paid better for the work that they did. If we all fought together against the boss to get the Light Factory jobs paid more in line with the Heavy Factory jobs, we would all win. I was shouted down by the Union leaders.
Eventually, this struggle for equality continued without the Union. The NAACP and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference became involved and helped organize the women and a few of us men to take action against the boss. The final action was an illegal sit down strike of about 100. The company (and the Union) relented and conceded to the demands of the workers. Shortly thereafter, my mom got one of the highest paying "men's jobs", which she held until she retired years later.
In 1976, I moved to California to go back to school and in 1978 1 took a part-time job at Emporium department store and became a member of Department Store Employees Union, Local 1100, UFCW. The Union was strong among the 300 or so members at the location where I worked and I soon became involved. I was a steward within a year, a bargaining team member in 1981, 1984 and 1987 and on the Executive Board from 1984 to 1988. In 1984, we went through a tremendous strike with our two largest Employer’s, Macy’s and Emporium, largely over the issue of two tier wages and benefits. We ended up losing over these issues, although the final settlement was better than the offer we struck over. In 1987, we again had difficult and protracted bargaining, with the Employers demanding many concessions and with our bargaining team and our members pushing back at every step. At the end, the International sent in representatives who took over bargaining and agreed to concessions that we were not prepared to agree to. Our members overwhelmingly rejected the tentative agreement. We went back to the table and got a little more for current members, who were not prepared to strike again, but lost more for future members with a third tier.
In 1988, The International Union put our small local in trusteeship, ostensibly for being severely behind in per capita payments. Representation suffered under the trusteeship and by the time it ended, members were so disgruntled that a slate made up entirely of rank-and-file defeated the slate put forward by the trustees by a margin of over two to one. I was the Secretary-Treasurer on that slate. We took office on January 2, 1990 and began immediately preparing for bargaining of our two major contracts which were set to expire in June. We began applying some of the organizing lessons we learned in running our campaign for office to running a campaign against the boss Because we were militant and organized members into numerous actions and also ran a corporate campaign, we were able to achieve a contact with no concessions.
Dining this time, we sought advice from others who bad been through similar struggles, such as Sheri Chiesa with H.E.R.E. Local 2 and Sal Rosselli with S.E.I.U. Local 250 and became convinced that the only way to continue to be successful was to transform our Union from one that had largely been following a Servicing Model to one that followed an Organizing Model. Our work in this transformation was stalled as we soon faced severe membership loss, brought about by closures of many of our smaller employers and by our largest employers moving over 3000 clerical and warehouse jobs to non-union locations. By 1993, we had no choice but to merge with four other locals. Their leaders did not share our vision and were perfectly content remaining a business union. After two frustrating years of trying to persuade them to change, I chose to leave to spend time with my newborn daughter.
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
Even Josie?
Can it be true that even Skunk team leader and Stern assistant Josie Mooney is looking for a way out of SEIU?
Perez hears that she's interviewing for the Executive Director position at California School Employees (AFL-CIO).
First Scott Courtney and now Josie? Not a good sign at all.
------
Update: It's not just a rumor, and Josie officially got the job (which Jim Philliou was turned down for!) last night...
From: Feckner, Rob
Sent: Wed 6/10/2009 5:33 PM
To: AllStaff
Cc: Executive Board; 'James Potterton'
Subject: Executive Director
Good afternoon to all of you,
This email is to inform all of you that the CSEA Board of Directors has completed it’s search for our next Executive Director. After careful review and proper due diligence we have selected our candidate, made the offer of employment and the offer has been accepted.
Our new Executive Director is Josie Mooney. Josie has a vast career in the labor movement. She was the first woman President of the San Francisco Central Labor Council. She has been employed by SEIU for a number of years in different capacities. Many of you may already know her or know of her. She currently works on international issues for Andy Stern. Right now she is organizing labor for Wal-Mart in China, and is being successful there. (several readers have written to ask what this means...)
Josie will begin her work here on Monday July 13th. We had quite a cadre of talented candidates which made the decision a tough one for the board. However, at the end of the day, by consensus, with no dissenting votes, we made our important decision.
I ask you all to welcome Ms. Mooney to our wonderful Association when she arrives. She will be stopping in periodically between now and the 13th of July. She intends to meet all of you over time and probably sooner than later. Please join the board and members in making her feel at home in her new surroundings.
Thank you for your patience during this time of flux. The board also wishes to acknowledge the hard work of Denise Jensen in the role as Interim Executive Director.
In Strength and Unity,
Rob Feckner
Association President
California School Employees Association
Perez hears that she's interviewing for the Executive Director position at California School Employees (AFL-CIO).
First Scott Courtney and now Josie? Not a good sign at all.
------
Update: It's not just a rumor, and Josie officially got the job (which Jim Philliou was turned down for!) last night...
From: Feckner, Rob
Sent: Wed 6/10/2009 5:33 PM
To: AllStaff
Cc: Executive Board; 'James Potterton'
Subject: Executive Director
Good afternoon to all of you,
This email is to inform all of you that the CSEA Board of Directors has completed it’s search for our next Executive Director. After careful review and proper due diligence we have selected our candidate, made the offer of employment and the offer has been accepted.
Our new Executive Director is Josie Mooney. Josie has a vast career in the labor movement. She was the first woman President of the San Francisco Central Labor Council. She has been employed by SEIU for a number of years in different capacities. Many of you may already know her or know of her. She currently works on international issues for Andy Stern. Right now she is organizing labor for Wal-Mart in China, and is being successful there. (several readers have written to ask what this means...)
Josie will begin her work here on Monday July 13th. We had quite a cadre of talented candidates which made the decision a tough one for the board. However, at the end of the day, by consensus, with no dissenting votes, we made our important decision.
I ask you all to welcome Ms. Mooney to our wonderful Association when she arrives. She will be stopping in periodically between now and the 13th of July. She intends to meet all of you over time and probably sooner than later. Please join the board and members in making her feel at home in her new surroundings.
Thank you for your patience during this time of flux. The board also wishes to acknowledge the hard work of Denise Jensen in the role as Interim Executive Director.
In Strength and Unity,
Rob Feckner
Association President
California School Employees Association
The truth about Fresno.
Well, according to Sam Ogren at least! Perez should have known he'd have his own special take on it, y'all!
Everyone is in Fresno because SEIU and NUHW are having a meeting to "work things out". "SEIU and NUHW are working together". "SEIU and NUHW are trying to work together to figure out a way to bring back the stewards". "That's what's going on in Fresno, a big meeting between SEIU and NUHW"!
So, go ahead Marian Medical Center workers, it's safe to sit with Sam Ogren, he and SEIU are working with NUHW!
"That's what Sam Ogren told a group of workers at Marian to try to lure them into working with him and ol green teeth Ron Smith" says a reader, "Don't they know they can't sneeze without one of the REAL leaders being notified?"
Everyone is in Fresno because SEIU and NUHW are having a meeting to "work things out". "SEIU and NUHW are working together". "SEIU and NUHW are trying to work together to figure out a way to bring back the stewards". "That's what's going on in Fresno, a big meeting between SEIU and NUHW"!
So, go ahead Marian Medical Center workers, it's safe to sit with Sam Ogren, he and SEIU are working with NUHW!
"That's what Sam Ogren told a group of workers at Marian to try to lure them into working with him and ol green teeth Ron Smith" says a reader, "Don't they know they can't sneeze without one of the REAL leaders being notified?"
See you soon Kim!
Perez hears that deputy trustee Kim "Kimpossible" Evon will be leaving UHW this Friday! Where's she going? Well, a reader says she's heading over to the new long term care union (DON'T call it 6434).
Looks like she's going to get things nice and ready for the homecare workers SEIU are still urging to "stay united in UHW-SEIU"!
Looks like she's going to get things nice and ready for the homecare workers SEIU are still urging to "stay united in UHW-SEIU"!
Tuesday, June 9
And meanwhile...
Readers report that SEIU have deserted Kaiser faclities in their desperation to hold on to Fresno homecare workers...
"Near as I can tell - there is NO UHW representation in ANY facility. Here at Bellflower KP - they're calling me. Jesse Smith, Elma Maynard and Erika Gutierrez are no where in sight - and don't return calls. I'm advising DFRs. Now I hear Linda Temple is back - and is 2nd in command at the Ferguson Local! And all the Kaiser paid contract specialists are in Fresno!"
And...
"I was looking for some stewards to assist me in a grievance and found out that the KP South San Francisco Stewards council is nothing more than a shell now. 3 stewards remain to represent 1500 workers. WTH hell is SEIU doing? Management is running out of control and our National is leaving us defenseless."
And...
"We were told quite some time back that the medical secretary/transcription positions would be either eliminated totally, though that was later modified to "you will be editing more than transcribing and we just won't need as many of you". We were given a time frame of late 2010 to mid 2011, and that likely only 2-3 positions would be deployed.
We are now getting hints that this may be sooner than later, but we have not heard one single word from the Purple People Eaters, other than "the contract we negotiated will protect you for at least a year". But our manager is dropping hints that we should step up school and whatever else it is we are doing, as she seems to think they will try to get us out with 30 days notice (illegal..has to be 60 days minimum).
The only thing we are concerned about is SEIU bugging out on the terms of the contract, where we have guaranteed income and/or transition work for one year , then get severance if nothing is offered by then. The doctors are still being told that they plan to keep most of us; the managers are telling us differently (though one of my coworkers who has been there 30 years thinks they are doing that so they will have less people they will have to transition).
I have also heard through the grapevine that SEIU is declining Educational Assistance applications left and right, so makes you wonder if they have looted that fund.
I am also hearing that members requesting representation for disciplinary actions are largely going unrepresented, as no one seems to be available. Henry J would be spinning in his grave if he could see what has happened to Kaiser."
You're dropping the ball SEIU, and that Kaiser election is coming up fast!
"Near as I can tell - there is NO UHW representation in ANY facility. Here at Bellflower KP - they're calling me. Jesse Smith, Elma Maynard and Erika Gutierrez are no where in sight - and don't return calls. I'm advising DFRs. Now I hear Linda Temple is back - and is 2nd in command at the Ferguson Local! And all the Kaiser paid contract specialists are in Fresno!"
And...
"I was looking for some stewards to assist me in a grievance and found out that the KP South San Francisco Stewards council is nothing more than a shell now. 3 stewards remain to represent 1500 workers. WTH hell is SEIU doing? Management is running out of control and our National is leaving us defenseless."
And...
"We were told quite some time back that the medical secretary/transcription positions would be either eliminated totally, though that was later modified to "you will be editing more than transcribing and we just won't need as many of you". We were given a time frame of late 2010 to mid 2011, and that likely only 2-3 positions would be deployed.
We are now getting hints that this may be sooner than later, but we have not heard one single word from the Purple People Eaters, other than "the contract we negotiated will protect you for at least a year". But our manager is dropping hints that we should step up school and whatever else it is we are doing, as she seems to think they will try to get us out with 30 days notice (illegal..has to be 60 days minimum).
The only thing we are concerned about is SEIU bugging out on the terms of the contract, where we have guaranteed income and/or transition work for one year , then get severance if nothing is offered by then. The doctors are still being told that they plan to keep most of us; the managers are telling us differently (though one of my coworkers who has been there 30 years thinks they are doing that so they will have less people they will have to transition).
I have also heard through the grapevine that SEIU is declining Educational Assistance applications left and right, so makes you wonder if they have looted that fund.
I am also hearing that members requesting representation for disciplinary actions are largely going unrepresented, as no one seems to be available. Henry J would be spinning in his grave if he could see what has happened to Kaiser."
You're dropping the ball SEIU, and that Kaiser election is coming up fast!
Dave has his wings clipped!
Confirmation comes from readers that Stern and his top operatives are pissed that Dave Regan let himself get caught on camera sounding like the thug he is.Increasingly concerned about the damage the Californiraq campaign is doing to their reputation and community goodwill, SEIU recognize what a huge error it was for the face of their campaign to brag about his plans for "an old fashioned ass whipping'" and "a stake through the heart", as well as insulting Fresno and declaring he'd never normally to go there (although local sources say that was actually the most popular part of the speech!).
As a result of what SEIU insiders apparently see as Regan losing control, he now may not speak to an audience without having his speech pre-planned and vetted by senior communications staff! A reader says that Dave feels "castrated"!
Monday, June 8
It's blurry, but that's probably for the best...
No wonder we haven't seen Andy out here in Fresno talking to homecare workers, he's having too much fun living it up in DC, where we hear he just loves being single!
Here he is sharing a bite with an unidentified lucky lady (not his usual type), at the romantic Tabard Inn hotel.
Sources say Stern and friend enjoyed oysters on the half shell in a champagne mignonette sauce. Wonder if he's paying for his own meal like the poor Zombie UHW scabs in Fresno, or if he's eating on the members' dime?
They say you're out of touch Andy, but we don't believe them! Why don't you come on out to Californiraq? Our seafood is better and we have some beautiful women (although not too many who'd give you the time of day)!
This boss lawyer needs a refresher...
CWA represented staff at Local 221 are in contract negotiations with their Stern-appointed (more like speed-dated!) President Sharon-Frances Moore, and just filed four charges alleging that Moore hasn't been playing by the rules she used to be paid so much to know!
Moore might be spending almost as much time in court as she did at her previous job - charges filed by a former steward who says Moore tried to have his employer take disciplinary action against him will be heard next week.
You can't blame Moore for being confused about who's the boss and who's the union, it's just a shame there's no one but her members and employees to set her straight. Andy doesn't seem to know the difference himself, and he's not known for backing up his picks once they get into hot water anyway!
Here are the rest of the charges against Moore...
President Sharon-Frances Moore interfered with and attempted to restrain the employees in their participation in a concerted activity. On or about Wednesday April 29 the employees attempted to display red balloons with messages regarding the employers attempt to take away our FMLA rights under our contract. She ordered all staff to close their office doors or remove the balloons from there work stations. She walked around the building slamming office doors. She installed a since of fear in employees .
On or About May 1, 2009 President Sharon-Frances Moore made a threatening phone call to represented employee Satomi Ziegler. She made threatening comments regarding the employee's knowledge of and participation in a concerted activity. The employees engaged in an off site protest of Sharon-Frances Moore's position to remove FMLA from our contract. Sharon-Frances retaliated against the employee by yelling at her for not informing her of the action. She also removed work assignments because of the employee's engagement in the planning and participation in the concerted activities. This created devastating mental stress and anxiety to the employee and resulted in physical ramifications.
Sharon-Frances Moore threatened, in a voice mail message left on an employees phone on May1st, 2009 at 630 pm, to retaliate against the employees of SEIU Local 221 because of their involvement in concerted activity. She made the following statement, "Satomi, it is Sharon-Frances, I am sorry. I did not mean to upset you, and I know you are very upset. I am sorry for that. But I am really angry and upset myself. And it wasn't fair taking it all out on you. Trust me I am going to take it out on everybody else too. So give me a ring when you have calmed down. O.K. Thanks" This threat is real and was meant to be conveyed to other employees and was conveyed.
Sharon-Frances Moore continued the harassment of this individual employee on Saturday May 2, 2009, by making repeated phone calls to the employee and by releasing her personal contact information and instructing multiply nonemployees (board members) to contact her and instructing the employee to contact Sharon-Frances Moore. Sharon-Frances Moore also instructed one staff person to contact the employee, who question the employee about her union activities in a negative fashion as if her non-disclosure to Sharon-Frances Moore was inappropriate.
Moore might be spending almost as much time in court as she did at her previous job - charges filed by a former steward who says Moore tried to have his employer take disciplinary action against him will be heard next week.
You can't blame Moore for being confused about who's the boss and who's the union, it's just a shame there's no one but her members and employees to set her straight. Andy doesn't seem to know the difference himself, and he's not known for backing up his picks once they get into hot water anyway!
Here are the rest of the charges against Moore...
President Sharon-Frances Moore interfered with and attempted to restrain the employees in their participation in a concerted activity. On or about Wednesday April 29 the employees attempted to display red balloons with messages regarding the employers attempt to take away our FMLA rights under our contract. She ordered all staff to close their office doors or remove the balloons from there work stations. She walked around the building slamming office doors. She installed a since of fear in employees .
On or About May 1, 2009 President Sharon-Frances Moore made a threatening phone call to represented employee Satomi Ziegler. She made threatening comments regarding the employee's knowledge of and participation in a concerted activity. The employees engaged in an off site protest of Sharon-Frances Moore's position to remove FMLA from our contract. Sharon-Frances retaliated against the employee by yelling at her for not informing her of the action. She also removed work assignments because of the employee's engagement in the planning and participation in the concerted activities. This created devastating mental stress and anxiety to the employee and resulted in physical ramifications.
Sharon-Frances Moore threatened, in a voice mail message left on an employees phone on May1st, 2009 at 630 pm, to retaliate against the employees of SEIU Local 221 because of their involvement in concerted activity. She made the following statement, "Satomi, it is Sharon-Frances, I am sorry. I did not mean to upset you, and I know you are very upset. I am sorry for that. But I am really angry and upset myself. And it wasn't fair taking it all out on you. Trust me I am going to take it out on everybody else too. So give me a ring when you have calmed down. O.K. Thanks" This threat is real and was meant to be conveyed to other employees and was conveyed.
Sharon-Frances Moore continued the harassment of this individual employee on Saturday May 2, 2009, by making repeated phone calls to the employee and by releasing her personal contact information and instructing multiply nonemployees (board members) to contact her and instructing the employee to contact Sharon-Frances Moore. Sharon-Frances Moore also instructed one staff person to contact the employee, who question the employee about her union activities in a negative fashion as if her non-disclosure to Sharon-Frances Moore was inappropriate.
Reading the coffee grounds?
From a reader in Fresno...
"I saw Greg Maron last week as I rushed into Starbucks looking to use the bathroom. He didn't have his usual air of smugness surrounding him, nor did he acknowledge me with his usual shit-eating-grin. He instead looked questioningly at me and I gave him a big ol' smile as I walked on by. He seemed to be looking into his coffee for answers.
What Greg never seems to understand is that talking to workers is the answer. Greg didn't look like he was going anywhere very soon either. I don't know if Greg's "mobile supervisor" is reading this but he should probably check in on him.
Hang in there Greg! I'm sure your job is safe...until the 19th!"
"I saw Greg Maron last week as I rushed into Starbucks looking to use the bathroom. He didn't have his usual air of smugness surrounding him, nor did he acknowledge me with his usual shit-eating-grin. He instead looked questioningly at me and I gave him a big ol' smile as I walked on by. He seemed to be looking into his coffee for answers.
What Greg never seems to understand is that talking to workers is the answer. Greg didn't look like he was going anywhere very soon either. I don't know if Greg's "mobile supervisor" is reading this but he should probably check in on him.
Hang in there Greg! I'm sure your job is safe...until the 19th!"
I knew it sounded familiar...
It's no secret or suprise that SEIU are taking a whole chapter out of the union buster's playbook with their fear and threat based Fresno rap.
But after reading about Dave Mott's latest performance, one SEIU staffer was kind enough to look up SEIU's own book on the subject - their "organizing toolkit".
But after reading about Dave Mott's latest performance, one SEIU staffer was kind enough to look up SEIU's own book on the subject - their "organizing toolkit".
"Under "Themes of Management's Campaign" we offer this:Well, they say the best organizer is a bad boss, maybe the best boss is a bad organizer?
"LOWER WAGES AND BENEFITS: Management may claim that by forming a union, employees will somehow lose pay, benefits or job security."
We refute this by saying:
"The truth is that when we negotiate a union contract, we start with our current wages and benefits. Management can't make any cuts without our approval."
And in the Q&A from workers section......
Q: I've heard that the law says we start from scratch when we go to bargain. We could lose everything now and have to negotiate just to get back to where we are now. Is that true?
A: No. Absolutely not. The truth is just the opposite--once you've voted for your union, everything you have is protected. Management can't change your pay, benefits, or working conditions without your approval. You start negotiating your contract.
Sunday, June 7
A Democratic Union.
Submitted by Toni C Rangel in union solidarity.
For weeks, months, maybe even a year, I have thought often about the phrase “a democratic union," an idea that resonates with the echoes of our past. I checked, but couldn’t find a reference to that exact wording in the Declaration of Independence or in the Bill of Rights.
So where did this phrase come from? I do not remember when those words hit my conscious mind. It was as if one day I woke from a dream to find this phrase in the forefront.
The meaning, the importance to me, is the sound of our many voices coming together for life, liberty and the pursuit of unionism. It is our ability as members to exercise our right to vote. It is our ability to elect our own representatives. It is our ability to turn to our leaders and say “I disagree," without being punished under threat of our very livelihood. It is freedom from constraints of any kind.
When the phrase "a democratic union" passes the lips of people I am asked to trust and it is followed with “Do as I say -- or else" I begin to question its meaning. I'd heard of Weingarten Rules being removed from bulletin boards and thinking it wouldn’t happen here, it couldn't happen here -- not at member-driven UHW. But in fact, it did happen here. These rules, which are the cornerstone of unionism, are gone.
The phrase "a democratic union" is what we have come to expect from all of our governing bodies, local, state, federal, and especially, our own union hall. It is not a meaningless statement spewing from the mouths of the Philistines and Heresies. It is an ideal that comes from our hearts, our minds, from our very soul. It is and always will be a guiding principle of a just, fair and safe partnership between workers and their employers.
UHW under trusteeship is not now "a democratic union." The question is, what do we have to do to return it to OUR workers and OUR elected leaders? Like we did to elect Obama, we must stand up as citizen workers and DEMAND to be fairly represented.
Toni C Rangel
Pharmacy Tech, Centinela Hospital Medical Center.
Former Steward, Former COPE Chair, Current NUHW Volunteer.
For weeks, months, maybe even a year, I have thought often about the phrase “a democratic union," an idea that resonates with the echoes of our past. I checked, but couldn’t find a reference to that exact wording in the Declaration of Independence or in the Bill of Rights.
So where did this phrase come from? I do not remember when those words hit my conscious mind. It was as if one day I woke from a dream to find this phrase in the forefront.
The meaning, the importance to me, is the sound of our many voices coming together for life, liberty and the pursuit of unionism. It is our ability as members to exercise our right to vote. It is our ability to elect our own representatives. It is our ability to turn to our leaders and say “I disagree," without being punished under threat of our very livelihood. It is freedom from constraints of any kind.
When the phrase "a democratic union" passes the lips of people I am asked to trust and it is followed with “Do as I say -- or else" I begin to question its meaning. I'd heard of Weingarten Rules being removed from bulletin boards and thinking it wouldn’t happen here, it couldn't happen here -- not at member-driven UHW. But in fact, it did happen here. These rules, which are the cornerstone of unionism, are gone.
The phrase "a democratic union" is what we have come to expect from all of our governing bodies, local, state, federal, and especially, our own union hall. It is not a meaningless statement spewing from the mouths of the Philistines and Heresies. It is an ideal that comes from our hearts, our minds, from our very soul. It is and always will be a guiding principle of a just, fair and safe partnership between workers and their employers.
UHW under trusteeship is not now "a democratic union." The question is, what do we have to do to return it to OUR workers and OUR elected leaders? Like we did to elect Obama, we must stand up as citizen workers and DEMAND to be fairly represented.
Toni C Rangel
Pharmacy Tech, Centinela Hospital Medical Center.
Former Steward, Former COPE Chair, Current NUHW Volunteer.
Double Super Scab nomination...
"I have a nomination for superscab award, it is actually for a couple. Jackie Comendador and Guy Rinfrow. Since the trusteeship of UHW Guy has climbed mighty walls, from RPO in Sacramento, to Member Coordinator to now acting UHW Political director. He has gone so far as to tell the Sacramento CLC that he would have UHW paid up on percaps if they made him the replacement of John Borsos.
Jackie (J.C.) is his partner in crime, a former member of UHW, came on during the sixty-day Sutter Strike in 2005 and has slowly sided with the trustees. She is now the rep at Kaiser Santa Rosa, I am sure Cindy Thomas (our deposed chief shop-steward in Kaiser San Rafael/Richmond) knows all about the color of Jackie's turncoat.
They really make a great one-two punch for scabs of the year. Rinfrow, who gave an "epic" rebuttal to Dave Regan the first day staff was back, to now being best buds with him. If they are not the definitive scabs, I do not know who is."
However, Perez implores this reader to be careful! Guy can start a war with just one call, as he writes in this threatening email to a member...
"Let me be clear brother, You can call me what you want (sticks and stones) but if I EVER hear or see ANYBODY in NUHW say or write anything disrespectful about my WIFE! Put it this way! I can start a war with one phone call (not SEIU). This is not addressed at you in anyway so please dont take it as such."
Jackie (J.C.) is his partner in crime, a former member of UHW, came on during the sixty-day Sutter Strike in 2005 and has slowly sided with the trustees. She is now the rep at Kaiser Santa Rosa, I am sure Cindy Thomas (our deposed chief shop-steward in Kaiser San Rafael/Richmond) knows all about the color of Jackie's turncoat.
They really make a great one-two punch for scabs of the year. Rinfrow, who gave an "epic" rebuttal to Dave Regan the first day staff was back, to now being best buds with him. If they are not the definitive scabs, I do not know who is."
However, Perez implores this reader to be careful! Guy can start a war with just one call, as he writes in this threatening email to a member...
"Let me be clear brother, You can call me what you want (sticks and stones) but if I EVER hear or see ANYBODY in NUHW say or write anything disrespectful about my WIFE! Put it this way! I can start a war with one phone call (not SEIU). This is not addressed at you in anyway so please dont take it as such."
Saturday, June 6
"Bye bye to all you groupies and gold diggers"?
Not likely! In fact there might be an increase.
A reader writes to say that this song (NSFW) makes him think of Dave Regan and Andy Stern lately - that got Perez thinking - it's certainly true that we aren't seeing Andy's name attached to Californiraq too much these days, or even to anything grittier than the occasional EFCA interview.
It's understandable that he'd want to stay away, but could it be that within SEIU he's starting to look like the guy who picked a fight he wouldn't get his hands dirty and finish?
A reader writes to say that this song (NSFW) makes him think of Dave Regan and Andy Stern lately - that got Perez thinking - it's certainly true that we aren't seeing Andy's name attached to Californiraq too much these days, or even to anything grittier than the occasional EFCA interview.
It's understandable that he'd want to stay away, but could it be that within SEIU he's starting to look like the guy who picked a fight he wouldn't get his hands dirty and finish?
Well who's Lorena?
Scabs get flustered when members speak up!
"So I went on a house visit with NUHW member leader Norma Raya. When we got there Senior Scab Lorena Vellanoweth (left) was outside the house talking to Elizabeth, the homecare worker. Norma and I said hi to Elizabeth and asked her if she had already voted. Lorena jumped in and said "If you vote for them, you'll lose your contract." Norma told her that homecare workers won't, and that she should know since she was actually on the bargaining committee.
Lorena contradicted her - "How do I know you're not lying, do you have a contract?" Norma then pulled out her copy of the contract, pointing to her signature, Flo Furlow's signature, and Sal Rosselli's. "If we stay with SEIU, we'll be sent to Local 6434 in LA, where they make $9/hr."
Norma then gave Elizabeth the rundown on the arbitration where SEIU proposed wage cuts for Fresno homecare workers. Lorena argued back "I don't know if that's true, I wasn't there". Norma says "Exactly, that's the problem! Where were you when I was getting locked out of my own arbitration?"
Norma then told Elizabeth about all the money that SEIU was spending on flights, hotels, and rental cars for staffers. Lorena said that she doesn't drive a rental car - which is true, since she drives a deep RED (!) Envoy.
Lorena also claimed to have been a UHW member for 12 years, which is crazy since her hospital was actually organized in 2001 and she was hired on as staff before the election.
Norma came back with "Well i'm still a member, and I'm leaving SEIU for NUHW, and 10,000 homecare workers are coming with me. I pay your salary, so why don't you stand over there and let me have a member-to-member conversation?" Lorena said she was trying to have a conversation with "her" member.
This is where it gets good. I eventually said this wasn't getting anywhere, and that we were here to talk to Elizabeth. - Lorena got all flustered and started yelling "Who's Elizabeth? There's no one named Elizabeth here!" The homecare worker, who had been sitting on her lawn chair the whole time, raised her hand and said "Ummm, I'm Elizabeth!!!" You don't even know the name of the worker you're visiting? Awesome. Lorena just got red in the face and made weird hand gestures while she was holding piles of t-shirts and visors and other random SEIU gear, looking like she was selling stuff at a baseball stadium.
I told Lorena we'll just wait for her to finish her "conversation" with this unnamed worker. Good luck!"
NUHW volunteer and former SEIU member.
"So I went on a house visit with NUHW member leader Norma Raya. When we got there Senior Scab Lorena Vellanoweth (left) was outside the house talking to Elizabeth, the homecare worker. Norma and I said hi to Elizabeth and asked her if she had already voted. Lorena jumped in and said "If you vote for them, you'll lose your contract." Norma told her that homecare workers won't, and that she should know since she was actually on the bargaining committee.Lorena contradicted her - "How do I know you're not lying, do you have a contract?" Norma then pulled out her copy of the contract, pointing to her signature, Flo Furlow's signature, and Sal Rosselli's. "If we stay with SEIU, we'll be sent to Local 6434 in LA, where they make $9/hr."
Norma then gave Elizabeth the rundown on the arbitration where SEIU proposed wage cuts for Fresno homecare workers. Lorena argued back "I don't know if that's true, I wasn't there". Norma says "Exactly, that's the problem! Where were you when I was getting locked out of my own arbitration?"
Norma then told Elizabeth about all the money that SEIU was spending on flights, hotels, and rental cars for staffers. Lorena said that she doesn't drive a rental car - which is true, since she drives a deep RED (!) Envoy.
Lorena also claimed to have been a UHW member for 12 years, which is crazy since her hospital was actually organized in 2001 and she was hired on as staff before the election.
Norma came back with "Well i'm still a member, and I'm leaving SEIU for NUHW, and 10,000 homecare workers are coming with me. I pay your salary, so why don't you stand over there and let me have a member-to-member conversation?" Lorena said she was trying to have a conversation with "her" member.
This is where it gets good. I eventually said this wasn't getting anywhere, and that we were here to talk to Elizabeth. - Lorena got all flustered and started yelling "Who's Elizabeth? There's no one named Elizabeth here!" The homecare worker, who had been sitting on her lawn chair the whole time, raised her hand and said "Ummm, I'm Elizabeth!!!" You don't even know the name of the worker you're visiting? Awesome. Lorena just got red in the face and made weird hand gestures while she was holding piles of t-shirts and visors and other random SEIU gear, looking like she was selling stuff at a baseball stadium.
I told Lorena we'll just wait for her to finish her "conversation" with this unnamed worker. Good luck!"
NUHW volunteer and former SEIU member.
Top three scab hangouts.
Reluctant or just lazy, here are the top three places SEIU scabs are whiling away their days in Fresno...
1) The movies, aka "the bunker"
Pros: It's dark, no one can find you there, maybe you can sleep, perhaps you can even forgot for an hour or two that you're a scab and in Fresno.
Cons: It's a big time commitment, risk ignoring your phone for hours at a time or check it every five minutes and prepare to leave your movie halfway through.
2) The mall, aka "the easy way out"
Pros: Low commitment with lots of entries and exits, lots of places to hide, who says you're not just taking a quick break? Spending money reminds you of your nice dues funded paycheck and why you don't just quit this job.
Cons: Spending money reminds you of your hopeless dependency and makes you feel more trapped, wandering in circles feels too much like door knocking, hard not to keep looking over your shoulder.
3) The bar, aka "the old school"
Pros: Afternoon drinking lends an air of seedy glamor to your desperation, it's the most social of the three options - meet up with your scab friends and bitch, alcohol is its own attraction, Dave would surely understand.
Cons: Drink and drive and you're just another embarrassing health and safety report waiting to happen, members can smell it on you when you go back on the doors, you never know who you might run into!
1) The movies, aka "the bunker"
Pros: It's dark, no one can find you there, maybe you can sleep, perhaps you can even forgot for an hour or two that you're a scab and in Fresno.
Cons: It's a big time commitment, risk ignoring your phone for hours at a time or check it every five minutes and prepare to leave your movie halfway through.
2) The mall, aka "the easy way out"
Pros: Low commitment with lots of entries and exits, lots of places to hide, who says you're not just taking a quick break? Spending money reminds you of your nice dues funded paycheck and why you don't just quit this job.
Cons: Spending money reminds you of your hopeless dependency and makes you feel more trapped, wandering in circles feels too much like door knocking, hard not to keep looking over your shoulder.
3) The bar, aka "the old school"
Pros: Afternoon drinking lends an air of seedy glamor to your desperation, it's the most social of the three options - meet up with your scab friends and bitch, alcohol is its own attraction, Dave would surely understand.
Cons: Drink and drive and you're just another embarrassing health and safety report waiting to happen, members can smell it on you when you go back on the doors, you never know who you might run into!
Friday, June 5
From a community homecare advocate...
Because as SEIU seems to have forgotten, most people care more about homecare workers and consumers than about SEIU...
"As a long-time homecare consumer advocate and proud NUHW supporter from Fresno, I loved the part in Dave Regan's speech where he says, in effect, "We wouldn't have found our way to Fresno if we didn't have to be here."
Heartwarming. I can't abide the circumstances or the timing of the trusteeship, let alone the distractions from our fight to maintain homecare. The rhetoric of "those who inflicted it" trying to blame "those who resisted it" is just galling."
"As a long-time homecare consumer advocate and proud NUHW supporter from Fresno, I loved the part in Dave Regan's speech where he says, in effect, "We wouldn't have found our way to Fresno if we didn't have to be here."
Heartwarming. I can't abide the circumstances or the timing of the trusteeship, let alone the distractions from our fight to maintain homecare. The rhetoric of "those who inflicted it" trying to blame "those who resisted it" is just galling."
Dave Regan told NUHW to stay away from San Francisco homecare workers...
Looks like it's a good thing they didn't.
Gavin Newsom, mayor of San Francisco, just adopted NUHW's budget proposals to avoid wage and benefits cuts for the 17,000 homecare workers in the county. The proposals use federal funds available to San Francisco through the stimulus program.
So San Francisco homecare workers will continue making $11.54 an hour, while Los Angeles homecare workers in Local 6434 make only $9.00. And what's SEIU doing? Failing to fight the budget cuts while they waste homecare workers' dues money on a fear campaign and try to dump them into Local 6434.
Who's responsible for the "mess" in this situation again?
Gavin Newsom, mayor of San Francisco, just adopted NUHW's budget proposals to avoid wage and benefits cuts for the 17,000 homecare workers in the county. The proposals use federal funds available to San Francisco through the stimulus program.
So San Francisco homecare workers will continue making $11.54 an hour, while Los Angeles homecare workers in Local 6434 make only $9.00. And what's SEIU doing? Failing to fight the budget cuts while they waste homecare workers' dues money on a fear campaign and try to dump them into Local 6434.
Who's responsible for the "mess" in this situation again?
"From Oakland to Sacktown..."
A reader writes to say that CHW workers from Sacramento are with homecare workers in Fresno this week to help them win their NUHW elections, and warns other readers to be on the look out for these Zombie UHW Sacramento scabs, Sherrie (Scabby) Macias (left), and Josie (Scabbers) Summers.
"We ain't goin' nowhere!"
It's not just the principled scabs who are playing hooky!
Here's rapper and constant embarrassment Alex "Krooked" Espinoza and some scab friends watching the Lakers game and drinking at a Red Robin before 6pm on Thursday evening. A server said they'd been there a looong time!
Alex and unidentified friend.
Richard McCloud.
Alex with Mike Fourot and friend.
Hate to break it to you Alex, but no matter what they tell you, those people in purple and yellow that you work for aren't the Lakers!
Here's rapper and constant embarrassment Alex "Krooked" Espinoza and some scab friends watching the Lakers game and drinking at a Red Robin before 6pm on Thursday evening. A server said they'd been there a looong time!
Alex and unidentified friend.
Richard McCloud.
Alex with Mike Fourot and friend.
Hate to break it to you Alex, but no matter what they tell you, those people in purple and yellow that you work for aren't the Lakers!
Lies.
From: Dana Simon
To: "Rebecca Malberg" rebecca.malberg@seiu.org
Sent: Thursday, June 4, 2009 12:31:37 PM
Subject: False unlawful claims about Kaiser Health Plan
Rebecca,
The below quote from the UHW / Fresno web site demonstrates an appalling disregard for both the truth and the law.
This not an isolated case: I have personally heard from Fresno homecare workers who have received threats from SEIU organizers that they will loose their Kaiser health plan if they vote for NUHW.
Here is the web quote:
"The health insurance issue is big with both members I talked with today. One has the insurance and doesn't want to lose it, and the other wants to be put in the pool in the next negotiations. They both understand that it's union health insurance and they could lose if NUHW got in."
--Bill Jones, Psych RN member, 1199 WOK (West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky)
First the issue of untruthfulness and then the issue of illegality:
This statement is patently false in all regards:
a) The Kaiser Health Plan that Fresno County homecare workers currently have is an off- the-shelf Kaiser insurance product. It is patently false to convey that it is a benefit that only exists as the creation of a union Taft-Hartley trust fund. I say this with some degree of direct knowledge, as I was the negotiator who originally bargained this benefit in Fresno and also bargained the Kaiser Health Plan benefit for IHSS workers in several other bargaining units.
Kaiser is clear about this iron clad internal policy: Whatever rate for a given kaiser Health Plan product has been offered for a given group -- whether those rates and terms were offered to a private broker, directly to an employer or quoted through Kaiser's own large group sales department or their labor trusts department, that rate is the binding precedent for whomever makes the purchase.
b) It is patently false to convey that the employer could chose to discontinue or even to modify the current health plan as a consequence of the workers voting to change unions, because it is unambiguously illegal for the employer to do so under the state's public sector labor law, the Meyers-Milias-Brown Act (MMBA).
The law:
California’s MMBA makes it illegal for either an employer or a union to discriminate, threaten or do anything against any employee for choosing a union or for participating or not participating in union activities.
It is also illegal under the MMBA for an employer to change wages or benefits because workers chose to unionize or choose to change their union. The employer would have to bargain with the union of the workers' choosing before making any changes to the current contract.
Citations from the MMBA:
3502. Right to join or abstain; individual representation
Except as otherwise provided by the Legislature, public employees shall have the right to form, join, and participate in the activities of employee organizations of their own choosing for the purpose of representation on all matters of employer-employee relations. Public employees also shall have the right to refuse to join or participate in the activities of employee organizations and shall have the right to represent themselves individually in their employment relations with the public agency.
3502.1. Exercise of lawful action as elected, appointed or recognized representative of any employee bargaining unit
No public employee shall be subject to punitive action or denied promotion, or threatened with any such treatment, for the exercise of lawful action as an elected, appointed, or recognized representative of any employee bargaining unit.
3506. Discrimination prohibited
Public agencies and employee organizations shall not interfere with, intimidate, restrain, coerce or discriminate against public employees because of their exercise of their rights under [this Act].
All the relevant case precedents make it unmistakably clear that revoking or lessening the value of a benefit as a result of workers exercising their legally guaranteed right to chose their own union is illegal, and, additionally, that a union (or an employer) that would threaten such a thing, as you are clearly doing now, is violating the law.
Again, I know for a fact that your people are pervasively communicating to workers that they will lose their health plan. It is a lie and it is illegal.
If we were still working for the same organization with each other (which we are not) I would be having this exact same same conversation with you: It is never justified to lie to workers. Ever.
In the unlikely event that you would respond by claiming that you didn't know this was illegal or didn't know that people under your direction have been saying this to workers (as impossible to believe as that would be), now you do.
If you don't retract those statements, you're making it clear that you intend to knowingly continue to violate the law, and more important, to continue to say things to Fresno homecare workers that you know are absolutely untrue.
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