Not to be missed!

In no particular order, here's the first part of a quick rundown of the biggest stories of the last month...

1) Kaiser Layoffs
First and worst, this one's just sickening. Turns out Zombie UHW (specifically Mary Grillo and Veronica Chavez) signed off on the Kaiser layoffs in a backroom deal on August 4. The agreement shows that SEIU agreed to limits on workers' rights to challenge layoffs and set aside job security protections in the contract. Adding insult to injury, to date Zombie UHW are still urging workers to picket to protect their jobs, and Kaiser seem fine with that - contract specialists are regularly spotted making the picket signs on Kaiser property.


2) UNITE HERE rejoins the AFL CIO.
Unsurprisingly, UNITE HERE formally rejoined the AFL CIO on September 17, the last day of the organization's convention. Perez predicted the end of Change to Win back in March (really, you could tell it was over when SEIU started reusing the acronym for Change that Works), but it's great to see new strength for the AFL CIO come out of it.


3) Alejandro Stephens looking at serious prison time.
Former Local 660 President Alejandro Stephens is looking at up to 45 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to taking part in a scam involving late LA County Fed secretary-treasurer Miguel Contreras's (now defunct) "Voter Improvement Project" non-profit. Apparently Contreras hired Stephens as a fake consultant, and sent him money that came from charitable foundations (including Kaiser Permanente) under the guise of "voter outreach" that never happened. Annelle Grajeda is also named in the documents as having assisting Stephens with the fraud by helping her son pass $10,000 from the non-profit along to him. Stephens's own plea bargain leaves Annelle out of the sordid story, but names her son.

To be clear, this case is not the original set of accusations that Grajeda helped Stephens double dip from SEIU and his old job with the county, but a whole new can of worms apparently opened during that investigation.


4) The end of UHW?
After being destroyed in all but name this spring, will the UHW-W name now also be consigned to history? That's what Debbie Schneider apparently threatened to Zombie UHW staff at the beginning of September when she emphasized how vital it was that they win upcoming elections (oh dear). According to Debbie, major losses could mean the break-up of UHW members into other locals, and Zombie staff joining Kaiser workers on the unemployment rolls. Makes sense, especially as SEIU bosses have apparently been aggressively spending down the local's bank account since the take-over.


Part 2 tomorrow...

First things first....

Congratulations to HHS workers at Los Alamitos Medical Center and workers at The Sequoias Portola Valley who voted to make NUHW their first union this week!

Results for the NLRB run votes were 35 for NUHW to 7 for "No Union" at Los Alamitos on Monday, and 40 for NUHW to 20 for "No Union" at The Sequoias today. The elections were scheduled last month after BS blocking charges from SEIU were thrown out.

After realizing they wouldn't get enough votes to be an effective spoiler, SEIU pulled their name off the ballot at Los Alamitos last week (they never even tried at The Sequoias). There's now growing pressure on them to back off on other elections where it's clear they have no real interest in representing workers (like Kaiser?). Still, it sounds like SEIU swung into action as the boss's volunteer skunk team, reportedly calling workers the night before the election to say...

"I'm calling from the union, tomorrow is the election. Do you know what the next step is? Strike to get a contract!".

No word on who was behind that (failed) stroke of genius, but Amado David is famous among organizers who've worked with him for trying similar last-minute stunts.

No word (yet?) either on who's responsible for one of the most myopic, sour, and revealing "SEIU-UHW" (or is it "UHW-SEIU"?) emails to date - SEIU's last minute pronouncement that because Los Alamitos and Sequoias workers were forming a union for the first time rather than leaving SEIU for NUHW, it all didn't really count anyway! While SEIU seem proud to make it plenty clear that if workers aren't part of a massive chain or another union they're not worth the trouble, the picture looks a little different if you're actually one of those workers!

Well, rock on to the new NUHW members who'll now have the right to a voice in their workplace, and rock on to the SEIU communications department for letting their true colors show and putting (pre-trusteeship fake) "Pops Hardy" in charge of their email outreach!

Perez will be back....

...and making up for lost time early this week! Many thanks to all my well wishers and contributors...