National press highlights SEIU's giveaways to Kaiser

Two weeks ago, after SEIU-UHW tried to keep healthcare workers in the dark by refusing to share details of agreements they had signed with Kaiser, NUHW blew the lid off of SEIU’s secret deal by printing the tentative agreements and exposing SEIU’s giveaways for everyone to see.

Now a national publication with special coverage of labor unions has reported on SEIU’s giveaways to Kaiser, and the picture isn’t pretty. The Bloomberg Daily Labor Report has exposed how SEIU is helping Kaiser cut costs at workers’ expense while Kaiser makes more profits than ever before.

According to the article:  

• SEIU’s settlement “proposes to set cost limits on retiree health benefits”
• SEIU agreed to a partnership tax of “at least 9 cents per hour” which can “increase if needed, by an unspecified amount.”
• SEIU agreed to partner with Kaiser to “measure employee body mass index, smoking rates, cholesterol, and blood pressure levels.”  

SEIU’s giveaways to Kaiser are a huge step backwards for Kaiser workers. 

As the article reports, NUHW Secretary-Treasurer John Borsos stated that SEIU’s new contract “reads like a Kaiser Power Point business plan, because that is what it is.”

Kaiser workers all over California are fighting back by sharing SEIU’s giveaways to Kaiser with our co-workers and encouraging them to vote “NO” at SEIU’s ratification votes. You can print out and share a special copy of the article with notes from NUHW, by clicking here.

Sincerely,

Cindy Thomas, Department Secretary, Kaiser San Rafael
National Union of Healthcare Workers    

Video: We threw out SEIU and took back our union at Children's Hospital Oakland

We won at Children's Hospital Oakland

Yesterday we won a great victory at Children’s Hospital Oakland.

I am so proud to report that we won our re-run election over SEIU by a margin of 183 votes for NUHW to 135 votes for SEIU.

SEIU’s organizers had told NUHW supporters that they were going to “make us cry” at the ballot count. We did. We cried tears of joy at our victory.

Now we have a union that we control again—and where all union members are treated with respect—at Children’s Hospital Oakland.

Please share this important leaflet with our co-workers and welcome them to our union, NUHW.

We are the newest members of NUHW at Children’s Hospital Oakland.

Sincerely,

Ruth Kees, Clinical Lab, Children’s Hospital Oakland
National Union of Healthcare Workers    

NUHW forces SEIU to reveal their secret deal at Kaiser

Yesterday, NUHW forced SEIU to reveal their secret deal with Kaiser.

SEIU wanted to prevent workers from seeing the details of their agreement with Kaiser Permanente before healthcare workers were forced to vote on it. SEIU tried to do what they’ve done to workers at Daughters of Charity and Dignity/Catholic Healthcare West and get workers to approve giveaways to the employer without even having a chance to read them.

When NUHW got the document we printed it right away and shared the TA’s—or Tentative Agreements—with everyone. Now, SEIU has been forced to put their version of the TA’s up on the SEIU website with four additional pages.

But SEIU’s version of the TA’s raise even more questions about the changes in store for Kaiser workers. SEIU’s TA’s mention secret 2010 agreements on “On call Conversions,” “Regional Transfers” and “Job Postings” that they’ve now signed off on with management but never printed and shared with healthcare workers.

Is SEIU hiding more cuts from healthcare workers? That’s all but certain.

SEIU is a union where staff in Washington D.C. call all the shots and backroom deals are the order of the day.

SEIU's bogus ratification votes

Tomorrow, Kaiser workers will begin to vote on SEIU’s disastrous deal with its “partner,” Kaiser Permanente. When Kaiser workers cast their ballots to vote NO to this sell-out agreement, they should know one thing: SEIU’s contract ratification process is a sham.

At Daughters of Charity hospitals, we know firsthand about SEIU’s ratification misconduct. Yesterday, along with our co-workers, we filed charges against SEIU President Mary Kay Henry and SEIU-UHW President Dave Regan for violating the SEIU and SEIU-UHW Constitutions in our recent ratification vote.

After agreeing to a contract that eliminates our pension plan, raises our healthcare premiums, and allows management to subcontract some of our jobs, SEIU refused to give us copies of the agreement and then rushed to begin our ratification votes with only nine hours advance notice. This was a clear violation of Article XIV, Section 7 of the SEIU-UHW Constitution, which requires at least three days notification before starting the ratification process.

(In our charges, we’re also challenging SEIU for wasting $5.5 million of our dues money on a phony ballot initiative and then refusing to allow us to see the deal SEIU officials cut with hospital industry leaders.)

As we said to Regan and Henry in our letter, “How can we make an informed choice when we’re not even permitted to see the actual language that would define our families’ future health benefits and our pensions? Would you vote on a deal to cut your benefits without seeing the actual language?” You can read our letter to Regan and Henry here.

At Kaiser, workers are experiencing much the same thing from SEIU. After signing the tentative agreement with Kaiser last week, SEIU officials refused to allow members to see the contract language. NUHW got a copy of the TA, and now we know why SEIU kept it a secret: it’s chock full of giveaways to Kaiser.

Follow this link to view SEIU’s agreement: http://bitly.com/SEIUgiveaways

Now SEIU is rushing to get this deal ratified before members learn about all the cuts SEIU agreed to at a time when Kaiser is making more money than ever before in its history, even though the current agreement does not expire until September 30. These cuts include a major reduction in workers’ retiree healthcare benefit, an hourly tax to pay for SEIU’s Partnership with Kaiser, and a “wellness program” that allows management to monitor workers’ health and lifestyle choices.

SEIU can’t be trusted at the bargaining table, and they can’t be trusted at the ratification ballot box. That’s just another reason why workers at Daughters of Charity and at Kaiser Permanente are organizing to get out of SEIU and join NUHW.

Please print and share this leaflet with your co-workers.

Sincerely,

Suad Husary, Respiratory Therapist, Seton Medical Center
Donald Bolt, Respiratory Therapist, St. Francis Hospital
Maria Ventura, Laboratory Technician, St. Louise Hospital
National Union of Healthcare Workers