Eye on SEIU

SEIU let Kaiser cut our pension while Kaiser executives took an $11 million payout

2010-07-02T21:37:06Z

Click here to see what happened to our pension and share this leaflet.

Kaiser’s financial report shows that while Kaiser made $2.1 Billion in profit last year, Kaiser cut our pensions by $242 million. To make matters worse, 45 top Kaiser executives took $11 million in second “pensions” last year on top of their salaries

When times are good for Kaiser, it should benefit all of Kaiser’s employees, not just a few. Instead, when SEIU failed to protect our pensions, Kaiser took full advantage. Kaiser chose to cut our lump sum pension option and SEIU let them do it without even giving us a vote.

Share this leaflet about the pension with your coworkers. You can read Kaiser’s full financial report here.

SEIU's benefits takeaway committee could cut our healthcare at Kaiser

2010-06-08T21:40:24Z

Click here to see the contract language for yourself and share this leaflet.

In the contract SEIU settled for last month with Kaiser, SEIU agreed to form a health benefits takeaway committee that will begin meeting soon after the contract is ratified. The committee’s only purpose is to cut what Kaiser pays for health benefits for workers and retirees.

How much could that hurt us? At other facilities where SEIU has agreed to takeaways, workers now pay up to $4,000 a year for their health insurance.

The takeaway committee is made up of “experts”—not Kaiser workers—and SEIU can agree to the takeways without letting us vote, just like they did with our pension.

SEIU even promised Kaiser that they will try to convince us to accept the takeaways.

Download the leaflet and read SEIU’s agreement for yourself. You can read what SEIU has given away for workers at other hospitals by clicking here.

Government charges against SEIU highlight violations, intimidation

2010-04-09T02:51:38Z

The NLRB has found SEIU guilty of wrongdoing on charges of illegally intimidating workers who support NUHW at St. Francis Medical Center in Lynwood and has scheduled a separate trial for six SEIU staffers charged with intimidation and harassment. Additionally, the Department of Labor has found against SEIU, but declined to charge them, for misusing members’ money to silence dissenting voices at the 2008 convention.

The NLRB has found SEIU guilty of an Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) at Saint Francis Medical Center in Lynwood. Specifically, SEIU admits that it illegally violated workers’ rights when it threatened to “have St. Francis Medical Center terminate them because they engage(d) in activities in support of the National Union of Healthcare workers.” Click here for a flyer with more information. Haga clic aquí para Español.
On June 7, 2010, the NLRB will hold a trial against six SEIU staff members for illegally threatening and intimidating NUHW supporters and violating their rights under federal labor law.
The U.S. Department of Labor ruled that SEIU violated federal labor law by violating their own constitution (pg. 2, para 1) and misusing members’ money (pg. 5, para 2). While declining to prosecute SEIU, the DOL did find that SEIU violated its own constitution by allowing delegates to vote who had not been fairly elected and using robo-call campaigns, flyers and websites against Sal Rosselli (pg. 6, para 3) at the Puerto Rico convention. SEIU had an obligation not to spend members’ dues in favor of one candidate or another in officer elections.

SEIU assaults union supporter in Garden Grove Hospital cafeteria

2010-02-26T22:50:41Z

On Feb. 25, SEIU staff disrupted a group of healthcare workers and union supporters meeting peacefully in the cafeteria of Garden Grove Hospital. This video shows SEIU staffer Lisbeth Castillo yelling at a hospital employee and spouting obscenities before lunging at an NUHW volunteer and striking him.

Court docs reveal SEIU paid to manipulate trusteeship report

2010-02-25T05:01:29Z

SEIU President Andy Stern appointed Ray Marshall to act as a “hearing officer” to help him take over California’s healthcare union last year.

SEIU paid Marshall to hold a hearing and write a report that tried to justify the trusteeship with claims about UHW’s finances, so they could hide their real purposes.

But new documents reveal that:

Marshall received money more than half a dozen times from SEIU and SEIU’s lawyers—and more than $190,000 just for his role in the hearings.
Marshall shared his initial decision with SEIU, and then changed his report to address SEIU’s concerns.
Parts of Marshall’s report were actually written by SEIU’s lawyers.

Click here for a leaflet to share this with your co-workers.

Transcript of Ray Marshall’s deposition on Jan. 21, 2010:

Click to view full-screen

Federal government charges six SEIU staff for illegal threats and intimidation

2010-02-01T20:17:40Z

Following a months-long investigation, the National Labor Relations Board has charged six SEIU staff members for illegally threatening and intimidating NUHW supporters and violating their rights under federal labor law.

Among the Board’s charges against SEIU:

An SEIU staffer “implying that he wanted to engage in a physical fight” with a healthcare worker for supporting NUHW.
“Yelling obscenities” at healthcare workers because they supported NUHW.
Reporting workers to managers in an effort to have them removed from their own workplace for supporting NUHW.
“Threatening an employee with discipline, including termination,” if the worker “did not stop distributing NUHW literature.”
“Threatening not to represent an employee if she were discharged or otherwise disciplined… for engaging in support of NUHW.”

All of these actions are illegal and these SEIU staff will be held accountable in a trial scheduled for April 12, 2010.

Click to view the complaint full-screen

Why is SEIU's contract a secret from workers at Daughters of Charity?

2010-01-14T22:05:52Z

SEIU told Daughters of Charity workers we were voting for full retroactive pay, no cuts in healthcare, full parity in benefits, and no management rights when we ratified our contract. So why won’t they give us a copy of our contract?

See for yourself. Click here for a full-screen view.

Immigrant and disability advocates join homecare providers to protest SEIU threats

2009-11-26T01:44:00Z

Immigrant and disability advocates spoke out at a protest yesterday outside the Fresno office of the labor union SEIU. SEIU came under fire last week for allegedly tampering with ballots and making illegal threats against its own members—including threats that immigrant workers could be deported—in this summer’s controversial union election for 10,000 Fresno homecare providers.

Former SEIU staff blow the whistle on SEIU's illegal Fresno campaign

2009-11-12T18:00:44Z

Fresno workers spoke out about SEIU’s tactics during the controversial election in June.

Today’s Wall Street Journal reports that SEIU engaged in illegal threats, ballot-tampering, and other serious violations of election rules during a June union election for 10,000 homecare providers in Fresno, according to voters and union staff who worked for SEIU during the election and have now come forward.

A sworn declaration from an SEIU whistleblower says that senior SEIU officials instructed organizers to violate election rules during the mail-in, secret-ballot vote, and then destroyed evidence of the violations. Statements from two former SEIU staff and several homecare providers were recently submitted to the California Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) as evidence accompanying a request to overturn the election results.

SEIU rigs Sonoma County vote to force caregivers into all-takeaway contract

2009-10-21T07:30:43Z

SEIU officials used security guards, voter suppression, and a misleading summary to force homecare workers to ratify a secret agreement with the County. Here’s why they had to fix the vote:

Instead of raises, the contract provides for a $2/hour wage cut that is virtually guaranteed when federal stimulus money runs out next summer.
The contract allows workers to be switched out of their current health plan with Kaiser Permanente into a different, undefined plan.
The contract allows sharp increases in workers’ out-of-pocket payments for doctors visits, prescriptions, and other medical services. Under the previous contract, many of these costs were fixed.
The County is no longer required to provide workers with protective supplies like gloves, masks, and disinfectant wipes.
The County is no longer required to provide on-call relief services to care for seniors and people with disabilities when providers are called away by emergencies.
There are no improvements at all in the contract, only takeaways. This is the first contract in California history that moves homecare workers backward, widening the gulf between long-term care and hospital workers.

How could SEIU get workers to vote for a contract like that? Click the link below to read the rest of the story, hear Sonoma County Supervisors condemn SEIU’s behavior, and see the contract for yourself.