As SEIU’s showdown with NUHW at Kaiser Permanente nears, SEIU stewards continue to resign their positions in order to support NUHW. Among the latest defections, two former stewards wrote a stinging open letter to Dave Regan (SEIU Trustee) and Mary Kay Henry, stating some of their reasons for resigning:
Kaiser Hospital
We are appalled at SEIU’s past and continuing use of mass firings and purges and of loyalty oaths as prerequisites for past and future participation in union activities and labor-management committees. We are outraged at SEIU’s passing along to Kasier for termination the names of IBHS workers who, out of conscience, refuse to pay SEIU dues. At the same time SEIU is using millions of dollars of those same dues for mass mailings, consultants, robocalls and polling to assure its victory in the upcoming election. We are outraged at SEIU’s cooperation with management in eviscerating our pension plan and then trumpeting the new contract as “No Take aways” while including formation of a committee in which SEIU and Kaiser “experts” will work together once again to reduce our health care and other benefits… We have come to believe that SEIU does not represent labor’s interests at Kaiser. We cannot continue to support SEIU and are resigning to promote the election of NUHW, a union whose leadership will serve labor’s interests. Another resigning steward,
fed up with SEIU’s refusal to debate (when NUHW is quite willing), included this list of questions employees are eager to pose to SEIU:
1. With so many SEIU staff here, why can’t we get grievances processed or find anyone when we need representation? 2. Why are managers letting SEIU interrupt our work, while they try to stop us from talking to NUHW supporters? 3. Why is SEIU allowing management to subcontract in Dietary? 4. Why didn’t SEIU tell us their contract had a health benefits takeaway committee? 5. Why is SEIU threatening we’ll lose our benefits when federal law says all our raises and benefits stay the same? 6. Why do workers at LAMC make 15% less than workers at Kaiser Fresno, and why isn’t SEIU doing anything about that? 7. Why does SEIU charge us 25% more dues than NUHW just to send all the extra to Washington, D.C.?
More questions than answers, it appears.
