Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Zombies break arm slapping themselves on the back

In a vaguely worded article that doesn't cite any references, the Zombies submit their "but in our reality we are winning" press release. If any reader can cite an example of the Zombies bargaining an improvement over a previous please send the link my way. Sure they've bargained at lease one new contract for a new bargaining unit but initial contracts are by default better than what was available before. You'll notice the only good press the Zombies get is when they write the article. As time goes on there are fewer and fewer credible authors willing to tarnish their good name or publishing organization supporting the crumbling the Zombie empire. I'm sure we can look forward to a similarly (if not identically) worded UHW Report, spouting all kinds of fake "good news".


7 comments:

  1. The Zombies seem to be experts of deception because they can't seriously believe that they have bargained any good contracts. Most, if not all, hospital workers gained a good contract bargained by the old UHW under the leadership of Sal Rosselli and his dedicated staff.

    As far as I can tell, practically all SEIU members feel that they have been abandoned in one way or another or that SEIU staff have made backroom deals with management at the members expense and detriment.

    SEIU is not wanted in California because they went from a member led union to a corporate style union. The only thing members can believe in is that Andy and SEIU wants their dues.

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  2. I thought you sent out press releases when you actually made some, you know, NEWS? PR Newswire charges for press releases, so once again Dave Regan spends dues dollars on a new scheme to try to look like they're successful and legitimate. Guess the 13 votes in Santa Rosa signaled a need to change their tactics.

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  3. My guess is that SEIU may change tactics but it's arrogance will always remain.

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  4. After 25 years of sitting at Bargaining tables when I hear of settlements that sound so great that it requires reviewing the contract ( and it usually takes 6 months for the contract to get signed , printed and distributed)I almost always find "cost shifting" on Health Insurance. It can be an easy short term solution for a contract settlement to get 4% in money with an additional $50/Month increase in employee premium payments. Or, say new employees (who aren't hired yet and therefore have no vote) have to work for 1 year as a full timer before insurance starts or when their insurance benefits start they have to pay a higher rate, or the raises don't go into the start rate for the duration of the contract (sometimes 5 years)so new hires become not only much cheaper to the employer but those new hire costs give a reason for managemnet to attempt to drive more senior (costly) employees to leave. All the short term fixes eventually cost the Bargaining Unit as far as solidarity and trust and paychecks. SEIU, under Andy, seems to embrace these short term solutions that always come back to haunt and divide the membership.

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  5. Yes, and no doubt NUHW will be able to negotiate a superior contract at SRMH, what with the overwhelming support represented by the vote of 283 of 675 members of the bargaining unit (42%), the opposition of 293 members (43%, counting 13 who voted for UHW, 263 who voted "no union" and 17 who cared enough to vote but whose votes were challenged by NUHW--think they are now NUHW supporters, whatever they were originally?), and 99 who didn't care enough to vote. How do the contracts NUHW has managed to negotiate so far stack up to the ones SEIU is boasting about? Hard to say BECAUSE THEY HAVEN'T GOTTEN ANY.

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  6. @ anonymous at 5:35 p.m.
    Blah Blah Blah. You must have missed the UHW talking points memo for the day -- accentuate the positive! The negative got you ... 13 votes.
    Bragging about obstructing the will of the workers by frivolous blocking charges hasn't worked so far -- the members are smart enough to realize what's going on. I think one thing we ALL know is that whenever NUHW is given the honor of negotiating contracts for its growing membership it won't sell out the workers like Zombie UHW keeps doing.
    Sad when someone in the labor movement is happy that UHW worked with the boss to persuade workers to vote against a union. Shame.

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  7. The Zombie UHW press release contained this:

    "3% [negotiated increases] at John Muir Medical Centers in Brentwood, Concord, and Walnut Creek"

    Well, let me make the observation that if you're going to pay money to distribute your own fake news item, you might as well try to get your fake news right:

    UHW does not represent the workers at John Muir Medical Center in Brentwood or in Walnut Creek. Only the Concord campus is in UHW.

    This is a press release apparently written by someone in UHW who knows so stunningly little about the hospitals they're writing about (and the epic 10+ year campaign to attempt to organize the Walnut Creek and Brentwood campuses) that they probably just looked up "John Muir Medical Center" on the web to find the names of their campuses, and vapidly typed those names into the press release.

    What's worse, noone in the Zombie UHW among the many whom must have reviewed the release -- including Trustee Dave Regan, who was quoted in the release -- noticed the error, for they have not a clue in the world.

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