SEIU & the Zombies: Above the law?

It looks like the Zombies are on the way to court again, this time not to fight with NUHW but to explain to the Federal government why the feel they can flout their own International constitution and Federal law. Clearly, this is an example of what happens when an union implodes on itself. First there was the homecare rally at the capital that didn't happen because they didn't get a permit (the pictures from said rally are likely recycled from last year) but now the Zombies didn't bother to even

NUHW wins at Providence Tarzana 282 to 69

First, the vote count:

NUHW: 282 (72.5%)
SEIU: 69 (17.17%)
No union: 38 (9.8%)
Total valid votes (sum of the above the numbers): 389

After the last stalling tactic SEIU met its fate at Providence Tarzana Hospital. Months of bullying, delaying, lieing all amounted to just 69 votes out of 389 valid votes cast, that's just 17.7%. It's a shame what has happened to UHW since the trusteeship, but it's undeniably clear that given the choice between a member led union and one that's used every underhanded and evil tactic to further its own goals, the choice is clear: NUHW. Will the Zombies ever learn from their mistakes? Well first they'd have to admit they made a mistake, and that's a realization that will only occur when they are at their wits end and too many former UHW prisoners have jumped ship. I wonder how they will spin this first of many devastating losses coming this summer and fall.

Thanks to my mystery tipper for forwarding this good news.

What ever happened to the Zombie UHW Report?

I take my Zombie UHW report here at the blog so I thought maybe they had deleted my email address. I guess they are so focused on fighting with and threatening members that the pure propaganda piece is no longer high on their list or priorities. Or maybe they finally realized no one cares what they have to say.

Homecare fraud by the numbers

So the numbers are in from the Great Homecare Scare of 2009/2010. As you may recall from last year's budget fight in Sacramento, the idea of screening homecare providers for criminal convictions was made into law. At first ANY felony conviction would bar a prospective or current provider from working in the program. After a lawsuit was filed, the barring convictions were reduced to just those that defrauded the government, as well as convictions of sexual abuse or child abuse.

Oddly enough convictions in rape, murder, robbery are still "acceptable" to the State. Just wait: next year these will be used to eliminate providers matching this criteria. (Eventually that parking ticket in Boston is going to catch up with, I just know it!) Hmmm, funny how for years the State wanted nothing to do with who did the work. Just do the work, be happy with minimum wage and don't ask for lofty rewards for your hard work like healthcare, sick pay or a pension. At least SEIU was able to bargain some contracts sporting better than minimum wage and worker only benefits. (We'll see how long that lasts!)

But now the legislature passed this law hoping to curb the Governator's 2007 estimate of 25% fraud in the program, only to find out in a study he commissioned that the waste was at best 1%. Now with the cut-off date of June 30, 2010 for current providers behind us we can see just how many of the State's 350,000+ providers are kicked out of the program.

So as of 6/29/2010, 446 out of 396,956 homecare workers are ineligible for employment. That's 0.11% (not a typo and not 11%), or just barely more than 1 in one thousand. Kind of makes all the bad press about homecare seem more like angry propaganda from conservative lawmakers who have no idea bout how the program works, the money it saves or the humanity inherent in living in and being cared for in the home instead of a nursing home. Keep in mind as "independent contractors" we had to pay for our own background checks and fingerprinting. Mine was among the cheapest in Sonoma county $52 for both. Multiply this by hundreds of thousands and you can see the great and bankrupt State of California made the vast majority of underpaid and desperately poor homecare workers pay for the cost of proving their innocence.

It gets worse: in Sonoma County, home of the Red Revolt, we see:

Do you see that? Out of 2719 providers, 1 lost his/her job. Put another way: $52 x 2719 = $141,388, minimum cost paid by the honest providers to disqualify one worker. Can I have my $52 back now? Can we all have our pay to prove we're innocent money back?

I can hardly wait until this year's budget is passed to see what money wasting, provider humiliating anti-fraud laws are forced on the poor and overwhelmingly innocent workers.