The Red Revolt

You Can Lie, But You Can't Hide!

2010-10-14T08:32:00.000-07:00

As a faithful reader of Sternburger with Fries, I was pleased to see Tasty connecting the dots between Steve Greenberg's whitewashing of SEIUs sins of the day and Randy Shaw for calling him out for who he is: Stern's college roommate turned thinly veiled cheerleader for SEIU International. The latest Greenhouse inspired problem: a NY Times article that supports the neutrality of Kaiser but ignores the injunction filed against Kaiser. Also of note is his delcaration that SEIU is a "powerful, nationwide union that could do a better job negotiating contracts" but I wonder if he has looked at any of these contracts. The "bigger is better" message still has great meaning to SEIU.

Below is included Steve Early's letter to the editor calling out the Time for its very selective reporting. Go Steve!

To Mr. Arthur Brisbane,
The Public Editor, NY Times:

When a big employer violates federal labor law, and its misconduct affects the outcome of the largest private sector union representation vote since 1941, shouldn’t Times readers be informed about this?

Steven Greenhouse’s Oct. 9, 2010 article on the recent National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) election at Kaiser Permanente (“Big Union Wins Vote Against a Rival in California”) quotes a Kaiser spokesperson, John E. Nelson, who declared that the election was “fair.”

Mr. Greenhouse reports: “Mr. Nelson said Kaiser was neutral throughout the campaign and had ‘cooperated fully with the N.L.R.B. to assure that we met our legal obligations.’ ”

Nowhere in this article does Greenhouse mention that the NLRB has issued a major unfair labor practice complaint against Kaiser for violating its duty to bargain fairly with 2,300 employees who left the “big union” (the Service Employees International Union) in January and joined its “rival” (the National Union of Healthcare Workers. The Board’s regional director in southern California has accused Kaiser of withholding a scheduled 2% raise last April—a management action that unlawfully punished the defecting SEIU members for their exercise of “employee free choice.”

If Kaiser had "cooperated fully" with the NLRB and met its "legal obligations," this case would have been settled last Spring, and the affected workers would have been paid what they were owed under their old contract. Instead, management misconduct cast a long shadow on the just-completed election, in which 43,000 Kaiser employees chose to stick with SEIU, rather than change unions and be treated like their 2,300 co-workers now represented by NUHW.

On Oct. 4, the NLRB sought what’s called a “10(j) injunction” in federal court, to obtain immediate back pay and other benefits for the 2,300 workers, while their case is still being litigated. This action is taken in only a handful of unfair labor practice proceedings every year, where the damage to workers rights is particularly egregious. Yet Greenhouse makes no mention of this in his article, again failing to provide readers with a full and accurate picture of the employer behavior that influenced the outcome of the latest SEIU vs. NUHW contest at Kaiser.

In the interests of full disclosure, I should note that I am an active supporter of NUHW. But as someone with 35 years of experience in labor law, labor journalism, and union organizing, I find the omission of these salient details to be quite a lapse in The Times’ usual standards of reporting.

Steve Early
11 Ely Rd.
Arlington, Mass.
02476
(781-643-1489)

Better Dead than Red?

2010-10-14T07:45:00.000-07:00

Wow, shocking but totally unexpected. Way to go Zombie UHW! You'll do anything but support dues paying members, won't you? I suspect this is the first of many healthcare employers to reduce it's workforce now that employers know that if put to a vote for UHW or NUHW, the Purple Plague will bend over backwards to screw it's own members just to secure a win over NUHW. The message here is clear: think for yourself or vote for NUHW and you're on your own. "Race to the bottom," indeed!

What a $50 million fear and lies campaign buys the Zombies

2010-10-11T12:53:00.000-07:00

Read Cal Winslow's excellent article on the Kaiser fight, why NUHW lost and why standing up to fear -- be it from your boss or your union -- is crucial to making an informed decision. SEIU will spend any amount of money and use lies, fear and employer collusion to keep what is shouldn't have. No wonder organized labor is taking a beating: Americas fastest growing union is going out of it;s way to show how progressive and caring it is!

Money Talks; Democracy Walks

2010-10-09T01:44:00.000-07:00

As we've all heard by now the Zombies and their blind-sided members at Kaiser "have overwhelmingly voted to keep our union". We all know how the Zombies like to overstate everything but this one time they are right. They did achieve a victory but only by overwhelmingly annoying the very members it wishes to represent. They lied, bullied and spread fear among members who are just trying to do their job and are entirely uninterested in the livelihood of union employees bent on keeping their jobs, including clueless temps supplied by one of SEIU's remaining allies the Obama administration . They may have won the battle but, as in the Fresno Homecare War of 2009, they are losing the war for California healthcare workers and both victories are under review by the government.

Though the Zombies teamed up with Kaiser management and basically strongarmed their way to a false victory, this cash hungry approach to keeping members will quickly bankrupt SEIU. Once those paychecks start bouncing (which I have heard has already began) they will be unable to find anyone to work on their behalf and against the members. It's hardly a surprise, but still very discouraging.

So what's next? Well the Zombies are likely to screw up the lives of members now under contract and once enough people are burned by SEIU they can put management intimidation and Zombie bullying aside, look at their diminished paychecks and vote what is best for them.

* * *

As you may have noticed I've been laying low for a while now and for this I have an explanation. As a homecare member I was (and still am) quite interested in the future of homecare in California where I was born raised and (for now) still live. I also wrote extensively about Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital given my various connections to the hospital. I want to write my own original material based on what I read and observe and not rely on the writing of others such a former UHW cheerleader "X Perez whatever", nor do I want to say pretty much the same thing as Tasty Burger. It occurred to me to Perez Stern covered the Fresno homecare battle, Sierra Spartan covered the descent of Andy Stern and I focused on Sonoma homecare...we all have out specialties. Tasty Burger clearly has the inside scoop on the Kaiser battle.

Since I've been busy with earning a living, keeping up with my bills despite the effort of SSI to penalize me every time I try to provide for my family, and branching out in my other financial endeavors I've had my distractions. For now there will be less frequent blog entries but I'm still here, watching, thinking, waiting for that sign that tells me now is the time to break free of Zombie rule here in Sonoma county.

New KP workers website

2010-09-10T12:04:00.000-07:00

In an effort to combat the ever rising tidal wave of lies and manipulation from the Zombies I have posted a like to the NUHW sponsored website. Learn more about what is really going on in Kaiser. Note the tone of the website, no use of fear just just the law plain and simple. Go NUHW!

Kicking Us While We're Down: Republican Legislators Truly Despise the Poor

2010-09-09T09:41:00.000-07:00

As a low income worker who is constantly attacked for working in the IHSS program and is brutally punished for trying to legitimately get ahead in life, I find it particularly gauling that Republican legislators are so willing to eliminate the poor by gutting our financial support! I know some of these legislators represent constituents that reward them saying "no" to spending money on any kind of socially oriented programs, but this is ridiculous.

Nothing like a little truth to destroy an otherwise solid sounding argument!

When in bed with the boss make sure the roof doesn't cave in!

2010-08-27T10:33:00.000-07:00

This is disturbing as it is unexpected. As time goes on SEIU is becoming harder to differentiate from the employer it seeks to emulate, by acting more and more like the employers it should be battling on behalf of it's dues-paying members. This week's act of complacency and passive support is documented below in Randy Shaw's article on Beyond Chron.

"Doctor" Huerta makes the rounds

2010-08-21T01:23:00.000-07:00

She's fearless, she's respected and she's feared by UHW/Kaiser for daring to think and then speak her mind but that's exactly what she is doing. Go Dolores!

2 down... a few more to go

2010-08-11T10:37:00.000-07:00

Hear ye, hear ye: Anna "I've held every position but president, so pick meeeeeeeeeeeeee" Burger has decided to hang up her spurs. Don't run away now, SEIU is about to have it's rear-end handed to on it on a plate. Anna, you must stand by the president you now support...she's going to need it. Could this be the first of many high level SEIU execs to finally read the writing on the wall and jump ship before it completely sinks? Maybe. I'm sure Brave Sir Regan would rather die than quit so who's next? Email your suggestions. Top names will become choices on a poll.

Kaiser Santa Rosa Stewards to fellow members: see you on the other side!

2010-08-05T06:22:00.000-07:00

For a year and a half now the Zombies have been slapping around their own members on multiple occasions and recently it's own staff, but now now they've really done it: 48 of their own stewards resigned en masse to support NUHW. That's 48 less in quickly shrinking army of largely willingly-blind supporters*. To quote from my favorite movie: They "showed these men of will what will really was".

I wonder just how much loss they have to endure before they realize they are fighting an uphill battle against a tiny, underfunded, small in membership but well supported upstart union they keep losing to! This should prove to be quite an exciting summer for union democracy, California healthcare workers and the long overdue but well deserved collapse from it's own arrogance.

* I suspect the Zombies supporters are half willingly-blind supporters, and half totally clueless people who just believe what is told to them because of the perceived authority that is SEIU.

An Open Letter to SEIU President Mary Kay Henry

2010-08-03T11:29:00.000-07:00

Dolores Huerta, co-founder of UFW, tells it like it is. Go Dolores!

SEIU & the Zombies: Above the law?

2010-07-30T18:29:00.000-07:00

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

2010-07-26T15:09:00.000-07:00

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?

2010-07-22T12:08:00.001-07:00

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

2010-07-13T12:32:00.000-07:00

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.

"WWIII" begins...

2010-06-29T10:16:00.000-07:00

...with the first battle being fought in the Service and Technical group for Kaiser Permanente in Northern California, size unknown as of this writing, but I suspect this is the 48,000+ group we've all been waiting for.

More as it happens. Thanks to retired blogger Sierra Spartan for the tip off.

UDW excels where the Zombies fail

2010-06-24T17:06:00.000-07:00

UDW, (United Domestic Workers), the counterpart to SEIU with respect to homecare workers in California have yet again succeeded where the Zombies have failed. The latest example of UDW shining through the muck of state politics and Zombie propaganda is this email I received. The absence of an email from is all the proof I need that the Zombie have abandoned homecare workers in the counties which UHW has contracts. The Zombie aren't even trying to help their dues paying members anymore any more. See Stern Burger's write up on yesterday's failure de jour! I wonder if Erica Boddie still has such an lofty of post trusteeship UHW.

Sacramento rally canceled due to Zombie ultra-fail

2010-06-24T10:56:00.000-07:00

I don't feel so bad for missing the rally for work yesterday. I knew attendance would be low but this is just ridiculous! Go check out the link, it's hilarious. You'd think the all powerful and well funded Zombie UHW would be able to handle the simple process of securing a permit before the rally at the state capital. Clearly they are so consumed with defeating NUHW, they can't even pull off a rally at the capital. They used to do several a summer, now, just one and they still messed it up. This is the new, democracy free UHW, home of the slacker. Thanks to Stern Burger for the reporting!

"We just write the rules, we don't follow them"

2010-06-20T11:41:00.000-07:00

This is essentially what Memorial management is saying to the workers and the community in which we all live.
They fought 2 different unions organization efforts and lost. The pushed a no union vote and lost. They filed objections about the election and either rescinded them or had them trounced by the NLRB. Yet they still fight the inevitable.

Shame on them! If you are as outraged as me we can all voice our opinion by contacting Sister Katherine Gray, CSJ (General Superior of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange), and writing a respectful but unambiguous email stating your concern for Memorial management's disregard for it's own rules, mission statements, and the decision made by voter in December election, we can hopefully and finally get the hospital to behave and move forward instead of backward.

kgray@csjorange.org

Memorial saga continues...

2010-06-20T10:54:00.000-07:00

Apparently it's not enough that the workers at Memorial have been organizing, waiting and fighting management for more than 6 years to join a union. Throw in 2 competing unions, a substantial "no union" effort backed by Memorial management vote, unending delays, appeals and psychological warfare from management, despite their own commitment to abide by the workers choice and you can see Memorial management is proving the unthinkable is possible by treating it's own employees worse than the Zombies treat it's own members.

First is Randy Shaw's article at BeyondChron.

As beautifully pointed out by Randy Shaw at BeyondChron, Memorial management has yet again taken the low road and further delayed the inevitable union-negotiated contract between the voters who won the election and the ever profitable Saint Joseph Health Systems. How profitable? On December 7, 2009, just 10 days before the election they bought a building they don't have immediate plans for. This recreational shopping at its finest folks!

However, the news isn't all bad NUHW is the official and exclusive bargaining agent for Santa Rosa Memorial workers, again.

* * *

Sorry about the delay in reporting this (and the other postings today): I just finished 8 days in a row at my new job. In an economy where unemployment is10% nationwide I feel fortunate to have 2 jobs; however working homecare and delivering pizza to western Santa Rosa is no road to riches. Also, today marks the first year of marriage so I'm catching up on my blogging and then spending time with my sweetie.

Blatantly leading journalism

2010-06-08T14:14:00.000-07:00

The Press Democrat, the major local, leading paper, owned by the New York Times, prints what sells, not necessarily what is important or useful to its readers. An example would be the pseudo-random poll of select readers shown below. Is it just me or does this seem like a rigged vote trying to masquerade as poll of potential voters? At least they pointed out this was not a scientific survey, and it is on the opinion page. Perhaps this a last ditch effort to sway voters. Whatever, objective reporting is dead.

A KP "Takeway Committee" Really?!

2010-06-07T22:49:00.000-07:00

I don't often quote or even refer to NUHW literature in my ongoing quest to make this blog my own but this caught my eye, because it is one of the few golden NUHW documents based on SEIU-related material. This time it's the benefits takeaway committee. I thought the bargaining committee assembled by SEIU for Sonoma County homecare workers (who were totally unaware of the wool being pulled over their eyes) was a dizzying achievement in presenting member manipulation as member involvement, but here the Zombies have cut members out of the process entirely. Clearly, they aren't even trying to trick their must gullible member supporters. As you will see at the bottom of the first page, the Zombies have agreed to some slippery language, similar to the "contingent upon available funding" found littered in the Sonoma County homecare contract.

Email to save homecare...guess who DIDN'T send it?

2010-06-03T14:37:00.000-07:00

Ah yet another chance for the Zombie to prove they have their members best interests at heart. Care to place a bet on when or if they will send their own version of the email below?

* * *

Last week, politicians in Washington passed a jobs bill WITHOUT critical fiscal relief for states and local governments. Without this money, states will slash hundreds of thousands of jobs and gut education, health care and public safety services even more. For example, without these funds, state costs for IHSS will increase from $1.4 billion to $1.8 billion. This will make it far more difficult for us to prevent cuts to IHSS in this year’s budget.However, there is still a chance to get this aid in the Senate version of the bill. Please call your senators right now. Tell them to include state aid in this jobs bill.

It will be nothing short of catastrophic for the already dire budget crisis in most states if this Medicaid funding does not get put back into this jobs bill. This funding (known as FMAP) would provide $26 billion in badly needed resources for state and local governments.

Please click here to call your senators right now.

Final 4 management objections for Memorial workers soundly rejected by NLRB

2010-06-03T09:25:00.000-07:00

The story so far: an organizing effort for approximately 700 workers occurred over the last 6 years, under the direction of the old SEIU UHW. The trusteeship of the SEIU UHW happened and the organizing effort suddenly stopped. The 160+ employees of UHW who quit in disgust formed NUHW and after reconnecting with the workers at Memorial picked up where SEIU left off after abandoning them in August 2009. An election was scheduled, SEIU came late to the party and demanded to be allowed in. Despite dire warnings that if allowed onto the ballot, SEIU would lose by a landslide, SEIU insisted on forcing themselves onto the ballot. The cool kids had to let them play, and so the election was scheduled. Officially, SEIU wanted felt they were the better union for many lame reasons no one remembers or cares about but unofficially they knew had no chance of winning the election so they pushed the no union vote, because you see, in their eyes, no union is better than a competing union especially one created from former employees that are winning the hearts, minds and votes of soon to be former members and prospective members. Suffice it to say when the votes were counted the underdog NUHW won by a landslide (283-13).

* * *

The final four objections to the election for Memorial workers were soundly defeated by the NLRB Wednesday. As you may recall Memorial management backed off of 6 of their 10 objections, and after the Administrative Law Judge reviewed Memorial managements case the remaining 4 were dismissed by the NLRB.

The ruling above is 32 pages long and quite detailed, but after an exhaustive description of each objection the Adminstrative Law Judge deftly dismisses the objection. My favorite: the "scientific experiment" that almost completely misses the point and proves to be a complete waste of expert witness testimony not to mention money!

NUHW won the election. Of the 10 objections filed by the employer they dropped 6 and the remaining 4 were dismissed by the NLRB. Clearly the workers have won so why the resistance? Memorial management has taken a position similar to a death penalty defense, by using every legal means to delay the inevitable and annoy the workers, but even they have to admit the writing is on the wall. An appeal is sure to come, unless every reader expresses their disgust with management's actions thus far. Call, write or possibly protest (no plans yet) to make sure they don't file an appeal.

Kevin Klockenga, CEO, 546-3210
Debra Miller's, Vice President of Human Resources, 525-5225

Or write to either of them at:

1165 Montgomery Drive
Santa Rosa, California 95405

Does anyone have the extension to the CEO's voicemail?

30 days of craziness

2010-06-03T08:36:00.000-07:00

Today marks the first of 30 crazy days of Get Out of Zombie UHW Craziness. Before this blog existed, pro-NUHW Kaiser workers gathered enough signatures to decertify SEIU. Unfortunately, this didn't happen because the decert was filed outside of the allowed time for such a petition. This window represents the chance for soon-to-be-former-UHW-members to break free of their shackles. This should prove to be a very exciting 30 days. Expect massive media coverage (massive for labor anyway) and frequent blog entries by both Tasty Burger and myself.

Homecare saves, money, lives, dignity, etc (part 1)

2010-05-30T22:00:00.000-07:00

Yet another well written, well reasoned opinion piece about the value of homecare workers and the care they provide. It's far more than just an extremely cost effective program for our most vulnerable citizens. Read on to learn more of what I am speaking about.

Huerta/Medina split just as lame as NUHW/Zombie split

2010-05-30T13:04:00.000-07:00

The battle for the hearts and minds of UHW members, the civil war between two very different ways of thinking about how a union ought to be run has sparked a similarly bitter stand off between former peers in UFW the United Farm Workers. Dolores Huerta a co-founder of UFW (along with César Chávez) and Medina used to fight side by side, but now Medina with the backing of the nation's most corrupt union local SEIU UHW is resorting to calling the police to have Huerta arrested for merely talking to pro-NUHW workers. Their efforts to suppress Huerta failed miserably. Read more about this at BeyondChron. My thanks to Mike Wilzoch for speaking out yet again. It's good to have some inside perspective on this unfolding side drama. For even more background on Mike's views on UHW read his letters to the editor here, here, here and here.

Zombies push for "No Union" votes fails...again!

2010-05-29T13:27:00.000-07:00

The Zombies have revealed their main approach to defeating NUHW: vote no union...or else, with "or else" meaning NUHW will win. As happened in the election for unorganized workers at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital, last December the no union vote, an obvious favorite of management is now the favored vote of Zombie UHW when ever they suspect they will lose a vote between the 2 unions.

Read on to see how this strategy is backfiring. One would think the Zombies would change course after losing repeatedly with this lame-o topic, but these are Zombies: they "know how to do everything" and are "never wrong". Hah!

Zombies abandon election, soon-to-be-former members

2010-05-26T10:44:00.000-07:00

It's a rare occurrence when the Zombie just give up and walk away. For all the mighty resources they claim to have (with money likely being the only credible one left), they retreated to the lamest excuse I've heard in a long time:

Management created an extremely hostile environment so that workers who supported unionization feared what was going to happen.

This jem was uttered by stator of the obvious Zombie spokeswoman Adriana Surfas. In my mind this raises 2 questions.

How is this any different from any other organizing drive?
Since when has SEIU ever backed down from a fight?

If one looks at recent elections the Zombie have stayed in the election until the bitter end, often with disastrous results. All links courtesy of Tasty over at Stern Burger with Fries.

Salinas Valley Workers Vote for NUHW!

SWU Can't Even Get One Friend!

I guess ONE vote is better than ZERO?

But hey, it's not all bad news. Since the Zombie withdrawal those who get to vote now have 2 choices: salvation (NUHW) or more of the same (no union). Also, the Zombies are burning through obscene amounts of cash in a very short amount of time (which can't be "replaced" with a dues increase until the next convention in 2012) and the credibility of their approach to unionism is taking severe and difficult to recover from hits. Thanks Zombies for making the choice even easier!

P.S. Isn't a definition of insanity doing something, usually the wrong thing, the same way every time and expecting different results?

Updated Schedule of Final Round of Subcommittee Hearings As Budget Process Moves to Next Phase

2010-05-24T15:07:00.000-07:00

Boldly lifted out of today's CD-CAN newsletter. Thanks Marty Omoto for keeping up up to date with the budget crisis. The Zombies clearly can't be bothered with keeping homecare members abreast of what is going on at the state capital.

California Budget Crisis:

Updated Schedule of Final Round of Subcommittee Hearings As Budget Process Moves to Next Phase

Full Senate Budget Panel Will Meet Instead of Subcommittees on May 25^th on Human Services, Mental Health and Child Care; May 26^th on Health Including Developmental Services and May 27on Education

SACRAMENTO, CALIF (CDCAN) [Updated 05/24/2010 01:10 PM (Pacific Time)] - Both houses of the Legislature will hold their final budget subcommittee hearings Tuesday and Wednesday (and if needed, Thursday) this week, taking final action on several of the Governor’s major proposals impacting people with disabilities, mental health needs, the blind, seniors and their families, before the budget process heads to the next phase of “budget conference committee” hearings in early June.

The full Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Committee will be meeting this week instead of its budget subcommittees, to take final action – though in the Assembly, their budget subcommittees will take final action this week.

State Senate Full Budget Panel Will Meet Instead of Subcommittees

· May 25^th - In the State Senate, the full Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Committee will meet tomorrow at 09:30 AM at the State Capitol in Room 4203 focusing on human service including mental health and childcare budget issues.

· May 26^th - On Wednesday the full Senate budget panel will meet to hear health related budget issues including developmental services and take final action, instead of its five budget subcommittees (Disability Capitol Action Day)

· May 27^th - It will hold what will likely be its final hearing to close out the Senate budget subcommittee phase of the budget process on Thursday (May 27) focusing on education issues.

Assembly Budget Subcommittees Will Meet This Week To Take Final Action

In the Assembly, its five budget subcommittees held hearings last week and took several final actions and will be holding their final hearings on Wednesday (May 26^th) and possibly Thursday to take any remaining final actions. A copy of the Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Committee Agenda (24 pages) pdf file is attached to this CDCAN Report and can also be viewed and downloaded from the CDCAN website at www.cdcan.us

Action on Proposed Closure of Lanterman Developmental Center Likely This Week

Action on the proposed closure of Lanterman Developmental Center – which was previously heard by both houses in late April and early May, will likely be taken at this hearing on May 26^th by the full Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Committee and also by the Assembly Budget Subcommittee #1 on Health and Human Services also on May 26^th.

Actions by Both Houses Not Final

Actions by both the Senate and Assembly budget subcommittees – or full budget committees are not final however. Actions by both subcommittees or budget committees at this stage – especially if both agree, however does send a strong signal about the position of the Legislature on a particular proposal by the Governor.

The process heads to the next phase – the budget conference committee (a joint committee of 6 members, 3 from each house) to work out any different actions that either house took. That phase lasts through most of June – and then the budget process goes to the Assembly and Senate floor, where it will likely remain until a budget agreement is reached with the Governor and the legislative leaders. A long budget stand-off, given the enormity of the budget deficit, is seen as certain, to probably last through the summer.

MAY 25^TH SUMMARY OF SENATE BUDGET & FISCAL REVIEW COMMITTEE AGENDA

Copy of this 24 page agenda is attached to this CDCAN Report and can be downloaded also from the CDCAN website at www.cdcan.us

HUMAN SERVICES AND CHILDCARE

1. Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs (Budget Item 4200)

* Elimination of Drug Medi-Cal Services, with the Exceptions of Perinatal and Minor Consent Programs

* Elimination of Funding for Offender Treatment Program

2. Department of Social Services (Budget Item 5180)

* Elimination of CalWORKs

* CalWORKs Grant Reduction

* Elimination of CalWORKs Recent Noncitizen Entrants Program (RNE)

3. Department of Social Services (Budget Item 5180) and California Department of Education (Budget item 6110) – Child Care Issues only

* Eliminate General Fund for Child Care Programs and Shift CalWORKs Child Care to the Alternative Payment Program (Issue 326)

* Regional Market Rate (RMR) Reduction

* Reduce Income Eligibility (Issue 323)

* CalWORKs Stage 3 Reduction (Issue 323)

* Adjust CalWORKs Child Care Caseload Funding (Issue 325)

* Negative COLA [“cost of living adjustment”]

* Proposed Plan to Recover Improper Payments from Child Care Programs (Issue 329)

4. Department of Social Services – continued (Budget Item 5180)

* In-Home Supportive Services “Cost Containment”

* SSI/SSP Grant Reduction

* Elimination of CA Food Assistance Program and Cash Assistance Program for Immigrants

* Redirection of County Savings

* Shift of County Mental Health Realignment Funds to Child Welfare Services and to Food Stamp Admin

5. Department of Mental Health (Budget Item 4440)

* Special Education Mental Health Services (AB 3632)

RESOURCES AND TRANSPORTATION BUDGET ISSUES

1. Department of Parks and Recreation (Budget Item 3790)

* Funding State Parks

2. Department of Transportation (Budget Item 2660)

* Defer Transportation Loan Repayment

* New Transportation Loan from net new “Fuel Swap” revenue

2740 Department of Motor Vehicles (Budget Item 2740)

* Motor Vehicle Account Loan to General Fund

FINAL SUBCOMMITTEE AND FULL COMMITTEE HEARINGS THIS WEEK

Please note: hearing dates and times are always subject to change. For persons unable to attend the hearing today, phone numbers and addresses of both Senate and Assembly subcommittee health and human services members are listed below in this report for persons to send or call in their comments. Given the volume of emails, comments or inquiries by email generally are not useful unless a person knows the staff person or the legislator.

TODAY - MAY 24, 2010 – MONDAY

ASSEMBLY BUDGET SUBCOMMITTEE #1 ON HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

***Hearing cancelled***

SENATE BUDGET SUBCOMMITTEE #3 ON HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

TIME: 01:30 PM or immediately after Senate Appropriations Committee hearing ends [that committee is scheduled to meet at 11:00 AM]

WHERE: State Capitol – Room 4203

WHAT WILL BE HEARD

Governor’s May Revised Budget proposals and “open” issues:

* Secretary for California Health and Human Services Agency (Budget Item 0530)

* Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development (Budget item 4140)

* Department of Aging (Budget Item 4170)

* Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs (Budget Item 4200)

* Department of Child Support Services (Budget Item 5175)

* Department of Social Services (Budget Item 5180)

* Other departments as necessary

PUBLIC TESTIMONY: Yes – though not likely on items “for vote only” or items previously heard

PRIORITY: HIGH

SHOULD PEOPLE COME TO THIS HEARING: Yes if you are able to

CDCAN COMMENT: “Open” issues refers to issues this subcommittee has previously heard earlier this year but still needs to take action on. This will be the last hearing for the year for this budget subcommittee. – the full Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Committee will meet May 25^th and May 26^th to take final action on any remaining “open” issues that the Senate budget subcommittees did not yet take.

MAY 25, 2010 – TUESDAY

ASSEMBLY BUDGET SUBCOMMITTEE #1 ON HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

***Hearing cancelled***

SENATE BUDGET & FISCAL REVIEW COMMITTEE

TIME: 09:30 AM

WHERE: State Capitol – Room 4203

WHAT WILL BE HEARD

Governor’s May Revised Budget proposals and “open” issues:

Human Services (including Mental Health) and Child Care Budget Items:

* Alcohol and Drug Programs (Budget Item 4200)

* Department of Social Services (Budget Item 5180)

* Department of Education – Child Care Issues only (Budget Item 6110)

* Other Department of Social Services Issues including SSI/SSP, IHSS (Budget Item 5180)

* Department of Mental Health (Budget Item 4440)

Resources Budget Items

* Department of Parks and Recreation (Budget Item 3790)

Transportation Budget Items

* Department of Transportation (Budget Item 2660)\

* Department of Motor Vehicles (Budget Item 2740)

General Government Budget Items and Other Departments As Necesssary

PUBLIC TESTIMONY: Yes – though not likely on items “for vote only” or items previously heard (it is always up to the committee chair)

AGENDA AVAILABLE; Yes – attached to this report and also on the CDCAN website at www.cdcan.us

PRIORITY: VERY HIGH

SHOULD PEOPLE COME TO THIS HEARING: Yes if they can – though not if coming from out of the Sacramento area.

CDCAN COMMENT: “Open” issues refers to issues this subcommittee has previously heard earlier this year but still needs to take action on. All the Senate Budget subcommittee hearing dates scheduled on this date and Wednesday have been cancelled with the full Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Committee meeting and taking action instead.

MAY 26, 2010 – WEDNESDAY

ASSEMBLY BUDGET SUBCOMMITTEE #1 ON HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

TIME: 09:00 AM

WHERE: State Capitol – Room 4202

WHAT WILL BE HEARD:

Governor’s May Revised Budget Proposals and “Open” Issues

· Human services budget items

· Health budget items including developmental services budget items

PUBLIC TESTIMONY: Yes – though not likely on items “for vote only” or items previously heard

PRIORITY: HIGH

SHOULD PEOPLE COME TO THIS HEARING: Yes if they can – though not if coming from out of the Sacramento area.

CDCAN COMMENT: “Open” issues refers to issues this subcommittee has previously heard earlier this year but still needs to take action on. Full Senate budget committee is scheduled to hold its final hearing during this phase of the budget process on this same day and beginning just 30 minutes later.

SENATE BUDGET & FISCAL REVIEW COMMITTEE

TIME: 09:30 AM

WHERE: State Capitol – Room 4203

WHAT WILL BE HEARD

Governor’s May Revised Budget proposals and “open” issues:

Health Budget Items

* Department of Health Care Services - Medi–Cal (Budget Item 4260)

* Department of Public Health (Budget Item 4265)

* Managed Risk Medical Insurance Board (Budget Item 4280)

* Department of Mental Health (Budget Item 4440)

Judicial, Corrections and Public Safety Budget Items

* Judicial Branch (Budget Item 0250)

* California Emergency Management Agency (Budget Item 0690)

* Department of Justice (Budget Item 0820)

* Dept of Alcoholic Beverage Control (Budget Item 2100)

* Dept of Corrections and Rehabilitation (Budget Item 5225)

Other Departments As Necessary

PUBLIC TESTIMONY: Yes – though not likely on items “for vote only” or items previously heard – it is always up to the committee chair

AGENDA AVAILABLE: Not yet

PRIORITY: VERY HIGH

SHOULD PEOPLE COME TO THIS HEARING: Yes if they can – though not if coming from out of the Sacramento area.

CDCAN COMMENT: “Open” issues refers to issues this subcommittee has previously heard earlier this year but still needs to take action on.

MAY 27, 2010 – THURSDAY

ASSEMBLY BUDGET SUBCOMMITTEE #1 ON HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

TIME: 09:00 AM

WHERE: State Capitol – Room 4202

WHAT WILL BE HEARD: Any remaining“Open” Issues

PUBLIC TESTIMONY: Yes – though not likely on items “for vote only” or items previously heard

PRIORITY: HIGH

SHOULD PEOPLE COME TO THIS HEARING: Yes if they can – though not if coming from out of the Sacramento area.

CDCAN COMMENT: “Open” issues refers to issues this subcommittee has previously heard earlier this year but still needs to take action on. This Assembly budget subcommittee hearing is scheduled but may not be held if all “open” issues were taken up and acted on the previous day.

SENATE BUDGET & FISCAL REVIEW COMMITTEE

TIME: 09:30 AM or upon adjournment of the State Senate floor session

WHERE: State Capitol – Room 4203

WHAT WILL BE HEARD:

K–12 EDUCATION

* California Department of Education (Budget item 6110)

HIGHER EDUCATION

* University of California (Budget Item 6440)

* California State University (Budget Item 6610)

* California Community Colleges (Budget Item 6870)

* Student Aid Commission (Budget Item 7980)

REVENUES

EMPLOYEE COMPENSATION

OTHER DEPARTMENTS AS NECESSARY

PUBLIC TESTIMONY: Yes – though not likely on items “for vote only” or items previously heard – it is always up to the committee chair

AGENDA AVAILABLE: Not yet

PRIORITY: VERY HIGH

SHOULD PEOPLE COME TO THIS HEARING: Yes if they can – though not if coming from out of the Sacramento area.

CDCAN COMMENT: “Open” issues refers to issues this subcommittee has previously heard earlier this year but still needs to take action on. This is likely the final hearing of the Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Committee to close out the Senate budget subcommittee phase of the budget process.

Interview with Sal Rosselli, leader of NUHW

2010-05-20T23:37:00.000-07:00

No no not by me, I didn't even study journalism.* But for my newer readers who might be trying to make "heads or tails" of the SEIU/NUHW mess. It's not in depth, which is good because this fight for union representation style (top down vs. bottom up) is quite complex, nuanced and hotly debated, yet he so masterfully lays out the history and problem surrounding SEIU and NUHW's perspective.

* I have a degree in IT (Linux admin for all you nerds out there in the "blogosphere").

Unable to fight fairly, Zombies hit below the belt

2010-05-20T10:47:00.000-07:00

I don't know about you but I'm already tired of Mark Key Henry and what's going on at SEIU on the international level. To me, the new prez is just as divisive, manipulating and power hungry as her predecessor. She may be able to make amends with the unions and others Stern drove off, but like Stern she won't even consider working out SEIU's differences with NUHW. Apparently, it's ok to pick a fight but not ok to call a truce.

* * *

Anyway, on the the meat of this entry.

It appears the Summer Games, errr I mean WWIII has begun. Randy Shaw scoops the story below. Having been burned by the Zombies I look forward to a summer of stunning defeats for the Zombies. I fully expect they will "win" some elections if only by brute force, 100% annual turnover at various nursing homes with pending elections and because of these conditions NUHW has to good sense to pullout before the election.

P.S. Check out the memo referenced in the article: they have to stop writing this stuff down!

Best friends forever?

2010-05-20T10:43:00.000-07:00

Shown below is Mary Kay "No truce for NUHW" Henry and Sonoma County homecare's very own Karen "____, you're a sleazy bitch" Timmons. If I were that physically close to MKH, I'd be locking horns with her by asking her uncomfortable questions about the past betrayal of her union's members.

State's Largest Voice on In-Home Care Reacts to Governor's Revised Budget Proposal

2010-05-14T14:35:00.000-07:00

This is interesting to me since homecare and nursing home members in Zombie UHW will be eventually forced into this ghetto local of SEIU. I wonder what the Zombie are doing to prevent this wholesale attack on homecare workers. Given their implicit approval of fingerprinting of providers (homecare workers) I'm putting my Monopoly money on no action from Zombie UHW whatsoever.

LOS ANGELES, May 14 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- SEIU ULTCW, the United Long Term Care Workers, will host a brief tele-press conference later today, reacting to Governor Schwarzeneggar's Revised Budget Proposal related to the funding of In-Home Care for some 400,000 low-income elderly and disabled Californians. Laphonza Butler, President of the 179,000 member union will be giving reaction and taking questions.
In his prior budget, submitted in January, the Governor proposed a nearly 87% elimination of this vital, cost-saving, lifeline-level program.

What: Tele Press Conference on CA In-Home Care Budget

When: Today, Friday May 14 at 3:00 PM, PST

Where: By Phone. Call-In Instructions ?

Dial 1-866 278 0296, passcode: 9967401

For more background on us, go to www.seiu-ultcw.org

"You Have 0 Friends"

2010-05-13T23:22:00.000-07:00

Ever notice how half of the Zombie UHW emails use the phrase so-and-so reject NUHW? The Zombies should know rejection of NUHW from constant pounding of members until they voted SEIU is a hollow victory at best. Well now the shoe is on the other foot and SEIU, as a whole is being rejected by both ILGWU and UNITE HERE. So what to do, when no one wants to be your friend? Well it's official: the unintended consequences of raiding UNITE HERE while denying such a treacherous action is taking place is proof no one that matters likes SEIU! Keep shooting yourself in the foot Zombies.

Fingerprinting of homecare consumers finally illegal!

2010-05-13T14:31:00.000-07:00

Thanks to the unanimous decisions of Assembly Budget Subcommittee #1 on Health and Human Services, chair Assemblymembers Wes Chesbro, Jim Beall (both Democrats) Bob Emmerson and Brian Nestande (both Republicans) the fingerprinting for consumers as an anti-fraud measure is now illegal. Thanks to Marty Omoto for his timely report on this crucial decision.

California Budget Crisis:
Assembly Budget Subcommittee Votes to Rescind Fingerprinting Requirement of IHSS Recipients – Follows Senate Budget Subcommittee Action Last Week
Law Remains In Force Until Full Legislature and Governor Approve It As Part of 2010-2011 State Budget

SACRAMENTO, CALIF (CDCAN) [Updated 05/12/2010 02:50 PM (Pacific Time)] – The Assembly Budget Subcommittee #1 on Health and Human Services, chaired by Assemblymember Wes Chesbro (Democrat – Eureka, 1^st Assembly District) voted 4 to 0 this afternoon to rescind the state law passed as part of the 2009-2010 State Budget last July that requires the fingerprinting of all recipients receiving In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS). Note: the final vote could change if any missing subcommittee members add their votes to the roll call.

The action was supported by Democrats Chesbro and Assemblymember Jim Beall and also the subcommittee’s two Republican members, Assemblymember Bob Emmerson and Brian Nestande.

The motion by Assemblymember Chesbro would reject the $8.2 million currently in the 2009-2010 State Budget and $5.6 million funding proposed in the 2010-2011 State Budget and any additional associated funding for purposes of fingerprinting IHSS recipients and shift any unspent money into the budget of the Department of Social Services. Chesbro’s motion would also create corresponding budget related language (referred to as “budget trailer bill”) that would rescind current state law requiring fingerprinting of all IHSS recipients and also state law that requires their fingerprints on all timesheets of their IHSS worker (provider).

The action follows a similar vote last week by the Senate Budget Subcommittee #3 on Health and Human Services chaired by Sen. Mark Leno (Democrat – San Francisco).

What The Action Means
·         The action by both subcommittees today and last week is not final and still needs approval of the entire State Senate and Assembly - and then approval of the Governor. Those approvals will be part of any overall agreement for the 2010-2011 State Budget which, given the enormous budget deficit, will likely be months away.
·         The action today would rescind or repeal state law – and the funding to implement it – the requirement for mandatory fingerprinting of all recipients who receive IHSS. The current state law does allow for certain exemptions of the requirement. However the fingerprinting law still remains in force until final action on this is given by the full Legislature and approved by the Governor as part of the 2010-2011 State Budget.
·         The requirement to fingerprint all IHSS recipients has not been implemented yet by the Department of Social Services – the state agency that oversees the IHSS program statewide, but is proceeding forward as a pilot in certain parts of the state. If the full Legislature and Governor end up giving final approval of today’s subcommittee action, the effort to move forward on the pilot would end.
·         The action today did not address and does not impact the fingerprinting and background checks requirements of IHSS workers (providers) that was passed as part of the 2009-2010 State Budget last July. Those requirements went into effect on November 1^st and is underway now.

$41.6 million less for homecare client harassment

2010-05-11T09:45:00.000-07:00

The state Senate Budget Subcommittee on Health and Human Services has blocked the Governator's latest attempt at harassing homecare consumers (clients). This now frees up $41.6 million that would have been used to intimidate and potentially eliminate a large number of worthy clients from the In Home Supportive Services (IHSS/homecare) system. Will this money instead be allocated to supporting the program instead of destroying? You all know my answer.

My half-day in court

2010-05-06T18:14:00.000-07:00

Warning: Brief occurrences of what some would call harsh language are shown below.

Update: Check out Elsa' comment below. I'm not the only one who had been threatened by Mark.

Long time readers of the Red Revolt will remember the pitiful rally the Zombies put on back in December in front of Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital as proof of the Zombies endless love for the workers (a love that was almost completely unknown to the workers and definitely not reciprocated). That 50-ish minute rally was such a bore. Luckily for me that evening had a brief moment of mild excitement. While writing the blog entry about the rally I was recieved a phone call from gravely voiced Mark Nelson (below, right). He called that night and stated that I was "a bitch", "an asshole" and he was "going to kill you and your wife if I ever see you again". This is in all likelihood a hollow threat...but a threat is a threat and I need to take whatever protective measures I can to protect my wife, my stuff and me, provided they are within the confines of the law. Working within the confines of the law...it's just the NUHW way!

* * *

From my own experience Mark is human megaphone and from the credible sources I've spoken to he is a world class union bully. He does as he is told without understanding, hesitation or any perception of the irony of member-on-member threats or violence. Division among the members is ok with him as long as he gets union staff approval. There will probably always be some bad blood between Zombie UHW supporters and NUHW supporters, especially those that are still represented by UHW. I have always tried to not fight against my homecare members, no matter how much their willing ignorance and blind obedience proves the need for enlightenment. Instead I educate my peers them by speaking in calms tones (as opposed to this witch), listening, and gently working into the conversation the Zombies own plans for world domination at the expense of it's dues paying members. Specifically I tell them, with supporting documentation that can be independently verified, UHW's publicly stated plans for dividing long term care workers (homecare and nursing home) from the hospital workers which form the rest of the quickly disintegrating Zombie UHW. Why Zombie SEIU ever thought separating long term care workers and placing us in the low wages for homecare workers local replete with corrupt leadership would ever fly is a mystery to me.

Balancing my need to protect my wife, our lives and things against this loose-cannon Zombie UHW supporter with convictions including 2 misdemeanor DUIs, disturbing the peace and theft, I filed the paperwork for a restraining the day after the December rally. And then I waited, and waited and finally asked what do I do next some time in February. I asked what happened to the paperwork and was told "it takes a while to process". So I waited a while longer and at this time it was the end of March. When I asked this time I finally found a clerk who would explain the restraining order process. Turns out restraining order requests received before 8:30 AM and processed by 2-3 PM the same day or the next business day if received after 8:30.You'd think after filing the paperwork and getting approval to proceed they'd at least call me to let me know I have to come down and take the next steps, but no that's not how they do business. I filed it again on March 31, and it was promptly rejected due to lack of information. I tried one more time: I filled in all the blanks and checked off all the boxes and refiled soon after, this time with an better explanation of the danger Nelson poses to my wife and me and his past criminal convictions. This time it worked and a court date was set.

I was kind of expecting Nelson to not show up to court. I'm not sure if he can drive or has a vehicle. I should have guessed that being a Zombie UHW supporter he'd behave in typical Zombie fashion and hit me with everything he's got, as you will see below. Not only did he supply a packet of mostly irrelevant and outdated paperwork including letters of recommendation and medical descriptions of his nephew's needs and dependency on him, he brought along his own cadre of blindly obedient Zombie supporters include Marie "look at me, I'm the Chicken Lady!" Melchor (below, left), Karen "I'll make a reference to 72 virgins at a Sonoma County Board of Supervisors meeting" Timmons, Bonita "but we're winning against NUHW" Graham, and both last and least impressive of all Zombie UHW field rep Shareefah "Reefah/you're kicked out of my office for life for trying to take a piece of paper that all UHW members have a right to have (explained below)" Joseph. There were a couple of other supporters there but, really, who cares?! Nelson also had his own "legal adviser", I did not. I didn't think I needed one he has a criminal record and phoned in a death threat.

Photo credits: Marie's image is from a frame I pulled out of the Shine a Light video; Nelson is on Flikr. Both the video of her and the photo of him were submitted by the Zombies.

* * *

So the trial began with the judge urging us to go onto the hallway outside the court and work out our differences with a court appointed mediator. Short (and boring) story short: we both agreed to stay out of each others for the next 2 years lives unless we are both at a union related function and then to keep 25 feet apart. I can do that, I've been doing it for years. Nelson and I don't run in the same social circles and rarely find any value in what the Zombie staff are saying so this should not be a problem.

You might ask: "Yeah, so, where's the interesting part come in?!" and I'd say the same. Hold on to your socks folks, and get ready for me to bring on the stupid that is Zombie UHW staff and supporters.

* * *

So while waiting for Nelson to read over the mutual stay away order, I read the contents of the packet Nelson wanted to present to the court proving that I am indeed the devil incarnate. It may be a response to my letter explaining our need for protection from Nelson.

As you will note I didn't reveal the name of this mystery woman. I had no idea the Zombies, both Reefah and the member supporters, would attempt to identify her...and miss! At this point it's not really important who she is, suffice it to say she isn't the unanimously misidentified Elsa Stevens.

Here's Reefah's recollection of that evening.

Two questions come to mind:

Why wasn't Elsa allowed in? They had a roster to check who had voted so far. If a voter's name is crossed off that member doesn't get a ballot. The very fact they wouldn't allow members to speak out against the contract speaks volumes about the Zombies fear of informed members and NUHW's superior relationship with us, the prisoners of Zombie UHW.
What is this nonsense about the seat being "Mark's seat"? Do they view us a kindergartners? Of course they do!

Monica Reeder, another one of the "elite" bargaining team members responsible for our current ticking time bomb contract has some very nice things to say. I'm sure it's all true and Mark is as pure as the driven snow (bleeeeech), but what I find much more interesting is the quality of the writing.Clearly this is the kind of person that should NOT be bargaining labor contracts.

Spelling mistakes, word choice ("gotten"), lack of proofreading and clearly the writing of a grade school student...is it any wonder why the Zombies prefer their supporters to be unquestioning and blindly obedient? Add to this the changing last name of Elsa and the statement that Petaluma is Elsa's "area of voting" and you see there is confusion among even the Zombie followers about who gets to vote and where. Why would Elsa, who lives in Healdsburg be required to vote in Petaluma, 32 miles away? Sounds like voter oppression to me!

Keep in mind this restraining order request was about Mark's death threat phone call, not the rigged election.

(Begin rant)

The ratification vote was spread out across 3 days, one city on each day for 2 hours, (that's 6 hours for 5100+ members, or an average of 14 votes a minute, if we all had been able to show up) in the middle of rush hour. They did this under the guise of greater voter turnout but really they didn't want people to view the contract before voting, and certainly without a consultation from brainwashed bargaining team members before casting a ballot in the rigged vote. Before the trusteeship voting was done by mail, alone and with a copy of the proposed contract in hand so members had the opportunity to make an informed decision. Why would they be so secretive when the are just going to count the votes themselves? Purple paper ballots, without a vote concealing envelope, into a cardboard box...never have I felt like my vote didn't count. When I voted in Petaluma, I did so because the other 2 days I could have voted I had work. Voting in Santa Rosa, where live would have been more convenient.

(End rant)

Finally is Karen Timmons recollection of Mark blocking members from attending the vote. Karen is convinced that Elsa came to disrupt the voting; knowing Elsa I believe she came to watch and take note of the coercive voting for her own "enlightenment".

Well at least the writing is commensurate with that of an adult but you can tell she is willing to accept the assumption about Elsa's presence and actions that night. Was Elsa at the Library in Healdsburg that night? I don't know or care. Her actions that night have nothing to do with Mark calling me.

How it is that Karen, a woman with a Masters degree, crossed-over to the dark side? If you ever have the misfortune of meeting Karen you'll know in an instant. Some people are just dieing to drink the Purple Kool-Aid.

So you can see the Zombies are so desperate to oppress the truth with irrelevant claims and mutual assumptions about who did what, we can focus on something real. And this where it become quite interesting.

* * *

Shown below is Karen's defense of her part in an email exchange. I'd suggest you go read the email exchange first them come back to her "but he started it" claim below.

Karen was working with NUHW supporters until she emailed us stating:

Hi Everyone -

Because of health problems these past few weeks and upcoming personal matters, I will no longer be a member of the Steering Committee or a Steward. Best of luck to us all.

- Karen

It wasn't long before she showed her face with a sickly Purple tinge.

Also, what evidence do you have to prove "____ has a history of going 'where wise men fear to tread' "? Don't you just love the claims of the Zombies that are without merit or substantiation?! Unless I'm mistaken, I think this is nearly every claim made since the trusteeship!

One would think the rigorous training you received for you MA gave you the tools to look at what is going on objectively and make informed decisions. Sadly you are far too eager to turn your back of your fellow homecare workers for the privilege of bargaining an all give away contract.

Next up is Reefah's recounting of one day a long time ago about something that has nothing to do with anything presented in the restraining order request.

If only this statement tried to reflect what really happened that day. Yes, I was at the office, probably asking questions she didn't want to or knew how to answer. While there I saw some fliers advertising the UHW funded bus trip to Sacramento to lobby legislators about not killing funding for homecare.What Marie had in her hand was a copy of a flier with the date and time to get on the bus. I took a copy for myself since I have a lousy memory, and this really angered Marie and Reefah. Earth to Reefah: I'm a union member too! Turns out dues paying UHW members who are even suspected of being NUHW supporters, aren't allowed onto the bus. This was back when the Zombies still kind of cared about fighting for members instead of fighting with members, and Reefah was tolerant of NUHW supporters being in her office. Nevermind that I am a homecare worker just like them, this is a labor law violation and I am one of the few who have the courage and public speaking experience to address the Senate subcommittee. Reefah's M.O. is all about dividing the members according to union preference. Fortunately for me, I never really have to go to the Zombie UHW office, so this lifetime ban for "still"ing a piece of paper my own union printed for my benefit has no real impact on me. Reefah you have my word that, as soon as I figure out what it means to "still", I will never "still" anything, ever!

Next up is Reefah's partner in crime, Marie Melchor, a/k/a the Chicken Lady. I'll transcribe what she wrote since the copy is kind of light and hard to read. Jonathan Nelson is the nephew of Mark Nelson.

STATEMENT OF MARIE MELCHOIR

Dec, 9. 2009

I was at a union event outside [Santa Rosa] Memorial hospital. I am Marie Melchor and I was accompanied by Jonathan Nelson. I was the UHW mascott [sic] so I'm dressed as a UHW Chicken. I gave Jonathan Nelson to Mark Nelson so I could mascott. [Mascot is now a verb!] When we were done parading around on the sidewalk I took Jonathan Nelson with me after Jonathan and I [we?] watched Mark Nelson board the bus Jonathan and I were walking to my car when ____ came running up on us with flashing camera lights. Jonathan started yelling and hitting at the flashing lights. I was hit in the face by Jonathan and given a bloody nose. I yelled at ____ and told him he needed to back off. ____ refused so I said "if you don't back off I'll have to shit on you!" I took Jonathan Nelson back to my car and had him sit in the back seat. He hit the back of my seat violently and was yelling. I let him calm down before I got in and drove him to Petaluma. to where Mark was. I told Mark about what had happened and Mark was upset hearing it. Jonathan went with Mark and I drove home. I was so mad after having a bloody nose and knowing that Jonathan hit Mark that I made a phone call to ____ yelling at him when he picked up the phone telling him "You don't mess with the disabled" in my loud voice. Then I hung up my phone. The phone call to ----'s house was made on Dec. 10, 2009.

Marie J. Melchor

Sheesh! There's so much to pick apart here, so I'd better get started.

First off, assuming Marie sustained injuries from Jonathan's reactions truly happened did Marie or Mark make a police report? I am suspicious of the date on her letter.

My recollection of that day was I stepped out from behind a bus shelter so I could take a picture of Maire in her Chicken Lady costume. When she asked me not to take a pictures of her I turned off my camera and walked away. There was no violence inducing flashing lights; the flash won't fire during the bright of day! The pair walked back down and then crossed the street without incident A bloody nose shortly after I allegedly took the "flashing lights" picture would have been awesome "smoking gun" evidence to warrant a restraining order or other court action, but I've never been served Why this didn't end up in a Zombie UHW flier speaks to the credibility of Marie's statement.

As for threatening to shit on someone...what finishing school did she go to? A woman who is willing to wear a UHW Chicken costume is quite telling of the kinds of members the Zombies are courting for purposes of "democratically elected" bargaining committees, stewards, etc.They seem to love the phrase "democratically elected _________" so they can assuage the thoughts of doubting members and the media. Also, shouldn't it be an NUHW Chicken costume?

If I were Mark I'd be upset about my nephew's temporary caretaker fabricating such a story. Marie, it's ok to tell - and hear - the truth.

Neither my wife nor I received the phone call she described. However, she had admitted to calling me at my home, so this might be good self-incriminating evidence to have on hand for the future. Heh heh heh, thanks Maire!

As for messing with the disabled, little does she know how long I have been with my wife and for the last 10 years taken her skiing with her disabled friends. Clearly I know nothing about the disabled.

Ok, folks we're almost done. I'm tired of researching, writing and editing this wonderfully lame story.

Finally, here is Mark's description of what he didn't do with a nauseating ending including a jab at NUHW that had nothing to do with anything.

First off is his statement that I didn't suffer emotional distress. Meh, whatever.

____ has not suffered emotional distress because of the accusations he made are false.

(I permantely disabled the caps lock on my computer and I'm not holding down shift while I transcribe; otherwise the transcription is verbatim. Text in bold was added for emphasis.)

Next is his side of the story.

____ assaulted my 23 yr old severely disabled and partially blind nephew and my friend, Maire Melchoir [sic] on Dec 9, 2009 by repeatedly flashing a camera in my nephews eyes 6 or 7 times) despite Ms. Melchoir's pleas to stop because my nephew has a seizure disorder and violent outbursts.) I was not present at that time and Ms. Melchoir called ____ the next day to tell him never to do anything like that again because my nephew had a

[continues on next page]

seizure disorder and a violent outburst that lasted over and hour and resulted in me getting hit, as well as Ms. Melchor right afterwards.

I never called Mr ______ or threatened/him despite what he did.

On Sept 23rd I was working with Monica Reeder, another UHW volunteer like me, greeting members at the doors of the Healdsburg Library when Ms. Else Stevens, the woman referred to in the complaint approached me. I motioned her to the door where union reps Shareefah Joseph and Gustavo Corralo [sic]. Confronted Ms. Stevens because she has already voted the day before in Petaluma on the union contract. After agreeing she has already voted, Ms. Stevens chose to stay and chat with me and Ms. Reeder for over 45 mins. These are not the actions of someone who feels threatened.

____ made false accusations against me, harassed other union members, and misused the justice system to further his NUHW cause.

Funny how his statement is based upon someone else's biased, stand alone statement. All he did was place the call, he had no other part in my complaint. Why didn't he bring his phone bill proving at least he didn't call me from his home or cell phones is beyond me. Proving a negative is difficult at best, but Mark could have tried. He also could have filed a police report or done anything to make his case and protect his nephew from us free thinking freelancing photographers

I have to agree with Mark: these are not the actions of a threatened person, too bad his assumption about who I refered to in the complaint is flat out wrong.

Finally, as for misusing the justice system to "further his NUHW cause", Mark you couldn't be further from the truth. UHW is the reining king of misuse of the legal system for it's own gain. Filing to block an election and then selectively pressing some of those same elections to be schedules is an abuse of the legal system that put my alleged misuse to shame. This is about your thoughtless, knee-jerk, death threat laden phone call. Grow up and leave us alone. If I had a recording of your phone call you would have had a restraining order by the end of last December.

* * *

Mark, Marie, Karen and other homecare workers not mentioned here were, at first, NUHW supporters. Mark was so committed to the cause he got, long before the trusteeship, a UHW tattoo. Yeah. Check his arms next time you see him, that is, if you dare get close enough. Unfortunately for them they crossed-over to the dark side and drank copious quantities of Purple Kool-Aid, forming a dependency within days. I think it is unfortunate because they knew what UHW had in mind for homecare workers, knew they were talking to peers who had mutual gain in mind and they knew UHW would say anything to keep it's members from defecting to a much better union. They knew full well what was going and still turned their back on their peers to serve themselves.

My theory about why this group of Zombie supporters so willingly and blindly following their master's lead included 3 likely reasons: they listen to whatever they perceive as an authority and follow that person's lead, especially if that person lavishes the subject with attention; the utter disbelief that UHW has fundamentally changed; and they've heard just Zombie UHW's perspective, and without some other source of information about the struggle for healthcare workers, this is all they believe. Part of why I wrote this very lengthy article was so I could try to tell the whole story and allow the reader to decide what's true and what's fluff. This, more than anything else, is what separate NUHW and its supporters from the Zombies.

I didn't get my restraining order but I did get a whole lot of insight into who makes up the Zombie "leadership" in Sonoma county.

State senate subcommittee meetings May 3 & 5, 2010

2010-05-02T11:35:00.000-07:00

I just got this in my inbox last night at 6:20, even so if you can go then by all means do so! Thanks to Marty Omoto for this valuable information. If you want to learn more check out his website www.cdcan.us.

California Budget Crisis:

ASSEMBLY BUDGET SUBCOMMITTEE #1 HEARING MAY 3

MENTAL HEALTH BUDGET ISSUES ON AGENDA

CAPI GRANT PROGRAM PROPOSAL TO BE HEARD

Issues to Be Heard Include Updates on Mental Health Services Medicaid Waiver; Mental Health Services Oversight & Accountability Commission; Early and Periodic Screening Diagnosis and Treatment Program (EPSDT); Governor’s Proposal to Eliminate State Funded Cash Assistance for Immigrants (CAPI) Program and California Food Assistance Program To Be Heard – No Action Likely Until Later Hearing in May.

SACRAMENTO, CALIF (CDCAN) [Updated 05/01/2010 04:16 PM (Pacific Time)] - The Assembly Budget Subcommittee #1 on Health and Human Services will meet next on May 3^rd (Monday) at 1:30 PM in the State Capitol in Room 127 dealing with certain budget issues under the Department of Mental Health including the Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission, and overview of major community based program areas including Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnosis and Treatment Program (EPSDT).

The subcommittee will also hear three budget proposals by the Governor impacting programs under the Department of Social Services including the proposed elimination of the Cash Assistance Program for Immigrants (CAPI) that provides small grants to legal immigrants with disabilities, the blind and seniors who do not qualify for the SSI/SSP (Supplemental Security Income/State Supplemental Payment) program.

A copy of the 47 page agenda is available for viewing or downloading from the CDCAN website at www.cdcan.us

Most Budget Issues on Agenda Will Be Held “Open” Until Later Hearing in May

Like the Senate Budget Subcommittee #3 on Health and Human Services hearing held April 29^th, except for a few non-controversial items, nearly all of the budget subcommittee agenda issues and proposals up for discussion and hearing are either updates (meaning no action) or proposals that will likely be held “open” – meaning no action taken until a later subcommittee hearing in May that is held after the release of the Governor’s May14th budget revisions. Those budget revisions – referred to as either the “May Revise” or the “May Revision” – will include the latest up to date budget spending and revenue numbers, likely new proposals for spending cuts and other budget changes.

Assembly Budget Subcommittee Membership

The Assembly Subcommittee #1 on Health and Human Services membership consists of 4 Democrats and 2 Republicans:

Democrats: Assemblymember Dave Jones (Democrat – Sacramento, 9^th Assembly District); Jim Beall, Jr (Democrat – San Jose, 24^th Assembly District); Wes Chesbro (Democrat – Eureka, 1^st Assembly District) and Hector De La Torre (Democrat – South Gate, 50^th Assembly District)

Republicans: Assemblymember Bill Emmerson (Republican – Hemet, 63^rd Assembly District) and Brian Nestande (Republican – Palm Desert, 64^th Assembly District)

May 3^rd Assembly Subcommittee #1 Agenda

The agenda is divided into two sections

· “Consent Items”, which are those budget issues that have no opposition and are not controversial. There are 4 items under this section that the subcommittee – unless there is objection from one of the members – will approve in one roll call vote. There is no public testimony for items in this section.

· The second section are “Items to Be Heard” which include discussion on the Governor’s proposals, and also updates on various programs and services under the Department of Mental Health that were impacted by reductions as a result of the 2009-2010 State Budget approved in February 2009 and revised in July 2009.

· Representatives of the two state departments, the Governor’s Department of Finance (DOF) , staff from the non-partisan Legislative Analyst Office (LAO) will be present to provide information or answer questions from the subcommittee.

· There will be time for brief public testimony for each item under the second section (“Items to Be Heard”).

CONSENT ITEMS

Department of Mental Health (Budget Item 4440)

1. Transfer Traumatic Brain Injury Responsibilities [Note: transfer to Department of Rehabilitation, as required by AB 398 in 2009]

2. Transfer of San Mateo Pharmacy and Laboratory Services Program

3. Convert State Counsel Position to Permanent

Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development (Budget Item 4140)

1. Mental Health Loan Assumption Awards Program

ITEMS TO BE HEARD

Mental Health Services Oversight & Accountability Commission (Budget Item 4560)

Overall background

1. Independence of the MHSOAC (Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission)

Department of Mental Health (Budget Item 4440)

1. Pro-Rata Proposition 63 Administration Reduction

2. Proposition 63 Fund Shift to Department of Mental Health

3. Care Giver Resource Centers [Note: update on impact 2009-2010 State budget reduction and additional cut from Governor’s line item veto last July]

4. Office Patient Rights

5. Request for Increase in Department of Mental Health Legal Positions

Overview of Department of Mental Health and Discussion of Major Program Areas (Note: includes overviews and status of the Mental Health Services Medicaid Waiver, that was given a 1 year extension due to expire September 1, 2010; State Hospital issues; update on Civil Rights for Institutionalized Persons Act (CRIPA); Medi-Cal Mental Health Managed Care; overview and update on the Early Periodic, Screening, Diagnosis and Treatment (EPSDT) program)

Department of Social Services (Budget Item 5180)

1. Cash Assistance Program for Immigrants (CAPI) [Note: Governor is proposing elimination of this program – subcommittee staff is recommending that this proposal be held “open” – meaning no action taken – until a subcommittee hearing that is held after the release of the Governor’s budget revisions that are scheduled to be released on May 14^th]

2. California Food Assistance Program (CFAP) [Note: Governor is proposing to eliminate this program that serves over 37,000 legal immigrants. Like the CAPI proposal, subcommittee staff is recommending that this item be held “open” until after the May 14^th release of the Governor’s budget revisions.

3. Recent Noncitizen Entrants Program [Note: Governor is proposing to eliminate this program that serves over 24,000 persons. Like the CAPI and CFAP proposals, the subcommittee staff is recommending holding this item “open” until after the May 14^th release of the Governor’s budget revisions.]

Assembly Subcommittee Will Also Meet May 5th

The Assembly Budget Subcommittee #1 on Health and Human Services will also hold a second hearing in the coming week covering In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS), SSI/SSP (Supplemental Security Income/State Supplemental Payment grants) and developmental services including proposed closure of Lanterman Developmental Center, on May 5, Wednesday afternoon at 1:30 PM, at the State Capitol in Room 444. The May 5^th Assembly subcommittee portion of the agenda dealing developmental services will cover the following:

· Budget Change Proposal: Requesting Additional Resources to Increase Federal Funds Participation (this corresponds with April 29^th Senate Budget Subcommittee agenda item #4, in Part 2)

· Update on 2009-10 Budget Reductions (this corresponds to the April 29^th Senate Budget Subcommittee agenda item #1)

· Deficiency Funding Request (this corresponds to the April 29^th Senate Budget Subcommittee agenda item #3 dealing with transportation) [Note: “Deficiency” refers to when a department goes over its approved budget and the Governor is requesting State general funds to cover it. The request has to be approved by the Legislature]

· $25 million Savings Target Plan (corresponds with April 29^th Senate Budget Subcommittee agenda item #2, Part 2, which the Senate Budget Subcommittee held “open” until after the May 14^th release of the Governor’s budget revisions)

· Update on Agnews Developmental Center Closure (this was not part of the April 29^th Senate Budget Subcommittee Agenda)

· April 1 Finance Letter – Lanterman Developmental Center Closure Plan (corresponds with April 29^th Senate Budget Subcommittee Agenda, Part 1. The Senate Budget Subcommittee held the issue of closure “open” delaying action until another hearing that will be held after the May 14^th release of the Governor’s budget revisions – but did approve several initial draft budget related language that deal with health and safety, employee, health clinic issues that relate to closure)

[note: “Finance Letter” refers to a notice or letter from the Governor’s Department of Finance to the Legislative budget committees that provides notice of an adjustment or other change in a budget item)

The Weasel Has Landed

2010-04-30T10:48:00.000-07:00

Running on the beach indeed. The weasel has just found another place to destroy: Leading Authorities, Inc.
Here's their press release.

My oh my! Well, at least he isn't running for office or otherwise directly involved in government.

Another "blogger" hangs up his spurs

2010-04-30T09:56:00.000-07:00

The cranky and difficult to read X Perez Borselli* blog, a pro Zombie UHW pseudo-blogger, has finally ended with a whimper. The relentlessly pro UHW and written largely in ALL CAPS, even this "blogger" has seen the light and realized UHW doesn't even care about most of it's own employees pensions. National officers are taken care of for life, no worries for those folks but as for the staff covered by the various pensions aimed at SEIU local staff they are woefully underfunded. Oh the irony "that the fastest growing union in the Americas" (their claim on nearly every one of their press releases) is suffering from growing pains, and despite the very nature of its existence it is having trouble funding it's own employees pensions.

Here's the article shown above as written by Vincent Vernuccio.

*Borselli: a portmanteau of Borsos and Roselli? Why is it that we native English speaking Americans have to make up words all the time? 1.2+ million words in the language, doubtful any one person knows more than 60,000, yet we constantly make up new words! Just say no to fake words. Require who ever is speaking to you to use any one of our existing words. Grrrrrrr!

"Do over" election called for Local 221

2010-04-27T17:57:00.000-07:00

Remember the "do-over" from the playground games of our childhoods? Turns out it work in the adult world too! This is from Red Revolt reader Monty Kroopkin one of the Local 221 reformers. Heh heh heh...love it or shove it SEIU fraudsters! This whole rigged election reminds me of what I used to tell the kids I tutored in math who couldn't be bothered with trying to understand a problem and work it out correctly: do it right the first time so you don't have to do it right the second time!

Checklist for Perez Henry

2010-04-27T10:11:00.000-07:00

I have to admit I was not impressed with Zombie SEIU as it was run under Führer Stern's watch, but Randy Shaw's article at BeyondChron gave me a flicker of a hope that incoming International President Mary Kay Henry's administration might have the brains to lead the Zombies out of the mess the Führer has made. Squaring up with UNITE/HERE & NUHW would go a long way towards advancing both the interests of SEIU and labor in general.

I'm somewhat worried about Henry the dark horse candidate turned International President. I had high hopes two other unlikely high office candidates Obama and the Governator, given their obvious difference from the usual crop of candidates, would have the courage to lead in new and constructive ways...and we all see how well they've worked out for the working poor. Obama & SEIU: no EFCA or public option for universal healthcare, and the Governator's relentless attacks on the disabled poor and their caretakers.

Meh, we'll see.

What went wrong with Stern's SEIU? Plenty!

2010-04-20T09:43:00.000-07:00

Though Führer Stern's sudden and suspicious resignation is old news by now I did find this somewhat interesting but woefully brief article about how he lost his way and his mind along the way.

The mess Stern leaves behind

2010-04-16T12:33:00.000-07:00

Wow, things are more messed up in Zombie SEIU than even I suspected! Steve Early, writes this well researched piece about how much, and in what ways, the Zombie have squandered members' dues money over the past few years under the careful guidance of Führer Stern. Make sure you're sitting down and maybe have a pen and notepad ready for tallying the dollar figures. It makes me sick, almost as sick as Tasty when he realized how many articles have been written about Führer Stern's resignation.

The other reasons why Stern is moving on

2010-04-16T09:48:00.000-07:00

For the most part I don't much care since he's lost his mind these last few years, but there are a host of theories as to why Führer Stern is moving on down the road. Everything from SEIU says he's accomplished his goal of universal healthcare, he wants to leave at the top of his game, and so on. Of course no one under SEIU control will speak of the near complete loss in the NUHW/Zombie SEIU deathmatch in San Francisco last week, their uncomfortable involvement with ACORN, or disgraced former Illinois governor Blagojevich. For a detailed rundown of why the Führer is likely moving on, check out Tasty Burger's blog entry. It's hard to deny the chronological proximity of the proffer and his resignation.

You snooze, you lose!

2010-04-16T07:58:00.000-07:00

As pointed out by Tasty Burger, if you don't pay your Internet-related bills cybersquatters will get ya! Turns out members of the SEIU spin-off Workers United can visit their very own website www.workersunitedunion.org but since SEIU didn't pay to keep the domain name (which is less than $50 a year) someone else bought it. Now if you visit the website, it "rolls over" to a porn site. Oops! Not paying for a domain is like not paying your vehicle registration, a minor expense with major ramifications for not paying. Sorry no picture of a website here, you're going to have to check it out yourself. The result is a porn site so don't check it out on a work computer or home computer accessible to minor children....go to the library.

Important criteria for homecare worker background checks

2010-04-14T23:53:00.000-07:00

Finally, some information about the criteria for these damn unwarranted background checks for IHSS (homecare) providers. Note: this info not brought to you by SEIU. They're too busy scrambling for a new president.

Life in a post-Andy world: what lies ahead?

2010-04-14T08:41:00.000-07:00

The successor to will be Anna Buger until an election and then it's game on, with Burger and Henry as likely candidates. These are our choices? Sheeeeeesh! Give the choice, I wouldn't choose. Burger is essentially a female Andy Stern and Henry is certainly intent on destroying NUHW and all that is stands for.

Stern may have accomplished some admirable goals, but he's left one hell of a mess for the next president to clean up. Just think of it as his gift to 1.8 million dues paying members and the labor movement.

When comfronted with truth Zombie stewards resort to foul language, idle threats

2010-04-13T22:48:00.000-07:00

Warning: Brief occurrences of what some would call harsh language below.

While rummaging through my inbox looking for an address I came across this email from Sonoma County IHSS (homecare) Steward Karen Timmons.

To: "Karen"
Sent: Friday, September 11, 2009

Thanks, Karen! So do we have a 2 year contract?

To which she replied:

From: Karen
Sent: Sat, 12 Sep 2009

Yes, we have a 2-year contract. If the economy changes, for better or worse, either the Public authority or UHW can open up the benefits or wages for conversation. If the PA wants to cut our wages, it's not going to happen. The contract must be ratified by the members.

She is mixing up the facts: the contract needs to be ratified by members, the wage reduction does not. Seven months later...

To: "Karen"
Sent: Monday, April 12, 2010

No, Karen. If you read the contract carefully our wages can go down without membership approval. The wage contingency part of the contract states:

7.2 WAGE CONTINGENCY

B. If, during the term of this Agreement, either State or Federal participation levels
are reduced or, either the State or Federal sharing formula is modified in any
manner, relative to the baseline numbers described below, that would result in
an increased cost to the County and/or the Public Authority to maintain the wage
level described in this MOU, wages will be reduced by an amount necessary to
keep the total cost to the County and/or the Public Authority the same as such
cost existed on the day prior to the effective date of such reduction or
modification.
So there you have it. An automatic wage reduction if revenue is not sufficient to sustain our wages. One would be a fool to think the economy will recover enough before the contingency kicks in. Thanks a whole lot for jumping ship [switching from NUHW to Zombie UHW], sabotaging all the members including yourself, consumers and hiding this crucial bit of information until after the forced ratification! How does it feel to sell yourself out?

I guess that was more than she could handle and she lashed out at me.

The contingency you repeat below is standard in all IHSS contacts; it was also in the contract you bargained. We have a contract and it cannot be broken. The county tried to slip one past us and lower our wages, but we caught them and that is why we maintained our income. There in an injunction in place that will continue to insure us (and that includes you) $11.50/hr.

Now I will tell you this.

1. You are a sleazy bitch and a pain in the ass.
2. If you ever e-mail me again or get in my face, I will take out a restraining order immediately. This is not a threat.

Oh Karen, if you take a moment to look at the language in the preceding contract you will see there is no dependency on FMAP money. Yeah, and once that money, which backfills our wages until October 1, 2010 runs out, we're taking a pay cut. How much? I don't know, but I'm preparing for minimum wage.

Now, I'm not a lawyer, even so I wonder if Karen's offer to take out a restraining order would stick.

Sal sums up what we all have felt in our blood for years...

2010-04-13T14:06:00.000-07:00

Sal's message is to the point and totally irrefutable. Too bad SEIU has made an enemy of Sal and union democracy. If he we're still employed by SEIU he'd be my bet for the one person who could turn SEIU around.

No Knock-Out Blow in SEIU's Courtroom Showdown

2010-04-13T10:44:00.000-07:00

Another good summary of the court room drama from last week and the real value in Zombie SEIU's puny victory. Thanks for the excellent writing Cal, keep it coming, we look forward to more.

Stern to resign!

2010-04-12T18:10:00.000-07:00

...but where will he go? Why is he leaving? And who will replace him? Isn't he going to stick around for the Great Member Exodus of 2010? Don't punk out on us now, this is just getting interesting! Perhaps he's going to work for Perez Obama as more than just a member of the debt commission. Very exciting possibility here, stay tuned to Tasty, Perez and yours truly to keep abreast of this unfolding drama!

Could it be he just can't stand losing money, members and labor allies left and right?
__________________

From: "Diane Sosne"
Date: April 12, 2010 11:35:45 AM PDT
To: "Everyone @ SEIU"
Subject: Andy Stern Resigning as President of SEIU

Last night I received confirmation that Andy Stern is resigning as President of SEIU. He has not yet made a public announcement; we will share the details as we become aware of them.
__________________

Here are the news articles corroborating his departure. I will add to this list as it grows.

The Politico: SEIU official: Stern to resign
The Examiner: SEIU head Andrew Stern to resign
Chicago Now: Breaking News: SEIU's Stern Resigning
The Huffington Post: Andy Stern Leaving SEIU, Sources Confirm
Hot Air: Hmmmm: SEIU chief Andy Stern resigns
The Atlantic: Andy Stern To Resign As SEIU President
The New York Times: Head of S.E.I.U. Plans to Step Down
Wall Street Journal: Powerful Labor Chief Stepping Down
The Washington Post: Andrew Stern set to resign as head of major union, SEIU official says
The Washington Post: Officials say SEIU president is stepping down from post
Firedoglake SEIU's Andy Stern Stepping Down
The Atlantic Wire: Behind SEIU Chief Andy Stern's Resignation
ScrappleFace: Retiring SEIU Boss Stern Wants More Time with The Family
The Wall Street Journal: Labor's Stern Said to Be Resigning
NPR: Union Official: Stern To Leave Service Employees
Firedoglake: SEIU’s Andy Stern to Step Down

So there you have it folks: for whatever reason labor's sore thumb has finally looked back at his legacy of union busting/raiding, member dues money wasting, EFCA-killing, sellout contract promoting ways and has decided to move on to spend more time with his family. Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek, what a lame excuse for running from the house of labor he set on fire! Good riddance, loser.

Press coverage for the NUHW/Zombie SEIU trial

2010-04-12T15:15:00.000-07:00

Most labor disputes go unreported or woefully under-reported by the LameStream media. In an effort to bring the coverage to the forefront of my readers minds here's a round up of what was covered by mostly local media. Oddly enough the New York Times had a little, very little to say about this monumental Zombie SEIU screw up.

I have decided not to list any press releases written by Zombie UHW media relations flunkie Steve Trossman since they are horribly biased propaganda pieces and I assume none of my readers care in the least what he has to say.

Obviously a lot of the coverage will be duplicative but I feel it's still worth reading to get a consensus view of the trial and it's implications.

First off are Randy Shaw's and Carl Finamore's articles on BeyondChron, followed by Randy's summary of the struggle for union democracy since January 2009.

Local coverage continues with San Francisco Business Times coverage by Chris Rauber, IndyBay, Christopher Cook at San Francisco Bay Guardian.

National coverage includes the kind of super secret teleconference attendee David Moberg of In These Times, Mike Parker at Labor Notes, Steve Early at Monthly Review and finally Stephen Greenhouse of the New York Times wrote a whole paragraph about the trial verdict.

As a blogger I would be remiss if I didn't mention the excellent coverage of fellow bloggers Perez Stern and Tasty Burger (here, here and here).

Much to my surprise the pseudo-bloggers from the trial have nothing to say, despite being ecstatic about the verdict during Friday's teleconference. Lame!

"Meanwhile at the Legion of Doom..."

2010-04-11T23:38:00.000-07:00

Disclaimer: Exactly who said what and name spellings may be incorrect but the gist of what was said should be pretty easy to figure out and follow.

Artists rendering of the tightly controlled teleconference Friday afternoon.

An unexpected perk of following the trial from the Zombies perspective included a mass email invitation to the post verdict debriefing. I received two invites: one sent to my real name and email address and one for the blog. Much to my surprise both received replies with the phone number to call. So I called in under my real name and after waiting on hold for 10 minutes (I called 2 minutes early to make sure I got in) I was patched into the call in the middle of a man's sentence. He then introduced Mary Kay Henry, International VP of SEIU. What a cheerleader!

When she took control of the phone call she announced an agenda.

Verdict
Evidence
Feelings & Impressions

Verdict

So, of course they were happy with the verdict for obvious reasons. Now they finally have a third party/jury-based opinion about these crimes against SEIU that the former UHW employees allegedly committed for defending the wishes of their members above the dictatorial wishes of Führer Stern. No doubt they will go to ridiculous lengths to promote this verdict to their own advantage, including recycled lies and other puffery.

Keep in mind the representation cost for Zombie SEIU was, according to Steve "Don't take the Bait" Trossman, $5 million and involved for 4 law firms. Given the Zombies propensity for lying it's sure much more than $5 million. Should they get every penny of the award (see below) they still lost $4.3 million, backed off of or had numerous claims struck down, galvanized NUHW staff and supporters and have further pitted members against each other and employers against workers. As both Randy Shaw of BeyondChron and Tasty Burger at Stern Burger with Fries point out, the award is for either $724,000 against NUHW itself or $854,150 for the 16 remaining (out of 28) defendants. Added together this adds up to just a little more than the oft repeated "more than $1.5 million" the Zombies are fond of quoting. 12 defendants were cleared of all charges including 2 during the trial itself.

Evidence

The evidence the Zombies presented included:

secret conspiracy as far back as 2007, (likely a reaction to the secret deal with nursing home operators which is a real conspiracy!),
secret access to UHW servers (sounds like a lazy or incompetent sys admin to me),
secret (non-UHW addresses) email system (which, when used to resist a trusteeship is totally legal, as pointed out numerous times by Judge Alsup),
$3 million secret slush fund (didn't they drop this claim early on in the suit? It isn't listed in their "Guilty" flier.)

At this point a man's voice took over and covered many point to put the listeners into a froth. He stated that among other things, former UHW leaders:

resorted to violence (but gave no examples)
used members as a shield for their activities (it's the members who need a shield from Zombie UHW, just ask Liz Castillo!)
circulated disassociation petitions (still not illegal)

Feelings & Impressions

He then stated that "they can't be trusted ever on anything". Has he (I believe he was Kohlman, the lawyer) followed what the Zombies have done since the trusteeship? Talk about the pot calling the kettle black!

Finally he stated that everything in Barbara Lewis' [make the local] "ungovernable" memo came true. I don't know what the document stated, if it was a note to herself or a policy to be followed but the Zombies have done a fine job of making UHW ungovernable all by themselves. Of course this last comment concerns what has happened outside of January 2009, the focus of the trial, but still...I'm just saying.

At this point a Daughters of Charity member stated that she was very upset about the expired contract, and it's canceled extension. I wonder if she can admit to herself that the contract expiration and subsequent cancellation of the extension was to allow the members to strike for improved benefits. The half-truths Zombie supporters are willing to believe say in order to convince themselves the Zombies have their best interests at heart despite overwhelming evidence boggles the mind!

For a while there was some random spouting off from the "member bloggers" including Rudy Vallin stating it's time to "get back to work". Erica Boddie, another "member blogger"stated she was disappointed, felt this was a "slap in the face", complained about "purple shirts turning to red" and wondered why former leadership wasn't "practicing what you preach". She wanted it known that if she felt something was wrong with her union she would do everything within her power to fix it. What?! Where were you in the months leading up to the trusteeship? It's so easy to say that now! She also stated the obvious by saying that this trial "deeply impacted the labor movement" and now is the time to "restore the labor movement". Finally, she stated the trial has caused a lot of confusion among members. This surely was one of the Zombies goals, and for those Zombie supporters that read and believe everything stated in their emails and other propaganda, then pick up a newspaper or read any other source of news or opinion,confusion will result. And confused people made decisions they don't understand.

Mary Kay kicked in with a few completely unbelievable comments. She stated the "nation is cheering", spoke highly of the "3 incredible ['member blogger'] leaders" and finally "I'm completely indignant!"

Q & A

Finally came the Q & A which showcased how brainwashed some of the Zombie UHW members really are, and how some members will believe what ever is told to them by the union, no matter how ludicrous.

April, from Kaiser Vallejo, stated this was a "great, great, great victory" but wanted to know what was next, specifically do they go to jail? No, this was a civil trial jail time is not an option. Where would they get the idea jail time was a possibility for the defendants? Hmmmmmmm.

Not wanting to pass up a chance to show off her self-deprecation skills Erica Boddie stated she would have been just as happy with a damage award of "$1.98".

A reporter from the Daily Labor Report asked about the fees for representation. Erica's response: likely equal to what NUHW spent defending itself, but most importantly "the cost to us was a moral victory"! I couldn't have misquoted myself any better than she did just there. She didn't even stop to correct herself! She was confident about the excellent representation! Sheesh. The self-denial among this group of sheep is amazing to say the least!

David Moberg, of In These Times asked what evidence did the jury agree with, and was told "the jury just took it all in". How's that for a non-answer?!

Erica spoke up again and said she is "here to represent the members" and "it's time to move forward"

Finally some members who were waiting on hold got in on the action were allowed to speak. Sonoma county's very own human megaphone, homecare worker and one time NUHW supporter Mark Nelson profusely thanked the lawyer for his work, and then proclaimed the new name for NUHW: "First name: Nothin', Last name: Comin' ". This is the level of understanding and sophistication we in Sonoma county have come to expect from Mark. I was somewhat disappointed when Mark didn't try to start and S-E-I-U! S-E-I-U! S-E-I-U! chant right then and there.

But the best part came in the last few seconds of the teleconference from yet another Sonoma county homecare worker and turn-coat Karen Timmons (a/k/a marymagdaleneforpresident or Nerak as she is known on the "member blogs"). She stated without hesitation and quite proudly that Sal and company didn't care about workers, and, (I'm not putting words into her mouth) "they are sociopaths"! That was classic Karen. I wished I had the ability to legally record the conversation. She also felt that "an act of God or a thunderbolt" was needed" to wake them up", but now is the time to talk to members, be kind and thoughtful. I wonder if this includes known or suspected NUHW supporters.

Just before the phone called ended there was an announcement that there were no more people waiting to ask questions which makes me wonder if the Zombies were screening callers, and how many other were on hold.

* * *

Through out this phone call there was a sense of carefully controlled language, and not-so-subtle suggestions about what the members need to take back to their coworkers to convince them this circus, this spending spree, this near complete legal defeat was somehow a tremendous win for workers. No matter how you look at it this trial failed in all of it's objectives. Persist and march on reformers turned NUHW employees and supporters, you all continue to amaze me!

5 more debates scheduled for Sonoma County candidates

2010-04-10T11:15:00.000-07:00

Courtesy of the League of Women Voters of Sonoma County.

...and then there were 5

2010-04-09T08:47:00.000-07:00

It appears one of the 6 KP "bloggers" has folded up shop. Of the 6 "bloggers" that popped up earlier this week, one of them has taken down all of her posts. Hmmmm, I wonder why. This is what I saw when I went to the "blog" today. Not only did yesterday's post disappear but all the posts have been removed. Has she determined that KP & the Zombies are up to their own backroom deal antics again?

Born Tuesday, April 6, dies April Thursday, April 8. Only the good die young, right? Well, there's nothing good about 6 bloggers saying the same thing at the same time, especially when they are likely financed with my dues money. The Zombies already have an established cheerleader.

The other bloggers...

2010-04-06T23:01:00.000-07:00

The well informed Zombie UHW prisoner keeps abreast of what's going in a media climate that doesn't cover labor issues unless there is a trusteeship, strike or other high profile event. The real coverage about what is going on in labor can be found in so called "alternative" sources such as Labor Notes, Daily Kos, Empire Report, In These Times, etc. The one exception has been the L.A Times journalist Paul Pringle's exposé of ULTCW's (United Long Term Care Workers) much maligned former president Tyrone Freeman.

Just as important and much more in depth than any Lame Stream media reporting are my fellow volunteer bloggers Sierra Spartan (retired) at ¡Adiós, Andy!, Tasty Burger at Stern Burger with Fries, and of course the highly respected and scathing-without-being-petty commentary of Perez Stern at (you guessed it) Perez Stern (back in action). What we all have in common is our burning desire to bring the evil of SEIU to the light of day and throwing in a little snark to take the edge off the daily dose of betrayal served up by the Zombies. And we do so gladly, for no compensation, real name recognition or any other means of motivation. We do it because it needs to be done.

So I find it especially galling that SEIU is now apparently paying members to blog about the trial against the former leaders of UHW in San Francisco these last 2 weeks. These likely dues-financed bloggers are (and likely without knowing it) taking one the remaining forms of unadulterated journalism and using it to deceive the few who read their blogs. I normally don't promote my intellectually inferior, morally bankrupt, react without thinking mortal enemies, but in the spirit of encouraging my readers to do as I do and form their own opinions I will list those bloggers below. I read them in my effort to keep a well rounded sense of what is going on down in San Francisco but I find their writing wholly unsubstantiated, irritating, highly speculative and far more biased than my own writing. Somehow I think it's more than just $8 an hour (California minimum wage) or $20 an entry. The way the Zombies throw around money, I wouldn't be surprised if this was the case. As for the pseudo-bloggers following the trial no new entries have been made since the verdict! Perhaps the Zombie have cast them aside, just like they wanted to cast us homecare workers aside!

Bob "Nolehace" Lewis: http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/author/nolehace (First entry 3/24/10)

Erica Boddie: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/erica-boddie/ (First entry 3/22/10)
"Homecare Mary" Harms: http://homecaremary.blogspot.com/ (First entry 3/19/10)
Rudy Vallin: http://www.calitics.com/userDiary.do?personId=4980 (First entry 3/19/10)

Apparently, the Zombies feel they have hit on something because now 3 more blogs popped up just today. They are centered around the KP national level bargaining. Notice how they all have the same kp prefix: it's kp-person's first name.blogspot.com. And they all were created on the same day, April 5, 2010. Clearly this wasn't a coincidence in either batch of bloggers.

Silvia Torres-Limon (Northern CA):
http://kp-silva.blogspot.com First entry 4/5/2010

Shirlee Anne Shirley (Southern CA):
http://kp-shirlee.blogspot.com First entry 4/5/2010

Angela Young (Northern CA):
http://kp-angela.blogspot.com First entry 4/5/2010

As far as I know the progress of bargaining is only shared with the people represented: management negotiators report to management, labor negotiators report to the membership. This is how it was in homecare bargaining before the trusteeship. Oh wait, no, I'm wrong. According to Karen Timmons, Sonoma County bargaining team member for the first post-trusteeship contract renewal, said in no uncertain terms that:

Contracts are NEVER given to members to read until they are a done deal, signed by committee, IHSS/PA and the Supervisors.

For my outside of the wacky world of homecare readers, the IHSS PA is the In Home Supportive Service Public Authority, an arm of county government and the entity with which we bargain. The county supervisors double as the board of directors for Public Authority.

So why exactly is Zombie UHW encouraging and likely paying members to violate what I suspect is banned in the ground rules of bargaining? My guess: smoke screen. This way the Zombies can bargain away even more of the hard fought gains of Kaiser members without distraction of the members whose lives they will be harming. Prove me wrong Zombies! Show me your track record since the trusteeship was just temporary insanity!

This makes me so mad! So if you see any of these blind obedience to Zombie UHW folks running around off their leash...well send them on a Keyser Söze-inspired wild goose chase!

(10 minutes pass...)

And where were these pseudo-bloggers before the trial and before the KP bargaining? Perez Stern's got his start on 2/4/2009, Sierra Spartan 2/6/2009, me on 9/16/2009 and Tasty on 11/12/2009. In defense of Perez & Sierra, they may have started within 2 days of each other but took different approaches and used different writing styles. Also this was right after the train wreck in slow motion (trusteeship) was implemented.

Update (4/7/10): I found 3 more. They were all born yesterday, literally!

	Therese Fleming (Central Valley): http://kp-therese-f.blogspot.com	First entry 4/6/2010 All entries removed 4/8/2010
	Rachelle Heartte (MSW, ACSW): http://kp-rachelle-h.blogspot.com	First entry 4/6/2010
	Victoria DeLacruz (Central Valley): http://kp-victoria.blogspot.com	First entry 4/6/2010

Zombie UHW: pushing the anti-union vote at all costs, again

2010-04-05T13:05:00.000-07:00

It seems the Zombies will never learn from their mistakes. As you may recall the vote for unionization at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital last December was 283 for NUHW and - no kidding - 13 for the Zombies. This staggering loss was widely publicized, but what was not as well publicized is the vote for no union at all, a nerve-rackingly close 263. I was at the vote count that night and it was quite an emotional roller-coaster for all but the Zombie UHW supporters.

You'd think after such a staggering (21.8:1) defeat the Zombies would change their tactics, as would any normal person or group. But the Zombies - being a special breed of con artists - will keep using the same lame tactic while utterly convinced better results are just around the corner. What they are doing this time should make the unofficial alliance with Memorial management pale in comparison. To learn more, read Randy Shaw's article from BeyondChron to learn just what the Zombies have been up to down at USC University Hospital.

Worse yet is their attack on Barbara Lewis and NUHW (of course)! However, before I dissect their flier I just want to point out I just don't believe anything the Zombies have to say. They've outright lied so many times and aren't willing to back most of their statements it's difficult to say with absolute certainly what's truth and what's puffery. So I will instead point out the hypocracy in their statements, claims which I can easily back, and they are reluctant to talk about when presented with the truth.

So, right off the bat, the third and forth words in the title: Backroom Deal. Given the Zombies track record for backroom deals (listed below) and the fact that NUHW is running a shoe-string budget, with a much smaller staff than their Zombie counterparts, does anyone really believe that NUHW has the time or interest in negotiating a backroom deal? This would seem to go against one of the main reasons why NUHW exists!

Here a few of the juicier backroom deals Zombie UHW have negotiated on behalf of their prisoners, err I mean "members", courtesy of ¡Adiós, Andy!

The LMP Shakedown
Reganomics (also referenced above in paragraph 2)
SEIU Threatens To Dissolve CKPU
Pharmacy Agreement Going Down To Defeat?
Zombie UHW Taketh, Zombie UHW Giveth Away...
Signed, Sealed, Sold Out
Signed, Sealed, Sold Out (Part Two)
...and so on

Second is this long standing claim that NUHW officials, acting in their capacities as pre-Zombie UHW elected (not appointed) officials, are guilty of "misusing millions in union funds". This misuse of union funds is merely an opinion presented as fact from the International. As U.S. 9th Circuit District Judge William Alsup has told the jury many times in the trial between NUHW & the Zombies these last 2 weeks, resisting the trusteeship is not a violation of the law, it just doesn't sit well with the International leadership's plan to run all of SEIU from Washington, D.C. with no real regard for the members or prospective members. In simple terms this is akin to moving money from your wallet or purse to your hand. Unless it has changed hands it's still yours!

Finally, this bit about NUHW signing a "secret deal with management" and cutting "members out ... completely". This is almost identical to what the Zombies did to homecare workers up here in Sonoma county back in September. But I'm just speaking from experience, what do I know about Zombie UHW practices in California.

Revolution Brewing at Local 221

2010-04-04T20:57:00.000-07:00

From Monty Kroopkin who is "way down south" at Local 221 (San Diego area). This letter is intended for the members of Local 221 but it gives a peak into the problems the members are dealing with down there. It's good to know the fight for union democracy extends well beyond the NUHW/Zombie UHW fight.

Dear SEIU Brothers and Sisters,

The federal Department of Labor has agreed with incumbent officials of SEIU Local 221 to another extension of the deadline for the Department to file a lawsuit against the union to compel a re-do of the union elections of July 2009. This is the fifth extension of the deadline, which was originally January 17, 2010. The Dept may still reach an out of court settlement with the union, for a new election to be conducted under government supervision. Or, unlikely at this late date, the Dept could still dismiss the complaint which was filed by 10 members of Reform221 on November 16, 2009. The Dept did announce in January that it had made a preliminary finding of serious violations in the 2009 elections.

Meanwhile, the same people who are accused of rigging the July 2009 elections are still in control of our union. That is, with the exception of former Local 221 President Sharon-Frances Moore. She resigned on January 18, 2009, for reasons which the union membership has still not been allowed to hear. Her running mates in the July 2009 elections are still the majority on the union's Executive Board. They voted to appoint Moore's former chief of staff, Eric Banks, as Interim President. Banks also served as the official contact person for the election campaign of Moore's slate of candidates. Moore's slate of candidates were mostly incumbent members of the "provisional" (aka, unelected) E-Board, and were appointed directly by International SEIU President Andy Stern in 2007.

If you don't like the way this is dragging out, and don't like the sound of who is appointing who, then it is time to make your voice heard. Please write to U.S. Dept. of Labor, Office of Labor-Management Standards, District Director Alan Weiss at Weiss.Alan@dol.gov and urge him to get on with resolving this complaint. We need a new election NOW, not years from now!

And, please join Reform221. Our platform is posted on our website at http://reformseiulocal221.blogspot.com/ (scroll down to see it). If you agree with most of what we stand for, we want to work with you to take back our union and to make it effective in dealing with our employers. Contact us at reform221@earthlink.net

And come to the first General Membership Meeting of SEIU Local 221, and voice your concerns, on April 17, 2010. Information on the meeting is at the Local website at http://draft.seiu221.org/General_Membership_Meeting.aspx You can introduce resolutions on the direction of our union and/or for particular actions to be taken, which -- if voted in by the members at the meeting -- are binding upon the incumbent Executive Board and the union's staff. Resolutions can be introduced from the floor of the meeting. (So don't be put off by the request to turn yours in by April 7. Those turned in on time will however be printed up so eveybody at the meeting will have a copy). Did you know that you could do that? Did you know members of our union have this power?

For a Democratic and Effective Union,

Monty Kroopkin, Steward

Here's the ruling from the U.S. Department of Labor. It appears Local 221 executive staff will delay the inevitable and further soil the SEIU brand here in California and by extension nationally.

The amazing shrinking case against NUHW

2010-04-01T21:58:00.000-07:00

First it was a $25 million claim for damages, then $4.18 million now a piddly $225,000?! When will the Zombies throw in the towel and slink back to Washington, DC?

Also, the best estimate for the SEIU legal bill is $10 million dollars. And that's for 2 weeks worth of work, sound familiar?

Zombie's epic fail in Kaiser Roseville

2010-04-01T18:29:00.000-07:00

From retired blogger SierraSpartan whose blog I have reference more than once is a recap of the woefully under-attended Zombie rally at Kaiser Roseville. His email was received at 1:27 today.

This word just in from my Kaiser Roseville source...

SEIU and Zombie UHW had a "contract support rally" at Roseville today,
and was an out-and-out bust.

1) No Barney Bus - therefore, no lost-timers from other facilities to
make the protest look bigger than it really is.

2) Start time at 10:00 a.m., supposed to go to 2:00 p.m., but it
didn't get going until after 11:30 a.m., and has already broken up.

3) Management sent out two different notices about this rally (on two
different shifts over two different days. But even with two different
sendall messages going out to the entire Roseville staff, only about
20 people showed up at the middle of lunch hour (and the time of the
highest attendance of this "rally") to particpate in the UHW march
around the Roseville Eureka campus.

So - out of about 2500 to 3000 total employees on the campus, about
half of which are members of one union or another, only 20 people came
out and marched with Zombie UHW - and at least half of those
individuals were and are identifiable as either organizers or staff.

Three words: Weapons. Grade. FAIL.

Photos to follow.

Regards,

Sierra

Keep the juicy news coming, Sierra!

Now looks who might be going to jail!

2010-03-31T07:34:00.000-07:00

For all the fuss the Zombies made about NUHW leaders going to jail, a Zombie staffer might be the first, and likely only person to actually go to jail. It seems Alex Espinoza a UHW rep and white rapper didn't believe his own oath for honesty while on the stand yesterday and was caught in a lie! Pictured below is Alex, and an excerpt about what he did from the NUHW daily newsletter keeping us all abreast of what is going on in the trial.

Here's what he did:

SEIU rep Alex Espinoza committed perjury-a federal crime punishable with jail time-by lying about his actions in the days before trusteeship. He denied ever contacting anyone with SEIU International, and claimed not to know who Amado David worked for. But NUHW's attorney showed an email Espinoza sent to SEIU International official Amado David just days before the trusteeship that proved Espinoza was secretly spying for SEIU while on UHW's payroll. In lying to the jury, Espinoza damaged SEIU's credibility and put himself at risk of prosecution.

Source:http://www.nuhw.org/trial/day-7-seius-paid-witnesses-lose-credibility.html

So, yes folks, the Zombies are Leading the Way...to jail!

When great local unions go bad

2010-03-29T10:10:00.000-07:00

(As per Perez Stern's direction in his Friday, March 26 entry here are the key terms in today's blog entry, and its supporting works: Huffington Post, BeyondChron, Sal Rosselli, John Borsos, Shirley Nelson, Carl Finamore, Andy Stern, SEIU, NUHW, UHW, Judge Alsup, $25 million in damages, lump sum payout pension, Alameda Hospital, Eliseo Medina, Mary Kay Henry, Tyrone Freeman and Leon Chow.) Now, on with the show (blog)!

* * *

If occurs to me that some of my readers may be outside of the healthcare/NUHW/SEIU realm of understanding and therefore only vaguely aware of SEIU's lawsuit against the 26 union reformers now the leadership of NUHW. So I found a couple of articles that give a good summary of the trial; one from NUHW supporter perspective and one that gives an outside looking in perspective. Both are well written and will sum up this crucial trial for union democracy.

First, NUHW member and caregiver at Kaiser Redwood City Hospital Shirley Nelson sounds off with this bit about the absurdity of the Zombies attacks and why they are really suing the vanguards of union democracy.

Second is Carl Finamore's article on BeyondChron. It explains what happens when international union leadership runs roughshod over the local union's elected leaders, to the dismay of the electing members.

Meet the vanguards of union democracy

2010-03-24T15:53:00.000-07:00

For the most part I avoid directly referencing any NUHW material in an attempt to maintain my creative autonomy. So, except when I hear privileged information I don't seek their approval, and they don't tell me what to write. Someday I would love to work for NUHW; in the mean time I write from my perspective and its 2 vantage points: as a homecare worker and supporter deeply involved in the struggle for homecare funding, representation and advancement; and as an outsider looking in on my healthcare peers in hospitals (especially Memorial) and long term care facilities. But every once in a while, the is no credible (or no other) source outside of NUHW for the topic I want to write about, and today's entry is a prime example. Today, I present to you the 28 reformers currently enduring an SEIU-dues-paying-member-funded assault on their actions while employees of UHW.

SEIU gets into bed with Sutter management...

2010-03-24T13:05:00.000-07:00

...before the beds have even arrived! This move defines a new low for the Zombies in terms of back room deals and now, the very odd appropriation of their own staff.

The Side Letter even authorized Sutter to assign SEIU-UHW workers to spend work hours building support for the project.

Wow, I thought they hit rock bottom , but this is messed up! Read Randy Shaw's article of BeyondChron.com about the new deal between the Zombies and Sutter, the worst of the worst in their respective fields.

NUHW book: Labor's Civil War In California: The NUHW Healthcare Workers’ Rebellion.

2010-03-24T12:05:00.000-07:00

I haven't written a book review or report since 6th grade, and the last book I read was Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickeled & Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America, and that was 6 years ago. Also, when I first started writting on this blog I thought I'd be preaching to the choir here in Sonoma County, so it came as quite a pleasant surprise when Cal WInslow asked me to review his book. That said, here's my take on Cal's book Labor's Civil War In California: The NUHW Healthcare Workers’ Rebellion.

Cal's book details SEIU's view of it's members. I never knew how cold and mechanical SEIU was when it came to dealing with dues units, err, I mean members, nor was I aware of their "victory at any cost" approach to fighting with NUHW...I just thought they were sore losers! The more I read, the more outraged I became. I am convinced that, given the choice between the right way and the wrong way to do something, SEIU will pick the wrong way as it fights it's foes while losing the support of elected leaders, academics, workers, popular opinion, et cetera in its pursuit of what it believes it best for itself (and spend freely doing so) Contrast this to NUHW, which with the backing of a dedicated groups of volunteers, future members and all those that SEIU has cast aside will take the high road, organize and build coalitions, and wins elections.

This book is a great read. For me I learned the most from the first 3 chapters, chapter 4 is about the time I was aware of what was going on. I hope Cal writes another book because this is just the beginning of the end for SEIU. I recommend it to anyone who would like a summary of the dispute from a perspective of someone who has nothing to gain or lose from the rise or fall of NUHW or SEIU. Plus for $12 it's a steal!

Perez is back...again!

2010-03-24T10:40:00.000-07:00

All hail Perez! As SierraSpartan pointed out there is certainly strength in numbers. I can wholeheartedly understand why Perez took a breather, 451 entries for last year would make anyone want to take a break.

Rural issues dominate first debate in south county supervisor's race

2010-03-22T14:59:00.000-07:00

I reported last week about the candidates forum for 2nd district supervisor. Here is the only coverage I could find about the south county debates. I was hoping about some kind of debate about healtcare, county budget or, really, anything that touches on healkthcare at the county level. The Board of Supervisors have final say on some decisions concerning homecare workers. If this forum is any measure of their knowledge of -or willingness to talk about- the needs of the 4300+ homecare consumers (clients) or their providers (workers) then we have a lot of educating to do!

Zombies tell their "truth" about the Fresno slim victory

2010-03-21T16:55:00.000-07:00

Desperate to get any attention even if it is easily disputed attention about a long passed election, the Zombies have have made up their own irrefutable (in their eyes) "truth" about the Fresno homecare election. Below is their slant on the Fresno homecare election's pyrrhic victory followed by a line by line dissection of the "truth".

SEIU-UHW was certified as the winner among 10,000 Fresno home care workers by the California State Mediation and Conciliation Service 8 months ago. An NUHW protest of the election had so little merit that it was dismissed without a hearing.

This decision is under review: just look here. 59 pages of complaints replete with several sworn declarations from harassed Fresno homecare workers.

What protest? When? Where?

NUHW waited four months to submit new bogus charges and has done nothing to move them forward. The Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) has taken no action and it is not even clear that they will consider them.

Well these complaints didn't surface overnight. It took a while for people to work up the courage to speak up. And speak up they did, see the above linked sworn declarations!

Many of the allegations were made anonymously and lack credibility. Some were made by people who were not even eligible voters. The chief accuser vowed to cause “trouble” for SEIU because he was not offered a job after the election.

Does being a witness to intimidation but not eligible to vote by virtue of not holding employment as a homecare worker always automatically discount a complaint 's validity? To put it another way can't I complain to the police if I see someone else being mugged? Must I be mugged to complain about being mugged?

The allegations surrounding threats on immigration are particularly deceitful and malicious. SEIU has more immigrant members than any other union and has helped lead the ﬁght for immigration reform. Hundreds of SEIU supporters and staff in Fresno were themselves immigrants or sons and daughters of immigrants, and would not have put up with a strategy that threatened workers’ immigration status.

Yet the Zombies have a record for approaching those who don't speak the language natively, or others who are otherwise easily convinced in the very lopsided arguments put forth by the Zombies. My proof: just look around at who is now on the e-board, are stewards, and contract negotiators. They don't question and likely don't fully understand what is going on, but are all too eager to sign off on the truly dumb decisions made by Zombie UHW and those members who they control with a steady diet of lies, half truths and other propaganda.

If there is one thing I have learned from blogging it's that you can't just say something without backing it up in some credible way. Their statements above don't stand on their own; hopefully, my questions will provoke my readers to seek out the truth the Zombies don't want you to know.

Finding Sal Rosselli video makes South Park look sophisticated!

2010-03-21T12:35:00.000-07:00

My oh my! The production values and cheesy "graphics" (if you can call them that) makes the animation on South Park seem on the cutting edge of animation technology. For my readers without an adolescent and crude sense of humor, South Park is an animated television program that, like SEIU, pushes the limits of decency, but unlike SEIU offers scathing social commentary, all while using sub-par animation. The horribly designed video and the clearly under-informed members speaking their "minds" attest to the quality of work of SEIU and the willingness of some to believe a perceived authority without question or comprehension.

As for NUHW not answering the door, my guess is they were out running circles around the Zombies while the Zombies were busy slapping members around or spreading lies about the $3 million that was "stolen" (not stolen just moved to another account, read the referenced E-Board meeting minutes).

Despite being $20 billion in the hole, Governor finds way to harrass IHSS consumers

2010-03-19T11:24:00.000-07:00

I guess it isn't enough that the Governor has had IHSS providers (workers) in his crosshairs since the day he took office. Apparently our (both providers and consumers (clients)) mere existence is unacceptable. Always looking for a new and devastating way to burn his fellow Californians, he's going after IHSS consumers (clients). You know, the low income elderly and disabled not to mention usually frail neighbors and family we care for that are our neighbors, friends and family. My friend's who cares for his father with dementia, my wife with Cerebral Palsy, my friend who cares for her child with Spina Bifida these are the latest group he's added to his list of usual suspects. This man has no conscious: he'll attack the poor and weak to perpetuate the illusion his efforts are saving money. But as I've written before the pennies he's saving are far outweighed by the dollars he's spending. Take, for example, the $3.5 million spent in Sacramento County to find fraud. Nineteen cases of fraud were detected for their efforts. That is a monumental waste of our, the taxpayers, money and an affront to 99% of honest IHSS providers. Now his administration is mulling over the purchase several hundred of these "MorphoTrak 'mobile biometric identification' device[s]". I checked out their website and found 2 devices that seem to fit the description in the Sacramento Bee article. Clearly this is speculative, but these devices seem overpriced and are more like mobile homecare terrorizing devices. Take your pick. What's next: a 1984-esque television that watches back?

See, if the guy gathering your information just smiles at you it's make the criminalization of your job/disability so much easier to swallow! Seriously what a condescending smirk!

Or how about this one. Why not just go for broke and bring a lie detector to every consumer's house?

I see a few problems with the devices and their use. Here in Sonoma county, and I presume other organized counties, the contract between the county and the union reaffirms the long standing (e.g. before unionization) consumer right to "[d]etermine in advance and under all circumstances who may and may not enter their home." This is from section 3.1 (A) (3) of all contracts since we became organized in Sonoma county. What if a consumer can't come to the door? Hmmmmm. This privacy clause applies to unannounced house visits, but the Zombies are too busy hiring an army of lawyers from 4 law firms to fight NUHW in court next week to care about what really matters.

Second is the cost of these devices. These devices appear to be functionally equivalent to what I've listed below, at a price well below the 5 grand estimated cost of these mobile terrorizing units. Is this the best the Governator can come up with to fight fraud and save money? He can have both without spending a fortune of taxpayers money (which is not his money).

Finger print scanner: $39-$64
Digital camera: $29 & up
Netbook (a stripped down notebook computer): $250 & up (or better yet this one)

Add them up and what do you get, outside of a vendor who found a pot of gold hiding in the state budget?

\ /

$318 (just under $350 with tax)

The software to operate the fingerprint reader is included with the reader itself and any computer from 2001 forward can retrieve pictures from a digital camera with any additional software.

Finally, as stated in the article the new legislation does not mention photographing consumers. Sounds like the State is getting in on the harassment of consumers normally performed by fraudsters.

So it appears that yet again the Governator's plans to destroy homecare will cost far money than it can ever hope to save. I'm so happy he's terming out of office next year.

Candidate forum for supervisors

2010-03-16T17:47:00.000-07:00

Here ye, here ye... a forum for 2nd district supervisors is this Saturday in Petaluma.

Union Democracy Goes on Trial

2010-03-16T17:18:00.000-07:00

A good summary of the upcoming trial from In These Times. Mr Finamore hits the nail on the head: this is really a test to see if democracy is allowed within SEIU. In the case of Local 1021's recent reform election they received a congratulatory phone call from Führer Stern. With Local 888, SEIU backed off fighting a decert and helped the members change their representation to NEA. So why is it when UHW employees turned NUHW employees try to do their best to provide for the prisoners of Zombie UHW they are hauled into court? Perhaps this is one fight for democracy SEIU figures it can't lose!

Desperate for attention, Zombies inform Candians about UHW trials

2010-03-14T22:12:00.000-07:00

You know nobody cares about your cause when a majorly trumped up trial against former employees can't garner any free media attention. Shown below are the identically worded and the only press coverage about the upcoming trial. Both are from pay-to-play PR websites featuring the same tired arguments trotted out against the former leaders. This is evidence of yet another basic principle of interpersonal relations lost on the Zombies: if you have to pay someone to publicize your point of view then this should be a pretty good sign about the world's view of your argument. Put another way: Listen here Zombies, no one cares about your bogus trial. This is clearly an attempt to discredit NUHW, squander ever more dues paying members money on a futile effort and run NUHW out of town. In a year since the disastrous trusteeship can the Zombies point to one legitimate victory for their members? Zombies, feel free to chime in. I check my email frequently!

From what I've heard the trial will be 2 weeks long and the hearing officer is tightly limiting the focus, so much so that there is only 18 hours of testimony (per side) divided among the 26-ish former employees being questioned. At best this is just over 40 minutes per witness ! Is that worth the Zombies time and money? Of course not, but the Zombies are hell-bent on making an example of NUHW, and I suspect they will end up shooting themselves in the foot. Also, the judge has barred the Zombies from seeking damages for the Memorial and Fresno elections.

* * *

For my readers who want to support NUHW the trial is in San Francisco starting Monday, March 22. I've been told since the Zombies are likely to make a circus of the trial supporters of NUHW are encouraged to take the high road and just wear NUHW button to show support. The hours and address of the trial are shown just above the Like Minded Folks sidebar.

Here's the same bit published in Canada. Canada! Do you think anyone in Canada cares about what is going on in California? Or is this just a sign of how desperate the Zombies are to get their point of view across

Will they succeed in their goals? No, but I'm sure it will backfire on them horribly, and we'll all be having a good gut laugh once this charade is through. More as it comes: the saga of David v. Goliath is only going to get better!

Judge upholds Doctors Medical Center election results; more to come?

2010-03-11T16:02:00.000-08:00

As you may recall from last year (long before my blog came about) the good folks at Doctors Medical Center voted 158 to 24 to get out of SEIU. Of course they complained and filed charges with the NLRB, but really it was all stalling. A stalling tactic that has finally been put to rest. Perhaps this is the first in a long line of defeats for the Zombies.

9th Court of Appeals, US DOJ support homecare funding

2010-03-09T23:30:00.000-08:00

Read 'em and weep Governator! It's good to see the federal government is stepping up where the Zombies used to. Case in point: homecare providers (workers) in Lake County, who are not represented by the Zombies, can get their state mandated fingerprinting free of charge! Sonoma county providers who are "represented" by the Zombies receive only intermittent mailings apparently based on employment gained through the Registry, the list of providers who have applied for job placement with the Public Authority and have passed background checks. As a direct hire by my wife, I never had to undergo a background check or fingerprinting and I have yet to receive any mailing about fingerprinting.

From Thursday, March 4, 2010:

From Monday, March 8, 2010:

Perhaps the tide against homecare providers and clients is turning.

FREE fingerprinting for homecare workers in Lake Co...

2010-03-07T18:21:00.000-08:00

...so will Sonoma County follow suit? Guess who I'm emailing and calling Monday morning. For my readers especially homecare providers (workers) and consumers (clients) in Sonoma County please call your supervisor as listed below. Don't know which district you are in? Look up your supervisor by street address. We need to raise their consciousness about the cost of proving our innocence.

They can all be reached at (707) 565-2241

District 1: Valerie Brown, vbrown@sonoma-county.org (southeast county)
District 2: Mike Kerns, mkerns@sonoma-county.org (southwest county)
District 3: Shirlee Zane, szane@sonoma-county.org (Santa Rosa & east Rohnert Park)
District 4: Paul Kelley, pkelley@sonoma-county.org (northeast county)
District 5: Efren Carrillo, ecarrillo@sonoma-county.org (northwest county)

Partial summary of SEIU's dastardly money wasting presidential appointees

2010-03-06T09:42:00.000-08:00

Nothing new here but good to see a few familiar names rounded up for an article that connects the dots about Stern's crumbling empire.

Zombie Mouthpiece Trossman to media, staff: "Don't take the bait!"

2010-03-04T10:23:00.000-08:00

If staff member needs to be advised to not "take the bait" then -- ugh -- things are worse off than even I suspected. And who calls a camera-hurling backhand a "push"? Time to put this menace to society in the hoosegow or better yet move her out of state. Tent City in Arizona is always looking for new "residents", and I'm sure a little jail time would temper her spirits. She could definitely use time away from the couch watching Jerry Springer all day.

Zombies catch election fever

2010-03-03T15:18:00.001-08:00

A little background to explain why the Zombies are all of a sudden struck with election fever.

Post-trusteeship, the former leaders of UHW formed NUHW and quickly got down to the task of orchestrating the members gathering signatures for decertification of the newly Zombie-fied UHW. The Zombies naturally filed blocking charges to slow down, frustrate and hold their members hostage indefinitely. It appears that Zombies took stock of what they had to deal with (an underdog union supported by devoted UHW members dying to get out of the Zombies deathgrip, more than 100 community and political leaders supporting a fair and free from intimidation election, and losing 7 out of 9 elections in 2009) and reasoned that if they are going to win an election this year they had better focus their efforts on facilities where NUHW support is weaker, hence their appeal to the NLRB. NUHW viewed this as the Zombies trying to manipulate election scheduling, which ought to be handled by the NLRB with no bias for any party, be it union or employer, and tried to appeal to the NLRB's sense of reason. Unfortunately this request was not honored and the Zombies view NUHW's actions as being anti-member. Lame for sure.

* * *

Shown below is the Zombies attempt to prove substantial member backing for their desperate plea in getting NUHW to back off decert elections. The astute reader will notice a none-too-clever attempt by the Zombies to increase the number of signatures.

A quick glance at the signatures in the right hand column shows that the first 5 listed are the same as the last 5! C'mon Zombies at least move the signatures around a little bit and make me work a bit for these blog
-entries...you make it too easy! I guess the proofreader was at lunch when this gem was pushed out via the UHW Report. Tasty over at Stern Burger with Fries, notes that this leaves 52 unique signatures. I wonder about the authenticity of these unique signatures since I am not able to match signatures to faces of people I know. Given the Zombies propensity for deceit it seems reasonable that some of these signatures could be forgeries.

So 52 signatures at 51 facilities...does this mean that there is one signature for 50 facilities and a staggering 2 for the remaining facility? Or did the Zombie(s) charged with collecting these signatures get smart and visit just a few facilities to round up a bunch of signatures? Either way the Zombies are desperate to publicize the names of their few supporters, no matter how pathetic that support looks. How pathetic could their support be? Heh heh heh, read on.

* * *

The Zombies, being a shifty group of sellouts, scabs and fighters fond of backhanding actually make things a whole lot worse for themselves by issuing a press release about most of the facilities where elections are soon to be scheduled.

When one compares the list of facilities shown in the open letter to those shown in the press release a number of discrepancies appear. First off are the facilities that appeared in the open letter but are not shown in the press release:

Brookside Skilled Nursing Hospital
Emerald Gardens Nursing Center
Gilroy Healthcare and Rehab Center
Golden Living Center - Fresno
Grant Cuesta Sub-Acute and Rehab Center
Heritage Care Center
Home for Jewish Parents
McClure Convalescent
Northgate Care Center
Palo Alto Nursing Center
St. Francis Convalescent Pavilion
St. Francis Heights Convalescent Hospital
Valley Point Nursing Center
Willow Tree Nursing Center

Is this an oversight or more likely a realization that these 14 facilities are still very much pro NUHW?

Second are the facilities they've added:

Centinela Hospital Medical Center (Inglewood)
Clovis Convalescent Hospital
Creekside Care Center (Heritage) (Stockton)
Enloe Medical Center (Crothall)
In-Home Supportive Services Consortium (San Francisco)
O'Connor Hospital (San Jose)
Prison Health Services (Dublin)
Saint Louise Regional Hospital (Gilroy)
St. Francis Medical Center (Lynwood)
Sutter Delta Medical Center (Antioch)
Sutter Eden Medical Center (Castro Valley)
Sutter Solano Medical Center (Vallejo)
Tiburcio Vasquez Health Center (Hayward)

They have picked up 13 facilities totaling 4,080 members. Looks good for the Zombies, right? Well I have 3 things for you to keep in mind:

in the press release, the number of members shown after each facility doesn't indicate support for the Zombies; it's merely a count of the number of workers eligible to vote,
in the open letter, the number of workers at the 14 facilities listed above don't show their member count so a net loss or gain in voters is impossible to determine, and
net loss for facilities: 1

When one considers the open letter and the press release a startling fact can be derived: of the 6715 voting member, just 52 signed the open letter. That's just 0.77% -- less than one percent and folks, that's messed up. Zombies: if members are truly happy with your dismal representation, where's the support to back it up? There is virtually no member support for staying with the Zombies, period. At Memorial you lost badly: 21 NUHW votes for each SEIU vote. How badly do you think you are going to go down in this dress rehearsal for the Kaiser election this June? Tasty was right: math is hard!

NLRB decides in favor of Memorial workers; recap of employer objections hearing

2010-03-01T16:10:00.000-08:00

After just four days of NLRB hearings, replete with conflicting witness accounts and relentless attempts to delay the inevitable the NLRB performed a lightning quick turn around on and dismissal of the unfair labor practices charges Memorial management filed.

Check out the NLRB's dismissal below then check out what NUHW has to say about remaining 4 objections brought about by Memorial management and what's next for workers.

(Click to super size above letter.)

Here's NUHW's recap of the hearing, and prospects on future actions. The most shocking part of this recap: the amount of money Memorial management spent on a very expensive expert witness testimony that failed to offer an opinion in management's favor. Image what that sum of money could have been better spent on. Oh, let me count the ways....

(Click to super size above flier.)

So perhaps not the last hurdle I had hoped it would be; however, when these hurdles are confronted they are easily cleared. I'm sure management is going to throw their own employees under the bus at every turn, by spending obscene amounts of cash to frustrate and delay the workers choice to unionize just so they can satisfy top management's need for ever bigger bonuses, dictatorial control, and downsizing in the name of "efficient" patient care. Stay strong fellow healthcare workers, you're almost at the end of this election dismissing nonsense!

Local 1021 members regain control of their local; Führer Stern...

2010-03-01T08:21:00.000-08:00

...calls to congratulate them?! Might we be seeing the softer side of ol' Mr. Pink-Scarf? Who would have thought an election inside a mega-local could have been pulled off without any (or at least any substantial) resistance from $tern & Co.? Congratulations Local 1021 elected leaders: you've set an example for the rest of SEIU.

Zombie training video released

2010-02-27T14:14:00.000-08:00

Warning: Brief occurrences of what some would call harsh language in the video shown below.

This is what happens when the desperate to be heard hire the desperate to work. And I thought Mark Nelson's death threat to my wife and me for showing up to photograph the Zombie protest of NUHW organizing at Memorial was absurd, but this takes the "cake". Clearly the best thing to do when a member is "lipping off" is to spew insults then use the trusty ol' backhand.

I wonder if this Zombie staffer will get a verbal warning or the Zombies will do the right thing and sever all ties, including not bailing her out of jail when she is caught. Why am I asking? Given the choice between the right action and the wrong action, the Zombies will pick the wrong action, guaranteed, but even this surprises me.

Tired of losing, Zombies throw an 8-way "listen to me" party

2010-02-18T22:07:00.000-08:00

Heh heh, the more I look the more I find about the Zombies ever-loosening grip on reality and accelerating loss of connection with their members. Tonight's entry comes from San Francisco Bay Guardian reporter Rebecca Bowe. Perhaps the most interesting part of the article is the indication that with more experience comes perspective, allows one to see things for that really are and make an informed opinion/decision. I wonder if the employee with a whole year under his belt at the time of the trusteeship knows how much things have changed in UHW since the it was forced on us. A sudden and disastrous change after 29 years is much easier to notice than after 1 year.

The Zombies are the undisputed champions of wasting members' dues money: “I don’t understand why we’re spending money on a picket when we already have a contract.” Contrast that with Richard Gutierrez statement that “we are a united front … united to work against management.” If fighting with management is all that he sees in union membership then he really has know idea what being in a union is all about.

Email from NUHW: "Real problems, fake protests"

2010-02-18T15:59:00.000-08:00

Here's the latest from NUHW. My favorite sentence: "Today SEIU can't even get ten people together for a picket." That's almost as pathetic as the "this is the only support we're giving you" fake rally for Memorial workers. At least there they had the idea of trucking in people from out of the area. Are they so strapped for cash they can't afford a single bus for a day? And who can forget Melissa Bosanco's observation "I don't see any of my co-workers on this picket line"?

Hey Zombies: do the job our dues money pay for like challenging an employer that is proposing cuts to hours, wages and staffing. Maybe a little advocacy for homecare workers while you at it? Please? I'm just saying.

Real problems, fake protests

Dear Keyser,

This morning, seven SEIU staff showed up outside my hospital and tried to get people to come outside for a picket to "support our contract." Only seven or eight workers came out, and when they did, it wasn't about our contract at all--SEIU was attacking those of us who are organizing to join NUHW.

We have real problems at Daughters of Charity hospitals, and we know why SEIU doesn't want to talk about our contract. They lied to us to get us to ratify an agreement that has takeaways on job security, health insurance, and scheduling, and doesn't even have full retro pay. (Leaflet: Retro pay or Giveaway?)

Healthcare workers are losing thousands of dollars because SEIU settled a cheap contract that sets us back.

But SEIU isn't doing the first thing to solve our problems. Instead they're wasting our dues money on stunts like the one today, to try to stop us from taking back our union with NUHW.

It won't work.

Just like workers at Kaiser, Santa Rosa Memorial, Los Alamitos, Providence Tarzana, the Sequoias, and Doctors San Pablo, we can see right through SEIU. They're on the boss's side and they're afraid of workers having control.

When we fought for a contract in 2008, we had hundreds of our co-workers marching with us. Today SEIU can't even get ten people together for a picket.

We're voting NUHW to bring back the strong, effective, democratic union we fought for years to build--and we're not going to let anyone stand in our way.

In unity,

Nina Ordonez, CNA, Seton Coastside
National Union of Healthcare Workers

Way to stand up to the Zombie intimidation my future brothers and sisters! Keep up the good fight!

"Those who have the least get the least"...

2010-02-18T13:47:00.000-08:00

... and what you can do about it. This is a prime example of the positive press coverage I'm looking for, especially the last paragraph which includes a call to action aimed at it's readers. I've included the same information for us in Sonoma county. Shown below are the contact details for Wes Chesbro our representative in the Assembly. I strongly encourage all my readers to read the article to get a better understanding of what is going in the homecare universe and then contact Assemblymember Chesbro.

Assemblymember Wesley Chesbro

Capitol Address
State Capitol
Room 2176
Sacramento, CA 94249-0001
(916) 319-2001

District Address
50 D Street Suite 450
Santa Rosa, CA 95404
(707) 576-2526

A healthcare protest at UC Berkley? Yeah!

2010-02-18T07:57:00.000-08:00

Ah, to be young and full of ideas. This protest is creative, eye-catching and certainly needed in this day and age.

"Sure you're disabled, just not disabled enough!"

2010-02-17T12:27:00.000-08:00

Below is the first article I've read this budget season that describes the way in which the Governator wants to destroy homecare and the affect it would have on the lives of consumers (clients). With all the negative press that focuses on just the costs and the race occurrence of fraud it's refreshing to see someone other than me touting the economic and social benefits of homecare. It's not just a grueling job, it's a job that saves money and saves live: consumers, providers (worker) and both their families all benefit from non-institutionalized care of our disabled poor. Can't the Governator see that cutting care would make the disabled suffer, the workers jobless and the families overburdened with care often to their own financial detriment?

The Functional Index (FI) score was designed to quantify individual disability, not determine categorical eligibility. To use it as such is, at best, reprehensible. One would not have to look far to find obvious exceptions and contradictions to this line of reasoning. For example my wife has never and will never walk but her FI score is above a friend of ours who can walk with a walker but is much more dependent upon her caregiver. Should our friend become ineligible just because her FI score is lower? Is rating and then discriminating against the disabled the best solution the State can come up with to balance the budget? We need to ask our Legislature and Governator to do better than to pick on the poor and defenseless.

	Silvia Torres-Limon (Northern CA): http://kp-silva.blogspot.com	First entry 4/5/2010
	Shirlee Anne Shirley (Southern CA): http://kp-shirlee.blogspot.com	First entry 4/5/2010
	Angela Young (Northern CA): http://kp-angela.blogspot.com	First entry 4/5/2010