My half-day in court

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:

1. 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.
2. 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.

When great local unions go bad

(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.

Zombies tell their "truth" about the Fresno slim victory

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!

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).

Desperate for attention, Zombies inform Candians about UHW trials

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!

Members ask direct questions about mysterious resignation at Local 221

Its seems the Zombies can't stop shooting themselves in the foot with shady, money stealing, members'-will-blocking appointed local presidents. This was emailed to me from Monty Kroopkin, democracy reformist and blog reader from way down in San Diego. Monty asks but 3 simple questions; questions that will most likely go unanswered, which only will further damage the credibility and accountability of 221 EB and Zombie International.

President's Day Open Letter on the Resignation of President Moore

Dear SEIU Local 221 Executive Board Members,
The sudden resignation of former Local 221 President Sharon-Frances Moore has raised many serious questions. Members of our union have a right to answers. Sadly, most members have heard about this situation, not from our own union officials, but from the articles in the San Diego Union-Tribune (if they have even heard about it at all)

Labor leader resigns amid election dispute
SEIU-sent officials to probe complaints

Please fully inform our membership on the answers to these questions.

(1) Is it true that the SEIU Ethics Commission opened an investigation of one or more complaints that Sister Moore allegedly violated the SEIU Ethics Code?
(2) If it is true, what was/were the complaint(s)?
(3) If it is true, what is/are the findings of the Ethics Commission?

Members have a right to know if our union funds were used improperly, or illegally. We have a right to know if any laws or union rules were violated by a Local Union president, or by any union official.

We have a right to openly discuss how to prevent such violations, if any, in the future.

It cannot be "ethical" to make the SEIU Ethics Commission's reports a secret.

With an annual Local 221 budget of about $7 million, we cannot tolerate a cover-up.

For Union Democracy,
Monty Kroopkin
http://reformseiulocal221.blogspot.com/
p.s. -- Members or union staffers who filed any complaints regarding former President Moore (or regarding any other union official) should make their complaint(s) public. Because fear of retaliation may prevent someone from coming forward, an anonymous copy of a complaint may be sent to Reform221 at reform221@earthlink.net
 or to 4440 33rd Place, San Diego, CA 92116.

Last hurdle for Memorial workers?

The Memorial workers are a patient group. First, they approached SEIU for unionization about 7 years ago; later came the backing of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops. Uncharacteristic of UHW at the time they were kicked to the curb by the Zombies around the time the trusteeship came down. Of course they tried to blame NUHW but all the Zombies had to do was pick up the phone and say "we've been a  little busy adjusting to our new management here in Oakland, but we're ready to continue our efforts". But as shown here they did...nothing! So when the good folks at Memorial were approached by NUHW to continue their unionization efforts, this awoke the Zombie beast with an onslaught of pricey and very ineffective mailers. Throw in some turkey, cake and a "this is the only support we're giving you" rally and you could see why they were both exhausted and yet very ready to vote for NUHW.

It appears all that's left is a hearing to discuss (and hopefully resolve) the remaining 4 of management's original 10 objections. They've recanted 6 of their objections probably to avoid the embarrassment of having them dismissed by the NLRB. Here are the remaining 4 objections.

 

(click image above to read all objections)

FULL DISCLOSURE: the above referenced document was originally 9 pages but the pages discussing the contested votes were removed to prevent further publicizing the names of the contested voters.

I can't believe "font and font styles" (#9) as well as the Board agents failing to man handle voters (#8) complaints remain. However, it is what it is and the workers would sincerely appreciate a strong turn out at the Federal Building at 777 Sonoma Ave (at D Street), Santa Rosa. The hearing will begin at 9:00 a.m. on Monday, February 22 in Room 215 and will likely run all of Monday and into Tuesday.

So read the modified complaints and show up to the hearing next Monday at 9. See you there!

Homecare fraud: you're lucky if you can find it!

Recently there has been some press coverage about homecare fraud with nearly all of it being bad. If we didn't get bad press we'd get no press at all. It seems the nature and cost effectiveness of homecare is horribly misunderstood. If you follow the LameStream media's coverage of this attack on homecare you'd think that the disabled poor and those who care for them are criminals worthy of only the harshest treatment. Following the Governator's line of reasoning one might think were it not for homecare the State wouldn't have a budget deficit at all! Here's an example of the spoon-fed and lopsided thinking that makes my blood boil.

 

This is exactly what we don't need: division among the consumers (clients) as to who is eligible. Having met several homecare providers (workers) and their consumers I can tell you if a consumer is receiving homecare services it's vital to the well-being and happiness of the consumer. My wife is much happier living with me than living in a group home! Homecare is no road to riches for the providers and it saves the State far more than it would spend if it housed every consumer in a nursing home, group home or whatever dungeon they think the disabled poor should be warehoused in.

When legislators and journalists stop blindly accepting what someone else tells them is the irrefutable truth (the Gov tells the Legislature, and the journalists gobble up whatever they hear from Sacramento) and the State attempst to find the fraud, they find much less fraud exists than is reported by the media. In 2007, the Gov stated it was as high as 25%, but when investigated by his own administration it was found to be no more than 1%. Don't get me wrong: even 1% is unacceptable but the way the State is going about reducing fraud is Draconian, and obviously lopsided (which is putting it nicely). For those who choose to abuse the system and steal from both us the taxpayers and us the overwhelmingly majority of honest workers just trying to earn a living, I say hang them up by their ampersand caret asterisk toes in the middle of town.

The money spent to detect and stop fraud is ridiculous in both absolute dollars and when the amount of money recovered is divided into the amount spent finding the fraud in the first place. Here are some examples:

 

Did y'all get that: they spent $3 million to save $315,000! That's $157,894.74 per conviction! I thought the Zombies' dollar-to-vote ratio was out of control but this is ridiculous! A quick run crunching the numbers shows this was a prime example of the State's penny-wise but pound-foolish approach to handling our tax money.

Maximum number of hours that can be assigned to any one consumer: 283 (a 40 work week is 173 hours a month, 283 is ~1.6 times more)
Hourly wage for IHSS workers in Sacramento: $10.40
Months in a year: 12
A years worth of homecare work at the above given wage comes out to $35,318.40

Difference between cost per conviction and maximum payout for one consumer's worth of work (283 x 10.40 x 12=): $110,576.34.

I say (s)he who wastes more money gets required lifetime employment at McDonald's working the drive thru window!

So, yet again way more money is spent than is recovered, but at least the politicians can feel good about their efforts to root out the fraud. Sheesh, does it hurt to be this stupid?

This is not an isolated example of the State's overzealous attack on the poor and defenseless.

 

So as you can see the State is very concerned about the 0.2% (NOT 2%!) in over-payments in Fresno county, the State's leader in homecare fraud detection, prevention and conviction and the only way they can see to fix the problem and punish this despicable and very small group of scamming "caregivers" is to take us all down. Make the poor poorer (reduce us to minimum wage), punish the innocent (fingerprinting for all), surely that will solve all our problems!

So to combat this problem they've written the "improvements" below into law. As far as I know they have yet to figure out how to implement these new laws. What the State has in mind is indeed punitive:

• checks can't be mailed to P.O. boxes (which is a bummer because in my neighborhood, a P.O. box is an excellent way to prevent identity theft)
• fingerprints for both the provider and consumer put on each timecard (Who pays for the ink? Who is charged with matching 800,000+ fingerprints to people on a semi-monthly basis? What if a consumer doesn't have (accessible) thumbs? Whatever happened to "innocent until proven guilty"?)
• State required but not funded fingerprinting for both consumers and providers (and where were the Zombies when these proposal became law? Busy fighting with members, again!)
• unannounced home visits (Which seem to be in violation of  multiple homecare contracts about the consumer's right to chose whom, how and when someone enters their home.)

Seems like overkill doesn't it?

A few things need to be said about fraud:

• fraud is wrong, no matter the justification or significance
• those who commit fraud, both providers and (living) consumers must be punished
• the rest of us who aren't committing fraud need to be left alone, no fingerprinting at our own expense to prove our innocence
• the folks handling the timecards (counties) and the folks who cut the checks (the State) need some simple checks to be put in place, specifically:

• no checks for the consumers known to be deceased (except for consumers who passed away mid pay period)
• no checks for providers or consumers who are in jail

Had the counties and the State been checking for this all along who knows how much money could have been saved. Consider the lack of seething animosity that could have been avoided. The oft reported, but grossly exaggerated costs of IHSS fraud could simply never have happened but for that you'd need a state that cares for it's elderly and disabled poor, instead of taking every possible action to move us both ever-faster into the grave. Even when these fraudsters are caught it's a great expense to the State and the money is not always recovered.

Fortunately for us all the writing of a few bright minds makes it's way to the Op-Ed sections of our newspapers and blogs.

Indeed, this is a rare voice of reason is a sea of stupity.

Anna Burger reaches out...

... with a survey that is in ALL CAPS! In the online world writing in ALL CAPS comes across as yelling. As annoying as this is, it seems appropriate since they are losing their grip with members, politicians, other unions, etc. Here's her invite for a "brief survery". Are they ever brief? Should you click on the image below you can read the survey. I feel apathetic about filling out the survey, since I don't know what the Zombies will do with the answers, but it's interesting to read the Obama related questions and substitute Stern. Now that would be a survey worth taking! Note to Zombies: if you have to ask you really are clueless, but thanks for the dues financed feel good survey just the same!