50-minute rally spawns a really weak mailer

Yesterday, SEIU did what it does best: makes a lot of noise but doesn't say anything of substance. At their rally, the chants were the very popular "We are the union/The mighty, mighty union" and "Hey-hey, ho-ho/NUHW has got to go". To those familiar with union chants the second one is popular because of it's flexibility: replace NUHW with whatever entity is the subject of the chanting and you have an easy-to-pickup rhyme. Even people completely unfamiliar with the situation can fit right in, which is especially useful when none of the people who got off of 2 huge buses rented by the Zombie was employed by Memorial. Among them was a handful of Sonoma county IHSS (homecare) workers, including the Zombie UHW Chicken Lady Maire Melchor, and human-megaphone Mark Nelson, both shown below.

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

It angers me to no end that the Zombies are wasting the dues money of my fellow members and this rally is the latest showcasing of their arrogance and endless spending spree. Two sizable charter buses, 100 + anybody-but-Memorial-employees in attendance, an unknown number of hotel rooms, staff wages, food, gas, whatever bribes were offered and so on for a 50 minute "look at me" rally. Our very own Reefah Joseph was there, looking lost as usual. This really is a mini-Fresno battle.

UPDATE: I asked the folks at Coach 21 (the charter bus company) how many people can fit on a bus: 56. Hmmm so let's do a little math 56 x 2 = 112, but the Zombies claim over 250, which leaves at least 138 or another 2 full buses plus change. Where did they come from? I was there and I saw the a bus unload and 2 buses load up the whole circus. I know at least one Zombie staffer, IHSS (homecare) field rep Reefah Joseph was there so I suspect a number of the circus clowns were SEIU staff who were required to attend.

I'm sure you see the irony, and desperation, of the Zombies using the number 250:  it's nostalgic, and more importantly it's purposely confusing. And what is this "before we vote", "help us win a first contract" and "protect our jobs" nonsense? Do the Zombies really think they have any traction with the workers? The man to the left of the "Don't Be Fooled" sign with the sunglasses holding a sign high above his head seems to be the only one clutching at this long dead belief. I'm sure the Zombies are only interested in protecting their own jobs.

Zombie UHW knows full well why no one is under contract nearly a year after forming. The NLRB used to be in their back pocket but as the NLRB tires of SEIU's abuse of the legal system and their blocking charges fall one by one, the Zombies will slink away to lick their wounds and ponder where they went wrong. If only they had the ability to look at themselves from the outside in.

Recent NUHW/Zombie union mailers: compare and contrast

I've been waiting a while for this one folks: a chance to compare a mailer from both NUHW and the Zombies that hit mailboxes at nearly the same time.

Being the nice guy that I am I'll let the Zombies go first. Notice their tact of creating fear in the hearts and confusion in the minds of the very workers the seek to represent. What the lack in a credible attack on NUHW they make up for it by appealing to a reader's sense of fear. Nary a word about the Zombies' plans for improving workers lives, or advocating for patient care. It's been 6+ years: they should have something on the shelf by now. Sadly they frequently trot out the same weak and lame arguments. Are they clutching at straws? Yeah, I think so. This approach is suspiciously similar to the farm worker representation battle between the Teamsters and the United Farm Workers (UFW) back in the 1970s. Guess who was the 800 pound gorilla and who was the underdog that won. Hint: it's the one with the more fitting name.

Let's recall the 2nd comment left on the "Garbage in, garbage out" blog entry.

"As of October 2008, the 747 has been involved in 122 incidents, including 48 hull-loss accidents, resulting in 2,850 fatalities. The 747 has been in 35 hijackings which caused 882 fatalities."

(The VW Bug is a far better engineered and tested vehicle but this it not an automotive blog.)

The number of casualties for UHW is far greater. They certainly have gone out of their way to destroy themselves, their alliances, sell out their members and anger their many supporters.

The four bulleted points shown above were discussed in the "Garbage in, garbage out" blog entry.

Have you had you daily dose of the Zombies hyperbole, fear mongering and outright lies? You're not the only one!

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What do you say to trading in this take for a look at NUHW's angle on unionization? They don't attack SEIU; rather they offer hope and solid ideas for furthering the interests of workers and patients. They don't use exaggeration, make silly comparisons, or distort the truth. Also, they show pictures of the workers' peers which adds a sense of credibility and plausibility the Zombies never had and never will. Dang! I wish I could vote for NUHW.

Memorial management continues to follow Zombie's lead...

... by angering everyone, lying through their teeth and backing itself into a corner. It appears they are beyond reason despite support from community, the Church, local politicians, and so on.

Another former SEIU staffer points the spotlight on the Zombies, Memorial management

Fred Ross Jr, a former SEIU staffer, now employed by IBEW 1245 give a brief history of his work for SEIU and the series of events that led him to abandon the Titanic-esque disaster that is SEIU. It's interesting how in real life and the movie people on the top of the social structure are sure everything is going to be fine while the folks on the bottom see the situation for what it is, grab their family and head for the lifeboats. I am sure Captain Stern is too proud of his sinking ship to jump off, he's already sent 2 people to die on his behalf.

In his open letter he describes how SEIU decided well ahead of the trusteeship to stop organizing. From there is goes downhill pretty quickly.

Southwest Clinic expands, Memorial profits, workers still lose

It's always good to have another perspective on the fiasco at Memorial. Hats off to frequent commenter Don F. who tells me that Memorial has another revenue stream: the leasing of 2,500 square feet of office space to Southwest Community Health Center. Good for Southwest, good for Memorial, but still bad for workers. I can't believe the way management talks out both sides of it's mouth: we have plenty of money for things, but no money people. And without workers to care for patients all this material wealth is useless.

Zombies recycle arguments, wastes paper

UPDATE: Don F. points out an excellent observation in the comments section below.

I have 2 more fliers to share with you. The first uses the same 4 lame arguments as shown in the SEIU rarely has anything new to say, ever post from last month but dumbs it down a bit with the statement "SEIU-UHW is the Kaiser union". Statement of fact is no reason to vote for the Zombies.

The second simply states "We work at Kaiser and SEIU-UHW is our union." Yeah, like that is a reason to be proud. As always, the Zombies neglect to say when the quoted members made their statement.

Look what we bought with the money we saved not paying you...a building we don't have plans for!

In a classic case of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing the executives at Memorial have decided to buy a building. It doesn't seem to matter we are going through a recession; Sonoma County's unemployment is 10.1% (yah...one in ten not working).

"We haven’t sat down and planned exactly what we will use it for," CBC (Chief Bean Counter) Mich Riccioni said.

So the damage wrought by management so far?

• hundreds laid off? Check!
• partnering with the Zombies to prevent unionization? You bet!
  
• loss of PTO and sick time? Already done! (No sick time at a hospital, that should be a mandatory!)
  
• lower morale than has been felt in years? Compliments of the Gloom and Doom partnership.

Clearly they have only the most intense contempt for their lifeblood (pun intended), their workers. Even so, they excel when it comes to patient care.

So there you have it folks: Memorial management has money, they just don't want to spend it on the very people that makes Memorial the nation's best place to go for a quick repsonse to a heart attack. Imagine that: save a person's life, and still have to contend with being laid off or just as bad be overloaded with work just for saying the word "union".

Memorial management & the Zombies: an unlikely alliance?

On May 20, 2009, SEIU had a prayer and lobbying event centered around the now abandoned Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). Since they have made some very good friends with Memorial management. How good? I'm glad you asked.

In October when Memorial CEO Kevin Klockenga states that "SRMH leadership was scheduled to meet with NUHW officials to attempt to reach mutually agreed-upon ground rules for a future election," you'll notice he said "was scheduled". Since the Zombies couldn't be bothered with meeting with NUHW and Memorial management it never happened. Seeing one of the prospective unions hold up the election only served the Zombies and managements' wishes to frustrate and exhaust the workers. For both of them no union at all is better than NUHW. So the election that the workers have waited almost a year for was delayed yet again, all because of the Zombies selfish interests in delaying the inevitable landslide victory for NUHW.  

NOTE TO MANAGEMENT: Per the agreement created by your moral superiors in Respecting the Just Rights of Workers: Guidance and Options for Catholic Health Care and Unions "management agrees not to use traditional anti-union tactics or outside firms that specialize in such tactics". Management has already violated the anti-union tactics (which is reprehensible) and clearly SEIU is the outside firm (which is their new line of work). It's not for you to pick if and which union you do business with: this is the workers choice!

Judge Frank Roesch provides temporary relief to IHSS workers

A sense of relief across was felt across the state today when Alameda County Superior Court Judge Frank Roesch temporarily banned the state from blocking felons from IHSS employment. The injunction hearing is coming up January 29. If a grandma wants to hire her felon grandson, that's between the two of them, and the State needs to keep it's hand off!

The Zombies dig themselves ever deeper now with managment's help

A good summary of the Zombies nonsense so far. Hats off to Randy Shaw at BeyondChron. Get ready for a laugh-a-thon as you see them lose all credibility with the very workers they are desperately trying to get to vote for them (HAH!), discard previous gains made at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and workers, and lose their grip on reality. My favorite sentence: "Few could have imagined one year ago that SEIU’s number one hospital organizing drive in 2009 would focus on preventing workers from joining a union."