SEIU-UHW President Dave Regan tries to undo safe staffing ratios
There’s just one word for it: Disgusting.
Thursday night, on a statewide call of California union leaders, SEIU-UHW President Dave Regan announced his plans to help the hospital industry gut nurse-to-patient ratio laws that protect our patients and our licenses, and tried to get the rest of the labor movement to help him do it.
Why would “Wall Street Dave” do this? It’s simple: SEIU is in bed with the boss.
Regan is trying to uphold his end of a backroom deal that SEIU-UHW made earlier this year with the anti-worker California Hospital Association, an employer group that includes Kaiser, Sutter and Dignity Health, by championing the Hospital Association’s goal of undoing our nurse-to-patient ratios.
Even though the hospital industry in California made $4 billion in profits last year, Regan tried to convince union leaders that they should agree to make exceptions to current law that would free hospitals from having to follow current staffing ratios while RNs take meal and other breaks.
Then Wall Street Dave even tried to convince California union leaders that because SEIU-UHW had accepted cuts to workers’ pay and benefits up and down California that it was time for other unions to do the same. Talk about being in bed with the boss!
Unbelievable. When the leaders of NUHW were in charge of UHW, they fought for years to extend nursing ratios to non-RN classifications like Respiratory Therapists and CNAs. Now, SEIU’s leaders are doing the exact opposite. The good news is that Wall Street Dave Regan’s proposal was shot down 60-2, with the only 2 votes coming from SEIU.
You can help put Wall Street Dave in his place, by telling SEIU-UHW to stop doing industry executives’ bidding at the expense of workers and patients. Will you call call Dave Regan at UHW headquarters and tell him to back off on his collusion with the California Hospital Association in regards to the Safe Staffing Ratios? Thousands of RNs with the California Nurses Association are making calls to Regan, too.
The phone number is 800-585-4250.
We can’t promise Dave Regan will be there to take your call, since he’s too busy between the sheets with the California Hospital Association to answer the phone these days. But if enough of us dial his number, he’ll get the message loud and clear.
Sincerely,
LaNeta Fitzhugh, RN, Kaiser LAMC
National Union of Healthcare Workers
PS. Here is a leaflet you can print and share with your co-workers. (Spanish)