SEIU’s “Partnership” = $1.8 Billion for Kaiser, layoffs and benefit cuts for workers
When SEIU gave away our retiree health benefits in national bargaining this June, SEIU-UHW claimed it wasn’t really a benefit cut.
Now, Kaiser’s Quarterly Financial Report has revealed that SEIU’s retiree health giveaway saved Kaiser more than $1.8 billion. You can read it in black and white. (Please print and share that leaflet with your co-workers today. Spanish here.)
Those dollars are coming directly from workers’ pockets.
When SEIU allowed Kaiser to cap the amount Kaiser puts into our retiree health coverage it meant that healthcare workers at Kaiser will have to pay hundreds of dollars a month in retirement that we didn’t have to pay before.
Instead of guaranteed healthcare coverage for life, like we used to have, SEIU-UHW has now guaranteed that SEIU healthcare workers will be padding Kaiser’s profit margin every month for the rest of our lives!
How does that make you feel? It makes me angry.
And to add insult to injury, SEIU officials are pretending they didn’t know about layoffs now scheduled for more than 1,000 Kaiser workers. Listen to this recording where two hapless SEIU-UHW Kaiser reps try and fail to answer totally reasonable questions from their own stewards about the layoffs now affecting Kaiser workers.
SEIU can’t answer questions about layoffs scheduled by their partner Kaiser Permanente. That’s because the only answer that makes sense is for Kaiser workers to kick out SEIU and join NUHW.
Won’t you join me sharing this important leaflet (English / Spanish) about SEIU’s $1.8 billion giveaway to Kaiser in 2012 bargaining? It’s time to get the heck out of SEIU.
Sincerely,
Mell Garcia, Medical Assistant, Kaiser Hayward
National Union of Healthcare Workers