We've been chronicling the ever-shrinking political world of union President Dave Regan, see here, here and here, for a while now, and recent news highlights his dwindling power.
According to the Sacramento Bee, participants of dueling Proposition 30 tax increases for next year, including the Service Employees International Union, California Teachers Association, California Hospital Association and the California Medical Association, are in discussions to merge their proposals and extend Prop. 30 taxes to raise money to pay for schools and colleges as well as healthcare programs. Notably absent from these discussions is United Healthcare Workers West and its president, Regan.
Will news now emerge that high-profile endorsements of UHW's minimum wage initiative proposal have switched to the Service Employees International Union State Council's more recent similar proposal? We'd probably bet on it.
The SEIU State Council and SEIU Local 1021 recently announced a proposal, tentatively titled the “Raise California’s Wage and Paid Sick Days Act of 2016," that would require employers to allow workers to take six paid sick days each year instead of the current three, and extend those protections for the first time to home healthcare workers. The state’s minimum wage would reach $15 an hour in 2020 while giving businesses with 25 or fewer employees an extra year to comply. The state attorney general’s office must review the new proposal before organizers can begin collecting signatures to qualify it for the 2016 ballot.
Regan and UHW had earlier backed a proposal that would raise the minimum wage to $15 in 2021. That proposed initiative would increase the state’s minimum wage by $1 each year until it reaches $15 in 2021, with annual increases afterward tied to inflation, but does not include sick days. San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, Lieutenant Gov. Gavin Newsom and state Controller Betty Yee have already endorsed UHW proposal. How long that lasts, who knows.
We have posted about Regan's slow - most likely painful - downfall. A deal between UHW and CHA that was supposed to garner the union more than 60,000 new members looks dead. In addition, months ago, he had 70,000 of his 150,000 members recently stripped from UHW. Every move he makes, the State Council seems to make a counter move. We'll be waiting for the next one.
