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| David Rolf |
A reader in Seattle sent along this story. On Friday, labor
journalist Steve Early had a book-signing event at a Seattle book store
attended by NUHW’s Sal Rosselli. After the event, about 40 of the attendees
walked over to a pizza parlor to get some food and continue the discussion.
On their way to the restaurant, they ran into 10
purple-shirted organizers from SEIU Local 775NW. Apparently, Dave Regan had told
David Rolf, the pre-pubescent president of SEIU Local 775NW, to send the 10 organizers to picket
the pizza restaurant and try to bully the people involved.
Rolf, of course, didn’t have the guts to show up at the
event. Too bad… because Tasty hears Rolf would’ve learned a thing or two. It
turns out that some of the rank-and-file members from Rolf’s own union were at
the event and shared some interesting perspectives about Rolf and SEIU.
You see… all of SEIU Local 775NW’s 40,000 members are low-paid
homecare and nursing home workers who mostly earn $8-$10 an hour. And like many low-wage workers, they’ve been
hit hard by the Great Recession. Well… everyone has been hit hard except for
King Dave Rolf. In 2009, Rolf pocketed a $25,000 pay hike (courtesy of workers' dues dollars) that boosted his annual
pay to $175,941. Rolf’s $25K pay hike is, by itself, more than what many of his
union’s members earn in an entire year.
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| 2008 |
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| 2009 |
Two weeks ago, Local 775NW held its annual leadership
conference, which -- ironically -- was dedicated to fixing inequality in the US
economy (whoops!). Local 775NW’s website is filled with super cool quotes from Dave: “Our country has more overall
wealth than ever, but people are struggling… It’s a crisis of consciousness and
a crisis of leadership.”
Oh… and Tasty also likes this one: “It will take an army of people to win the
Fight for a Fair Economy, and building the army starts with us.”(Does that make Dave the high-paid Field Marshal of his army of poor people?)
Well, Tasty has a few words of advice for King Dave: Next time, you might wanna actually listen to
the workers who pay your salary… instead of bullying them.
