Well… just as Tasty predicted, Cuddihy is now using his Shop Steward position to leap-frog into an open seat on SEIU-UHW’s Executive Board. In fact, the
election is scheduled for Nov. 9.
Tasty hears that SEIU's latest move is creating some serious disgust among workers at the
Kaiser Permanente hospital. Why? Let’s just say that Cuddihy is not exactly known for his integrity. Several years ago, workers actually caught
Cuddihy making a secret deal with management to re-write the union's rules in a
way that benefited only him.
But that’s not all. Cuddihy also has problems with women. Here's how a reader describes an incident that took place when Cuddihy was previously a Shop
Steward:
A number of representatives from John [Cuddihy’s] department came to the steward council and requested that recall procedures be initiated. What they specifically cited was that John treated the women in the department with contempt and specifically, he had been informed that one of his constituents was being sexually harrassed by a male coworker in the dept (John's friend). Instead of giving his constituent the resources to report the harassment so that an investigation could be initiated, John did his "own" investigation and told her that the complaint had no merit. She continued to suffer sexual harrassment at the hands of his friend. When this young woman reported to the steward council, she was in tears and John did his best to attack, interrupt and intimidate her through the entire presentation.
The steward council launched a full investigation into Cuddihy and discovered that “there were several more incidents of discrimination based on race and
gender reported by John's constituents and that he used his position as steward
to harass and intimidate them,” according to the reader. Under the union’s old
rules, workers were allowed to vote on whether to keep Cuddihy in his union
position – and they removed him by a near unanimous vote.
Ahh… but those were the old days. Under the new system ushered in by Dave Regan, “democracy” means back-room deals with bosses, $300,000
salaries for union officials, and rigged votes.
That's how Cuddihy -- whose ethical transgressions sound eerily similar to Regan's -- got a position at SEIU-UHW even though workers overwhelmingly voted him down several weeks ago. Sounds like Cuddihy is destined
for a bright future alongside Regan!
