Check out this news coverage of the SEIU corruption scandal in
BNA’s “Daily Labor Report.” It describes the vindication that Freeman’s conviction offers to union reformers in California who opposed SEIU's corruption and undemocratic practices. Here’s an excerpt. The full article is
below.
Sal Rosselli, president of the National Union of Healthcare Workers, issued a Jan. 28 statement in response to the conviction. Rosselli contended in the statement that the conviction is a “vindication of the leaders and members” of NUHW “who were forced out of SEIU for raising questions about corruption and their refusal of an order from then-SEIU President Andy Stern with the support of current SEIU President Mary Kay Henry and SEIU United Healthcare Workers president Dave Regan to have 65,000 California homecare workers handed over to Freeman’s SEIU Local 6434.”
In 2009, SEIU placed its California local – United Healthcare Workers-West – into trusteeship and removed its officers, who went on to form the rival union NUHW.
The trusteeship took place after Rosselli, then president of UHW, and rank-and-file leaders refused SEIU’s demand that 65,000 long-term care workers – almost half of UHW’s membership – be moved to a new long-term-care workers local. At one point, prior to Freeman being expelled from SEIU, it appeared that all those workers would be put into Local 6434.
Rosselli always contended that the trusteeship was imposed because he spoke out about the corruption by some SEIU leaders, including Freeman. He accused the international of accepting lower standards for existing nursing home workers in exchange for organizing rights at nonunion workplaces.
In his statement on Freeman’s conviction, Rosselli charged that officials of SEIU “were made aware of financial problems in 6434 and its predecessor unions years before this scandal broke publicly and did nothing to prevent this catastrophe because Freeman was blindly loyal to the leadership of SEIU.”
Neither of Freeman’s two attorneys could be reached Jan. 29 for comment on the verdict. A call Jan. 29 seeking comment from SEIU was not returned.
And here’s a press
release posted on the FBI’s website regarding Freeman’s conviction.
Oh, by the way, the news of Freeman's conviction is spreading far and wide. Check out this article... with certain key words in English.
工會前主席盜公款罪成立
【洛杉磯訊】
January
29, 2013 06:00 AM | 234 次 |
洛杉磯聯邦法院法官28日裁決，加州最大工會前主席盜用工會公款罪名成立。
曾擔任國際服務業員工工會(SEIU)6434分會主席的弗里曼(Tyrone
Freeman)被判侵占工會款項數十萬元，違反稅務法，偽造郵件等14項罪名。身為全美第二大SEIU工會分會主席的弗里曼代表16萬名專門照顧老年和殘障人士的低薪健康照顧人員。他也是有3萬名會員的加州聯合居家照顧工會 (California United Homecare Workers)主席。
檢察官控告現年43歲的弗里曼以工會款項支付私人開支，包括他2006年在檀香山結婚的8000元費用。
檢察官上個月提出的起訴書中稱，弗里曼與工會執行助理普蘭諾斯 (Pilar Planells)假結婚。舉行婚禮時他與第一任妻子的婚姻仍有效。
普蘭諾斯被控以顧問費名義向工會收取的54萬多元違反所得稅法。她於本月初認罪。
弗里曼擔任主席時與工會間不當金錢往來經「洛杉磯時報」揭發後被起訴。相關報告見報不久後，弗里曼於2008年辭職。
Finally, here’s the full text of the BNA article:
