Mike Fishman to Replace Eliseo Medina at SEIU?

SEIU's Mike Fishman partying with business execs!

Sources report that SEIU President Mary Kay Henry has tapped Mike Fishman to replace Eliseo Medina, who’s making a rapid exit from the Purple Palace under a cloud of suspicion that he’s under government scrutiny for his role in the SEIU/Tyrone Freeman corruption scandal.

So who’s Fishman?

In the 1990s, he was Andy Stern’s “Chief of Staff” while Stern was president of SEIU. Stern then appointed Fishman to be the president of SEIU Local 32BJ, which represents doormen, maintenance workers and commercial janitors in New York.

More recently, Fishman returned to the Purple Palace as an “Executive Vice President” on Mary Kay Henry’s staff.

So what’s Fishman’s vision for SEIU?

According to this video -- entitled “Building a 21st Century Union” -- Fishman is a huge fan of using “telephone call centers” to handle workers’ grievances instead of Union Reps and Shop Stewards. It’s a style of 1-800 unionism that’s not real successful, according to this account from an SEIU member.

In fact, SEIU famously flushed $14 million down the toilet in an effort to build “a mega-call center” in Detroit... and eventually had to pull the plug on the failed project, according to this article based on SEIU's internal memos.

In the video that’s posted below, Fishman shares the stage with co-star Annelle Grajeda. Grajeda, like Fishman, was once given a plum job inside the Purple Palace… until the feds revealed she was neck-deep in a wide-ranging corruption scandal that landed her boyfriend, also a top SEIU official, in jail for embezzling money from SEIU’s members. Court records indicate even Grajeda’s children were involved in the scandal, which is totally separate from the Freeman scandal. (Hard to keep them all straight...)

So, as Fishman takes office, look out for 1-800 call centers sprouting in Idaho. And “21st century” unions like this SEIU local with just 3 Union Reps for 55,000 members!