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| Trustee Eliseo Medina addresses Local 73 members |
Here’s the
latest on SEIU International’s trusteeship
of SEIU Local 73, which
represents 25,000 public-sector workers in Illinois and Northwestern Indiana.
Soon after the
trusteeship was imposed earlier this month, Matthew Brandon -- who was removed from his position as Local 73’s Secretary-Treasurer
-- accused SEIU officials of conducting a “hostile takeover” of Local 73.
Brandon “threatened to file a federal discrimination lawsuit to reverse the
international’s installation of emergency trustees,” according to an
article in the Chicago Sun Times.
Brandon told
the newspaper: “I don’t view this as a trusteeship. I view it as a hostile
takeover.”
SEIU
officials say they were forced to impose the trusteeship because of a dysfunctional
relationship between Brandon and Local 73’s president, Christine Boardman.
However,
Brandon told the Sun Times that a top SEIU official was the person who actually
sparked the tensions between himself and Boardman by asking him to carry out a
secret “stealth” campaign against Boardman.
In June of
2014, Brandon says a Vice President at SEIU International asked him to deal
with a personal issue that was affecting Boardman’s job performance, according
to the Sun Times. Here’s an excerpt from the Sun Times article:
“I proceeded in that process as stealthily as I could until Christine eventually found about it. That’s when our relationship was destroyed. She saw me as someone attacking her instead of trying to help her,” he said.
Then, Brandon added, the international “backed away from me and accused me of everything that was wrong in the local. These people don’t know what can of worms they’ve opened here. The members are absolutely furious.”
Brandon, who is black, charged that SEIU “discriminates against African-American males” and that he would “be able to prove that.”
Eliseo Medina, who was installed as the trustee of Local 73, issued an emailed statement that offered no direct response to Brandon’s explosive charges…
“As late as Monday, I sent an email to the international general counsel Judy Scott. I told her I was returning to work from an illegal suspension Christine [Boardman] imposed on July 5. Scott said I was insubordinate and not following her directions. Then, she started issues about what was happening the union,” said Brandon.
Nice quote from Judy Scott, right? "Follow my orders, muthafuka!"
So who’s the
SEIU International Vice President whom Brandon refers to?
Unfortunately, the article doesn’t “name
names.”
Any tipsters out there who can help?
