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| Christine Boardman |
On Monday, Christine Boardman (President of SEIU
Local 73) formally appealed SEIU’s recent decision to continue its trusteeship of
the union, which represents 25,000 public-sector workers in Illinois and
Northwestern Indiana.
Boardman,
in a January 30 letter to SEIU President Mary
Kay Henry and Secretary-Treasurer Gerry
Hudson, says SEIU’s decision to continue the trusteeship “is fraught with
factual and legal errors and is in violation of the SEIU International
Constitution as well as the LMRDA,” a reference to the federal Labor Management
Reporting and Disclosure Act. Boardman requested a hearing before SEIU’s
International Executive Board as part of her appeal.
A copy of Boardman’s letter
is below.
In an e-mail
to supporters, Boardman vowed to fight SEIU’s decision, which was first announced
on January 27 on Local 73’s website.
Last August,
SEIU officials seized
control of Local 73 through an “emergency trusteeship.” The action suspended
Boardman and Matthew Brandon, Local 73’s
Secretary-Treasurer, from their elected positions and also suspended the union’s
Executive Board. Henry appointed three of her representatives to run the union
as "trustees."
On September
24, 2016, SEIU officials conducted a “trusteeship hearing” headed by a hearing
officer, Edgar Romney, to determine
whether SEIU’s “emergency trusteeship” was justified and should continue.
Romney, who was selected by Mary Kay Henry, is a member of SEIU’s International
Executive Board and is the Secretary-Treasurer of SEIU’s “Workers United”
division, which happens to owe $16.7 million to SEIU.
SEIU’s
trusteeship hearings are typically kangaroo courts in which attorneys from
the Purple Palace literally write a pre-ordained decision that's simply signed by the Hearing Officer.
On January
25, 2017, SEIU’s International Executive Board (IEB) approved Romney’s finding that “the
trusteeship was imposed properly and should be continued.”
Surprise, surprise, right?
The IEB also adopted Romney’s recommendation that Local 73’s Executive Board be disbanded
and that Boardman and Brandon be permanently removed from office.
Mary Kay
Henry has appointed two trustees to run the local: Dian Palmer (President of SEIU Healthcare Wisconsin) and Denise Poloyac (Director of SEIU’s
Property Services Division).
Eliseo Medina, who launched the trusteeship
in August, is no longer a trustee at Local 73. At the end of summer, he flew back to California to serve as Henry’s “monitor”
of SEIU Local 99 in Los Angeles following
alleged misconduct by SEIU officials there.
So what’s
the basis of Boardman’s appeal?
She says the
trusteeship hearing and the subsequent actions by SEIU’s International
Executive Board were “fraught with factual and legal errors” that violated SEIU’s
Constitution.
In an e-mail
sent to supporters this week, Boardman said the “vast majority” of the
witnesses at the trusteeship hearing were from SEIU International. Neither Boardman
nor Brandon was allowed to ask questions of SEIU witnesses, whom she describes
as “bogus.” Boardman says she was permitted to make a statement during the
hearing, but portions of her testimony – including an objection – were never
included in the hearing records.
Furthermore,
Boardman says SEIU’s justification for the trusteeship is “ridiculous.”
SEIU officials
said they seized control of Local 73 because of fighting between Boardman and
Brandon. “However,” writes Boardman, “the International used a different
standard on [Local 73] than they did on other locals.” She continues:
This includes Local 99 in LA where the President was found to be stealing money and Local 1107 in Las Vegas where the Executive Vice President had an order of protection issued against her because of physical confrontations with the staff. Six months later the President and Executive Vice President of 1107 filed charges against each other, plus 400 members signed petitions asking that the International trustee Local 1107. For those locals the International did not have an emergency trusteeship. The International’s position that we [Local number 73] needed an “emergency trusteeship” is ridiculous.
Those familiar
with SEIU’s recent history are likely laughing their asses off to see Edgar Romney serving as
some sort of judge of moral probity.
In 2009, Romney and Bruce Raynor joined Andy
Stern in SEIU’s attempted hostile takeover of UNITE HERE, the United States’ largest union of hotel, food
service, and casino workers. Across the US, labor leaders and observers slammed
SEIU, Raynor, and Romney for their underhanded attack on UNITE HERE and its 450,000
members.
