With SEIU Healthcare Michigan under an emergency
trusteeship due to allegations of financial malpractice, Tasty took a look
at the union’s recent financial disclosure reports and discovered some
interesting details.
During
recent years, the union has paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to Paul Policicchio, the union’s former
president, even though Policicchio
resigned his position more than 15 years ago.
According to
the union’s annual reports to the US Department Labor (Form LM-2), SEIU
Healthcare Michigan has been paying Policicchio $53,400 a year for many years.
And the payments have continued through 2015, the most recent year for which
records are available, even though Policicchio died in 2013.
What are the
payments for?
In some
years, the union says the payments were for “Consulting Services.” In other
years, it describes them as “Retiree Supplement.”
In November
of 2013, when Policicchio died at age 63 following a battle with cancer, SEIU
Healthcare Michigan began making the $53,400-a-year payments to his wife,
according to the records.
For what
alleged purpose?
In 2015, SEIU
Healthcare Michigan paid her $53,400 for serving as a “Retiree Consultant,”
according to the records.
What’s going
on?
Tasty’s
sources believe these payments are part of a “buyout” engineered by SEIU
President Emeritus Andy Stern.
 |
| Andy Stern |
In 1988, Policicchio
became the president of Detroit-based SEIU Local 79, the predecessor union of SEIU
Healthcare Michigan. He also was named an SEIU International Vice President in Washington,
DC.
In 1996, Stern
took office as SEIU’s president and reportedly wanted to move Policicchio out
of SEIU so he could fill Policicchio’s position with one of Stern’s allies. So Stern
allegedly engineered a “buyout” to coax Policicchio out the door.
In 2001, Policicchio
retired from SEIU at age 51 with an SEIU pension and Stern’s fat “golden handshake”
in his pocket.
Sources believe Stern’s “buyout” likely included a “gag clause” that barred Policicchio from saying anything bad about Stern, SEIU or the buyout.
So just how
big was Stern’s alleged “golden handshake?”
Hard to say.
But perhaps
Mary Kay Henry and her trustees -- Tom Balanoff,
Inga Skippings, and Ed Burke -- can take a look at SEIU Healthcare Michigan's books and shed some light on this six-figure, purple-hued mystery. Inquiring minds want to know.
