The US Department of Labor has overturned
the results of internal officer elections at SEIU Local 73 due to misconduct, according to an e-mail and a press
statement from SEIU (see below).
The federal agency reportedly ordered a government-supervised
rerun of the elections to choose the
union’s president, officers, and Executive Board.
Dian Palmer, who has served as SEIU’s trustee at
Local 73, said in an e-mail sent yesterday to Local 73’s members that the
election was overturned because of “a problem with the conduct of one of our
local union staff who was elected to the local’s executive board in our last
election. The identified conduct was a misuse of union data during the election
campaign.” Palmer says the individual has resigned.
Tasty’s sources say the
individual is Organizing Director and Executive Board member Sean McGough. It's unclear whether he is a fall guy and whether others were also involved.
During last
year’s elections, two competing slates of candidates battled for votes: one
backed by SEIU’s trustees and the other (“Members leading Members”)
supported by former staff and members of the union who called for greater local
control. The now-overturned elections, held in October 2018, saw Palmer elected
as the union’s president. Until then, she had served as SEIU’s trustee since SEIU imposed
its trusteeship in August 2016.
Just days
after the October 2018 election, “Members leading Members” filed a complaint
with the US Department of Labor alleging 13 violations of election rules. For example,
the complaint alleged that SEIU’s trustees used union resources to campaign for
the slate headed by SEIU’s trustees. According to other allegations, thousands
of members did not receive mail-in ballots. Here’s a link to the
complaint, which apparently prompted the federal investigation.
A rerun
election has not yet been scheduled.
The action by
the DOL is the latest controversy to wrack Local 73 since SEIU President Mary Kay Henry imposed a trusteeship on
the union nearly three years ago.
First, a lawsuit alleged that SEIU’s
trusteeship was improper. Then, in January 2018, Trustee Dian Palmer fired
about ten members of the union’s staff after they announced plans to stand as
candidates for the “Members leading Members” slate.
Next, in
February 2018, union members filed two
federal lawsuits alleging that SEIU officials had improperly failed to
allow members to retake control of their union through membership elections. With a judge threatening to
order an immediate election, SEIU officials finally agreed to conduct an election in October 2018.
Local 73, headquartered
in Chicago, represents 25,000 public-sector workers in Illinois and
Northwestern Indiana.
Here’s the
e-mail sent by trustee Dian Palmer to Local 73 members regarding the DOL’s
action. Note that Palmer says SEIU officials are
voluntarily requesting a rerun election. However, Tasty’s sources say a rerun
election was ordered by the feds because of election misconduct.
From: "Dian
Palmer" <info@seiu73.org>
Date: May 23, 2019 at 1:10:58 PM CDT
To: >
Subject: Important information about last year’s election of union officers
Reply-To: info@seiu73.org
Date: May 23, 2019 at 1:10:58 PM CDT
To: >
Subject: Important information about last year’s election of union officers
Reply-To: info@seiu73.org
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