Article: Dave Regan’s sexual harassment was constant; SEIU-UHW’s president made drunken requests to sniff women’s panties at union events

SEIU-UHW's Dave Regan

Today, a journalist published a jaw-dropping article detailing the alleged sexual harassment and assaults carried out by multiple top SEIU officials.

Half of the alleged offenders are top officers at SEIU-UHW, including President Dave Regan and Vice President Stan Lyles.

In preparing the article, Mike Elk at PayDay Report reportedly conducted exclusive interviews with dozens of union staffers and reviewed hundreds of pages of court documents. (Mike Elk, “SEIU Prez Knew of Sexual Misconduct and Personally Promoted Staffer Anyhow,” PayDay Report, December 11, 2019)

What did he find?

The term “jaw-dropping” doesn’t do it justice. 

Check out the following excerpts from Elk’s reporting on just one of the six officials, SEIU-UHW President Dave Regan. (Regan also serves as a Vice President of DC-based SEIU and is a member of SEIU’s International Executive Board). More to follow in Tasty’s next posts.

Regan… stands accused by multiple women of sexual misconduct. Indeed, SEIU has even permitted Regan to use his union’s funds to defend himself against sexual misconduct allegations.

…Interviews with scores of SEIU staffers, past and present, and sworn testimony obtained by Payday Report, accused Regan of making it clear that he would promote women from the rank-and-file of the union who were willing to engage in sexual relationships with him.

Veronica Lowery, a contract specialist at UHW, said she once was at a conference when she overheard Regan and others talk about the physical appearance of a rank-and-file member walking by them.

“‘The only way she is getting a job [with SEIU-UHW] is if she sucks my dick,’” Lowery recalls Regan said in an affidavit obtained by Payday Report.

At a training in October of 2017, Regan is reported to have shown up drunk to a meeting and asked women if he could smell their panties.

“I was at a gathering of some of the other women contract specialists, and Mr. Regan went around asking the women if he could sniff their panties,” said contract specialist Carla Grossman in an affidavit obtained by Payday Report. “At one point, another woman’s cell phone rang, and it was that woman’s husband. Mr. Regan took the phone from her and said, ‘I’II smell your panties, too,’ or words to that effect into the cell phone.”

Women like Mindy Sturge say that the sexual harassment from Regan was constant. In one meeting, Sturge says that Regan asked her if “Does the carpet match the drapes?”  in reference to her pubic hair.

In another meeting with others present, Sturge says that Regan asked her, “What would you do for some jewelry?”; an advance that she took as a sexual proposition. Sturge says it appeared that Regan was drunk.

Scores of SEIU-UHW staffers interviewed by Payday Report say that Regan was frequently seen drunk in the office and at union events. Regan was known for getting drunk at union conferences or outings where there was dancing and “grinding” on a woman’s backside on the dance floor. At one union conference, he “grinded” on Sturge in a way that she felt was sexually inappropriate.

“It was embarrassing,” said Sturge.

With so many men at the top of SEIU-UHW creating a workplace of sexual misconduct, some men, who had gotten in trouble at other SEIU locals, found ease in getting employment with SEIU-UHW.

 More to follow.

 

At SEIU Local 73, Controversy Follows Ballot Count

The results are in from the internal union election at SEIU Local 73 in Chicago. But the controversy is far from over… with allegations of election misconduct filed just days after the ballot count.

Here’s what’s happening:

On October 23rd, the votes were tallied in the mail-in balloting to elect the union’s top officers and 30-member Executive Board. The election came after a two-year trusteeship imposed by SEIU President Mary Kay Henry and a 2017 court battle launched by Local 73 members to bring an end to the trusteeship. SEIU’s trusteeship featured a cast of well-known characters, including Eliseo Medina.

Who won the election?

SEIU’s trustee, Dian Palmer. But by just 375 votes. Until recently, Palmer was the president of SEIU Healthcare Wisconsin. She’s also a member of SEIU’s International Executive Board. She beat out Remzi Jaos, a former staff member at Local 73. He’s part of a slate called “Members leading Members” slate, which pledged to return the union to local control.

As far as the election for Local 73’s Executive Board, the “Members leading Members” slate won eight of 30 seats.

Participation in the election was very low. Only 2,300 ballots were cast from the union’s 25,000 members, who work in the public sector in Illinois and Northwestern Indiana.

Just 6 days after the vote count, the “Members leading Members” slate formally appealed the election. It also plans to file charges with the US Department of Labor over alleged misconduct by SEIU officials during the election, including using the union’s resources to campaign for SEIU’s candidates.

For more details, check out a one-page leaflet from the “Members leading Members” slate as well as the election appeal it filed earlier this week.

   "Members leading Members" Leaflet on SEIU Local 73's Elections: October 2018 by tastysternburger on Scribd

   Election Appeal regarding SEIU Local 73's Officer Elections (10-29-2018) by tastysternburger on Scribd

Election Begins at SEIU Local 73 Following Two-Year Trusteeship and Court Battle

Remember SEIU’s trusteeship of Local 73 in Chicago, which represents 25,000 public-sector workers in Illinois and Northwestern Indiana?

In August 2016, SEIU President Mary Kay Henry imposed the trusteeship based on the claim that tensions between the local union’s top two officers were disrupting it. She appointed Eliseo Medina, Dian Palmer and Denise Poloyac as trustees.

Eighteen months later, members of Local 73 sued SEIU and asked a federal judge to end the trusteeship and allow Local 73’s members to elect a president and Executive Board. Under federal law, a trusteeship is presumed to be invalid after 18 months.

That lawsuit -- known as Hunter vs SEIU -- was filed in February 2018 in US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. This summer, a federal judge held a five-day hearing on the suit.

One month after the hearing concluded, the SEIU trustees announced officer elections. Earlier this week, mail-in ballots were sent to the union’s members and are due back October 23, according to a timeline posted on Local 73’s website.

Remzi Jaos

Initially, SEIU’s elections committee tried to block the opposition slate’s leading candidate from appearing on the ballot. Eventually, they backed down and Remzi Jaos, a candidate of the “Members Leading Members” slate, is on the ballot as a candidate for the president of Local 73. The slate is campaigning on a platform of returning control to local members.

Jaos formerly directed Local 73’s Higher Education Division and before that was a staffer at SEIU Local 1 and the Illinois Nurses Association, according to his bio on the “Members Leading Members” website. See below a photo of the slate’s candidates.

At the top of SEIU’s slate is Dian Palmer, who’s been one of SEIU’s appointed trustees at Local 73. Before that, she was the president of SEIU Healthcare Wisconsin. She’s also a member of SEIU’s International Executive Board.

The “Members Leading Members” slate says SEIU officials changed internal rules to allow Palmer and other SEIU staffers to qualify as candidates for the election. Here’s how they describe it in a leaflet:

In a sneaky move in July, Palmer got the International to waive the 2-year membership requirement for her and the other trustees. This waiver was done before any Local 73 members were notified by the Election Committee that the two-year membership requirement was changed to a six-month membership requirement!

Another SEIU staffer, Jeffrey Howard, is a candidate for the Executive Vice President. Howard, an “Assistant Area Director” for SEIU International, began working on the trusteeship team at the beginning of 2018.

In a September 26th filing in federal court, the plaintiffs in Hunter vs SEIU express additional concerns about the integrity of the voting system and the security of the ballots once they’re sent to an outside agency hired by SEIU to oversee the election. For example, they raise concerns about how "replacement ballots" will be issued and tracked, and how ballots returned as "undeliverable" will be handled and accounted for.

Stay tuned!

Two More SEIU Directors Depart amid Sexual Harassment Investigation

Scott Courtney

Two more directors of SEIU’s "Fight for $15" campaign are gone, according to Bloomberg and BuzzFeed.

Kendall Fells, who was the “National Organizing Director” and “one of the top national leaders of SEIU’s ‘Fight for $15’ campaign,” has resigned, according to the November 2 articles. (Links to the articles are below.) 

In SEIU’s 2016 financial records, Fells is listed as a “Deputy Organizing Director” with an annual pay of $146,740.

Meanwhile, Mark Raleigh, who directed the campaign’s Detroit office, was fired. On October 23, SEIU placed him on administrative leave.

And… it sounds like more firings may be coming down the pike. Here’s what an SEIU spokesperson told Bloomberg:

“These personnel actions are the culmination of this stage of the investigation which brought to light the serious problems related to abusive behavior towards staff, predominantly female staff.”

The SEIU spokesperson’s spin -- that these problems were only “brought to light” during the current investigation -- contradicts reports from SEIU staffers who say the abusive treatment of women staffers has been an open secret inside of SEIU for some time.

Scott Courtney -- who was the top director of SEIU’s "Fight for $15" campaign -- reportedly had sexual liaisons with multiple women staffers who then received promotions, according to sources cited by both Bloomberg and BuzzFeed .

Courtney was suspended from SEIU after he eloped to Europe with an SEIU female staffer. He resigned days after being suspended by SEIU President Mary Kay Henry.

Courtney’s departure is significant. He was one of SEIU’s top international officials, serving as an Executive Vice President and a member of SEIU’s International Executive Board.

Altogether, four top national leaders of SEIU’s "Fight for $15" campaign have now resigned or been fired in amidst a growing sexual harassment scandal. On October 23, Caleb Jennings -- the director of the campaign’s Chicago office and a former top staffer at Dave Regan’s SEIU-UHW -- was fired.  

In an e-mail to BuzzFeed, Jennings seemed to echo the reports of SEIU staffers who say the abusive treatment of women staffers has been a longtime, open secret inside SEIU. He told Bloomberg:

“President Mary Kay Henry should focus on the systemic abuse that has been going on within the institution, and hold accountable not just the perpetrators, but the many who have been complicit.”

Jennings told Bloomberg he denied any wrongdoing... but he nonetheless appears to refer to himself and his fellow campaign directors as “perpetrators” of “systemic abuse that has been going on within [SEIU].”

Not too bright, right?

Sounds like “Caleb the Creepy Bathroom Monitor” should watch a few more episodes of Perry Mason before he starts talking to the press about his culpability.

Here are links to yesterday’s to press stories:

Josh Eidelson, “SEIU Ousts Senior Leaders for Abusive Behavior Toward Women,” Bloomberg, November 2, 2017. 

Cora Lewis, “The Organizing Director of The Fight For 15 Has Resigned Amid Harassment Investigation,” BuzzFeed News, November 2, 2017.

Scott Courtney resigns from SEIU

Scott Courtney

Scott Courtney, an SEIU Executive Vice President and leader of the union’s “Fight for $15” campaign, has resigned his position at the union, according to BuzzFeed News and Bloomberg News. In addition, another staffer was fired and a third was placed on administrative leave. Here are links to the news coverage:

Cora Lewis, “A Top Labor Executive Has Resigned After Complaints About His Relationships With Female Staffers,” BuzzFeed News

Josh Eidelson, “Union Leader in $15 Wage Effort Resigns During Sexual Misconduct Investigation,” Bloomberg News

And here’s an excerpt from the BuzzFeed article:

"This morning, President Mary Kay Henry accepted Scott Courtney’s resignation as an elected officer and member of SEIU," wrote Sahar Wali, spokesperson for the Service Employees International Union, in an email to BuzzFeed News.

"This comes a week after she suspended him from his assigned duties based on preliminary information that surfaced through an internal investigation launched to look into questions about to potential violations of our union’s anti-nepotism policy, efforts to evade our Code of Ethics and subsequent complaints related to sexual misconduct and abusive behavior towards union staff," Wali added.

Bloomberg News reports that SEIU President Mary Kay Henry sent an e-mail today to SEIU’s International Executive Board informing them she accepted Courtney’s resignation and took action against two other staffers. The article includes this detail:

Current and former SEIU employees had told Bloomberg News last week that Courtney had a pattern of dating subordinates, and some said they believed people working for him had been rewarded or reassigned based on those romantic relationships.

On October 19, UltraViolet -- a national women’s rights organization founded in 2012 -- issued a press release calling on SEIU to fire Courtney. The release stated:

The SEIU must immediately move to fire Courtney, and conduct a review of the organization’s sexual harassment policies. This is wholly unacceptable, and the SEIU leadership must act quickly to ensure that it never happens again.

Courtney is one of the highest officers inside SEIU, serving as one of seven "Executive Vice Presidents" and a member of the union's International Executive Board.

More details on sexual harassment allegations inside Purple Palace

Scott Courtney

More coverage of the details emerging around Mary Kay Henry’s suspension of SEIU EVP Scott Courtney…

In an article published this afternoon, Josh Eidelson (the reporter who initially broke the story) describes more allegations from unnamed current and former SEIU staffers about Courtney’s romantic relationships with multiple women staffers. (Josh Eidelson, “‘Fight for 15’ Leader Suspended While Union Investigates Office Dating,” Bloomberg BNA.)

Here’s an excerpt:

Beyond his relationship with his new wife, multiple current and former SEIU employees who spoke to Bloomberg said that [Scott] Courtney had a pattern of dating subordinates. His conduct, these people say, has been a source of tension and concern within the union and has spurred an internal ethics complaint that preceded this week’s suspension. Some co-workers said that they believed people working for Courtney had been rewarded or reassigned based on romantic relationships with him.

… One woman recounted a time when she felt pressured by him into agreeing to have dinner together and had to scramble to find a way to back out. “The climate he created was hostile to women, and ultimately it didn’t stop with him,” said the woman, who now works elsewhere in the labor movement.

The full article is below.

The article mentions Courtney’s marriage in recent days to an SEIU staffer after they apparently eloped in Europe. The article notes that Courtney has publicized their marriage in photos on Twitter and Facebook. Here’s one of the photos posted by Courtney.

The sexual harassment inside SEIU that’s grabbing headlines is more widespread than the current case, according to Tasty’s sources. For example, sources say SEIU President Emeritus Andy Stern was known to sleep with women staffers when he was SEIU’s Organizing Director.

Tasty, in earlier coverage, described multiple allegations surrounding a former SEIU staff leader, John August, who reportedly was notorious for sexual harassment inside both SEIU and the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions. In 2013, he was ousted from his job atop the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions after months of investigations regarding sexual harassment and abusive behavior against staffers. His removal apparently took place after he sexually harassed a staffer at Kaiser Permanente.

 

SEIU's Dave Regan

Courtney, prior to becoming a top officer at SEIU International, served as the Organizing Director at SEIU 1199 Ohio, which was headed by Dave Regan. 

Regan, who currently serves as the president of SEIU-UHW and is a member of SEIU's International Executive Board, has been the subject of a number of allegations of sexual misconduct targeting both staff and union members.

According to Tasty’s sources, the harassment of women staffers has existed for many years inside SEIU but the union’s leaders have largely turned a blind eye and failed to hold high-level SEIU officials accountable.

Bloomberg BNA

‘Fight for 15’ Leader Suspended While Union Investigates Office Dating

Current and former SEIU staff describe a union leader’s pattern of relationships with subordinates.

By Josh Eidelson

October 19, 2017, 12:34 PM PDT

An architect of the high-profile union campaign to raise U.S. fast-food wages has been suspended from his duties at the Service Employees International Union this week over a relationship with a subordinate whom he married, and multiple current and former colleagues say his conduct is part of a pattern of previous romantic relationships with women working for him.

Scott Courtney, an executive vice president at SEIU who played a key role in creating and leading the union’s “Fight for 15” campaign, was suspended from his job on Monday by SEIU President Mary Kay Henry. A staff email sent by Henry on Wednesday said that there had been questions about Courtney “relating to a romantic relationship between a staff person and a supervisor.”

Courtney, reached via Twitter earlier this week, said he was on his honeymoon and “in no position to respond at this time.” His new wife, an SEIU organizer who now goes by Ashley Courtney, seemed to address the controversy by posting to Twitter and Facebook a photo of the couple in wedding attire with the caption, “No matter what you do to us, I will not apologize for getting married. #LoveAlwaysWins.” Mr. Courtney did not respond to further questions, and it not clear if the couple still work together at SEIU.

Beyond his relationship with his new wife, multiple current and former SEIU employees who spoke to Bloomberg said that Courtney had a pattern of dating subordinates. His conduct, these people say, has been a source of tension and concern within the union and has spurred an internal ethics complaint that preceded this week’s suspension. Some co-workers said that they believed people working for Courtney had been rewarded or reassigned based on romantic relationships with him.

SEIU spokeswoman Sahar Wali said the union is investigating “the situation that gave rise to” allegations about Courtney’s relationship with the staffer and the union’s “ethical code and anti-nepotism policy.” She declined to comment on the details. It is unclear from SEIU’s statements if Courtney’s suspension and the ongoing investigation are limited to his relationship with his now-wife.

With nearly 2 million members, SEIU is the nation’s second-largest union and arguably its most politically influential. Courtney is a major figure in the leadership, previously serving as organizing director of the health-care division and national organizing director. Courtney has been central to the “Fight for 15,” which has successfully pulled Democratic Party politicians to the left while raising minimum wages through state and local legislation. The campaign has combined strikes against some low-wage employers with political and legal pressure tactics. The goal is to enact a $15 minimum wage across the country and organize low-wage industries.

The campaign’s chief target has been the fast-food industry, which SEIU has so far failed to unionize. “Holding McDonald's accountable is our air traffic controllers moment—our chance to reverse a steady decline for workers that started when President Reagan fired 11,000 striking air traffic controllers, undermining the bargaining power of workers for decades," Courtney said in 2015. As part of the union’s effort against McDonald’s, the Fight for 15 sought to highlight claims of sexual harassment filed against the company with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

This month’s sexual harassment scandal involving Hollywood mega-producer Harvey Weinstein may have spurred SEIU employees to be more outspoken about alleged impropriety within the union. "Without Harvey Weinstein, there may have been an ethics complaint filed, but I don’t know that there would be the scale of conversation that’s happening now," said one current SEIU employee. "There are some very clear parallels—that there is a man with an outsize amount of power in a certain dynamic and a whole system that has enabled that behavior.”

In her internal email, SEIU’s Henry acknowledged that the investigation into Courtney would cause a big stir in the union. “I know that this situation has profound impacts on our staff family,” she wrote. “Just as we fight to make change in our society, we know that our organization should reflect the kind of just society that we fight for across the country.”

Some women who had left SEIU said they felt Courtney’s alleged relationships with subordinates would cast into doubt any recognition or advancement bestowed on women working below him in the union, since co-workers might assume the promotion came from a sexual relationship with him. One woman recounted a time when she felt pressured by him into agreeing to have dinner together and had to scramble to find a way to back out. “The climate he created was hostile to women, and ultimately it didn’t stop with him,” said the woman, who now works elsewhere in the labor movement.

Janice Fine, a labor studies professor at Rutgers University and a former union organizer, said the macho culture that has historically prevailed in organized labor remains a widespread issue. “This generation of young women in the labor movement, they’ve just come up in a time where they are so much better at calling that stuff out,” she said.

—With assistance by Ben Penn (Bloomberg BNA).

BuzzFeed: SEIU EVP was suspended over complaints about relationships with female staffers

Here’s the latest. 

BuzzFeed published an article this morning citing seven unnamed sources who say SEIU Executive Vice President Scott Courtney had a history of sexual relationships with young women staffers. Here are two excerpts from the story. The full article is below. (Cora Lewis, “A Minimum Wage Campaign Leader Was Suspended After Complaints About His Relationships With Female Staffers,” BuzzFeed News)

Seven people who have worked with Courtney, including current and former SEIU staffers, told BuzzFeed News the top official had a history of sexual relationships with young women staffers — who were subsequently promoted, they said.

…Two also said no significant action was taken after staffers reported abuse and sexual harassment by supervisors — who reported to Courtney. “Nothing happened on those campaigns without Scott knowing," one of the sources told BuzzFeed News.

BuzzFeed News

A Minimum Wage Campaign Leader Was Suspended After Complaints About His Relationships With Female Staffers

Scott Courtney is the chief strategist for the Fight for $15 minimum wage campaign for the SEIU.

Posted on October 19, 2017, at 8:13 a.m.

Cora Lewis, BuzzFeed News Reporter

A top labor movement figure who led the Fight for $15 minimum wage campaign was suspended this week after complaints from staffers about his conduct toward women, BuzzFeed News has learned.

The Service Employees International Union suspended Executive Vice President Scott Courtney after “questions were raised ... relating to our union’s ethical code and anti-nepotism policy,” Sahar Wali, a spokesperson for the powerful union, said in a statement Tuesday.

On Wednesday, Mary Kay Henry, the union’s international president, wrote in an email to her staff that "questions were raised about Executive Vice President Scott Courtney relating to a romantic relationship between a staff person and a supervisor. Such relationships are governed by our union’s ethical code and anti-nepotism policy."

Amid an ongoing investigation by SEIU general counsel Nicole Berner, Henry said in the email, obtained by BuzzFeed News, “I suspended Executive Vice President Scott Courtney from his assigned duties as an officer of SEIU on Monday.”

This past weekend, Courtney married a union staffer. Courtney didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

“We are taking this investigation very seriously,” Wali told BuzzFeed News on Thursday. “As credible allegations come in, we are pursuing them as part of this investigation.”

The complaints about Courtney had been an open secret among women in the high-profile Fight for $15 campaign within the union, which is itself led by one of the most visible women in American labor. The SEIU lies at the heart of the US labor movement’s attempt to transform itself from a traditional trade union body into a broad force for social and progressive change for union members and nonunion members alike.

The Fight for $15, which is focused on raising the wages of a low-income, largely female fast-food workforce, has been the highest-profile symbol of that effort, and won dramatic victories from New York to Arizona to California. But women inside the union say the internal culture of the Fight for $15 contrasts starkly with the values Henry and the union preach.

“Our union has been fighting for justice for working families, immigrants, women, people of color, LGBTQ people and people of all faiths and backgrounds in their work places, in our communities and in our economy and democracy,” Henry wrote in her email. “Just as we fight to make change in our society, we know that our organization should reflect the kind of just society that we fight for across the country.”

“In the weeks ahead, I will be taking concrete steps to ensure there is an open and safe space process for staff to discuss these and related concerns,” Henry wrote.

Seven people who have worked with Courtney, including current and former SEIU staffers, told BuzzFeed News the top official had a history of sexual relationships with young women staffers — who were subsequently promoted, they said.

The sources spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation within the labor movement.

Two also said no significant action was taken after staffers reported abuse and sexual harassment by supervisors — who reported to Courtney. “Nothing happened on those campaigns without Scott knowing," one of the sources told BuzzFeed News.

According to a source within SEIU and SEIU’s governing documents, suspension is the highest form of action Henry can take within her authority as union president against a union officer at Courtney’s level.

For an executive vice president to be removed from his or her position, the union must go through an official proceeding by the union’s internal executive board, its second highest governing body.

Cora Lewis is a business reporter for BuzzFeed News and is based in New York. Lewis reports on labor.

Contact Cora Lewis at cora.lewis@buzzfeed.com.