Where Is She Now? SEIU's Michelle Ringuette

Michelle Ringuette, SEIU Alumna

Check out this story about an SEIU staffer who’s been working overtime to reinvent herself.

Remember Michelle Ringuette? During the run-up to SEIU’s disastrous trusteeship over California’s healthcare workers, Ringuette served as Andy Stern’s “personal spokesperson” and spearheaded SEIU’s campaign of a thousand lies.

In 2009, Ringuette carried out a particularly infamous face-plant. At the time, dozens of well-known professors across the U.S. had written a joint letter opposing SEIU’s attempt to seize control of UNITE HERE through an aggressive raid. 

SEIU officials, of course, were incensed that the professors had the chutzpah to actually criticize SEIU. So Ringuette teamed up with Jo-Ann Mort and Javier Morillo-Alicea to carry out a secret SEIU campaign to harass the academics.

One day, the three SEIU stooges mistakenly hit the “send” button on an internal SEIU email, thereby forwarding the secret info to the professors. The email laid out SEIU’s plan to attack the academics. 

Here’s how Ringuette described SEIU's plan to target the professors because of their “drive-by” attack against SEIU. What was the professors' so-called "drive-by?" Uhh, their letter criticizing SEIU. Here's what Michelle wrote:

Last night we discussed setting a few workers loose on people... I know these aren't high value targets, but I firmly believe people should not be permitted to do drive bys. They are all getting a letter this am and they all bought spot on our spam list.

Way to go, Michelle!

Later on, Ringuette quit the Purple Palace and, ironically, took a job at the American Federation of Teachers… where she was supposed to work on behalf of academics!

Ultimately, that gig didn’t pan out, so Michelle decided to make her next surprising career move. Ringuette -- fresh from her efforts to crush democracy inside SEIU -- decided to dedicate her life to human rights! That's right, she took a job at Amnesty International! (Tasty is not kidding)

One reader captured the stunning absurdity this way:

What a joke! Are you kidding me? Michelle Ringuette has the integrity of a con man, snake-oil salesman, and politician all wrapped in one. Wonder if she told Amnesty about her first-hand experience with violating workers’ rights, crushing internal dissent, and holding workers hostage inside SEIU by blocking their requests for democratic elections. What can I say? If that qualifies her to work at Amnesty, then there’s a long list of sleazebags who should be working there.  

So how’s Michelle doing at Amnesty? Well, she’s adapting with chameleon-like speed. Michelle has suddenly become a huge advocate for individuals' rights and, in fact, recently criticized the Russian government for “suppressing dissent.” 

Don't expect Michelle to last too long. Tasty predicts she'll soon end up as the PR hack for SIGA Technologies or Andy's billionaire sugar daddy.

Top Stories of 2011

Here's a look at some of the top stories of 2011:

Crookin' at Kaiser:  In early 2011, two federal judges forced Kaiser Permanente to pay millions of dollars of wages it illegally withheld from 2,500 Southern California workers after they voted to leave SEIU and join NUHW. And in July, an Administrative Law Judge found SEIU guilty of violating federal labor law during the giant election covering 43,000 Kaiser workers. The NLRB ordered a re-run election that hasn’t been scheduled because it's investigating even more violations, including allegations that Kaiser illegally funded dozens of SEIU's election campaign staffers during the election. So, while 2010 was the year of massive law-breaking by Kaiser and SEIU, the year of 2011 will be remembered as pay-back time. As 2011 drew to a close, Kaiser and SEIU were so nervous about the re-run election that they launched a super defensive Wizard-of-Oz themed PR campaign!

Jumping off the Purple Bus:  In 2011, thousands of workers from California, Michigan and Canada voted to leave SEIU and join independent unions. In California, workers at a half-dozen hospitals and nursing homes voted to join NUHW, including workers at San Francisco's largest hospital. SEIU also suffered losses in San Diego and Los Angeles… and is facing a home-grown decertification effort by 1,200 unhappy members of SEIU-UHW in Northern California. In Canada, an independent union has won five elections against SEIU since July. Next? In early January, workers at a Michigan hospital will be voting on whether to leave SEIU and join NUHW.

Crookin’ at SEIU-UHW:  After denying Kaiser workers a fair election in 2010, Dave Regan continued to show his true colors in 2011. Federal records revealed how "Wall Street" Dave nearly tripled his salary to $300,000 after taking over SEIU-UHW… and how he handed out salaries of $150,000-$200,000 to Steve Trossman, Hal Ruddick and other SEIU staffers. Last summer, the U.S. Department of Labor released records revealing how Regan liquidated members' $4.1 million pension fund in March of 2011. And last fall, SEIU-UHW’s internal financial records showed how Regan has turned SEIU-UHW into a profit-making machine, apparently by hiking union dues and cutting representation for SEIU-UHW members.

Concessionary Caravan: SEIU’s concessionary bargaining was another big story in 2011 -- from Children’s Hospital in Oakland, Providence Tarzana Medical Center, University Medical Center (Las Vegas) and Washington Hospital Center (D.C.) to Santa Clara, San Diego and San Joaquin Counties. Perhaps the biggest story was the $217 million pension cut that SEIU-UHW negotiated for 13,000 workers at Catholic Healthcare West (CHW)... along with the campaign of lies that SEIU's Hal Ruddick engineered to implement the cuts.

Ballot Stuffing, Rigged Elections and Un-Representation: Another big story in 2011 was SEIU’s endless effort to rig elections and deny support for its own members – from Walnut Creek, San Francisco and Los Angeles to Saginaw and Muskegon in Michigan. One of the saddest stories involved SEIU staffers sitting on their hands while Kaiser officials fired a worker with 33 years on the job…

Ass-Kicking & Numbers-Taking:  Finally, NUHW members made headlines by launching aggressive bargaining campaigns and strikes at hospitals across California, including Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital and USC University Hospital. At Providence Tarzana Medical Center, NUHW members bargained a contract that’s far superior to SEIU’s contract for 600 RNs at the same facility. And at Kaiser Permanente, NUHW members have sparked a growing multi-union fight against Kaiser Permanente – including the largest strike in the U.S. healthcare industry of 2011 by 21,000 workers!   

P.S. Of course, the year wouldn’t have been complete without the cast of pathetic SEIU officials who added a certain comic relief to 2011:  Josie Mooney, Steve Matthews, Andy Stern, Tyrone Freeman, Michelle Ringuette, Bill Lloyd, Brandi Madewell, Dave Kieffer and JonPaul McClellan.

Michelle Ringuette's Dual Unionism with Andy Stern

Here’s an interesting story featuring Andy Stern and his former personal spokesperson, Michelle Ringuette, who’s apparently been working as a union double agent since her departure from SEIU.

As readers no doubt remember, SEIU’s President Emeritus has been making quite a scene by shamelessly pimping for giant corporations… like when he joined Fortune 500 CEOs to push for massive tax cuts on U.S. corporations' overseas profits. Of course, Andy LOVES all the attention... although he gets kinda sensitive when people criticize him.

That’s where Michelle Ringuette comes into our story. After Andy retired as SEIU’s president, Michelle eventually followed him out of the Purple Palace by landing a job at the American Federation of Teachers, where she got a fancy title as “Assistant to the President for Strategic Initiatives.” Adios, SEIU…

Or so we thought!

Earlier this month, Tasty was stunned to see Ringuette using her SEIU email account to defend King Andy’s reputation during an email discussion among labor journalists. Here’s what happened. 

One journalist sent an email entitled “Andy Stern's integrity continues to deteriorate,” and others followed by sharing articles like Former Union President Andy Stern Says He Was Too Tough on Banks at SEIU, which features a pinky-ringed picture of King Andy with this caption: “Convert? Former union president Andy Stern is supporting pro-business policies.”

That’s when Ringuette, wielding her SEIU email account, jumped into the discussion to defend Stern (even though she managed to inadvertently backhand him as she tried to curry favor with the journalists). Here’s Ringuette’s email:

From: Michelle Ringuette <michelle.ringuette@seiu.org>

Date: Fri, 11 Nov 2011 17:46:38 -0500

To: laborjourno@googlegroups.com<laborjourno@googlegroups.com> 

Subject: Re: [laborjourno] Re: Andy Stern's integrity continues to deteriorate

As some of you might know, I used to work for SEIU and I served as Andy's spokesperson for a while. I consider him a friend and I think he's far more complex than what can be captured in this kind of thread. 

I asked Andy about this because after all our work, this was profoundly disappointing to read. 

What he actually said (or had been trying to convey - I wasn't present for the interview) was that he (we) made a mistake by personalizing it and going after [JPMorgan Chase CEO] Jamie Dimon and [Goldman Sachs CEO] Lloyd Blankfein as individuals rather than staying focused on the problems with the system. 

Michelle Ringuette

202 341 7057

Random words and unconventional spelling courtesy iPhone 

So what’s the deal??  Is Ringuette secretly working for SEIU while pulling down a paycheck from the American Federation of Teachers? Is this “dual unionism”... or just plain old double-agent spyism? Or has Michelle decided to launch a “strategic initiative” to use the AFT’s resources to defend Andy Stern? Well, whatever it is, it looks like Michelle has some explaining to do!

Michelle Ringuette Takes Her Sharp Tongue Over to the American Federation of Teachers

Teachers in America are fighting against anti-union, anti-worker legislation all over the US that's been pushed in the name of so-called "educational reform." While the wildly anti-union "Waiting for Superman" played in theaters across the country, Governors like Scott Walker were holding public-sector unions hostage. By all accounts the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) President Randi Weingarten has been assembling a team to help teachers fight back. AFT calls itself "A Union of Professionals." So why did it hire such a decidedly un-professional Michelle Ringuette?

Michelle, a former SEIU communications staffer who readers will remember from her many nasty and aggressive comments, has made an impression on Professional Teachers before... like when she called a group of professors 'low value targets who deserved a spot on the SEIU spam list' and then stupidly emailed her self-described "snarky" internal emails out to said professors.

The AFT put out this statement:

"As assistant to the president for strategic initiatives, Ringuette will help coordinate the integration of communication, political, legislative, educational mobilization, organizing and research functions of the AFT."

Seems like a big jump for a member of the communications staff who can't be trusted to cut and paste correctly.

But, Tasty doesn't understand why Michelle would leave SEIU. In 2010 her compensation was $132,388! Is the AFT really paying that much more? Or is Michelle another example of a Stern Kool-aide drinker who got pushed out by the Mary Kay/Scott Courtney regime?

Like this guy.

Or this one.

Or this one.