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| SEIU's Scott Washburn |
On her way out the back door, Courtni Pugh -- the recently departed Executive Director of SEIU Local 99 -- announced that Scott
Washburn would be taking over as the union’s "Interim Executive
Director."
So who’s Washburn and what's his track record?
Washburn is a longtime SEIU staffer who in 2006 was
appointed as the "Arizona State Director" of SEIU Local 5 and was tasked with boosting SEIU’s membership in the Grand
Canyon State.
Early in 2012, Purple Palace officials created Local 5
out of a top-down merger of three separate SEIU local unions in Texas, Arizona
and Virginia. (WTF?)
So, how did Washburn perform in Arizona?
Not so well.
From 2008 until the end of 2012, Local 5's tri-state membership
plummeted from 4,069 to 1,010 members. Ouch!
And in Arizona, Washburn did even worse.
For example, in 2011, more than 700 city employees in Tempe,
Arizona decertified
SEIU Local 5 to join an independent union called the United Arizona Employee Association.
By 2012, things had gotten so bad that the Purple Palace
pulled the plug on the multi-state merger by splitting Local 5 back into its three
original local unions (Local 5 in Texas, Local 512 in Virginia, and Local 48 in
Arizona).
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| In Arizona, Washburn performed like a... |
Washburn’s "growth strategies" had left SEIU with just 425
members in Arizona, according to records from the U.S. Department of Labor.
So what happened to Washburn?
In typical fashion, he pulled the purple ripcord and landed
a comfortable job on SEIU International’s payroll pocketing than $150,000 per
year.
And there's more.
In addition to Washburn’s underwhelming track
record, Scott has also cultivated many enemies by helping Andy Stern and Dave
Regan carry out SEIU’s heavy-handed raids against rank-and-file workers.
In 2009, Washburn famously deployed himself and many of his Arizona
staff to California to impose SEIU’s trusteeship on healthcare workers inside
SEIU-UHW.
Later that year, Washburn directed Local 5’s staff to conduct an
unsuccessful raid against UNITE HERE
at Phoenix’s Sheraton Convention Center Hotel. That won't win Washburn any
friends at UNITE HERE Local 11 in
Los Angeles.
In 2010, Washburn and his staff spent many more months in
California working on SEIU’s law-breaking Kaiser campaign, where SEIU’s illegal
threats ultimately overturned the election results.
Meanwhile, Washburn has carefully used Andy Stern's trusteeship
as an opportunity to secure full employment for his children. Last year, no
fewer than three of Washburn’s kids were employed by SEIU-UHW’s Dave Regan, including
Simon Washburn, Ira Washburn and Hannah Washburn.
Hey Local 99 members -- looks like you got a real winner on
your hands!
