SEIU's Andy Stern Breaks New Ground with Corporate Bankruptcy

SEIU's Andy Stern

Remember when Andy Stern, SEIU’s President Emeritus, pocketed thousands of stock options in a pharmaceutical company after billionaire Ron Perelman appointed him to serve on the company's Board of Directors?

Well… SEIU’s "maverick" leader has accomplished yet another "first" for a "labor leader."

Corporate bankruptcy!

That's right.  Stern’s pharmaceutical company -- SIGA Technologies -- recently filed for Ch. 11 bankruptcy.

So how did Stern's corporate wet dream turn into a scene from Enron?

According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, Delaware's highest court ordered Stern's company -- SIGA Technologies -- to pay damages of $232 million or more for ripping off another company that helped to fund the development of SIGA’s main drug product.

“SIGA says it has grounds to appeal, but doesn't have the money to post the necessary bond for the full amount of the damages, plus interest,” says the WSJ. That's why SIGA is filing for bankruptcy.

 

SIGA's stock price: 99 cents

As these events unfolded, SIGA’s stock price plummeted to just 99 cents a share.

Ain’t karma a bitch!

When Stern was the President of SEIU, he abandoned thousands of low-waged security guards at AlliedBarton after he reportedly cut a backroom deal with their boss, billionaire Ron Perelman, according to the Huffington Post.

Next, only weeks after Stern resigned as SEIU’s president, Perelman returned Andy’s favor by placing Stern on the board of SIGA, where Stern has pocketed bags of cash.

Ron Perelman aka 'Sugar Daddy'

Stern quickly employed the D.C. political connections he acquired during his time atop SEIU to apparently lobby the federal government to award SIGA a massive no-bid, $433 million contract, which prompted investigations into illegal bid rigging by U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.).

To help out his SEIU buddy, Perelman also created and funded a custom-made job for Stern – the Ronald O. Perelman Senior Fellow at Colombia University's Business School in NYC where Stern pulls down a handsome paycheck.

And now… the bankruptcy.

Like Tasty said… karma is a bitch!

Stay tuned for more...

As SEIU-UHW Climbs Deeper into Bosses' Bed, NUHW Delivers Smackdown to Kaiser

In California, the first few weeks of September have offered an interesting glimpse at the radically different approaches of NUHW and SEIU-UHW.

On September 8th, NUHW scored a huge victory by literally wrestling Kaiser Permanente to the ground and forcing it to pay $4 million in fines for forcing patients to wait weeks and months for mental health treatment. Kaiser not only forced patients to undergo massive appointment delays, it also falsified patients' records to conceal these illegal waits from government regulators.

Kaiser's appointment scandal -- now linked to the suicides of Kaiser patients -- was uncovered by NUHW and its 2,500 psychologists, therapists and social workers who staff Kaiser's mental health clinics in California.

Earlier this month, Kaiser tried to wriggle out of the government's $4 million fine by deploying a team of high-powered lawyers and pressure on the Governor's office to intervene on Kaiser's behalf to secure a behind-closed-doors settlement agreement with government officials.

However, NUHW won the day with numerous Kaiser patients and frontline whistleblowers prepared to testify against the giant HMO during a month-long legal hearing. Here's a link to some of the press coverage.

So... that’s NUHW. 

Then there's SEIU-UHW…

Just days before NUHW’s victory, SEIU-UHW held a "Leadership Assembly" where Dave Regan paraded onstage with CEOs and boasted about his partnership with the California Hospital Association. 

The partnership sells out healthcare workers by lowering job standards and also sells out patients by gagging SEIU-UHW’s members from criticizing hospitals in the media, the courts… and even with government regulatory agencies!

At the "Leadership Assembly," Regan attempted to get buy-in from workers by dressing up his sellout deal in colorful clothes and purple lipstick. For example, SEIU-UHW’s “Leadership Assembly" was titled:  "Courage to Lead for a Healthy California."

And that's not all. 

Regan even brought out a marching band to try to rally workers behind his backroom deal with the Bosses. Check out this photo from SEIU-UHW's "Leadership Assembly."

Does that make you feel courageous?

SEIU Official Leads the Way across Fashion Frontier

It turns out that David Holway’s ethics aren't the only thing that's questionable about this guy. 

Check out his fashion choices!

What's kind of surprising is that Holway didn't dress this way for a stroll through the neighborhood. Or a visit to the racetrack.

Holway -- who’s the president of SEIU-NAGE, a member of SEIU’s International Executive Board, and a close ally of Mary Kay Henry and Andy Stern -- sported this outfit to deliver a speech to a NAGE Leadership Conference that, according to NAGE, was designed to "develop strong union leaders in order to increase NAGE’s influence in the Washington, DC government." 

Unsurprisingly, Holway didn't draw a sell-out crowd.  

Hmm... how would you describe "the look" that Holway was attempting to achieve? 

It appears to be a strange mix of Miami Vice and Jimmy Hendrix, right?

All that's missing is a pair of Versace sunglasses!

SEIU’s Mary Kay Henry Delivers Swearing-In at NAGE’s Convention in the Golden Nugget Hotel

Yesterday, inside the glittery ballroom of the Golden Nugget Hotel in Las Vegas, the attendees at SEIU-NAGE’s convention were treated to a spellbinding speech by SEIU President Mary Kay Henry.

Minutes later, NAGE’s President David Holway took the podium and delivered his own riveting remarks to the convention floor. 

Holway, a skilled multi-tasker, famously served as the full-time President of NAGE while also working as the full-time Executive Director of the Massachusetts Thoroughbred Breeders Association! Oh, and that was while he simultaneously served on SEIU’s International Executive Board.

What a guy!

Holway has a reputation of practicing union democracy in the style of Gus Bevona, Andy Stern and Tyrone Freeman. According to insiders, Holway treats the union as "a private club."  

"It's just a business," Holway is reportedly fond of saying.

Before NAGE's conventions, Holway sends precise instructions to each of NAGE’s local unions instructing their delegates how to vote on each item. 

No dissent is tolerated, say Tasty's sources. “The strongest language and intimidation tactics are employed to ensure lockstep compliance.” 

If a local union's delegates are bold enough to vote the wrong way, Holway will seize control of the local union or cut off all of its funding and resources.

Purple Palace officials have expertly exploited Holway’s corruption to advance their own personal political agendas, say Tasty's sources. 

In one episode, then-SEIU President Andy Stern reportedly threatened Holway with trusteeship due to NAGE’s well-documented history of corruption. However, Stern subsequently dropped his threats in exchange for Holway’s agreement to deliver all of NAGE’s votes for Andy Stern at SEIU’s next international convention.

Says one insider: "David is nothing more than a crook." 

And apparently he’s surrounded by SEIU officials who've learned to work together in perfect symbiosis... like the parasites who lives off a steady flow of steaming animal dung.

Dave Regan Pulls Bait-and-Switch on SEIU-UHW's Homecare Members

SEIU-UHW's Dave Regan

In recent weeks, the California Secretary of State posted an unremarkable notice on its website that has important implications for SEIU-UHW’s members… and offers an interesting window into the manipulative tactics that Dave Regan employed against the union's own membership to accomplish his ballot initiative deal with the California Hospital Association.

Last year, Regan not only launched two statewide ballot initiatives targeting the California Hospital Association. He also launched a signature-gathering campaign aimed at putting an initiative on the ballot to raise California's homecare workers’ wages by $2.00 per hour. It was called the Fair Wages and Training for Homecare Workers Act.

Why?

As Tasty explained at the time, Regan wanted to have an excuse to enlist SEIU-UHW’s 65,000 homecare workers in volunteer signature-gathering to help collect the 1.1 million signatures needed to qualify his CHA measures for the ballot.

In order to make sure his CHA initiatives got on the ballot, he spent millions of dollars of the union's funds to hire professional signature gatherers... which, according to Regan, allowed SEIU-UHW to easily surpass the number of signatures needed to qualify his two CHA measures. 

But Regan didn't apparently do the same thing for the homecare initiative. What happened?

That's where the Secretary of State's website comes in.

On July 11th, the Secretary of State reported that SEIU-UHW’s homecare initiative (Initiative #1637) failed to qualify for the ballot because it was nearly 100,000 signatures short of the minimum number of signatures needed.

Ouch!

What next? Time to get ready for Regan’s next bait-and-switch scheme.