SEIU staffer: 'My firing was unjustified'

Here’s the latest.

It looks like SEIU’s Caleb Jennings -- who worked closely with SEIU EVP Scott Courtney -- may fight his firing by Mary Kay Henry. Jennings calls the firing “unjustified” in comments to the Chicago Sun-Times.

What about the problems of harassment inside SEIU?

Jennings points the finger at SEIU and its top officials for “the systemic abuse that has been going on within the institution.”

Here’s an excerpt from the article. (Stefano Esposito and Mitchell Armentrout, “Union organizer fired from ‘Fight for 15’ minimum wage group,” Chicago Sun-Times)

“I support the ongoing investigations and I’m against any workplace sexual misconduct and abuse,” Jennings said in an email. “My hope is that SEIU focuses on the systemic abuse that has been going on within the institution, rather than focusing on their public relations damage control. My employment was severed with SEIU without cause, was unjustified, and I am exploring all my options.”

In response to Jennings' comments, an SEIU spokeswoman said the union “can’t comment on HR-related matters, or any details regarding our ongoing internal investigation,” according to the Sun-Times.

Details emerge on SEIU staffer fired in ongoing harassment investigation

Caleb Jennings

The SEIU staffer who was fired yesterday in connection with a widening harassment investigation is Caleb Jennings, says an anonymous source. Meanwhile, Mark Raleigh is the SEIU staffer who was placed on administrative leave.

This afternoon, BuzzFeed News confirmed this information. (Cora Lewis, “The Lead Chicago Organizer Of The Fight For 15 Has Been Fired Amid A Harassment Investigation,” BuzzFeed News)

Jennings told BuzzFeed:

"My employment was severed with SEIU on Monday."

Yesterday, top SEIU officials said they took action against two unnamed staffers in an announcement related to a widening investigation initially focused on SEIU Executive Vice President Scott Courtney. Also yesterday, Courtney resigned after being suspended a week earlier by SEIU President Mary Kay Henry amid allegations of a history of sexual relationships with young women staffers.

Today, an anonymous source told Tasty that:

Jennings and Raleigh fancied themselves "mini-Scott Courtneys" and relished bullying people and trying to intimidate them (especially women). Jennings was known to blow up on people and even once shoved a staffer into the wall.

Last year, Jennings earned a total of $148,955 as an “Organizing Coordinator 3” at SEIU, according to financial records filed by SEIU with the US Department of Labor. In 2016, Raleigh earned $147,144 as a “Deputy Campaign Director” at SEIU. Raleigh reportedly serves as the director of SEIU’s “Fight for $15” campaign in Detroit.

Prior to taking a job in SEIU’s “Fight for $15” campaign, Jennings was an Assistant Director of the Hospital Division at SEIU-UHW, headed by Dave Regan, who himself has confronted allegations of sexual misconduct and violence, including a physical assault against a court employee documented by a local police department in California. Regan reportedly embraces “old school” tactics of threats, intimidation and “ass-whipping” in workplace organizing, leading to lawsuits and even allegations of death threats.

In recent months, a 28-year-old woman organizer for “Fight for $15” reportedly won more than $20,000 in back pay after Caleb Jennings wrongfully terminated her from her job as an organizer with “Workers Organizing Committee of Chicago” (WOCC), a Chicago affiliate of SEIU’s “Fight for $15” campaign. That news comes from an August 25, 2017 article published by libcom.org, an online site, and is also discussed in today's BuzzFeed article. (“Outsourced SEIU union organizer wrongfully terminated for organizing at work,” libcom.org)

Jennings reportedly served as WOCC’s Director. An NLRB judge ordered SEIU to reinstate the organizer, Gönül Düzer, to her job. She declined, however, telling the online site that “I wouldn't want to work for someone who assaulted me.”

BuzzFeed describes the incident this way: Jennings “became violent, ripping [Düzer’s] work phone out of her hands and subsequently shoving her against a door frame.”

NLRB records reviewed by Tasty confirm that in June of 2016 Ms. Düzer filed an “unfair labor practice” charge against Workers Organizing Committee of Chicago (NLRB Case Number 13-CA-179335). Two NLRB records indicate the case was closed in May of 2017 following an out-of-court settlement between Ms. Düzer and SEIU, the terms of which were not disclosed in those records.

In 2016, says libcom.org, more than 50 employees of three Chicago-area SEIU locals wrote a letter to top SEIU officials -- including Tom Balanoff and Keith Kelleher -- stating that Jennings “has made himself well known for creating a toxic work environment. This has led to a high turnover among staff. Gönül will be the third woman to resign or be fired within the last 2 weeks.” The letter also alleges that Jennings “attacked an immigrant and a woman of color, exactly the workers which the FF15’s success depends on.”

BuzzFeed News cites sources connecting Courtney to Jennings and Raleigh:

Both Jennings and Raleigh reported to Courtney, an SEIU source confirmed, and former SEIU staff alleged to BuzzFeed News that he protected them from consequences.

In 2010, Tasty reported an account of two women at a Kaiser Permanente hospital in Oakland, California who described how Caleb Jennings -- who then worked for Regan’s SEIU-UHW -- followed them to the women’s bathroom and waited outside to monitor them, which earned Jennings the nickname of “Caleb the Creepy Bathroom Monitor.”

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.

Article on Mary Kay Henry’s suspension of SEIU EVP Scott Courtney

Scott Coutney

Here’s the text of Josh Eidelson’s article about Mary Kay Henry’s suspension of Scott Courtney, one of seven Executive Vice Presidents at SEIU.

Bloomberg Law, Labor & Employment

Fight For 15 Architect Suspended by Service Employees Union

October 16, 2017

By Josh Eidelson

The Service Employees International Union has suspended a key creator of its “Fight For 15.”

In a Oct. 16 e-mail obtained by Bloomberg News, SEIU President Mary Kay Henry informed colleagues that she was suspending Executive Vice President Scott Courtney, “from all of his duties as an officer of the International Union,” effective immediately. “During this time I will be handling all duties previously assigned to him with my officer team.”

Henry’s e-mail did not reveal the reason for the suspension. Courtney, a Henry ally, was an architect of her signature initiative, the “Fight For 15,” as well as a predecessor effort called the Fight For a Fair Economy and a more recent campaign to transform the politics of the Midwest. The Fight For 15, a blend of high-profile strikes and legal, media, and political pressure on low-wage employers, has so far fallen short in its efforts to unionize the fast food industry but succeeded in forcing a $15 minimum wage into the mainstream of Democratic politics, and onto the books in states and cities around the country.

“If you think about what the No. 1 job of an elected official ought to be, it’s raising the standard of living of citizens they’re elected to represent,” Courtney told the New York Times in August. “But if you look at what has been happening in battle ground states in the Midwest, it’s just the opposite.”

SEIU, the second-largest U.S. union and arguably the most politically significant one, represents nearly 2 million workers in building services, healthcare, and government. Many of those workers are likely to get the chance next year to stop funding the union, if the Supreme Court rules as expected in a First Amendment case that could outlaw mandatory fees for the entire public sector.

Donald Trump’s surprise victory last year revived the threat the justices would make government employment all “right-to-work.” Henry responded by informing staff that the international union would plan for a thirty percent reduction in its budget by the end of 2017, raising questions about which programs SEIU would prioritize with its limited funds.

SEIU spokeswoman Sahar Wali confirmed the suspension. “SEIU takes all questions related to conduct of elected officers very seriously,” she told Bloomberg News in an e-mail. “This decision was made as part of an on-going inquiry that was called for by President Henry. As this inquiry is ongoing, no conclusions have been reached as yet and we continue to gather information.”

Reached via Twitter late Oct. 16, Courtney said he was on his honeymoon and “in no position to respond at this time.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Josh Eidelson in Washington atjeidelson@bloomberg.net

Mary Kay Henry suspends SEIU Exec. VP Scott Courtney

More palace intrigue from inside SEIU’s DC headquarters.

Yesterday, SEIU President Mary Kay Henry suspended Scott Courtney, an SEIU Executive Vice President who leads SEIU’s “Fight for 15” campaign.

The news comes from Bloomberg BNA reporter Josh Eidelson, who cites an internal e-mail sent yesterday by Mary Kay Henry (Josh Eidelson, “Fight for 15 architects suspended by Service Employees Union,” Bloomberg BNA).

According to Eidelson, Henry yesterday informed SEIU executive board members that she was suspending Courtney “from all of his duties as an officer of the international union.” “During that time I will be handling all duties previously assigned to him with my officer team.”

Here’s a tweet about Eidelson’s article:

Just 13 days before his suspension, Courtney was in Ireland where he spoke at a biennial conference of the Services, Industrial, Professional and Technical Union (SIPTU), which represents over 200,000 workers in Ireland. Here’s a tweet from SIPTU with a pic of Courtney on the stage:

More to come.