 |
| Laphonza Butler and Mary Kay Henry |
Laphonza Butler -- the President of SEIU Local 2015 -- is quitting her job
at the end of December.
Readers will
recall that she was appointed to run the union after its former president, Tyrone Freeman, went to jail for a
massive corruption scandal.
During Butler’s tenure, more local unions were
merged into the mega-union including 65,000 long-term care workers transferred
from Dave Regan’s SEIU-UHW. Butler also serves on SEIU’s
International Executive Board and is reportedly a close ally of Mary Kay Henry.
So why is Butler
leaving her position atop a giant union with hundreds of thousands of members?
Here’s what she’s saying publicly: “The time has come for new leadership to
take Local 2015 to its next great victories.”
What’s the
real story?
It turns out
she’s jumping ship to become a partner at a political consulting/communications
firm based in California, according to a Dec. 7 article in the Los Angeles Times:
“Butler will be a partner in the newly rechristened firm SCRB Strategies, along with veteran strategists Ace Smith, Sean Clegg and Juan Rodriguez. Their clients include Newsom, Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf and Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), a frequent subject of speculation in her own right about 2020 presidential ambitions.”
According to
the firm’s website, “SCRB also advises Fortune 500 companies, major developers,
and sports franchises regarding crisis, PR, and public affairs.”
One of the
firm’s corporate clients is PG&E, which is facing allegations that its
faulty equipment sparked the massive wildfires that ravaged California during
the past two years and killed more than 100 people. PG&E will no doubt pay
a pretty penny to SCRB.
In other
words, Butler’s motivation might be summarized as “ka-ching.”
The firm,
formerly known as “SCN Strategies,” has added a “B” at the end of its name to indicate
its fourth partner, Laphonza Butler, along with partners Smith, Clegg and Rodriguez.
Interestingly,
Butler may soon find herself across a table from Dave Regan, whom she
reportedly can’t stomach.
How?
Regan has hired the firm to run
some of his failed ballot initiatives, including SEIU-UHW’s 2014 ballot
initiative targeting the California
Hospital Association.
Like planets caught in the same gravitational field, their paths may soon collide again.
