SEIU Local 721: "We think she's having anxiety attacks..."

In an earlier post, a worker famously reported that “the bloodletting has begun” at SEIU Local 721, which is stumbling through its latest corruption scandal. Tasty's source says the purple knives are plenty sharp at the union of 70,000 public-sector workers in Los Angeles. 

Apparently, six more staffers have been fired by the union's president, Bob Schoonover. The fired staffers reportedly include Angel Harb, Kevin Ihrke, Romina Loreto, Cory Cordova, Lorena Vellanoweth and Carlos Vellanoweth. The last three, of course, are well-known scabs who helped impose SEIU’s trusteeship on California’s healthcare workers… and later sought exile at Local 721 after souring on SEIU-UHW's Dave Regan.

Tasty's source offers plenty of colorful details about life inside Local 721:

We also heard that Bob [Schoonover] and Gilda [Valdez] have been fighting a lot lately and that they're both pointing the finger at each other while our vp Linda Dent gets drunk every day and runs around the office yelling and cursing. We think she's having anxiety attacks and emotional breakdown. Our president is using dues for personal gain, our vp is an alcoholic that comes to the office drunk and our chief of staff is corrupt. We're hanging on for dear life!!

Meanwhile, Tasty’s source says that Local 721 is abuzz with details about money that’s allegedly missing from the union’s coffers along with the multiple schemes that Schoonover apparently hatched to finance his re-election campaign for the presidency of Local 721.

Here’s a campaign leaflet that Schoonover’s opponents are circulating among workers in advance of officer elections at the union. Stay tuned for more!

Report Card On Bob Schoonover, President of SEIU Local 721, August 2012

NLRB Finds SEIU’s Dave Regan & Co. Guilty… Again

Last Thursday, the highest decision-making body of the NLRB delivered a guilty verdict against Dave Regan and SEIU for ordering the illegal firing of a rank-and-file SEIU-UHW member from his job at a Southern California hospital.

In a 13-page decision, the NLRB's board members -- who’re appointed by the president of the United States -- ordered SEIU-UHW to “cease and desist from causing or attempting to cause Lakewood Regional Medical Center to discharge or otherwise discriminate against [the worker] or any other employee...” 

They also ordered SEIU-UHW to have the worker returned to his job... and to make him “whole for any loss of earnings and other benefits suffered as a result of the discrimination against him, with interest, from the date of his discharge until the date he is reinstated.”

How much does SEIU-UHW owe him? Almost two years’ of wages, benefits and interest.

Last week’s ruling is the latest step in a case that's lasted for 20 months because of SEIU’s senseless legal appeals. In July of 2011, a judge delivered a guilty verdict against Regan, who promptly spent thousands more of SEIU-UHW's dues dollars to appeal the judge's decision to Washington, DC. Attorney Bruce Harland directed SEIU-UHW's attack against the worker.

Why did SEIU try to fire the worker in the first place? SEIU claimed he owed them a whopping $236 in union dues, even though SEIU refused to provide him any accounting of the money. Meanwhile, the worker told the judge how SEIU failed to provide representation or support to union members at his hospital following SEIU's disastrous trusteeship in 2009.

In 2010, SEIU’s Dave Regan, Cory Cordova and YouTube star Liz Castillo teamed up against the worker.

The news about Regan's despicable attack against one of SEIU's own members is not widely known right now. But not for long! In last week's ruling, the NLRB ordered Regan to send a description of the NLRB's verdict to ALL of SEIU-UHW’s members by email and also to post it on SEIU-UHW’s website.

Here's the NLRB's recent decision:

NLRB's Decision and Order against Illegal Firing of Union Member 3-22-12

SEIU's Cory Cordova Dives Deeper into Gutter

Remember scab extraordinaire Cory Cordova? He’s the SEIU-UHW staffer who helped carry out Dave Regan’s illegal firing of a popular SEIU-UHW member at Lakewood Regional Medical Center in Southern California. And at USC University Hospital, Cordova famously worked hand-in-hand with hospital execs and their union-busting consultants to try to defeat a union drive by 600 workers… even though workers ultimately voted to join NUHW by a three-to-one margin.

Well… last Friday, SEIU’s Cory Cordova took “scabbing” to a new level by showing the world how much SEIU loves to help employers. Here’s what happened.

After a government investigation that lasted for months, the NLRB put USC University Hospital on trial for violating its employees’ federal labor rights. Last Friday, near the end of the trial, USC management called a surprise witness to the stand: SEIU’s Cory Cordova! (That’s him in the photo).

What did Cordova say? Under questioning by management, he told the judge that after SEIU’s trusteeship in 2009, SEIU basically allowed management to make unlimited changes to workers’ contract. Why’s that relevant? Because USC is currently on trial for violating workers’ contract. According to SEIU’s Cordova, USC's violations were a routine, day-to-day reality under SEIU’s watch, meaning that management should continue to have the right to gut the workers’ contract… even though the workers booted SEIU out of the facility.

Quite a stunning admission for SEIU. After all, what's a union that can't enforce its own members' contract? Kind of like a baker that can't bake bread. Or a farmer that can't farm.

Equally stunning?  The fact that SEIU officials instructed Cordova to voluntarily testify for USC management even though SEIU doesn’t represent a single worker at USC. It looks like SEIU is working extra hard to build its reputation as the bosses' union among California healthcare companies!

Moral Bankruptcy

Remember the story about the administrative law judge who found SEIU’s trustees guilty of ordering the illegal firing of an SEIU member from his job as an Electroencephalogram Tech at a California hospital?

The worker, a popular rank-and-file leader who had criticized SEIU’s trustees for failing to provide representational services to his co-workers, was fired under the pretext that he owed SEIU a grand total of $236 in union dues.

(SEIU staffer Cory Cordova played a pivotal role in the firing.)

On June 29, the judge ruled the firing illegal and ordered SEIU to make the worker “whole” by giving him backpay, plus interest, and clearing the way for him to return to work.

Next steps??

Seems like a no-brainer for SEIU, right? After all, SEIU officials were caught red-handed committing a moral betrayal of the worst kind –- fratricide rather than solidarity, brotherhood, respect.

It’s supposed to be bosses who fire workers and steal the bread off their family’s dinner table… not unions, right? So SEIU should pay the money. Get the worker his job back. Seems simple.

Not if you’re Dave Regan. This week, Regan –- in his arrogant, bully-boy style –- ordered SEIU’s hack attorneys to appeal the judge’s ruling. This means the worker will be left without his job for more months... and SEIU will be forced to write him an even fatter check when they lose one more time at the NLRB in Washington, DC.

Meanwhile, SEIU will pay tens of thousands more dollars to its hack attorneys (Bruce Harland and Jacob White from Weinberg, Roger and Rosenfeld), who are busy recording billable hours.

This site may be G-Rated, but…

Tasty got lots of mail from readers about the judge’s “guilty” verdict against SEIU, but especially liked this reader’s note:

Hey Tasty – I read that judges ruling. I won’t write down all the words running thru my head cuz I know your website is G-Rated. But WTF! That worker is totally right about SEIU trustees being AWOL. In my hospital, theres no representation. They let management do whatever they damn well want. Managers are firing people for the smallest thing and even firing them cuz their injured and sick. Its like having no union at all. What gets me is how SEIU spends all that time and energy to fire their own member. How is it that their filing grievances to get dues money from the members, but their doing absolutely zero to help people who are getting screwed by management?

Judge Rules against SEIU for Illegal Firing

Here's a story that speaks volumes. Two weeks ago, an administrative law judge found SEIU’s trustees guilty of ordering the illegal firing of an SEIU-UHW rank-and-file member from his hospital job. What was the reason given for firing the worker? SEIU told hospital officials that the worker, a five-year Encephalogram Tech at a Southern California hospital, owed SEIU a whopping $236.16 in back union dues.

After the worker was fired, he filed charges with the NLRB and, with the help of an NUHW attorney, he got a full hearing before a judge. Two weeks ago, the judge issued this 23-page ruling that describes what really happened.

It turns out that the worker, a popular rank-and-file leader and former Shop Steward, had complained that SEIU’s trustees were not giving any support to the union’s members. So SEIU’s trustees got management to fire him… illegally.

The judge ruled that SEIU never answered the worker's multiple requests for an accounting of any back dues he owed to SEIU. And SEIU never informed him they planned to ask HR officials to fire him. So the judge ordered SEIU to clear the way for the worker to get his job back. And he told SEIU to make the worker “whole for any loss of earnings or other benefits arising out of this loss of employment, with interest” (p. 20).

The judge’s ruling has more details about the extreme corruption of SEIU officials. For example, SEIU officials threatened to take legal action against the hospital after HR officials dragged their feet when SEIU instructed them to fire the worker. In one disgusting episode, SEIU staffer Cory Cordova sent emails to HR officials and hand-delivered a letter to the hospital’s HR Director with this text:

…Union demands that Lakewood Regional Medical Center terminate [the worker’s] employment effective immediately. Failure to do so is a breach of the Collective Bargaining Agreement. The Union will have no recourse but to file both a grievance and charges with the National Labor Relations Board. (p. 11)

And SEIU attorney Bruce Harland’s name is splashed across the judge’s ruling. Harland, who’s made a career of trying to block workers’ democratic elections, has apparently now turned to defending SEIU’s illegal firing of the workers who pay actually Harland’s wages.

Tasty has seen a lot of nasty sh*t in his years. But this is a serious low… even for SEIU. In most unions, people like Dave Regan, Cory Cordova and Bruce Harland take an oath “to defend workers’ rights” and “to never see a worker harmed.” What does it mean when rank-and-file workers gotta be more afraid of SEIU than their actual bosses? This, my friends, is the upside-down-world of SEIU… a world where SEIU officials hand over workers’ hard-won benefits in backroom deals with the boss, where SEIU imposes loyalty oaths on stewards, and where SEIU officials use illegal firings to try to eliminate their internal critics.

Hey USC workers...Union Busting is Disgusting!

...when you vote tomorrow, vote for NUHW.

Because as this pic should remind you, SEIU and the Boss are working against YOUR interests. Here's Cory Cordova (SEIU staffer in jeans) working hand-in-hand with the Weissman Group (USC's union-busting consultants).

And here's another photo of Cordova working with USC's human resources officials, union busters and attorneys.