Ten Years Later...

This month marks the tenth anniversary of some of the headline-grabbing events that led up to SEIU's disastrous trusteeship of SEIU-UHW.

Ten years ago, SEIU-UHW -- then led by president Sal Rosselli -- was one of the most successful healthcare unions in the nation. Labor journalist Steve Early called SEIU’s takeover of SEIU-UHW “the mother of all trusteeships.” Unfortunately, it gave birth to a Frankenstein-like child headed by Dave Regan, who quickly drove the once-powerful union into the ground.

So what happened ten years ago?

During August 2008, a reporter named Paul Pringle published eight articles in the Los Angeles Times detailing a massive corruption scandal perpetrated by Tyrone Freeman, one of Andy Stern’s closest allies.

Freeman’s corruption was stunning. It ranged from union-funded jaunts to Hawaii with his personal assistant, $175 glasses of cognac and cigars at an exclusive cigar club frequented by Los Angeles movie stars, no-show jobs for relatives, and kickbacks from corporations in exchange for deals that sold out low-wage healthcare workers.

During the months leading up to August 2008, Freeman had served as Andy Stern’s attack dog in Stern’s campaign to “implode” SEIU-UHW. A boatload of Stern’s staffers also worked on the campaign, such as Stephen Lerner, Dave Regan, Bill Ragen, Tom DeBruin, Josie Mooney, Debbie Schneider, Steve Trossman and Denise Poloyac.

Andy Stern

Earlier in the summer of 2008, Freeman was riding high after Stern initiated a maneuver to transfer 65,000 union members out of Rosselli’s SEIU-UHW and put them in Freeman’s union… without a democratic vote by the workers. 

Following the transfer, Freeman would have led one of SEIU’s largest local unions… and he then would have delivered all of his union’s votes to Stern at SEIU’s conventions where Stern sought reelection as the international union’s president.

But in August 2008, the curtains were finally pulled back on Freeman’s years-long corruption scandal and he plummeted to earth like a flaming meteor.

Stern, angry at the loss of his loyal ally, announced on August 25, 2008 that SEIU was launching trusteeship hearings against Rosselli’s union. During the preceding years, SEIU-UHW’s members had caught Stern and his DC-based staffers making backroom deals with healthcare corporations that sold out workers and patients, and violated democratic principles.

In 2010, Stern resigned as the President of SEIU after launching yet another disastrous attack, this time against UNITE HERE. Freeman, in turn, ended up in federal prison. "May God have mercy on me," said Freeman at the time of his sentencing. "I am accountable for these bad decisions."

Meanwhile, Rosselli and his crew of rank-and-file leaders launched the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW) as a militant, member-led, democratic alternative to SEIU.

Ten years later, this history stands sharper in our collective memory.

Here’s a link to the series of articles in the Los Angeles Times from August 2008.

President of SEIU Local 73: SEIU Officials Imposed an “Illegal” Trusteeship after I Supported Bernie Sanders

Christine Boardman, SEIU Local 73

Christine Boardman, the President of SEIU Local 73, has provided an insider’s view of SEIU’s recent trusteeship of her union, which represents 25,000 public-sector workers in Illinois and Northwestern Indiana. 

In a communication sent to Tasty in recent days, she writes: “I read your two posts concerning the Local 73 trusteeship and feel obliged to write to you.” 

On August 3, 2016, SEIU officials seized control of Local 73 in an "emergency trusteeship" and removed Boardman and Secretary-Treasurer Matthew Brandon from office. Boardman had served as the union’s president for 16 years.  

In Boardman's place, SEIU President Mary Kay Henry appointed Eliseo Medina to serve as trustee. On September 24, SEIU officials conducted a trusteeship hearing where Boardman and others reportedly testified.

In her communication to Tasty (see documents below), Boardman writes:

I was removed from office in a classic SEIU trusteeship. As we all know the International likes to use the wording “emergency trusteeship” even when it is not. The basic reason I was removed from office was because I disagreed with the International leadership on a number of issues. The most recent was when they called me from Washington to assure themselves that I supported Hillary in the Primary which I did not. I supported Bernie Sanders. Both times they called I told them that I supported Bernie Sanders. They told me he would lose. This was probably the straw that broke the camel’s back for them. For years I have disagreed with them on major issues of democracy within the union, organizing new members and servicing members which the International sees as in opposition to organizing new members.

She goes on to describe how SEIU officials in Washington DC “regularly criticized me for ‘taking too many cases to arbitration.’”

SEIU's Eliseo Medina addressing Local 73 members

The International’s main focus is to extract as much dues money from the members which it promptly turns over to the DNC. This deprives locals of operating expenses, as well as funds to support local candidates who actually support unions. The National Democratic office holders who get the members money have consistently avoided enforcing existing labor laws and instead have promoted bad trade deals that have sent most manufacturing jobs overseas.

As anyone familiar with the SEIU International is aware they are very thin skinned and accept NO dissent of any kind, they promote and expect complete obedience. The fact that I had an executive board of 100 rank and file members and that I always brought numerous members to all bargaining sessions simply horrified the SEIU International.

This illegal take over was plain and simple an undemocratic take over in the long and sordid history of the SEIU.

With her permission, Tasty has posted below Boardman’s message as well as her testimony during SEIU’s recent trusteeship hearing. 

During SEIU’s trusteeship hearing, Boardman described how she blew the whistle on “corrupt and unethical behavior” by Local 73’s Secretary-Treasurer Matt Brandon after he cut a “backroom deal” with Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel that “sold out” Local 73’s members.

 

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel

Instead of penalizing Brandon, SEIU used his illegal behavior as the pretext for removing both her and Brandon, even though she was the “whistleblower” who outed his misconduct, says Boardman.

Boardman’s testimony includes poignant passages like this one:

You have put me into a situation that I will have to sue the International Union. You have ruined my reputation of more than 45 years in the trade union movement with a bs attempt to get me out of office. I was doing my job and you will be hard put to show that I was not.

Her testimony describes the role of other SEIU officials in Local 73’s problems, including Debbie Schneider, Mary Ann Collins, Denise Poloyac and Pia Davis. Schneider served as a "Deputy Trustee" with Medina during SEIU's trusteeship of SEIU-UHW in 2009.

Boardman concludes her testimony:

I feel that the entire emergency trusteeship has been a sham, and the International views the local as something they will award to their friends, and not positions that require significant experience and skill at accomplishing the task at hand. You are attempting to make me collateral damage and I will not accept that.

SEIU's Debbie Schneider

I ask that the hearing officer reinstate me as President so that I may continue to do what I believe and that is the strong belief that working people can overcome all obstacles in their way. I did nothing wrong and everything right. If the International does not allow me to complete my work and transition a new President at the end of my term which is April 2017. It will be a great disservice to the local and our members.

See two separate documents below from Boardman.

  Christine Boardman's message to Tasty on SEIU's trusteeship of SEIU Local 73 (October 8, 2016) by tastysternburger on Scribd

  Christine Boardman's testimony to SEIU trusteeship hearing on SEIU Local 73 (September 24, 2016) by tastysternburger on Scribd

Top SEIU-UHW Staffer, Leon Chow, Departs amidst Reported Connections to Man Convicted of 162 Criminal Counts

SEIU-UHW's Leon Chow -- a top staffer for Dave Regan whose brief political career exploded in flames in 2012 -- is getting attention for his alleged connections to an ex-con recently found guilty of more than 150 criminal counts following a multi-year FBI probe.

Chow is no longer employed by SEIU-UHW, where he was paid approximately $120,000 per year.

According to an article in the SF Weekly, Chow has connections to Raymond "Shrimp Boy" Chow (no relation), who on January 8 was found guilty on 162 counts of racketeering, murder, money-laundering, and dealing in stolen liquor and cigarettes.

During a sentencing hearing in March, Shrimp Boy will face a mandatory life term, according to the Los Angeles Times ("Raymond 'Shrimp Boy' Chow found guilty of 162 counts in massive corruption case," 1-8-16). The FBI investigation involved raids that detained more than 20 people including former State Senator Leland Yee.

What's Leon Chow’s connection to Shrimp Boy?

According to the SF Weekly, Chow is an "associate" of Shrimp Boy.

Shrimp Boy, after completing an earlier jail term, rose to the top of a Chinatown fraternal organization called the Ghee Kung Tong group, which was attempting to manage a night market in San Francisco's Chinatown with city funding.

Raymond "Shrimp Boy" Chow

When city officials "balked at handing over the market to a shady character like [Shrimp Boy] Chow," says the Weekly, "Shrimp Boy had an associate who did take over the market — a Chinatown advocate and union organizer named Leon Chow."

According to the Weekly, "Chow secured a permit for the night market in 2010 on behalf of his union, Service Employees International Union – United Healthcare Workers West (why home healthcare workers were interested is still unclear, but the union accepted a $5,000 check from Pius Lee to do it)."

The article, entitled "Shrimp Boy Associate Is Helping Julie Christensen," continues:

[Leon Chow’s] tenure with the market was brief: the night market ran for a full season in 2010 but for only two Saturdays in 2011 before closing. Chow, too, would soon drop off the scene. He mounted a brief campaign for city supervisor in 2012, running against incumbent progressive John Avalos in the Excelsior District. That effort ended after it was revealed that Chow lived in Walnut Creek, not the Excelsior; having committed the same offense that landed disgraced former Supervisor Ed Jew in federal prison (lying about his residence on a voter registration form) it seemed Chow's political career was over.

(Fyi -- Leon Chow’s earlier brushes with the law are detailed in various posts.)

Last fall, SEIU-UHW's Leon Chow reappeared in Chinatown to work on behalf of a business-dominated association attempting to elect a business-friendly candidate, Julie Christensen, to San Francisco's Board of Supervisors.

San Francisco's progressives -- including most of its labor unions -- backed candidate Aaron Peskin, who won the November 2015 election.

The business-dominated association -- called the "San Francisco Alliance for Jobs and Sustainable Growth" -- was founded by Regan after he parachuted into California in 2009. Regan teamed up with leaders of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce to create the Alliance, which has attempted to exert a rightward pull on the city's politics.

San Francisco Chamber of Commerce

Regan -- who’s made his name as the Boss's best friend at the bargaining table -- has extended his alliance with corporate CEOs to the terrain of electoral politics by forming such political alliances. Regan's Alliance includes multiple business associations and other conservative elements of the labor movement, such as the Police Officers Association.

Last year, SEIU-UHW and Regan’s so-called "business-labor alliance" threw their full support behind AirBnB and real estate developers, who campaigned aggressively against a pair of affordable housing and anti-gentrification ballot measures that were championed by neighborhood groups, tenants and progressives.

Where's Leon now?

Stay tuned!

Where is she now? Rebecca Malberg

SEIU's Rebecca Malberg

Remember Rebecca Malberg? 

In 2009, she was one of the East Coasters who parachuted into California with Dave Regan and served as a "Deputy Trustee” during SEIU’s infamous trusteeship of SEIU-UHW.  

Malberg -- who’s never been known as the sharpest knife in the drawer -- was rewarded for her blind loyalty to Regan with a seat on SEIU-UHW’s Executive Committee and a $150,000-a-year salary.

In a surprise move, Malberg recently announced she was jumping off Regan’s purple ship for a consulting gig.

Readers may recall Malberg for her role in the infamous Fresno homecare election. Back in mid-2009, she helped direct SEIU’s campaign of threats and lies against Fresno's homecare workers -- which included instructing SEIU organizers to threaten undocumented homecare workers with deportation unless they voted for SEIU.

In an earlier post, one of SEIU’s remorseful shocktroopers described Malberg’s role this way:

i am ashamed to say that i campaigned for seiu-uhw in fresno in 2009, and seiu-uhw staff - led by rebecca malberg, debbie schneider, greg pullman instructed other locals' staff and members to lie to fresno homecare workers.  we told them they would lose their benefits if they voted for nuhw.  We told them they would lose everything - their retirement, their health insurance, their voice.  it was so despicable, and unethical.  seiu-uhw "leaders" lied not only to the fresno workers, but the hundreds of rank and file leaders and staff from locals around the country who were organized or were dispatched to help. we stalked these fresno homecare workers for weeks... it was sickening, and i am sorry to have participated in such an illegal act of bullying and lies.

Where is Malberg now?

She recently took a job at a consulting firm called Harbage Consulting, which is headquartered in California's state capitol. The firm does political consulting; past clients include Arnold "The Terminator" Schwarzenegger. Harbage also consults with private and public-sector clients "with a focus on increasing value in healthcare delivery," according to the firm's website.

A Fresno homecare worker who was intimidated by SEIU

For any clients who are considering hiring Malberg, you might want to check out these reports -- including the conclusions of a government investigation -- about her role in SEIU’s campaign of threats, intimidation and ballot tampering aimed at pressuring low-wage homecare workers to vote for SEIU in an election.

The reports speak volumes about Malberg’s integrity and moral principles. After all… what kind of person would threaten low-wage immigrant homecare workers with deportation in order to win a vote?

Court Document: SEIU's Mary Kay Henry Waged Covert War against California Nurses Association

Debbie Schneider

A source has provided Tasty with an explosive document that details the covert efforts of SEIU President Mary Kay Henry to raid the California Nurses Association (CNA) and launch an illegal operation to interfere with the CNA's internal membership elections.

What's the source? It's a sworn deposition by Debbie Schneider, a top official at SEIU who served as a Deputy Trustee during SEIU's trusteeship of SEIU-UHW. Schneider is also a member of SEIU's International Executive Board and reports directly to Mary Kay Henry.

Here's what happened. (Tasty posted original documents below.)

In 2009, Schneider gave sworn testimony as a result of a lawsuit that the SEIU filed against NUHW's leaders. During questioning by an opposing attorney, Schneider coughed up explosive details and a revealing document.  

What does Schneider say?

SEIU Pres. Mary Kay Henry

A key part of her testimony focuses on two pages of her handwritten notes from a meeting with Mary Kay Henry, Dave Regan and Scott Courtney (SEIU's Organizing Director) that took place on December 23, 2008. As you'll see, SEIU's attorneys whited-out portions of the notes, which are stamped with identifying court numbers at the bottom.

During the meeting, Henry, Regan, Courtney and Schneider discuss SEIU's secret effort to illegally interfere with the CNA's internal membership elections. For example, the SEIU officials describe how they secretly recruited and backed 12 candidates to run for CNA's Executive Board. SEIU even created and funded a dummy non-profit organization called "California Nurses First," with a staff of 30, as a front group to attack the CNA, according to Schneider's notes.

But that's not all. In December of 2008, SEIU's top leaders discuss their intention to use the soon-to-be-trusteed SEIU-UHW as a launching pad for waging decertification raids against the CNA's membership in California. Here's an excerpt from Schneider's notes, which are labeled "CNA Briefing":

Their CHW contract window opens March -- contract ("K") expires end of June. We'll be running decerts -- [CNA members] will be in same hospitals as we, as UHW trustees, are in.

Notably, Henry and Co. are talking about the trusteeship of SEIU-UHW as if it's a 'done deal' even though Ray Marshall, the so-called "independent" hearing officer, hadn't even written his report yet! Here's one excerpt from Schneider's testimony where she’s questioned about this:

Attorney:   "We have candidates running," isn't that SEIU candidates running 12 to 18 regional slots for CNA elected positions?

Schneider:   That's what it looks like.

Attorney:    The next line "February end of May campaign" -- is that "elections"?

Schneider:   It must be between the nominations and the election time.

Attorney:    And the next one there "CHW contract window opens March.  Contract expiration end of June."  What is that referring to?

Schneider:   Their CHW contract window, when it opens and when the contract expires.

…

Attorney:     If we read this line, it says:  "Same hospitals as we as UHW trustees."  Do you see that?

Schneider:   Yes.

Attorney:     Why are you referring to yourself as an UHW trustee on 12/23/2008?

Schneider:   I don't know.

What else is in the documents? The second page of the notes details SEIU's "three-pronged strategy" to wage war on the CNA. Two of the prongs are: "Expose RoseAnn [DeMoro] and Organization" and "Mount California Offense." Ominously, the third prong has been whited-out by SEIU's attorneys.

In addition to the meeting notes, Schneider gives up more details during her deposition, which was recorded by a court reporter. Below, Tasty has posted two relevant excerpts from the 252-page transcript.

For example, during aggressive questioning by an attorney, Schneider admits that SEIU’s officials tapped Dennis Rivera to recruit Catholic Healthcare West's CEO, Lloyd Dean, to help SEIU in its plot to impose a trusteeship on SEIU-UHW and then raid the CNA. Talk about the boss's union!! For those who don't know him, Dennis Rivera is a "Senior Policy Adviser" for Mary Kay Henry.

SEIU's Dave Regan

Regan, in an apparent payback to his corporate partner, later agreed to eliminate CHW workers' defined-benefit pension plan, thereby giving Dean Lloyd a gift worth hundreds of millions of dollars, according to CHW's own financial records.

Take a look at the documents below for more details. They offer an amazing glimpse at how SEIU has worked hand-in-glove with the bosses to destroy two aggressive unions that fight for workers.

SEIU's Notes from 12-23-08 Meeting to Raid the California Nurses Association and Impose Trusteeship on SEIU...

And here are the two excerpts from Debbie Schneider's deposition (no break between the excerpts):

SEIU's Debbie Schneider's Deposition of 12-16-09: Testimony about SEIU President's Mary Kay Henry's Covert...

SEIU Campaigner: "It was so despicable and unethical... I am sorry"

Tasty received the following email after he posted news about the labor board's recent complaint against SEIU for violating homecare workers' rights during a decertification election among 10,000 workers in Fresno County, California.

Interestingly, the email identifies specific SEIU staffers who directed SEIU's 1,000 staffers to carry out the abuses against homecare workers. Who are they? Rebecca Malberg, Debbie Schneider and Greg Pullman.

Here's the email:

hi tasty,i am ashamed to say that i campaigned for seiu-uhw in fresno in 2009, and seiu-uhw staff - led by rebecca malberg, debbie schneider, greg pullman instructed other locals' staff and members to lie to fresno homecare workers.  we told them they would lose their benefits if they voted for nuhw.  We told them they would lose everything - their retirement, their health insurance, their voice.  it was so despicable, and unethical.  seiu-uhw "leaders" lied not only to the fresno workers, but the hundreds of rank and file leaders and staff from locals around the country who were organized or were dispatched to help.
we stalked these fresno homecare workers for weeks... it was sickening, and i am sorry to have participated in such an illegal act of bullying and lies.

Sources: Top SEIU Officials Are Implicated in Chow Scandal

Dave Regan and Debbie Schneider

As Tasty noted in a recent post, insiders report that SEIU’s election-fraud scandal involving Leon Chow will soon entangle top SEIU leaders, including Dave Regan and Debbie Schneider.

Information supplied by these sources links Regan and Schneider to the Chow scandal and also implicates them in even more serious law-breaking.

Who’s Debbie Schneider? She’s a member of SEIU’s International Executive Board, is a longtime ally of Andy Stern and Mary Kay Henry, and worked alongside Dave Regan as a “Deputy Trustee” at SEIU-UHW.

Beginning in the summer of 2008, Regan and Schneider led a team of SEIU staffers who spent six months planning the trusteeship of SEIU-UHW, which ultimately took place in January of 2009. Inside the Purple Palace, their secret planning project was codenamed “TRUHW” for “Trustee UHW.”

As part of this effort, Regan and Schneider employed investigators to try to dig up dirt on SEIU-UHW’s then-leaders. SEIU’s investigators left no stone unturned, examining each person’s legal records, romantic relationships, property records, divorces, savings accounts and, yes… their voting records!

That’s how Regan and Schneider -- in 2008 -- first discovered Chow’s election fraud. They learned that Chow, from 2004 to 2008, had registered and voted illegally from the offices of the Chinese Progressive Association in San Francisco even though he lived in different county. Of course, this is the same apparently criminal violation that the San Francisco Appeal unearthed just two weeks ago.

So did Regan and Schneider hand over this information to law enforcement officials when they discovered it back in 2008? 


Nope!  And this is where our story gets even more interesting.

Less than 24 hours after SEIU imposed its trusteeship on SEIU-UHW in January of 2009, Leon Chow resigned his membership in SEIU and joined NUHW… as did every other member of SEIU-UHW’s 100-member Executive Board. Then, several days later, Regan and Schneider contacted Chow and reportedly threatened to turn him in to law-enforcement officials unless he quit NUHW and worked for the trustees! Chow complied. Various sources corroborate this series of events. 

Why is this important? Simple. It would implicate Regan and Schneider in multiple criminal violations, including extortion. Plus, Regan and Schneider became aware of a felony violation of the state's election laws, but reportedly failed to report it to police. Both of these violations carry serious criminal penalties.

And there’s more!

In 2012, Regan -- knowing that Chow had violated the state’s election laws -- nonetheless selected and sponsored Chow as a candidate for San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors. Regan even spent lots of SEIU-UHW’s resources to promote Chow’s campaign.

Furthermore, sources tell Tasty that Regan was fully aware of Chow’s more recent violations of election laws, including the fact that Chow claimed to reside in San Francisco while actually living in his Walnut Creek condominium. Regan, believing this information would never become public, deliberately foisted a fraudulent candidate on voters. 

What’s next? 


Tasty expects that law-enforcement officials will soon be posing questions about these interesting issues to Leon Chow and others... while they're under penalty of perjury!!


PS. A note to SEIU staffers. It is illegal to destroy records that are the subject of a criminal investigation.