Leader of Staffers' Jailbreak Brings History Like Regan’s

Remember when Mary Kay Henry put the kibosh on a mini-exodus of staffers from SEIU-UHW? Well, Tasty hears the jailbreak was organized by two of SEIU’s trusteeship staffers: Steve Matthews and Gilda Valdez.  

Over the summer, Matthews became the latest in a rapidly changing lineup of Executive Directors at SEIU Local 721 in Southern California.

Readers may remember that last spring, Local 721’s Executive Director John Tanner was suddenly ejected from his corner office during a palace coup organized by Raahi Reddy. Reddy lasted only a few months before she was out on the street… only to be replaced by Matthews.

Once Matthews settled into his comfy corner office, he recruited Gilda Valdez (a staff director at SEIU-UHW) to jump ship and take a bunch of staff with her.

So… what’s in store for Local 721’s members now that Matthews is in charge? Well, Tasty has a few words of warning:  Keep Matthews away from members’ bargaining tables… and their beds.

As for the bargaining tables… during the trusteeship, Matthews was the Chief Negotiator for SEIU-UHW’s members at Pacifica Hospital of the Valley in Southern California, where he negotiated this deal with the following terms:

• A 5% pay cut for all workers
• Suspension of the hospital’s contributions to workers’ retirement plan
• Loss of one paid holiday
• Waiving workers’ right to scheduled wage reopener negotiations “including all rate increases and all aspects of compensation.”

Now, to be fair, the for-profit hospital was facing bankruptcy at the time. But here’s the rub: Matthews’s deal is light-years away from a contract negotiated by NUHW members under even more difficult circumstances. NUHW members recently negotiated a contract with Doctors Medical Center San Pablo, a public safety-net hospital facing a bankruptcy fueled by plummeting tax revenues and skyrocketing numbers of uninsured patients. Even so, NUHW’s members successfully negotiated a contract with no reductions in their wages or benefits.

And get this... workers did it after nearly two years of Dave Regan working overtime to sabotage their contract. In 2009, after the workers voted out SEIU, Regan filed bogus legal challenges that stalled SEIU’s departure until 2011. In the meantime, SEIU kept on collecting workers’ union dues but refused to lift a finger to negotiate their expired contract. Instead, SEIU stood by as the hospital’s finances tanked towards bankruptcy. Luckily, Regan and Matthews never got a chance to ink one of their trademark sell-out deals with the boss.

So what about Matthews and members’ beds? Well, when Steve was the Secretary-Treasurer of SEIU Local 399 in Los Angeles, he was forced to resign after having an extra-marital affair with one of the union’s Executive Board members. Now, it’s clear that SEIU’s higher-ups consider such behavior a necessary prerequisite for getting appointed as a California trustee (ahem, Dave, we’re talking about you). In fact, many reports -- like the one below -- indicate that Regan did a lot more than sleep around. So Tasty advises Local 721 members to take a few precautions... like no fancy couches in his office!

More Changes in 721's Leadership

Tasty hears reports that Raahi Reddy, who staged a February palace coup against John Tanner at SEIU Local 721 in Los Angeles, got dumped as the local's Executive Director.

SEIU's Bad Reputation

SEIU's multiple scandals and its thuggish efforts to quash internal dissent have caused a real plunge in its reputation. Check out this excerpt from a recent op-ed in the Los Angeles Times about the reasons behind the declining power of the labor movement:

"A split between the Service Employees International Union and the AFL-CIO, the SEIU's local corruption scandals, along with its veritable War of the Roses against other L.A. unions — all have distracted the movement's focus and sapped its resources. This has made L.A.'s once-invincible public sector union movement look like a paper tiger, one that is powerful only during flush economic times."

Tasty figures it can't help too much that SEIU Local 721, the largest public-sector union in Los Angeles, is now in the grips of a palace coup waged by Raahi Reddy's faction against John Tanner. What next??

721's Coup: Someone was at the Reddy!

...more on the drama at SEIU 721.

Raahi Reddy, the former Chief of Staff at 721 (and Organizing Director at the legacy local 715), called certain Executive Board members and Senior Staff into a room at the local and planned the coup that left her with Tanner's job of Executive Director--only hours before it all went down.

Reddy was either sure that Tanner did something very wrong, or this was a very hostile power grab--because apparently, Tanner had no idea it was coming. He went to work like on any other day and was met by union officials who let him collect some personal belongings, took his keys, and then escorted him off the property. Seems a bit different than, "The board has decided not to renew your contract..."

This seems like a questionable move by the 721 leaders, since Raahi organized exactly 0 members in the years that she was running the organizing program at 715. Another great leader! Congrats 721 members!

Another IEB Member Bites the Dust

Looks like another member of SEIU's International Executive Board has gotten the axe. This time it's John Tanner, the Executive Director of SEIU Local 721 in California.

Tanner replaced Annelle Grajeda atop Local 721 after she bit the dust in multiple corruption scandals, including the one where she was named a "co-schemer" in the embezzlement scandal that landed Alejandro Stephens in jail.

Well, according to the memo below, Local 721's Executive Board recently voted to terminate Tanner's contract and placed him on "administrative leave"... kinda like when Scott Courtney placed Stephen Lerner on administrative leave for "insubordination." (Wonder how much Stephen and John get paid while sitting at home or going to the movies??). Check out the "all staff" memo below:



From: Christina Rodriguez


Sent: Monday, January 31, 2011 4:27 PM
To: 721AllStaff
Cc: Linda Dent; Bob Schoonover
Subject: Important Message for All Staff
From the desk of Bob Schoonover & Linda Dent





Dear Staff,



This is to recap this afternoon's staff meeting. Linda and I informed John Tanner that the Board voted not to extend his contract and that he will be placed on administrative leave until the next Executive Board meeting on Wednesday, February 9.

We wish John well as he embarks on a new chapter in his life and will work closely with staff to ensure campaigns and our important work continue to move forward.



In the interim I will convene the senior staff and work closely with each member of the team. While I know this may raise some questions, we are fully committed to our campaigns already underway and will fill key positions as soon as possible.



I appreciate every staff member’s hard work and personally commit to a smooth and positive transition. We have so much important work ahead of us: elected committed local leaders who will support our members’ retirement and fight privatization of services, organizing new members into our union and helping pass a state budget that gets California moving forward again.

Please feel free to talk to me or your supervisor about any questions you have.





In solidarity,





Bob Schoonover


Linda Dent