SEIU-UHW’s Dave Regan Goes to Court over Allegations of Sexual Misconduct, Retaliation and Other Charges

SEIU-UHW's Dave Regan

SEIU-UHW President Dave Regan is headed to court tomorrow to face allegations that he’s using an illegal lawsuit to try to silence a former SEIU-UHW staffer who spoke to the media about Regan’s alleged sexual misconduct, drinking on the job, backroom deals with employers, illegal electioneering and other misconduct.

The courtroom action, emerging at the same time that Jeffrey Epstein’s arrest brings renewed attention to the #MeToo movement, will be heard on July 17 in Riverside County (Calif.) Superior Court, according to court records.

Here’s what’s going on:

On March 1st, Payday Report published an article quoting an SEIU-UHW organizer who said Regan has had sexual relations with SEIU-UHW members and staffers, often drinks on the job, and carries out campaigns of retaliation against staffers and union members who raise criticisms.

Days later, Regan’s Chief of Staff Greg Pullman reportedly interrogated the 42-year-old woman organizer and fired her.

Next, on March 21st, Regan used SEIU-UHW’s money and lawyers to sue the former staffer, Njoki Woods, for allegedly defaming him through her comments to the press, which Regan says are false. Regan calls on the court to force Woods to pay an unspecified amount of punitive damages, attorneys’ fees, and court fees to Regan. See a copy of the lawsuit below.

On June 11, Woods filed a motion asserting that Regan’s lawsuit is an illegal attempt to retaliate against her for exercising her right to free speech. She defends her earlier statements to Payday Report as truthful. See a copy of the motion below.

How could Regan’s lawsuit be illegal?

Woods says it violates a California law called the “Anti-SLAPP” statute (“Strategic Lawsuit against Public Participation”). The law is intended to prevent powerful people from using their money and lawyers to silence members of the public by tying them up with groundless, expensive lawsuits.

In her anti-SLAPP motion, Woods says her statements to Payday Report are “true statements of facts and opinion she made to a reporter. The reporter published an article based on her statements and now Plaintiffs [Regan and SEIU-UHW] are retaliating against Defendant [Woods] for exercising her freedom of speech.”

Woods’ motion says “it was understood to be common knowledge that Plaintiff Regan and Marcus Hatcher, director of Plaintiff SEIU-UHW’s Kaiser Division, had sexual relations with members and staff of the Union…” The motion references a second lawsuit (Mindy Sturge v. SEIU-UHW) that makes similar allegations of sexual misconduct by Regan and other top officials at SEIU-UHW.

Her motion continues:

“Defendant [Woods], throughout her employment for SEIU-UHW, had personal knowledge that Regan drank alcohol while serving his duties as president of the Union. This was evident by sensing, through smell, the odor of alcohol on his breath, and by vision, by frequently exhibiting a flushed face, red, bloodshot, watery eyes. He also slurred his speech, made inappropriate comments, amongst other visual signals of abuse of alcohol.”

In her motion, Woods offers additional details to back up her comments to the press. For example, she describes how her direct supervisor, Grisell Rodriguez, rewarded one of Woods’ coworkers for engaging in a sexual relationship with him. When Woods raised concerns about his actions to Regan and the union’s leaders, they did nothing, she says.

 

Riverside Superior Court

Woods, who is African-American, also describes how her supervisor and other staff subjected her to racist comments and treatment.

Woods “spoke only the truth, based on her personal experience and knowledge. Woods witnessed the following: employees getting promoted due to the sexual relations those individuals had with other employees of SEIU-UHW; Plaintiff Regan exhibiting symptoms of drinking alcohol while serving his duties as president of the Union; Plaintiff Regan addressing the Union membership, stating that SEIU-UHW would ‘go after’ members who made allegations against the Union while flashing the phone numbers of attorneys in plain view of those in attendance; being called a ‘black bitch’ by co-workers Bustamante and Saldana and her supervisor, Rodríguez; being segregated by race by being told by her supervisor to ‘go sit with your peers’ meaning the other black people; and being told that she had to give money and campaign on her personal time for Plaintiff Regan and his candidates.”

“Therefore, Plaintiffs’ [Regan’s] claim for defamation must fail because Woods merely stated the truth based on her personal experiences and knowledge while working for Plaintiffs.” (pp. 7-8)

Woods’ motion says Regan fired her and sued her to “chill her right to free speech.” In order for Regan to prevail in his defamation case, he must show that Woods’ statements were made with knowledge that they were false or with reckless disregard for the truth. If Woods wins, Regan will have to pay all of her attorneys’ fees and any costs associated with the suit.

One thing is clear: Regan’s decision to target Woods with a lawsuit has only focused more attention on the allegations surrounding his behavior and SEIU-UHW’s inner workings. Stay tuned to Regan’s legal misadventure as more details are sure to spill out like so many maggots from freshly disturbed roadkill.

   SEIU-UHW Dave Regan's Lawsuit vs Former Union Staffer 03-21-2019 by tastysternburger on Scribd

   SEIU-UHW Organizer's Anti-SLAPP Motion against Dave Regan 06-11-2019 by tastysternburger on Scribd

Staffer: SEIU-UHW and Dave Regan to Face Lawsuit over Harassment and Retaliation

Here’s the latest on the SEIU-UHW staffer who, during an interview published on March 2, 2019, made explosive allegations that SEIU-UHW President Dave Regan has had sexual relations with SEIU-UHW members and staffers, is often drunk on the job, and carries out campaigns of retaliation against staffers and members who raise criticisms.

On March 6, SEIU-UHW fired the staffer, Njoki Woods, “less than 24 hours after [she] was interrogated by SEIU Chief of Staff Greg Pullman about her interview with Payday Report,” according to a new article in PayDay Report. 

(Mike Elk, “SEIU Sexual Misconduct Whistleblower Fired After Interview with Payday Report,” Payday Report, March 6, 2019.)

The article continues:

Woods says that she intends to sue over her firing. She says that she has plenty of witnesses that can back her story of retaliation.

Since the publication of her interview with Payday Report, she says additional people have come forward to her with stories of abuse within SEIU-UHW. Woods says that she intends to help organize folks to fight back against what she says as a toxic culture within the union.

“I am doing exactly what they trained me to do, I am standing up for myself,” says Woods.

For years, Woods says that she has suffered health problems, nausea, and anxiety attacks as a result of the abuse she says that she suffered within SEIU, but this morning when she woke up expecting to be fired, the symptons all of a sudden disappered.

“I feel good. I feel like I have broken away from this abusive household and I don’t have to keep abuse hidden and that feels really good” says Woods.  “I thought that I would be afraid. I thought I would be nervous and I don’t feel like that. I feel like I have freed from myself from an abusive father or an abusive husband.”

Readers’ comments posted alongside the article expressed support for Woods, a 42-year-old woman who began working as an organizer for SEIU-UHW in 2015. One comment reads as follows:

I personally worked alongside Njoki, she is a great organizer and a sweet person. The internal staff motto of UHW is “UHW is where great organizers go to die” – and they sure live up to it. Glad I got away. Stay strong Njoki!!!!!!

Another states:

As a former employee of the organization I think it’s far past time to file a class action suit sexual discrimination sexism racial discrimination racially disparaging remarks as a former organizer with in the organization I can attest and be would be more than willing to I’ve worked at UHW for over 10 years

If Woods files a lawsuit, it will be the second one featuring allegations that connect Regan to sexual misconduct and retaliation against whistleblowers.

Will Mary Kay Henry do the right thing by taking action against Regan, who also serves on SEIU’s International Executive Board?

One would hope so.

After the #MeToo movement emboldened SEIU staffers to step forward with their own stories about sexual harassment and misconduct inside the purple union, Henry was forced to remove a number of staffers following investigations.

In late 2017, Henry announced the formation of an external advisory group that was supposed to determine what practices SEIU can enact in order to stop sexual abuse within the union. She recruited high-profile women to make up the advisory group, including Cecilia Muñoz, former White House Domestic Policy Council director; Fatima Goss Graves, president and CEO of the National Women’s Law Center; and employment attorney Debra Katz, founding partner of law firm Katz Marshall & Banks.

At the time, an SEIU spokesperson announced:

“SEIU is deeply committed at every level of our union to ensuring that our workplace environment reflects our values, and that all staff is respected, their contributions are valued and their voices are heard.”

Meanwhile, SEIU has rightfully criticized big businesses for turning a blind eye to sexual harassment inside the workplace. For example, SEIU is working with fast-food workers to confront sexual harassment. SEIU worked with women fast-food workers who recently stood up in silent protest during a presentation by McDonalds chief communicator at an event sponsored by Politico. Meanwhile, women janitors in commercial office buildings have staged protests against sexual harassment and assaults they suffer on the job.

Will Mary Kay Henry “walk the talk” by launching an investigation into the allegations about Regan?

Or will Henry and her panel of experts turn a blind eye to allegations against one of SEIU’s own board members?

SEIU-UHW Staffer: ‘Dave Regan Slept with Union Staffers and Members, Bullies Critics’

SEIU-UHW's Dave Regan

Payday Report yesterday published explosive allegations that SEIU-UHW President Dave Regan has had sexual relations with SEIU-UHW members and staffers, is often drunk on the job, and carries out campaigns of retaliation against staffers and members who raise criticisms. (Mike Elk, “EXCLUSIVE: SEIU VP Dave Regan Accused of Sexual Misconduct & Retaliating Against Whistleblowers,” Payday Report, March 1, 2019)   

She also says SEIU-UHW officials make backroom deals with management and sometimes instruct Union Representatives, who are supposed to defend the rights of workers on the job, instead to work in the interests of companies and bosses. 

For example, she alleges that SEIU-UHW officials pressured her to be soft on employers. If SEIU-UHW officials consider a rank-and-file worker to be too militant or if the worker criticized SEIU-UHW’s leadership, then SEIU-UHW leaders work secretly with the worker’s boss to have the worker fired, she says.

The allegations in the Payday Report article are made by Njoki Woods, a 42-year-old woman who joined SEIU-UHW’s staff in 2015 after having been a rank-and-file member of SEIU-UHW for a decade. Woods formerly was a Certified Nursing Assistant and Unit Secretary at Riverside Community Hospital. According to the article, she remains on the union’s staff today.

In other direct quotes in the article, Woods describes a toxic, corrupt, and “cultish” culture inside SEIU-UHW. Conformity is valued by SEIU-UHW officials and those who report abuse or who express criticism are targeted with retaliation and bullying, she says. In addition, she describes a culture of sexual favors where people have sex with union officials in order to get ahead.

Woods’ allegations mirror those of other members and staffers. For example, Regan is a named in a lawsuit in Alameda County (Calif.) in which a former SEIU-UHW staffer, Mindy Sturge, alleges that Regan and one of his top staffers, Marcus Hatcher, carried out sexual misconduct and retaliation against union staffers.

The following are excerpts from yesterday’s article in Payday Report. Here’s a link to the full article.

Payday Report has learned that not only has Regan been accused of covering up sexual misconduct, but he is now being accused of sexual misconduct himself and retaliating against whistleblowers.

“It was widely discussed amongst members that he had sexual relations with members and staff,” says Woods.

Woods says that the example set by Regan’s frequent drinking and personal sexual misconduct created a toxic culture where many felt pressure to have sex in order to get ahead.

“It’s a sexual culture—it was all okay,” says Wood. ”The culture at the time was everybody was having sex with everybody. That’s just the culture—sexual favors—that’s how people got ahead there”…

“He drinks all the time, everybody knows it,” says Woods who says she smelled alcohol on Regan’s breath many times during the work day. “He was always drunk—it was just the norm.”

SEIU-UHW did not immediately respond for a request for comment when reached late on Thursday…

Many say that the toxic workplace culture of SEIU-UHW stems from the hostile takeover of the local union by Regan and engineered by the top leadership of the international D.C. headquarters of SEIU in 2009.

“It’s a cultish type environment. When you go in, you feel great, you feel like you are a part of something big,” says Woods.  “You feel really good until you start getting into these robotic type of conversations, there is nothing genuine. It’s these robotic type of conversations meant to conform you…Its like they want to program you, you have to be as a mean as them”.

…Woods says that she felt pressure from SEIU not to fight management too much and that sometimes SEIU would even instruct her to get a member fired if they questioned SEIU’s lack of militancy; instructions, which Woods says she refused.

After getting hired by SEIU in the spring of 2015, she says she felt herself getting bullied almost immediately…

She says some union staffers also mocked a union staffer Mustafa “Hawk” Tahjuddin, who committed suicide in 2012 after leaving a note saying that pressure from the union pushed him over the edge….

In December of 2017, Woods says that Regan warned staffers at an executive board meeting against speaking out against sexual misconduct after one of Regan’s top staffers, Marcus Hatcher, was fired as a result of sexual misconduct allegations.

“Dave Regan was standing on the stage and they put all these numbers to these attorneys and he said ‘if you have an issue of sexual harassment then you can contact these attorneys, but you better damn well know that if you bring up allegations against us, you are coming up against a million dollar organization and we will come after you’,” says Wood…

“I thought the organization believed in the labor movement and that’s not the case,” says Woods.  “It’s not about the labor movement for Dave Regan, it’s about power and control or Dave Regan. It’s not about members and I’m not comfortable with that because I am lying to these people.”