Guess Who's Back? Shady Rickman... Again. WTF!?

In 2008, Rickman Jackson became a household name across Southern California after the Los Angeles Times revealed he’d stolen more than $30,000 from the low-wage homecare members of SEIU Local 2015.

At the time, Jackson served as the “Chief of Staff” of the union’s president, Tyrone Freeman. Together, they stole thousands of dollars from the union’s members. Jackson personally accompanied Tyrone on union-funded adventures to “the Grand Havana Room in Beverly Hills for $175 glasses of cognac” and other felonious funfests, including Freeman’s union-funded wedding at a Hawaiian resort.

Freeman was sentenced to 33 months in a federal prison. And Jackson was stripped of his union position.

What’s the latest?

SEIU Local 2015 -- the scene of Rickman’s corruption -- just hired Rickman as the Director of its Organizing Department, according to a source inside SEIU Local 2015.

WTF!

Union officials reportedly announced Jackson’s hiring during a member conference call on February 25, 2019. Tasty’s source provides the following details:

His hiring was announced in a member conference call that takes place every Monday. This particular call, on February 25, made no mentioned of his hiring until the end of the call, with no discussion for members. The following week, April Verrett, president of 2015, discussed the hiring of Rickman where several members stated their opposition to his hiring because of what happened with Tyrone. Make no mistake, April did not say what Rickman did and only classified his actions as an error like a clerical mistake, because Rickman signed something he shouldn't have signed. She tried to justify his hiring as part of the union's Restorative Justice agenda, as if Rickman's corruption could compare to racist policies that make millions of people of color criminals rather than Rickman stealing from home care workers. Members were also angry there was no transparency because the executive board did not about this hiring, much less a discussion. April lied when she said the decision to hire Rickman was also because it was hard to find a director for external organizing. She said the union had been looking for 18 months for a director to fill the vacancy but the director had actually left around September 2018. When she was told Rickman had not re-paid the local, she denied this but did not provide any evidence. She said she would provide the evidence at a later time and to the member who asked instead of the general membership.

For those who may have forgotten the details of Rickman’s corruption, reporter Paul Pringle described them in a 2008 Los Angeles Times article that detailed the findings of an investigation led by former state Atty. Gen. John Van de Kamp and an SEIU audit.

Freeman steered vast amounts of union money into union-created nonprofit organizations, which then used fake transactions to deposit cash into the pockets of Tyrone and others. One of these nonprofit organizations -- the Long-Term Care Housing Corp -- made lump-sum payments to Freeman while also paying Rickman $2,500 a month to supposedly “lease” Rickman’s personal home to serve as the organization’s offices. All told, Rickman pocketed $33,500 from this scam.

(Paul Pringle, “SEIU accuses local union leader of misusing funds,” Los Angeles Times, September 18, 2008.)

In October of 2008, SEIU stripped Rickman of his position and “exiled” him to Canada while keeping him on payroll. (Paul Pringle, “SEIU leader loses post over scandal,” Los Angeles Times, October 15, 2008.)

What idiot at SEIU would hire someone who stole tens of thousands of dollars from the union’s own hard-working members?

Its mind boggling, right?

SEIU’s leaders are clearly pathetic, but this level of corruption and disdain for its members is shocking even to those of us who’ve waded neck-deep through purple muck and mire for years.

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.

SEIU Email: "There's a reporter floating around the building trying to write a negative story on President Freeman..."

Ever wonder what it was like inside SEIU’s offices during the final days before the Los Angeles Times broke open the massive corruption scandal involving Tyrone Freeman, Rickman Jackson and other top SEIU officials?

Earlier, Tasty posted an internal email that showed how SEIU’s top DC officials were actively involved in trying to fend off a reporter’s investigation.

Here’s another e-mail from inside SEIU’s offices.

In the email, an SEIU official carefully informs union staffers that anything they say to a reporter will be visible to the whole world… including their purple bosses!

Just an FYI, there’s a reporter floating around the building trying to write a negative story on President Freeman. Be careful on what you say and ask first who they are … you don't want to be quoted in the LA Times.

   Email from SEIU Official to Staffers: Beware of Reporter's Questions about President Tyrone Freeman. J...

SEIU Officials Are Linked to Pension-Slashing Scheme Backed by Enron Billionaire

Andrew McDonald

Remember how Andy Stern was recently trashed for supporting the efforts of Gina Raimondo, the Treasurer of Rhode Island, to slash workers’ pensions?

Well, check out this new development.

It turns out that Stern’s former spokesperson, Andrew McDonald, is linked to a “diabolical plot to loot worker pensions” that’s backed by a billionaire from Enron.

Who’s Andrew McDonald?

In 2008, McDonald was the “Assistant Director of Communications” at SEIU’s DC headquarters. He served as Stern’s press spokesperson and helped carry out SEIU’s attack against SEIU-UHW, which was then headed by union reformer Sal Rosselli.

In 2008, McDonald worked with Tyrone Freeman to try to prevent the Los Angeles Times from completing its investigation into his massive corruption scandal, according to internal emails that have not previously aired publicly.

Andy Stern

Below, Tasty has posted an email between Freeman and his communications staffer, Leigh Shelton, in which they discuss McDonald’s role in trying to fend off inquiries by LA Times reporter Paul Pringle. At the time, McDonald reported to Steve Trossman.

The email is important because it shows how SEIU’s top officials in DC directly aided Freeman in the midst of the scandal... perhaps as part of the cover-up operation allegedly directed by Trossman.

Now… let's turn back to McDonald’s link to the pension-slashing campaign that's raging across the U.S.

After leaving SEIU, McDonald took a job at the Pew Charitable Trusts, where he served as a “Communications Senior Officer.”

At that time, Pew partnered with an Enron billionaire, John Arnold, to launch an attack against workers’ pensions in the U.S., according to a report recently issued by David Sirota, a nationally syndicated columnist and author. 

The anti-pension partnership uses Pew’s supposedly “neutral” reputation to champion an ideologically driven plan to slash workers’ pensions and replace them with 401(k) plans, according to Sirota’s report, which is entitled “The Plot against Pensions: The Pew-Arnold Campaign to Undermine America’s Retirement Security – and Leave Taxpayers with the Bill.”

By “issuing joint reports and conducting joint legislative briefings,” says Sirota, “Pew and Arnold have successfully manufactured the perception of crisis -- which has prompted demands for dramatic action. Pew and Arnold have consequently helped shape those general demands into specific efforts to cut guaranteed retirement income…”

John Arnold, Enron billionaire

It turns out that McDonald played a role in pushing out these anti-pension reports to policy makers and the public. For example, when Pew issued a report entitled “The Trillion Dollar Gap: Underfunded State Retirement Systems and the Roads to Reform,” McDonald helped “disseminate” and publicize the report, according to the report’s acknowledgments.

Is it pure coincidence that McDonald and SEIU's President Emeritus are both working to promote the slashing of workers’ pensions?   

Interestingly, Pew and the Enron billionaire have specifically targeted a handful of states such as Rhode Island… where Stern recently rushed to the aid of the state’s pension-slashing treasurer.

The following are some excerpts from Sirota’s report... which raise an obvious question:

Why the f*ck are SEIU officials promoting efforts to slash the pensions of public-sector workers, especially given that SEIU's members include hundreds of thousands of state, county and municipal workers across the U.S? (Note: Freeman's email exchange regarding the LA Times and McDonald is below.)

In each of these states and many others now debating pension “reform,” Pew and Arnold have colluded to shape a narrative that suggests cutting public pension benefits is the only viable path forward. This, despite the fact that a) cutting wasteful corporate welfare could raise enough revenues to prevent such cuts; b) the pension “reform” proposals from Pew and Arnold could end up costing more than simply shoring up the existing system; and c) pension expenditures are typically more reliable methods of economic stimulus than corporate welfare.

Those inconvenient facts have been ignored in the political debate over pensions. Thanks to the combination of Pew’s well-known brand and Arnold’s vast resources, the pension-slashing movement’s extremist message has been able to dominate the political discourse in states throughout America.

The result is a skewed national conversation about state budgets – one in which middle-class public sector workers are increasingly asked to assume all the financial sacrifice for balancing the government books, and corporations and the wealthy are exempted from any sacrifice whatsoever.

   Tyrone Freeman's email to SEIU Communications Staffer about assistance from SEIU's Andrew McDonal...