More Challenges to SEIU's Trusteeship in Nevada

SEIU is facing a second lawsuit over its trusteeship in Nevada, according to court records.

The latest suit was filed August 9 by SEIU Nevada’s former president, Cherie Mancini, who was removed from her position by SEIU President Mary Kay Henry earlier this year. A union steward from Dignity Health-St. Rose Dominican Hospital is a co-plaintiff in the case.

The lawsuit names SEIU, Mary Kay Henry and Luisa Blue as defendants.

“This is a power grab by the international (union),” Mancini’s lawyer told the Las Vegas Review-Journal (“Former SEIU president sues to get her job back,” August 25, 2017). “SEIU comes in and imposes a trusteeship and puts in place the government they want,” Luisa Blue, appointed by Henry as the “trustee” of SEIU Nevada, dismissed the claims in the lawsuit.

Mancini’s attorneys have asked the judge for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction against SEIU, according to court records.

Here’s an excerpt from the lawsuit, which summarizes the violations that SEIU allegedly committed. A full copy of the lawsuit is below.

After the emergency trusteeship was imposed by SEIU on Local 1107, Defendants breached the SEIU Constitution in the following ways: Defendants failed to hold a trusteeship hearing within thirty (30) days of imposition of the emergency trusteeship; failed to notice the membership, including Plaintiff Frederick Gustafson, in a timely fashion regarding the trusteeship hearing; failed to properly notice the Local 1107 membership once the emergency trusteeship hearing was set; failed to issue a decision regarding the merits of the trusteeship within sixty (60) days; denied Local 1107 due process via a full and fair hearing on the merits of the emergency trusteeship; failed to establish a sufficient good faith emergency basis for the imposition of the emergency trusteeship; failed to address good cause for not adhering to the reasonable time periods for these procedures; and failed to address the legitimacy and necessity of continuing the trusteeship at the trusteeship hearing held on July 13, 2017, seventy six (76) days after the emergency trusteeship was imposed.

SEIU and Mary Kay Henry are represented by Glenn Rothner (Rothner, Segall, Greenstone and Leheny), a Los Angeles attorney who specializes in imposing trusteeships on local unions.

  Cherie Mancini vs SEIU's Trusteeship of SEIU Nevada: 8-9-2017 by tastysternburger on Scribd

SEIU Staffers: “SEIU Nevada’s Deputy Trustee is a professional bully”

Tasty got some interesting news about one of the trustees appointed recently to run SEIU Nevada.

In April, SEIU President Mary Kay Henry imposed an “emergency trusteeship” on the 9,000-member union and appointed two “trustees” to run the union after removing the elected board and officers.

Luisa Blue, one of SEIU International’s Executive Vice Presidents, serves as the “Trustee” of SEIU Nevada.

“Deputy Trustee” Martin Manteca -- who normally works as the Organizing Director of SEIU Local 721 in Los Angeles -- is “a professional bully,” say his co-workers at Local 721. They say he’s “harassed” and retaliated against staffers at Local 721.

In 2016, staffers were so upset by Manteca's bullying that 55 of them signed a letter delivered to SEIU Local 721 President Bob Schoonover. A copy of the petition is below.

An “update” circulated to Local 721 staff accuses Manteca of “a pattern of persistent, repeated mistreatment, and a culture of intimidation, harassment, retaliation, and nepotism.”

After staffers complained about Manteca, a number of the whistleblowers reportedly were targeted with retaliation and fired. In the process, Manteca and other Local 721 managers “destroyed the department,” according to staffers.

Sounds like the perfect person to fix SEIU Nevada, which is riven by internal divisions and conflicts, according to Mary Kay Henry.

One staffer from Local 721 writes:

I feel bad for the folks in Nevada. Martin is a professional bully, and has harassed and pushed out so many great organizers here. There'll be few of them left in Nevada once he's done there.

Latest on SEIU's Trusteeship of SEIU Nevada

The New York-New York Casino

Here’s the latest on SEIU’s trusteeship of SEIU Nevada, a 9,000-member union of public and private-sector workers.

On July 13, SEIU held a five-hour trusteeship hearing at the “New York-New York” Casino in Las Vegas, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal (“Las Vegas Union Debates Return to Local Control,” July 14, 2017).

SEIU officials were hush-hush about what happened at the hearing, offering only vague statements to the newspaper.

One union member who attended the hearing told the Review-Journal that “about 25” union members were in attendance, including the union’s former president, Cherie Mancini, who was removed from her position by SEIU President Mary Kay Henry on April 28, 2017.

What happens next?

A hearing officer appointed by Mary Kay Henry will prepare a written ruling as to whether or not Mary Kay Henry’s emergency trusteeship should continue for another year or two. Difficult to predict that one, right?

Below is the four-page order that Henry issued on April 28 describing her justification for the emergency trusteeship … including what she describes as “warring factions” on SEIU Nevada’s Executive Board along with “name calling and shouting matches.” 

Sounds a bit like Trump’s White House, right?

Hey, Mary Kay, could you serve up one of your trusteeship orders on The Donald?

Stay tuned for the next purple shindig at a Las Vegas casino near you.

  SEIU's Order Imposing an Emergency Trusteeship on SEIU Nevada: 4-28-2017 by tastysternburger on Scribd

SEIU Is Sued over Nevada Trusteeship

A supporter of SEIU Nevada’s former president has filed a lawsuit challenging SEIU International’s recent trusteeship of the local union, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal (Las Vegas Review-Journal, “Union member suing to restore local control of SEIU Nevada chapter,” May 16. 2017).

On Tuesday, Cherie Mancini (the union’s former president) appeared alongside ten supporters in a District courtroom seeking a court order to return control of the union to its recently disbanded executive board, according to the newspaper. 

The lawsuit is now headed to federal court.

Last month, SEIU President Mary Kay Henry removed Mancini and Sharon Kisling (SEIU Nevada’s former executive vice president) from their positions and then had two of her lieutenants conduct a nighttime meeting with SEIU Nevada’s remaining executive board members, who reportedly voted to ask Henry to place the union under an “emergency trusteeship.”

The lawyer suing SEIU International told the Review-Journal that the trusteeship is invalid because SEIU Nevada’s executive board members were led to believe they had no choice but vote for trusteeship.

The Review-Journal quotes Mancini as saying the following:

"There was a manufactured emergency by the removal of myself and the vice president at the same time. I think that the membership needs to determine whether there needs to be a trusteeship or not.”

The newspaper also reports that following the trusteeship, SEIU officials “fired the local’s chief financial officer Robert Clarke, communications director Dana Gentry and [Peter] Nguyen, the director of organizing and representation.”

Stay tuned.

Trusteeships Strain Purple Palace

Last week was a busy one for the Purple Palace.

On Wednesday, SEIU President Mary Kay Henry removed the top two officials at 9,000-member SEIU Nevada.

On Thursday, in Detroit, SEIU officials conducted a daylong trusteeship hearing to put SEIU Healthcare Michigan under a permanent trusteeship. In February, Henry removed the local union’s president, Marge Faville Robinson.

And on Friday, Henry imposed a trusteeship on SEIU Nevada.

Thursday’s hearing in Detroit was conducted by LaPhonza Butler, who served as the “Hearing Officer.” Butler is the President of California’s SEIU Local 2015, a longtime ally of Henry, and a nemesis of SEIU-UHW President Dave Regan.

According to a memo issued by SEIU Secretary-Treasurer Gerry Hudson on April 13, 2017 (see copy below), SEIU officials have now “substantiated” the “allegations of serious financial malpractice” at SEIU Healthcare Michigan.

Hudson’s memo reports:

Specifically, a review of the Local Union’s books and records uncovered evidence that Healthcare Michigan’s loan and paid time off/earned vacation payout policies had been abused, placing Healthcare Michigan members’ rights, benefits and interests at risk.

What actually happened?

SEIU officials are mum on the details. One possibility: local union officials artificially boosted their vacation balances, and then cashed them out. The removal of Marge Faville Robinson is an obvious clue.

Henry’s multiple trusteeships appear to be leaving her a bit shorthanded at the Palace.

In February, Henry appointed Inga Skippings (her “Chief of Staff”) as a trustee in Michigan, and more recently sent Deedee Fitzpatrick (her “Deputy Chief of Staff”) to Nevada to deal with SEIU’s imploding local union in Sin City.

 

Kirk Adams

Of course, Purple Palace officials -- including Tom DeBruin, Kirk Adams, Stephen Lerner and Bill Ragen -- know tons about “imploding” local unions.

Henry has not yet posted a job opening for a new “aide de camp” or Chief of Staff. But SEIU has posted one for “Director of Organizational Leadership.” The job description includes “work[ing] with officers, senior staff and local union leaders to develop innovative and impactful organizational leadership strategies…”

Hmmmm. Innovative? Impactful? How about just trying to develop a “functional” leadership strategy? 

That would be a big improvement.

  SEIU's Notice of Trusteeship Hearing for SEIU Healthcare Michigan: 4-13-17 by tastysternburger on Scribd

SEIU's Mary Kay Henry Imposes "Emergency Trusteeship" on SEIU Nevada

Here’s the latest.

Last Friday (April 28), SEIU President Mary Kay Henry implemented an “emergency trusteeship” on 9,000-member SEIU Nevada, according to an announcement on the union’s website and a formal order pasted below. The action removes the local union’s Executive Board and suspends its constitution.

Friday’s action came two days after Henry removed SEIU Nevada’s President Cherie Mancini and Executive Vice President Sharon Kisling and asked the local union’s Executive Board to meet hours later with two of her representatives, Neal Bisno and Deedee Fitzpatrick. 

According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, here’s what happened during that private meeting on Wednesday night (Las Vegas Review-Journal, “Nevada SEIU asks parent union to take control of operations,” April 27, 2017):

SEIU Local 1107’s executive board voted Wednesday night to request an emergency trusteeship be imposed, SEIU International spokeswoman Janet Veum said. A source with direct knowledge of the vote said it was 17-to-7, with five executive board members abstaining…

Typically, the international union would conduct a hearing and have a vote of its international executive board before imposing trusteeship, Veum said. But because SEIU 1107 made an emergency request, international president Mary Kay Henry could expedite the process by imposing the trusteeship before the hearing is held.

Who’s running SEIU Nevada now?

Henry appointed Lisa Blue and Martin Manteca to serve as “Trustee” and “Deputy Trustee,” respectively. Blue was the “Chief Elected Officer” (CEO) at SEIU Local 521 in California until May of 2016, when Henry appointed her as one of SEIU International’s seven Executive Vice Presidents. Manteca is the Director of External Organizing for SEIU Local 721 in Los Angeles.

Here’s Henry’s trusteeship order:

  SEIU's Emergency Trusteeship Order over SEIU Nevada: 4-28-2017 by tastysternburger on Scribd

SEIU’s Mary Kay Henry Moves to Put SEIU Nevada under Trusteeship

SEIU President Mary Kay Henry is placing yet another local union under trusteeship.

On April 26, 2017, Henry removed SEIU Nevada’s top two officers -- President Cherie Mancini and Executive Vice President Sharon Kisling -- from office, according to a two-page internal letter signed by Henry and an announcement on SEIU Nevada’s website.

Also on April 26, two SEIU officials (Neal Bisno and Deedee Fitzpatrick, Henry’s Deputy Chief of Staff) met privately with SEIU Nevada’s executive board at Henry’s request. The next day, April 27, SEIU Nevada’s website announced that its board had voted to place the local union under trusteeship. Here’s an excerpt:

Last night, our executive board met with representatives of SEIU to consider the future of the local…  After a thoughtful and extensive discussion, the executive board voted to ask SEIU to help return our local to those roots by taking Local 1107 into trusteeship.  The local’s request is now pending with International President Mary Kay Henry and we expect a decision soon.

Henry’s April 26 letter also announced the appointment of two of her representatives (Steve Ury and Kathy Eddy) to serve as “monitors” of SEIU Nevada.

On Wednesday, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported on the developments and posted a copy of Henry’s internal letter. (Las Vegas Review-Journal, “Top 2 elected officials removed from Nevada service union,” April 26, 2017)

In earlier posts, Tasty has chronicled the pathetic history of this affair, which has allowed one of the nation’s largest for-profit hospital companies to strip 1,000 nurses of union presentation.

• December 16, 2016:  SEIU Officials Perform Three-Ring Circus in Vegas
• April 13, 2017:  SEIU Nevada Performs Circus Act as Employers Feast at Banquet Table

SEIU Nevada is the fourth SEIU local union to be placed in trusteeship or under “monitorship” in recent months.

In August of 2016, SEIU imposed an emergency trusteeship on SEIU Local 73 in Chicago. In December of 2016, Henry removed the president of Los Angeles-based SEIU Local 99 and placed the union under the control of an SEIU-appointed “monitor,” Eliseo Medina. On February 14, 2017, Henry placed SEIU Healthcare Michigan under an “emergency trusteeship” amid allegations of financial corruption.

More to follow.

  SEIU Memo by Las Vegas Review-Journal on Scribd

SEIU Nevada Performs Circus Act as Employers Feast at Banquet Table

In Nevada, SEIU’s f*ck-ups continue unabated, according to press reports and a recently released letter authored by one faction inside the 9,000-member local union. 

Meanwhile, some of the state’s largest employers are taking full advantage of SEIU’s dysfunction to deny workers pay increases and strip them of union representation.

Tasty earlier reported on the circus-like show gripping SEIU Nevada (also known as SEIU Local 1107), including dueling “internal charges” filed by the union’s President and Executive Vice President alleging violations of SEIU’s constitution and bylaws.

Last August, police were called to the union’s offices when the union’s Executive Vice President (Sharon Kisling) allegedly chased and threatened one of the union’s staff directors in what he called “a two-and-a-half-hour reign of terror at our office.”

In October, SEIU’s International Executive Board (IEB) held two days of hearings at the Circus Circus Casino to investigate the purple sh*t show. According to an April 12 article in the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the IEB has not issued any results from its hearing. (Michael Scott Davidson, “Impasse Latest Sign of Trouble for Clark County’s Largest Employee Union,” April 12, 2017).

So here’s the latest.

On March 31, 2017, eight officers of SEIU Nevada’s unit of 5,000 workers employed by Clark County sent a letter to SEIU President Mary Kay Henry “expressing our concern for our local and especially our members.” The letter concludes with this appeal:

This local is broken and needs you. Please, please, please do the right thing and hold President Mancini and this local responsible for taking care of our membership which is where the focus should always be.

The letter focuses on problems SEIU Nevada is facing in its contract negotiations with Clark County, which reportedly employs a majority of the local union’s members. Last week, negotiations reached impasse.

According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, “If a deal is not struck by July 1, when the current contract expires, the county says it will halt scheduled wage and benefit increases for unionized employees until a new contract is agreed upon.”

Here’s an excerpt from the eight officers’ letter to Henry (full copy is below):

We feel the necessity to let you know that we do not believe that we will have a contract in place by July and we are very, very concerned that we are not being heard and this is even more obvious by President Mancini's actions. With only one (1) organizer working for the County membership, he is being setup for failure. One individual cannot reach 4,000+ members that reside in a County of over 8,000 square miles.

The leadership within the Clark County unit are informing you that we cannot continue in the same direction we are today. The negativity, in-fighting, retaliation, blatant disregard for fellow officers, etc. has got to stop. We have waited patiently since November 1, 2016 for the results of the hearings held on October 30 and 31, 2016 and we can't wait any longer. We need to know the results so they are not being held over our heads. There is no reason that we should feel that you, the SEIU International Officers, are ignoring our continued pleas for help.

SEIU President Mary Kay Henry

Everyday that we draw closer to July 1, 2017, the closer we are to having a membership that is no longer willing to believe in SEIU. They will give themselves a raise by dropping the union that is no longer fulfilling their needs. We are barely over the 50% membership and we are willing to bet that if we drop below that mark, Clark County Management will be convinced to follow in the footsteps of the hospitals being represented by the same union that are currently under the microscope to prove their membership numbers to keep the status of the members union.

Last month, two Las Vegas hospitals unilaterally withdrew recognition of SEIU Nevada after alleging that a majority of the hospitals’ 1,000 Registered Nurses signed cards indicating they no longer wished to be represented by SEIU, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. (Michael Scott Davidson, “Second Las Vegas Hospital Severs Ties with Union,” March 13, 2017).

The two hospitals -- Desert Springs Hospital and Valley Hospital Medical Center -- are operated by Universal Health Services, Inc., a multi-billion dollar for-profit company headquartered in Pennsylvania.

The effort to remove SEIU was aided by the right-wing National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation. SEIU has filed charges against the hospitals. According to the Review-Journal, SEIU's labor contracts for registered nurses at both hospitals expired in May of 2016 and successor contracts have not been negotiated since then.

  Letter to the executive board from Clark County officers by Las Vegas Review-Journal on Scribd

“What happens in Vegas…”

It turns out that Dave Regan’s reported effort to snatch 9,000 members from "SEIU Nevada" isn't his first attempt to rig events inside this local union.

In 2007, when Regan was the president of SEIU 1199 Ohio, he illegally funneled thousands of dollars to Andy Stern’s favored candidate in internal union elections taking place inside the same Nevada union.

In fact, Regan was cited by the U.S. Department of Labor for making illegal contributions to Stern’s candidate, Jane McAlevey, who was competing against rank-and-file members for control of the union.

In April 2008, the Department of Labor issued a two-page letter (see below) detailing Regan's illegal contributions, among other “investigative findings.” 

At the time, sources reported that McAlevey used Regan's illegal funding "to unseat officers who were on McAlevey’s enemy lists in the local because [they] questioned her pushing the Andy Stern agenda."

  U.S. Department of Labor's Findings on Vote-Rigging Scandal by SEIU 1107, District 1199 Ohio, Andy Ster...

Source: SEIU-UHW’s Dave Regan Is Pursuing Backroom Deal to Snatch 9,000 Members from SEIU Nevada

SEIU-UHW's Dave Regan

SEIU-UHW’s Dave Regan is attempting to snatch 9,000 members from “SEIU Nevada” through a backroom deal with the local's president, according to inside sources.

Here's what's happening:

SEIU Nevada’s 18,000 members are roughly divided between public-sector workers (mainly Clark County employees) and private-sector workers in the healthcare industry.

In July of 2013, Martin Bassick, a county employee, was elected president of SEIU Nevada. 

Regan apparently approached Bassick about splitting SEIU Nevada’s membership in half and "giving" the union’s 9,000 healthcare workers to Regan. It's not clear what Bassick would get in return. According to Tasty’s sources, these discussions have taken place completely "behind the members' backs."

If Nevada’s healthcare workers were handed over to Regan, observers say it would be disastrous.

Regan is notorious for making backroom deals with employers and would likely use Nevada's 9,000 workers as bargaining chips to get better deals from HCA and Dignity Health for Regan’s 150,000 members in California. In 2008, Regan famously backed a deal to trade away the pensions of SEIU workers in one state in order to advance SEIU officials’ personal agendas in other states.

Observers also point to Regan's track record at SEIU-UHW, where he has…

• Slashed workers’ health insurance, retirement plans and other benefits -- including the elimination of 20,000 workers’ pensions at Dignity Health and Daughters of Charity Health System.

• Sharply reduced representation services for the union's membership, allowing bosses to fire 33-year employees at the drop of a hat. 

• Aggressively boosted monthly union dues, including a 50% increase in the maximum dues rate to $124 per month -- with an ongoing $10 increase each year, which means the top rate is now $134 per month!

• Dramatically increased Regan's own salary to $300,000 a year and also transformed SEIU-UHW into a profit-making machine, with the union ending last year with $38 million in cash. 

• Made countless backroom deals with bosses including a recent deal with the California Hospital Association that would lower workers’ pay and benefits, prohibit workers from criticizing hospitals' poor patient-care practices, and ban workers from striking.

• Violated SEIU’s own Constitution by using ramrod ratification votes to force major benefit cuts down workers' throats.

It sounds like SEIU Nevada's members ought to give Bassick a jingle over at the Lacquered Up Nail Salon on Rainbow Blvd.