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.

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

Josie Mooney: Midwife to Secret SEIU Political Deal?

Josie Mooney

SEIU members and journalists have begun to speak out about the secret political deal between SEIU Local 1021 and SEIU-UHW... which Tasty revealed on Wednesday.

Yesterday, the editor of the San Francisco Bay Guardian published an article entitled “SEIU Deal Could Undermine Progressive Coalition.” According to the newspaper: “…it’s really happening -- and it could be a total trainwreck for progressive politics in San Francisco.”

Here’s an excerpt from the article, which includes quotes from a well known rank-and-file leader at Local 1021:

It would be a radical change -- for the first time, the members of Local 1021 would cede final control of their endorsements to the international.

Ed Kinchley, a co-chair of Local 1021's political action committee, told me he finds the proposal troubling. "I'm not at all interested in having the international have a say in who we endorse," he said. "Decisions about endorsements should be in the hands of our members."

He said he's all in favor of trying to find areas of agreement between the two SEIU locals -- "but do I want to have something enforced on us if we can't agree? No."

Elsewhere, the article describes how SEIU-UHW “has been taken over by the international… has attacked the hotel workers union and split with most of the rest of labor around California Pacific Medical Center… Forcing a joint endorsement with a union that is distinctly not part of the progressive coalition can only undermine Local 1021's historical role.”

So… who persuaded Local 1021’s Roxanne Sanchez to ink this knuckleheaded deal with SEIU’s Dave Regan and Mary Kay Henry? Sources say it was Josie Mooney, a longtime SEIU official who’s a close ally of Andy Stern. In fact, Mooney frequently accompanied Stern on his many SEIU-paid trips to China.

In 2008, Stern directed Mooney and SEIU Vice President Tom Debruin to create a secret group of SEIU officials called the "Skunk Team" to wage a smear campaign against Sal Rosselli and other former leaders of UHW. Why? Because these former leaders had criticized Stern and introduced a series of initiatives to democratize SEIU at its 2008 convention. Fortunately, Josie Mooney’s cloak-and-dagger campaign was outed by a disgusted SEIU staffer, whose sworn statement is pasted below.

Later, Josie Mooney left SEIU and took a job as the Executive Director of the California School Employees... until she was dumped by that union’s board.

She then signed on as a lobbyist for a San Francisco-based firm called Barnes Mosher Whitehurst Lauter, which lobbies on behalf of corporations like McDonalds and AT&T. Back in 2008, this same firm was the infamous “silent partner” in the Skunk’s Team’s attempt to carry out a hit job on Sal Rosselli and other reformers (see statement below). 

In recent months, say sources, Mooney was inserted inside Local 1021 as a high-paid consultant... thanks to the assistance of officials from the Purple Palace. Sources says she's now using her perch inside the local union to try to exert growing influence on the union's leaders... including the local's recent secret political deal with Dave Regan and Mary Kay Henry.  

Dewar-DeclarationOnSkunkTeam11-20-08[1]

Very Slow Lerner

Tasty hears that SEIU's Stephen Lerner has finally realized that his purple pals are not too keen on him. Sources tell Tasty that, several weeks ago, SEIU officials fired Lerner from his position as a top SEIU staffer and a member of SEIU's International Executive Board.

It's been a long, slow learning curve for Lerner.  In 2008, Andy Stern and Mike Fishman (President of SEIU Local 32BJ) ousted Lerner from his position as the head of SEIU's Property Services Division and demoted Lerner.

Next, Stern assigned Lerner to lead a slimy attack campaign against Sal Rosselli and California's healthcare workers after they introduced proposals to democratize SEIU during the union's 2008 convention. Lerner's nefarious role in the thuggish campaign was revealed when insiders leaked an infamous email describing the Purple Palace's efforts to either "implode" SEIU-UHW or wage an Irak-like invasion against it. The email -- from June of 2008 -- has lines like this: "Trusteeship would be difficult -- it's like Iraq, easy to get in and then a slog. Implosion would be a better outcome, but what will it take?" The leaked email snagged a whole posse of plotting SEIU staffers, including Bill Ragen, Stephen Lerner, Tom DeBruin, Kirk Adams, Denise Poloyac and attorney Edgar James.

In 2010, a demoted Lerner became the punching bag for SEIU's Scott Courtney, who'd been elevated to a top job inside the Purple Palace. Later that year, Courtney put Lerner on a month-long administrative leave for "insubordination" after Lerner refused to follow Courtney's orders.

At this point, many observers expected Lerner to catch a clue and bolt the Purple Palace with a few tattered shreds of remaining dignity. Tasty hears that Lerner planned to deliver a courageous ultimatum to SEIU's Mary Kay Henry, but as he prepared to enter Henry’s office, a pair of testicles dropped to the floor.

So… Lerner completed his month-long "time-out," and then slinked back to the Purple Palace where he worked on SEIU’s effort to co-opt the Occupy Wall Street movement.

And this brings us to the latest chapter in this pitiful saga:  Lerner's termination. Tasty hears Lerner was offed by his arch-nemesis, Scott Courtney, who seized control of Lerner's project and budget dollars.

So what's next for Lerner? Looks like he's taken a page from Stern's playbook of self-promotion. Just today, Lerner set up a Facebook page where he describes himself as "a leading critic of Wall Street bankers" and "a frequent contributor on national television and radio programs..." Sounds like Lerner will soon be competing with Andy Stern to hustle speaker fees at conferences near you!

Josie Mooney Joins Skunks at Whitehurst/Mosher

Ever wonder what happened to SEIU’s Josie Mooney after she was dumped by the California School Employees Association? Well, just like a slow-flushing toilet, Josie appears to be swirling around with the same set of unsavory characters.

In her latest adventure, Josie landed a gig as a "Special Counselor" for “Whitehurst/Mosher,” the San Francisco lobbying and P.R. company that played an infamous role in Andy Stern’s attempted ‘character assassination’ campaign during SEIU’s California trusteeship. In fact, Josie was thigh-deep in the scandal when a conscientious insider outed the conspiracy in a tell-all article published in the San Francisco Bay Guardian.

The article revealed how Josie, SEIU Executive Vice President Tom DeBruin and Andy Stern hired hatchet-men John Whitehurst and Mark Mosher to try to smear California union leaders after they criticized SEIU officials for selling out frontline workers in secret deals with healthcare corporations. (Sound familiar?) Josie and DeBruin even worked hand-in-hand with Sutter Health, California’s biggest anti-union hospital company, to wage their so-called “Skunk Team” attack against union reformers.

So what kind of work is Josie doing now? Well, it turns out that Josie is still sucking dues from SEIU members’ pockets. Check out these meeting minutes from SEIU Local 221’s Executive Board. They show how Josie was present when union officials steered a $50,000 consulting contract to Whitehurst/Mosher earlier this year:

In the end, it sounds like Josie’s consulting firm didn't do such a good job for county workers. In fact, SEIU Local 221’s members ended up with a contract that’s inferior to the one negotiated by workers who recently decertified Local 221 and joined an independent union.

So, union members, if you happen to see Josie Mooney lurking around your union hall, look out! She’s probably trying to score a fat consulting gig funded by your union dues!

SEIU Hit by Multi-Million-Dollar Spending Scandal

SEIU officials are pulling the plug on a failed scheme that wasted an estimated $20-$25 million of members’ dues dollars over the past three years, according to this internal SEIU memo that's discussed in this recent article. Here's what happened.

Remember the 2008 SEIU Convention in Puerto Rico? That’s where SEIU officials pushed through their “bold” idea of building nationwide 1-800 call centers to handle members’ grievances. They also decided to centralize local unions’ accounting, dues-collection and other "back-office services" into a national business office controlled by SEIU International.

Stern and Mary Kay Henry predicted that, by 2012, one million SEIU members would be participating in this new scheme. They even re-wrote SEIU’s constitution to permanently cement the new centralized system into SEIU.

After the 2008 convention, they set up a for-profit corporation called “Member Action Service Center (MASC).” They then got $2 million in tax breaks from the State of Michigan and pumped millions of dollars of SEIU members’ dues money into their for-profit venture.

One small problem: it was a massive failure. The price? An estimated $15-$20 million of wasted dues. Check out SEIU’s internal memo, which has statements like this:

“SEIU’s finance staff estimates that we will have spent $14 million in setting up and operating the MASC in its first year.” (p. 6)

“In no scenario we reviewed was the MASC self sufficient and no scenario included any possibility that SEIU’s investment would be recovered in the foreseeable future.” (p. 6)

"The President should appoint someone to develop a contingency plan that will prepare us for shutting down the operation... a course of action to mitigate the financial impact of a shutdown and the impact on locals already enrolled." (p. 11)

Tasty's got a few simple questions:

Will SEIU officials be held accountable for flushing $20-$25 million of members' dues money down the toilet?

If Bruce Raynor got axed for $2,300 in dinner receipts, shouldn't Mary Kay Henry, Eliseo Medina and Tom DeBruin pay a price for flushing millions of dues dollars down the drain?

Why have SEIU officials hidden the news of this financial fiasco from the membership?

Mary Kay? Eliseo? Tom? Your turn now…