Scandal on Scandal — Another One for Calif. Union

-By Warner Todd Huston

The L.A. Times has done it again; reported on another California Service Employees International Union (SEIU) corruption scandal. SEIU California has had so many corruption scandals that it boggles the mind and they all center around union bosses double dipping salaries and misusing purported charities to enrich themselves, as well as getting family members into the game with pseudo jobs at these false-front charities. This report is no exception to that mode of business-as-usual for the powerful state employees union.

This time SEIU chief James Bryant has been found making more salary from the supposed charity he heads out of his home than the city job he is supposed to be working at. The union also funnels money his way and he has given his son a “job” that the union backed charity is funding.

As the L.A.Times subhead informs:

The union officer gets more from the nonprofit, run from his home, than from his full-time San Francisco transit job. He’s also paid for use of the home and his son is on the charity payroll.

The piece goes on to explain all the income streams from union and city sources that this guy has.

A Bay Area officer of the scandal-clouded Service Employees International Union has collected double salaries, one as a city transit worker and the other from a charity that receives much of its funding from the labor organization and corporate interests, records show.

In addition, the nonprofit paid more than $16,000 in rent for the officer’s home in 2007, the most recent year for which the charity’s tax return is available, according to his son, who is also on the charity’s payroll.

So, the “charity” this guy “works” for is paying the rent for his house, too. And paying his rent is germane to working for a charity… how? And the guy’s son somehow ended up a paid board member, too? Talk about self-dealing.

On top of all that, the “charity” that Bryant “works” for had its state certification suspended for not filing the right paperwork. Yet Bryant is still getting paid for his “work” for the charity.

It’s all pretty troubling and combined with the half dozen other scandals of double dealing, double salaries, and faux charities employing family members being investigated involving other members of the SEIU, this is just another example of the sort of corruption inherent in the California SEIU.

Lastly, we must remember that all these corrupt officials were close with SEIU president Andy Stern and it is Stern that intends to parlay his close relationship to Barack Obama into further national power for himself and the SEIU. This sort of corruption will break out nation wide if Stern is successful. And Obama is thrilled to assist this man to do so.

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Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer, has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and is featured on many websites such as newsbusters.org, Human Events Magazine, townhall.com, New Media Journal, Men’s News Daily and the New Media Alliance among many, many others. Additionally, he has been a frequent guest on talk-radio programs to discuss his opinion editorials and current events. He has also written for several history magazines and appears in the new book “Americans on Politics, Policy and Pop Culture” which can be purchased on amazon.com. He is also the owner and operator of publiusforum.com. Feel free to contact him with any comments or questions : EMAIL Warner Todd Huston

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