SEIU

Barack Obama - Budget - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Liberals - Media Bias - President - Security/Safety - Society/Culture - State Government - Taxes - The Law - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Obama Gives Union Veto Power on State Funds

May 12, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

When does an unelected union without legal governing powers get a say in what the federal government does with its dealings with a state? When a president that is more beholding to unions than he is to the Constitution and the people of the United States comes to office, that’s when. And now we have that in Barack Obama.

The L.A. Times is reporting that Obama allowed the Service Employee International Union to interfere in the relationship between the state of California and the federal government over the issuance of the “stimulus” funds coming out of Congress. Apparently, Obama gave the SEIU veto power over the “stimulus” funds that was supposed to go to the Golden State because Sacramento had voted for a wage cut for state workers that belong to the union.

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Obama Gives Union Veto Power on State Funds”

Business - Communism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Jobs - Liberals - Media Bias - Socialism - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

Labor Shying from Supporting New Dem Specter?

May 6, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Andy Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) appears to be warning his membership that there is no lock on allegiance for Arlen Specter even though he has recently jumped the GOP ship for the Democrat Party.

On May 3, Stern used his twitter account to praise Congressman Joe Sestak, a possible 2010 opponent for Specter for the Democratic Party nomination for Penn. Senator.

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Labor Shying from Supporting New Dem Specter?”

Budget - Business - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Liberals - Society/Culture - State Government - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Union Agitates To Force State to Borrow $ From Lottery

April 21, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The California State lottery is apparently in the purview of the state’s employees union, the Service Employees International Union. At least it is as far as the SEIU is concerned. Proving once again that unions think everything in the world is their business, the California SEIU has donated $300,000 to Proposition 1C, a ridiculous plan that would empower the state capitol at Sacramento to “borrow” up to $5 billion from state lottery coffers.

Yes, I agree with you that the lottery should have nothing at all to do with an employees union. But if it means absconding with more money in new and illicit ways, why, unions are all for that, naturally.

Prop 1C is called a lottery “modernization” measure that allows the cash-starved, and preternaturally corrupt state government to cull out up to $5 billion. It is supposed to be a loan. But, does anyone, anywhere think that the folks in Sacramento will ever pay back this “loan”? If anyone does, they are dumb as the day is long. No, what is far, far more likely is that if 1C passes, another $5 billion in revenue will disappear into the maw of the California State House never to be seen again… and worse, never to go for anything useful.

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Union Agitates To Force State to Borrow $ From Lottery”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Business - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Jobs - Liberals - Media Bias - Rights - Socialism - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Union Thugs Admit Workers Hate Them, Only Government Force Expands Unions

April 10, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Herold Meyerson of the Washington Post is a not a very good columnist. But he is a great ad copy writer that should be working on Madison Avenue. Oh, I won’t say that all ad copy is filled with lies, but if lies sell then Meyerson would be the best of them all. Anyone that reads his April 7 pro-union column can only come away marveling at the malarkey this guy is peddling to sell the union cause.

Meyerson begins by lamenting the troubles that unions have seen over the last few decades. Union membership has dropped to all time lows in this country and Meyerson is all about the wearing of sackcloth and the gnashing of teeth over it. But he sees hope in a recent effort to gather several union chiefs together in a sort of cooperative effort to flog unions on Capitol Hill, a sort of uber lobbying organization that will be charged with strong-arming Congress to accede to union demands.

But one thing he doesn’t get is that Americans just don’t like unions. They have bad reputations as economy wreckers, thugs, and thieves. It’s obvious that this is the case because, after all, union membership has fallen through the floor.

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Union Thugs Admit Workers Hate Them, Only Government Force Expands Unions”

Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Jobs - Liberals - Media Bias - President - Society/Culture - State Government - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

VP Biden’s Union Friend, Video Taped and Arrested for Pickpocketing

March 23, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

During the late presidential campaign, vp candidate Joe “gimme a f*ing break” Biden visited with his friends at the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) in Iowa. Joe was in The Hawkeye State to participate in some union campaign boilerplate called Walk A Day In My Shoes. There he “walked” with an upstanding union fella named Marshall Clemons, custodian for an Iowa school system and SEIU member.

So, the vice president “walked” in Clemons’ shoes one day helping him replace air conditioning filters and sweeping floors. It was a feels good day all around, for sure. But Clemons now has a new walk to take, one generally known as a perp walk. You see Clemons was video taped by an alert lobbyist stealing people’s wallets out of unguarded purses and bags in the Iowa State House in Cedar Rapids. Police caught Biden’s buddy with several stolen wallets when they arrested him later in the men’s bathroom there.

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VP Biden’s Union Friend, Video Taped and Arrested for Pickpocketing”

Communism - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Jobs - Liberals - Media Bias - News - Socialism - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Scandal on Scandal — Another One for Calif. Union

March 14, 2009 by

-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.

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Scandal on Scandal — Another One for Calif. Union”

Barack Obama - Communism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Jobs - Liberals - Media Bias - News - Socialism - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Big Unions Angle to Eliminate Small Ones

March 11, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

We’ve talked about it several times here on the blog; the hostile takeover of smaller unions. It has been Andy Stern’s main modus operandi (President of the Service Employees International Union or SEIU). The idea is to roll into the territory of a local, smaller union, make back room deals with the employers to get their assistance, and then lead a forced take over of that smaller union eventually to vote it out of existence. Thereby the little unions that might stand in the way of the mega unions are eliminated and the mega unions now controlling everything from the top down get more even more massive.

It’s a perfectly legitimate strategy, of course… except for the fact that it makes the lie to every purported “principle” that unions claim to have. Local control becomes dashed and democracy summarily eliminate, yet local control and democratic process are the central themes of unionism. Without them they are little different than the supposedly evil corporate maters bent on domination that union claim their employers are. If a union member cannot feel that his local representatives are actually there for him then that impersonal attitude is no different than uncaring masters of industry.

Yet, this strong-arm takeovers of smaller unions is the current rage among big unions. And it is being noticed.

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Big Unions Angle to Eliminate Small Ones”

00Publius Contributor - Barack Obama - Communism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Jobs - Liberals - Media Bias - News - Socialism - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

UPDATE on Unions a Hatin’ Unions

March 5, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

On February 25, we noted a story by Ben Smith of Politico about the newest troubles in the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and its President Andy Stern. Stern is attempting yet another hostile take over of yet another union in his attempt to gain iron-fisted rule of all unions in the country — no less than that is his ultimate goal.

It looks like Politico has another note in that battle.

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UPDATE on Unions a Hatin’ Unions”

00Publius Contributor - Barack Obama - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Jobs - Liberals - Media Bias - News - Security/Safety - Society/Culture - State Government - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Union Hires Off-Duty Cops as Street Thugs?

January 25, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) has been in a struggle with its sister union, the United Healthcare Workers (UHW), for quite some time over the eventual disbanding of the UHW and its absorption into the larger SEIU based in Washington D.C. Needless to say, the local folks of the UHW in California are not pleased to lose their local control of their own union affairs to the far off Washington offices of the SEIU.

The clash has been growing increasingly heated with UHW officials speaking out in dismay at the combined unions yearly convention in Puerto Rico last year after which both sides began to file lawsuits against each other for various offenses real and imagined. It’s a real donnybrook and this week the situation took one more step toward vitriol and turmoil.

Now it seems as if the SEIU has hired off-duty policemen to hang around outside the UHW’s Oakland offices photographing members coming and going and engaging in harassing comments and behavior.

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00Publius Contributor - Business - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Jobs - Media Bias - News - Society/Culture - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Union Leader Becomes Speaker of Conn. House

January 10, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

It was just announced this week that representative Chris Donovan (D, Meriden, CT) is the next Speaker of the Connecticut House of Representatives. What makes this a strike against good government is that Donovan is a former member of the Service Employees International Union. (Donovan info and further bio)

So, we have a former union leader (and former as only having left union leadership a short time ago) now stepping into the role of Speaker of the House where his former colleagues in the unions will be lobbying him for favorable legislation and other goodies.

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00Publius Contributor - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Media Bias - News - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

SEIU Prez DID Meet With Corrupt Ill. Governor

January 9, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

When States Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald announced the investigation of the pay-to-play scandal centered around Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich there came to light a meeting between Blago and a top officer of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). There was no indication of what the meeting was about and at fist no one knew who the SEIU representative was.

Later it came out that Blago met with Tom Balanoff, president of the Ill. chapter of the SEIU. This was blown off as of little importance ever since. However, now it has been learned that the president of the SEIU, Andy Stern himself, also met with Blago during the period of time that Blago was trying to sell Obama’s Senate seat.

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00Publius Contributor - Barack Obama - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Media Bias - News - President - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

ACORN Abusing the Elderly

January 8, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

As a result of more ACORN voter fraud, the AP is reporting another ACORN employee charged with fraud this time in Missouri.

Charges of Voter-Registration Fraud

A woman has been charged in federal court with submitting false information on Missouri voter-registration cards, including turning in cards from nursing home residents without their knowledge. Deidra Humphrey of East St. Louis, Ill., faces two felony counts of voter-registration fraud. U.S. Attorney Catherine Hanaway’s office said Humphrey, 44, worked for ACORN and the Missouri Progressive Vote Coalition from June to August of last year.

Remember, ACORN (Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now) is the extremist Marxist organization spawned by the work of Saul Alinsky and home to Barack Obama as well as union organizations everywhere.

This sort of fraud and anti-Americanism is what Obama weaned himself on.

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00Publius Contributor - Business - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Jobs - Media Bias - News - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

SEIU Again Accused of Fixing Vote

December 17, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

A pattern has emerged concerning the expansion of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and that is one of rushed contracts that supposedly “give too much away” to the employers. Of course, I won’t comment of the supposed “giving too much away” aspect, but one thing that I will comment on is the propensity of the SEIU to get their contracts by hook or by crook.

This plan is of a piece with SEIU President Andy Stern’s quest to make the SEIU the biggest union in the nation. His has been a plan to simply glom onto as many new contracts and new members as possible no matter what else is going on. His avarice to gain new members and for adding locals by gobbling up lesser unions is so strong that he hasn’t paid much attention to the specifics of the contracts being signed. This sort of slipshod, barreling forward despite the specifics of the actual contracts has angered many of his membership.

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00Publius Contributor - Business - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Jobs - Media Bias - News - Socialism - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

SEIU ‘Charity’ For Union Members Nets Nothing While Chief Makes Thousands

December 8, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

SEIU chief Alejandro Stephens not only benefited from some nasty double dipping with his undeserved salary, but he made thousands running a so-called charity that was to benefit union members, even though that “charity” ended up losing money netting nothing for the rank and file members. It’s a sweet deal if you can get it. It just might be, though, that Stephens has finally been caught with his hand in the till enough times that his criminal behavior is at an end.

Stephens used to be a union chief for the largest public employees local in California until the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) merged his local with another. As the consolidation occurred, the SEIU made a deal with Stephens. They would give him a $180,000 severance deal and he would step down. In the agreement he was also required to forego his compensation from Los Angeles Country coffers.

An aside before we continue. It is the perfect example of corruption and graft that the County of Los Angeles pays ANY union operative a salary that the union is supposed to be paying him. It simply does not matter at ALL what this person was doing for the county, there is NO reason the taxpayers should be paying his union salary. Now, if the county has some other job that he can hold at the same time, well that is another matter. But there is no fiscally responsible reason that a county should ever pay a union chief’s union salary. None. Not a one.

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00Publius Contributor - Budget - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Jobs - Media Bias - News - Socialism - Society/Culture - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Union’s Cure for State Budget Shortfall? Raise Taxes!

December 4, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Apparently, the Service Employees International Union is worried about the state of California’s budget. The SEIU, one of the nation’s biggest employee unions for state workers, would like Sacramento to know they have a cure for the millions in the red state budget.

Could it be that the union is going to offer cutbacks for its exorbitant union perks? Maybe a cut in their overly generous pension is in order? How about a cut in the pay scale that they enjoy, a scale that exceeds the private sector in nearly every way?

Well, don’t be ridiculous. The union is not offering to help the state with its budget. The union is demanding that the state raise taxes to keep them in the lifestyle to which they undeservedly have become accustomed.

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00Publius Contributor - Business - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Jobs - News - Socialism - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Protests Intensify Over Local Union Takeover By SEIU

November 30, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is still going ahead with its plans to perpetrate a hostile takeover of California local California Healthcare Workers union (UHW). Naturally, the local isn’t too happy to be forcefully dissolved and integrated into the SEIU national and losing their identity.

The UHW folks with their president Sal Roselli in the lead, are staging all sorts of protests and efforts to deny the SEIU its victory. Roselli has been a thorn in SEIU president Andy Stern’s side for quite a while now.

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00Publius Contributor - Business - Democrats/Leftists - Jobs - Media Bias - News - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Union Prez Banned From Union For Life!

November 29, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Oh, the humanities! It has been determined by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) that troubled local president Tyrone Freeman is to be banned for life from the union. Gosh, what a horrible fate, eh? One wonders if he can be reinstated with back pay after he dies. Bet he does!

The Service Employees International Union has imposed a lifetime ban on the former president of its largest California local and ordered him to repay more than $1 million that it says he misappropriated from the labor organization.

Let me suggest a more appropriate punishment: jail.

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00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Jobs - Media Bias - News - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Calif. Lawmakers Try SEIU Intervention

November 19, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Services Employee International Union (SEIU) is still making plans to initiate a hostile take over of its sister union in California, the United Healthcare Workers (UHW), by imposing a trusteeship upon them, ousting the UHW’s elected officers.

Now more than 240 lawmakers and community organizers in California have signed an open letter calling for the SEIU to jettison its hostile plans and to peaceably settle with the UHW.

The signers include some of the most prominent Democrats and liberal community organizers in the San Francisco Bay Area. But thus far the entreaty seems to be falling on deaf ears at the SEIU’s main office in Washington DC.

This entire dustup shows the ruthlessness with which SEIU President Andy Stern uses to control the SEIU. Stern imagines his reach will eventually go as far as to begin to control aspects of our government. This sort of powermongering should serve as a warning to anyone imagining that Andy Stern is a desirable addition to Obama’s governing council.

Stern is so headstrong that, to satisfy his need for personal power, he even seems to be willing to stick his finger in the eye of pols and activists on his own side.

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00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Elections - News - Socialism - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Stunning Defeat of SEIU by Puerto Rican Teachers Union

November 6, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) thought that it had things all wrapped up in Puerto Rico this year. This most powerful of American unions even held its annual convention on the sunny isle to showcase its power to overawe its intended prey. Apparently the small, local teachers union had other ideas, though.

The SEIU blew into Puerto Rico to gobble up the Federación de Maestros de Puerto Rico (FMPR), or in English, the Puerto Rican Federation of Teachers. The SEIU’s plan was to add that small union its ever growing list of unions it has gobbled up and quashed in the U.S. But, it looks like the locals weren’t as interested in being gobbled as the SEIU thought.

In a stunning upset, the members of the FMPR voted against allowing their union to become a part of the SEIU. On October 23, the final vote was announced and it revealed 14,675 teachers voting to join the SEIU and 18,123 against.

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00Publius Contributor - Business - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - News - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

California: 3rd Top SEIU Official Steps Down Ahead of Corruption

November 2, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Yet another Top Service Employees International Union (SEIU) chief has stepped down from her office at the troubled and corrupt California branch of the union this month according to the L.A.Times.

Annelle Grajeda is the third major SEIU leader to be forced to step down just ahead of major legal troubles over corruption. Grajeda’s boyfriend, Alejandro Stephens, has also been ordered to repay tens of thousands of dollars he received from the state council that Grajeda heads.

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00Publius Contributor - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - News - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Union Chief Forced Charity Employees to do Political Work

October 27, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

It the investigation into the corruption of Calif. SEIU head Tyrone Freeman keeps getting better… well, actually worse. Now it is being revealed that Service Employees International Union chief Freeman regularly forced employees of a charity he headed to do political hack work — a practice barred by law.

Six people who worked for either the union or the charity told The Times that Freeman, and others at the labor organization acting on his behalf, ordered the nonprofit’s staffers to join partisan get-out-the-vote drives and other campaign efforts during and after their regular hours. The former employees spoke on condition of anonymity because they feared retaliation and legal jeopardy.

The former workers say that employees were required to distribute fliers, walk precincts and staff phone banks for individual candidates and the Democratic ticket during the days leading up to primary and general elections.

Naturally, Freeman is giving that innocent look of “what, me?” He is denying all allegations despite the several workers and other witnesses saying the opposite.

Like the old saying goes, deny, deny, deny.

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00Publius Contributor - Business - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Media Bias - News - Socialism - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

Union Chief Forced Charity Employees to do Political Work

October 24, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

It the investigation into the corruption of Calif. SEIU head Tyrone Freeman keeps getting better… well, actually worse. Now it is being revealed that Service Employees International Union chief Freeman regularly forced employees of a charity he headed to do political hack work — a practice barred by law.

Six people who worked for either the union or the charity told The Times that Freeman, and others at the labor organization acting on his behalf, ordered the nonprofit’s staffers to join partisan get-out-the-vote drives and other campaign efforts during and after their regular hours. The former employees spoke on condition of anonymity because they feared retaliation and legal jeopardy.

The former workers say that employees were required to distribute fliers, walk precincts and staff phone banks for individual candidates and the Democratic ticket during the days leading up to primary and general elections.

Naturally, Freeman is giving that innocent look of “what, me?” He is denying all allegations despite the several workers and other witnesses saying the opposite.

Like the old saying goes, deny, deny, deny.

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00Publius Contributor - Business - Communism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Media Bias - News - Security/Safety - Socialism - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Even Old Time Socialist Says SEIU is Corrupt

September 30, 2008 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

Bill Fletcher is all about the wringing of hands over the corruption scandal of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and is afraid that it will get in the way of the upcoming presidential campaign. Fletcher, a long time union activist, pseudo “Africanist,” anti-American, and anti-Jew agitator, who is also a self described “socialist,”, and Barack Obama volunteer, was interviewed recently on the website of the extremist organization Democracy Now.

Little of what he had to say is of much surprise or interest nor is there any truth to it. It is filled with your run-of-the-mill psychotic hate for business and the U.S.A. like the content of all of his interviews. But, his lament about the troubled SEIU is interesting… maybe even heartening for those who wish to see the union curtailed.

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00Publius Contributor - Business - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Media Bias - News - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Union Patronage: Millions Paid to Family Members of Union Bigwigs

September 29, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The L.A. Times has really got it out for the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), I have to say. On September 26, the Times published another one of its investigations into the corrupt union activities, this time revealing that SEIU union bigwigs have funneled millions of dollars to little companies owned by family members for “services” being provided the union.

The investigation also showed that union chiefs are starting their own side companies only to get millions of dollars in “contracts” from the union.

It must be nice to be a chief directing budgets of millions upon millions of dollars right into your own pockets and that of you family members!

Here are just some of the shady “services” and payments union chiefs made to their wives, daughters, sons and other family members:

  • The SEIU and its political affiliate contributed $3 million to America Votes, an advocacy organization that was headed by Cecile Richards, wife of an aide to SEIU President Andy Stern, at the time the payments were made.
  • Melissa Mullinax was an SEIU political director when the political consulting firm she held a 20%-to-25% stake in, The Edison Group, was paid more than $1 million, including expenses. In addition, the SEIU has spent about $41,000 on a graphic design company owned by Mullinax’s husband, Jason Abbott.
  • The union paid about $520,000 to a consulting firm co-founded by Democratic Party and labor strategist Steve Rosenthal, the husband of another SEIU director, Eileen Kirlin. Rosenthal, a longtime friend of Stern, also headed America Coming Together, a get-out-the-vote nonprofit that received $23 million from the union.
  • Pamela Kieffer, wife of a third union director, David Kieffer, has received about $70,000 in consulting fees and in separate payments from a firm that provided recruitment services to SEIU.
  • In addition, the SEIU and an associated nonprofit paid roughly $210,000 in consulting fees over four years to Don Stillman, husband of the union’s outside legal counsel, Judith Scott. Stillman helped edit a 2006 book written by Stern, a publication that has generated controversy because of how the union president profited from it.

It looks like the best way to become a millionaire these days is to marry a union chief of the SEIU!

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00Publius Contributor - Business - Democrats/Leftists - Media Bias - News - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

SEIU Formally Removes Embattled Freeman

September 23, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) has made its first determinations in the Tyrone Freeman spending and influence peddling scandal that plagued a California Local. Freeman has been removed from the SEIU payrolls.

The L.A. Times launched a major investigation revealing the fraud and misuse of funds tied to Freeman and his close associates that we’ve discussed at length here on the blog. But, the SEIU report had a few new allegations, too.

Most of the union’s findings mirror The Times’ disclosures. But an SEIU report contains new allegations that Freeman spent dues-payers’ funds on his 2006 wedding and a Santa Barbara resort, and improperly drew payments from an affiliated local and a housing corporation.

The nine-page report, from union trustee John Ronches to SEIU Secretary-Treasurer Anna Burger, spells out seven charges accusing Freeman of violating the union’s corruption statutes.

The SEIU report alleges that Freeman’s dealings with the housing firm and worker-training charity amounted to a “misuse of the funds of these nonprofit corporations by his disregard for the specific nonprofit missions for which they were created.”

The L.A.Times reports that an unnamed union official says that more charges will be forthcoming.

What gets lost so easily in this discussion of Freeman’s corruption is that he was a protege of SEIU president Andy Stern. Freeman was the sort of man that Stern wanted as a leader. It shows the sort of person that Stern takes under his wing causing worry about his other proteges.

At least, though, this one corrupt union thug is getting his just deserts.

Continue reading “SEIU Formally Removes Embattled Freeman”

00Publius Contributor - Business - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Media Bias - News - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

CA House to Investigate SEIU Spending Scandal

September 20, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

To head off claims by California Republicans that California State House Democrats are covering up for the fraud involved in a Service Employees International Union (SEIU) spending and influence peddling scandal, it was announced that a criminal investigation is going forward against the union.

One wonders just how hard the Democrat controlled House will pursue the matter, though?

The Education and Labor Committee’s top-ranked Republican, Rep. Howard “Buck” McKeon (R-Santa Clarita), suggested last week that the congressional examination of an SEIU local in Los Angeles had stalled because the union is a key ally of the Democratic Party.

The committee chairman responsible for the investigation is a recipient of $10,000 in campaign donations from the SEIU. George Miller (D- Martinez) said that the investigation was going forward but that his panel would “avoid interfering with the efforts of federal law enforcement officials.”

The emergence of this spending and influence peddling scandal has already forced several SEIU leaders to step down in the face of pressure. Hundreds of thousands of dollars of union funds were spent on lavish diners and gifts as well as for “services” performed by companies owned by union leader’s family members.

This scandal threatens to taint SEIU leaders in Washington D.C., as well as California and has also reached into Michigan already. SEIU president Andy Stern was a close associate and backer of Tyrone Freeman, the California Local leader that had to step down as a result of these troubles.

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00Publius Contributor - Business - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Media Bias - News - Security/Safety - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Union’s Troubles Deepen: Child-Porn Case Revealed

September 14, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The troubled Service Employee International Union (SEIU) in California is seeing yet another explosion of negative publicity this week as one of its Local chiefs is arrested for possessing child pornography. The Sacramento Bee is reporting Local 1000 District Labor Council 784 Jaime E. Feliciano, 49, was arrested Tuesday, September 9.

Authorities on Tuesday arrested the president of a state workers union local on suspicion of possessing child pornography and violating his probation as a sex offender.

Sacramento Country Sheriff’s Dept. also reports that they had received a tip that Feliciano had recently had inappropriate contact with a juvenile.

The Bee’s State Worker Blog had a salient point: how does a convicted pedophile become a union chief? The State Worker Blog asked Jim Zamora of the SEIU what happened?

We are all shocked and disgusted by these charges. No one in SEIU leadership knew that he was a convicted sex offender prior to the media reports of his arrest.

Apparently, the SEIU is now taking steps to get rid of the pedophile chief.

I find it interesting, though, that a union as powerful and large as the SEIU didn’t know that their Local’s leader was a convicted sex offender.

Continue reading “Union’s Troubles Deepen: Child-Porn Case Revealed”

00Publius Contributor - Business - Democrats/Leftists - Media Bias - News - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Labor Unrest, Ready to Fight… Itself

September 13, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Andy Stern, president of the Service Employee International Union (SEIU), has an ambitious plan for the future. He imagines the SEIU as the voice of all working Americans, not just that of his union. He feels the SEIU should and will lead the nation in employment policy, essentially claiming a place at the table of power where legally only legislators should sit. In pursuit of this, Stern has earmarked an unprecedented $85 million dollars of his members’ money to go to elect Democrats to Congress and the White House. And, apparently only one thing stands in his way is…

… his own membership.

We have here on the blog been following the endemic corruption scandal engulfing the SEIU offices in California, all of it tired to operatives intimate with and appointed by Andy Stern. In response to these scandals, Stern has begun to make a show of pretending at a clean up. ( see here, here, here, here, and here)

Continue reading “Labor Unrest, Ready to Fight… Itself”

00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Media Bias - News - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Union Democracy Group Says SEIU’s New ‘Ethics Commission’ a Scam

September 12, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

For those of you following the several recent L.A.Times stories ( see here, here, here and here), the Service Employee International Union (SEIU) has been embroiled in scandal over misuse of funds in California and Michigan. Several SEIU head operatives have vacated their positions of power and all are tied to SEIU president Andy Stern.

Recently Stern announced that the SEIU was setting up an internal ethics commission to look into allegations of fraud and abuse of funds. But, this sham effort to root out corruption is so transparent that even other pro-union groups are skeptical that Stern is seriously trying to stamp out corruption.

The Association for Union Democracy issued a press release scolding Stern for his obvious attempt to cover up, rather than root out, corruption in the SEIU.

Continue reading “Union Democracy Group Says SEIU’s New ‘Ethics Commission’ a Scam”