Yesterday the New York Times ran a story on the SEIU’s Andy Stern establishing an ethics commission to set high ethics standards for the SEIU. The article notes that this comes on the heels of a number of high profile ethics breaches by leaders of several huge SEIU locals including:
- President of a 77,000 member L.A. county employee local stepped aside amid accusations she funneled thousands of dollars to a boyfriend;
- Another L.A. local that represents 155,000 home-care workers was placed into trusteeship after the discovery of payments totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars to companies run by family and friends of the local’s president;
- The president of Michigan’s 55,000 member health care local stepped down after being accused of financial misappropriation;
- A 130,000 member local in Northern California is also headed for trusteeship over accusations of financial wrongdoing.
I give Andy Stern a lot of credit for taking this action (even though it tends to feed the anti-democratic, centralization of his union). Seriously. I have written many times before that if unions hope to stay relevant to workers today they have to shake their (well-earned) reputation as being run by thugs, mobsters and crooks.
Union corruption is a rampant problem and unions – including the SEIU – continue to struggle with it. Until they get a handle on it they’ll have a hard time getting traction no matter what the rules for organizing.
By the way, if Stern is looking to round out his ethics panel I know someone who is pretty well-versed in union corruption tactics – and has some ideas about how to correct them.
