SEIU Watch

by | Jan 6, 2012 | Labor Relations Ink

It appears a rebellion is gaining serious traction against SEIU in Michigan with technicians at Muskegon’s Hackley Hospital voting 65 to 9 this week to dump SEIU for archrival NUHW.  This latest NUHW decert win is the second of two in six months, both against SEIU Healthcare-MI, and the first forays against SEIU for Sal Roselli’s upstart union outside of California. Hackley is a particularly bitter pill for local president and SEIU grand dame Marge Faville to swallow as she is a Muskegon native who began her union career repping Hackley before turning the turf over to her (clearly ill-equipped) daughter.  (Faville also keeps two other close relatives on the local’s payroll.) Hackley workers were fed up with pitifully poor service from the Detroit-based local, once the home local of SEIU International president Mary Kay Henry, a close personal friend of Faville.  The local has a long history of nepotism, scandal, corruption and lack of service.  And there seems little excuse for the local’s current understaffing and poor performance, as it collects over $12M/year in dues, half from 40,000 independent homecare providers who have no real contract to service and receive no union representation. Faville is just the last in a string of corrupt presidents of the Michigan local stretching back for many decades.  She took over the reins in 2008 when disgraced Stern appointee Rickman Jackson was removed from office by the International for double-dipping tens of thousands in housing reimbursements from both the Michigan local and California Local 434B. Local 434B is the now defunct Los Angeles homecare local once led by Jackson’s mentor Tyrone Freeman.  Sources are reporting that Freeman is now the subject of a secret Department of Justice investigation.  Freeman was the focus of a headline grabbing Los Angeles Times investigative series that uncovered a massive corruption scandal with Freeman accused of stealing well over $1M in dues collected from indigent homecare workers.  SEIU removed Freeman and has been half-heartedly pursuing repayment of the stolen funds through a civil lawsuit against Freeman.  The Justice Department has asked a Superior Court judge to intervene in the SEIU’s lawsuit so the feds could prepare criminal proceedings against Freeman.

INK Newsletter

APPROACHABILITY MINUTE

GET OUR RETENTION TOOLKIT

PUBLICATIONS

Archives

Categories