SEIU Sends Investigators to another SoCal local

The Purple People Eating union, otherwise known as the Service Employee International Union, after suffering a crushing defeat last week at the hands of the NUHW (a new union formed by disgruntled SEIU activists), has sent investigators to investigate one of its locals in San Diego.

From the San Diego Union-Tribune:

International leaders of the union representing thousands of county government workers have arrived in San Diego to help sort out a dispute over management of the local group.


Andrew Stern, the international president of Service Employees International Union, appointed two personal representatives to investigate whether the local chapter wrongly paid former president Sharon-Frances Moore a six-figure severance and hired her as a consultant.


Local union officials said they welcome the investigation and help finding a new president. Moore cited personal reasons in resigning this month as president of SEIU Local 221.


Last week, the local’s executive board named three members to manage the union on a day-to-day basis until a successor can be named, but some union members complained that the action violated the organization’s rules.


In a Jan. 22 letter to local union officials from his Washington, D.C., headquarters, Stern said he was looking into the complaints and advised them to withhold any payments to Moore.


“I have directed my representatives to report to me within 30 days on the situation in Local 221,” he wrote. “In the meantime, I counsel the Local 221 officers and executive board not to execute or implement the challenged payments or contract at this time.”


Local 221 spokeswoman Melinda Battenberg said decisions regarding the severance and consulting agreement are internal union business that she cannot discuss publicly.


Specifically, rank-and-file members complained about a $107,000 severance package awarded to Moore and objected that she will keep working for the union as a consultant. Several people wrote to Stern to demand an investigation.

Read the rest here:

For more on the SEIU, go here, here, here and here.

We're pre-emptively tagging this for the Union Corruption Corner (just in case).

Another Union Boss Charged With Having Sticky Fingers

Sid Mannetti, former president of AFGE Local 1170 stole about $50,000, according to the Feds.

Federal prosecutors have charged a former Seattle union official with one count of embezzlement.

They say Sid Mannetti took more than $50,000 while he was president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 1170 from 2006 to 2008. The union represents about 140 workers at Pacific Medical Centers in the Seattle area.

Charging papers filed in U.S. District Court on Monday say he used the union's credit card and bank account to pay for personal expenses.

Neither the local nor Mannetti's attorney, Dennis Carroll, immediately returned calls seeking comment.

For more on union indictments go here.

The Largest Union Theft in History

In yet another story for the Union Corruption Corner, the NYC Sandhogs, members of the Laborers International Union of North America (LIUNA) are missing $42 million from their union pensions.  Yet, the mainstream media (MSM) has barely covered this story and its side story of how vulnerable union pensions are to corruption.

As reported on David Horowtiz's NewsReal:

While the mainstream media swarmed all over Bernie Madoff, AIG and corporate billionaires, the gentlemen of the press, who are so proud of fighting for the Little Guy, were mostly out to an expense-account lunch when Melissa King allegedly made off with $42 million rightfully belonging to members of the Laborers International Union of North American (LIUNA).

In what is being called the largest union embezzlement in American history, the LIUNA Local 147 (New York) office administration was apparently unsatisfied with her meager $500,000 a year paycheck.

While the claim of queen-sized Ms. King's alleged theft of $42 million is debatable (how much did mob bosses get in "loans" from union bosses?), we'll go with it.

Rated 'M' (for Mature Audiences Only): The Teamsters, a Tart & a Pocketful of Meth...

This sordid story is rated 'M' (for mature audiences only):

A longtime Teamsters union member who drives a vehicle on the "Lost" television production here pleaded guilty last week to a felony drug possession offense as well as to a misdemeanor charge of soliciting sex from an undercover police officer.

Unfortunately, it only gets better from there...

Reynold Kamekona, 53, was arrested the evening of Oct. 21 on Kukui Street after he offered to pay the female officer $50 for oral sex, according to police reports. A plastic bag of crystal methamphetamine was found in his pocket.


He pleaded guilty to third-degree possession of a dangerous drug and the soliciting charge before Circuit Judge Richard Pollack, who set sentencing for March 17.

Two hours after Kamekona entered his plea, Teamsters film and television driver Philip Asiata, who has worked for the "Lost" series part time, appeared before Circuit Judge Dexter Del Rosario to answer drug charges pending against him.

Asiata, who has a criminal record of more than 125 arrests and 52 convictions, pleaded not guilty.

What a racket...

Teamsters drivers hired for film, television and commercial productions are well-paid, earning as much as $3,000 a week. They are hired based on an internal union seniority grouping system that gives producers little say in employment matters.Men with felony records have been working as movie and television drivers in Hawai'i since the 1960s, when the Teamsters "production unit" was first formed by labor patriarch Arthur Rutledge.

Rutledge defended the employment of felons in the unit, saying he was helping the men rehabilitate themselves.

In the Asiata case, Circuit Judge Dexter Del Rosario found Asiata mentally incompetent for trial and sent him to Hawai'i State Hospital for treatment and evaluation.

An expert who examined Asiata, Dr. Martin Blinder, said in a report to Pollack that Asiata is unfit for trial due to "polysubstance abuse" and an organic brain injury suffered in 1995.

Blinder said Asiata told him that "before the accident, I was a heroin addict and used crack, but I don't do drugs any more. I'm a Teamster."

No, you really just can't make this stuff up.

Several men identified by law enforcement here as organized-crime figures have worked as drivers for film productions in the past, most notably confessed professional hit man Ronald K. Ching, who was a driver on the "Magnum P.I." television series while simultaneously feeding a $1,000-a-day heroin habit, according to court records.

Read the rest here.

SEIU's 2009 Bloopers

LaborUnionReport has posted a compilation of SEIU bloopers from 2009, originally posted in two-parts by Stern Burger with Fries (a blog written by former SEIU members).

It's well worth the read, especially if you're familiar with the SEIU's Civil War with its own members.

Read the compiled list of SEIU Top 10 Bloopers here.

Union Boss Steals Money, Wins Lottery...Then Goes to Jail

A union boss steals money from his union, wins the lottery, then goes to jail...

A federal judge in Cedar Rapids has handed down a 21-month prison sentence to a man who embezzled more than $52,000 from a labor union and later won $30,000 in the Iowa State Lottery.

In passing sentence Friday U.S. District Court Chief Judge Linda Reade also ordered 40-year-old Thomas Jon Witham of Mason City to reimburse the union.

Witham pleaded guilty in September to one count of embezzlement from a labor union.

Prosecutors say the embezzlement occurred between 2002 and 2008, and noted that Witham did not attempt to repay any of the money even after he won the lottery.

Tough luck, Tom, you've made it to the Union Corruption Corner

Another Union Boss Busted for Embezzlement

According to the Associated Press, another union boss has been busted for embezzling from his union.

The former head of a union representing mailroom employees of New York-based newspapers has been charged with embezzling more than $200,000.

Wayne Mitchell was expected to surrender Friday to federal authorities in Manhattan.

Court papers accused Mitchell of embezzling the money from the Communication Workers of America Union, otherwise known as New York Mailers Union No. 6, from 2004 to 2008. The union represents mailroom employees of The New York Times, the New York Post and the Daily News, among others.

The New York Post adds:

In the complaint against Mitchell, authorities said the union boss admitted to Department of Labor investigators that he received $250,000 in unauthorized payroll checks between Oct. 1, 2004, and May 30, 2008, and that he "embezzled additional union monies by falsely claiming personal expenses as union-related bills."

Another case for the Union Corruption Corner.