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September 1, 2008Posted in: Fresh Juice, labor
What a way to screw up Labor Day! “The Service Employees International Union’s top California officer has taken a leave of absence, and her former boyfriend has been ordered to return tens of thousands of dollars he received from the state council and Los Angeles local that she heads,” according to the L.A. Times.
But wait, there’s more:
Annelle Grajeda is the third major SEIU leader to step aside following reports in The Times about the union’s financial practices. The SEIU acknowledged Saturday that Grajeda was on leave as president of the L.A. local and the union’s state council, and as an executive vice president of the national organization, because of allegations that she was improperly involved in the payments.
The union did not provide any details of Grajeda’s purported role in the payment to the former boyfriend, Alejandro Stephens. The SEIU said it has demanded that Stephens, who was a longtime president of the Los Angeles chapter before it merged with several others, return the money.
An internal complaint filed Aug. 14 also accuses Stephens of remaining on the Los Angeles County payroll while drawing a salary from the union. Attempts to reach Stephens were unsuccessful.
Previous Times reports have focused on the SEIU’s largest California chapter, the United Long-Term Care Workers. The head of that local, Tyrone Freeman, has stepped aside because of the resulting investigations into its finances.
His former chief of state, Rickman Jackson, who is now president of SEIU’s biggest Michigan chapter, also has taken a leave because of the probe.
The Times has reported that small companies run by Freeman’s wife and mother-in-law got about $405,000 in 2006 and 2007 from the union and a charity he founded, among other expenditures. Freeman has denied any wrongdoing.
A housing corporation Freeman helped found used the address of a Bell Gardens home that property records show is owned by Jackson. Union and housing corporation officials have declined to say whether Jackson was paid for any use of his residence. Jackson has said in e-mails that he would have no comment on the matter.
Organized labor still has a role to play in this country, but this kind of systemic corruption is a real problem – and it needs to stop! However when so many in the SEIU leadership ranks are corrupt, how can the workers prevail? And how will this affect the SEIU’s political efforts, going into the November election?
I’m glad some of the bad guys have been caught, but I hope they won’t be replaced by another generation of corrupt labor bosses. Is there any hope for the members of the SEIU?
Unfortunately, a pattern of corruption in organized labor often appears. Sad.
I think this is a great story about how corruption within a labor union cannot succeed. I think it’s an excellent story about how the system is set up to prevent, or stop and restore any criminal wrongdoing within this nation’s labor movement. America systematically monitors many aspects of our nation’s labor movement and watches over the dues dollars of our nation’s union members. This is why a crook who has figured out how to ‘game’ the system is such a news story, and thankfully a rare story at that.