Last week, we discussed strategies unions use to bypass the NLRB and how a participant in those tactics, the SEIU, frequently lobbies to codify issues that would otherwise be part of collective bargaining. Additionally, it’s worth recalling the recent “remarriage” of SEIU and the AFL-CIO after a 20-year Big Labor divorce, through which AFL-CIO membership reportedly climbed from 12.5 to 14.5 million.
That was an effort to circle wagons ahead of Trump 2.0. Although it’s challenging to fault self-preservation tactics – we all want to survive, this next trio of developments shows how SEIU’s healthcare arm and its heavy-handed political approach are going hand-in-hand again, even while corruption rises elsewhere within the union.
SEIU Healthcare PA announced a labor-industry partnership with the Pennsylvania Health Care Association. In doing so, SEIU Healthcare PA will leverage its status as the state’s largest healthcare workers’ union to lobby for increased nursing home funds. The two organizations are now pushing for state lawmakers to approve a bill that would dedicate $140 million in new funding for long-term care.
On its face, this cause is worthy since dozens of nursing home closures have plagued PA in the past five years. This problem is projected to worsen due to a growing older adult population and a dire nursing shortage during and after the pandemic. Reportedly, wages for the state’s long-term staffers rank among the lowest in the nation, so the increased funding is presumed to be a win-win for both workers and patients.
However, the union has a vested (dues) interest in those millions of dollars, which is undeniably important considering the next topic.
A union officer’s hand in the cookie jar: Over the weekend, 1199SEIU Healthcare Workers East members voted in a new president, Yvonne Armstrong. In the process, the local ousted George Gresham after a Politico investigative report detailing a House committee investigation into “numerous troubling allegations” of Gresham treating union dues like an “unlimited piggy bank” and “personal slush fund.”
Those accusations were headed up by House Committee on Education and Workforce Chairman Tim Walberg (R-MI), and although Gresham denied misusing union funds, it’s not difficult to see why scrutiny was afoot. Hundreds of thousands of dollars on salaries on hotels for Gresham’s relatives, lavish holiday parties complete with celebrity DJs and massive salaries for political activists who do not work for the union? C’mon. And that was in addition to Gresham’s $300,000 annual salary.
And speaking of 1199SEIU: The healthcare worker representing local has endorsed former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo during his campaign for NYC mayor. In doing so, the local praised the disgraced politician for supporting “the Fight for $15” and his “record of delivering for healthcare workers, their patients and communities.” Curiously, the local appears to be all right with looking past Cuomo’s role in a devastating nursing home fiasco related to COVID-19 before his resignation. Then again, Cuomo once declared, “I would not have been governor if it wasn’t for 1199,” so maybe neither the politician nor the union cares how bizarre this endorsement looks. Is it business as usual for the SEIU? Perhaps.
