Tyrone Freeman Steps Down
So after a stream of corruption reports - cigar clubs, golf tournaments, nepotism, rigged elections - Local 6434 president Tyrone Freeman resigned Wednesday night. Over the last two weeks, union members and the local community stepped up to say that a union where members are silenced and shut out is not a union at all, and that it is never ok to live like a millionaire by stealing from poor people. (Most 6434 members remain poor, despite having a "powerful" union.)
SEIU international, meanwhile, tried to tell everyone that it wasn't a big deal. Today, at last it seems they've gotten the message that everyone else knows it is.
But Freeman didn't come from nowhere. He was appointed by Andy Stern - for the third time. Now it seems like Stern knew about Freeman's corruption as far back as 2002 and deliberately acted to cover it up. And there are many other locals where Stern has installed unaccountable appointees, sometimes ignoring reports that they were out for personal gain. Earlier today we reported on the situation at Local 1985, the trusteed local that has essentially been gifted to NAGE and Stern appointee David Holway (who makes a quarter of a million dollars a year and used to have a second job heading a thoroughbred breeders association).
Reports are also emerging about decisions made and staff hired for the personal gain or control of appointed leaders at several of the consolidated California locals. That's in addition to the money wasted on fighting to keep rank and file members out of delegate and officer slots.
So Stern's message to us is clear - he cares more about expanding control for himself and an ever shrinking inner circle than he does about building real power for working people, creating solid organizations, coming through on SEIU's political pledges for the fall, or even the perception of our union and our movement as real, democratic, valuable and clean. He will only act when there is no other option, and he will never apologize.
Our message to him is clear too: give us our union back.
All SEIU members must - and will - have their union back from the appointees and the spin doctors and the serial trustees. First, right away, Local 6434 members must have their union back. Their trust has been abused, their dues have been stolen, and they've fallen far behind their counterparts in other locals. Freeman's "family business" caught the headlines, but any appointed leader is unacceptable - members must have real control of their organization.
Stern may now try to say there's a clean slate at 6434, and everything is going to be ok. But it will not be ok until we all have real control of our union again.
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<http://www.reformseiu.org/2008/08/nage-way-whats-up-with-local-1985.html
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"The NAGE Way" - What's up with Local 1985?
Local 1985 member Tony Kin (pictured) reports on SEIU’s messy trusteeship that’s left their local in the hands of a distant business- model union. Why have members who were excited about reforming their local with SEIU’s support heard almost nothing from the international and nothing good from NAGE? Aren’t trusteeships supposed to bring corrupt locals out into the light and create modern, organizing unions? Members' patience is wearing thin!
SEIU Local 1985 is a statewide public services local in Georgia that includes Head Start, state, county, and municipal government employees. On March 9, 2007 the local was placed in emergency trusteeship after the international determined that under President Ralph Williams there were “serious issues at the Local concerning inadequate financial controls relating to inadequately documented expenditures, salaries, vacation pay, buyouts, travel, utilities and other office expenses.”
The two trustees appointed by President Stern were Neneki Lee and Joseph Buckley, and members were informed that they would be taking over the day to day operations of the local. The impression felt by most of us was that the trustees would restore financial accountability and trust in the union by consulting and working closely with rank and file members. Eventually, the local would be back on its feet, and we could then look forward to writing new bylaws and holding elections. But that’s not exactly what happened...
The trustees were basically AWOL right from the beginning. Ms. Lee was seldom in Atlanta to run the local office and it’s doubtful that Mr. Buckley ever came here at all. Neither one has been seen or heard from since last August, which has been a great source of frustration for members. Instead, the international decided to bring in the staff from the Atlanta region of the National Association of Government Employees (NAGE), which is SEIU Local 5000. NAGE is a nationwide local based in Massachusetts that represents public employees in 41 states, but can only claim about 46,000 members. Despite this, the president of NAGE, David Holway (left), earns more in total annual compensation than President Stern, and until two years ago held a second job earning over $100,000 a year as executive director of the Massachusetts Thoroughbred Breeders Association.
NAGE in Atlanta almost exclusively represents law enforcement personnel through the International Brotherhood of Police Officers (IBPO). Why the international thought it would be a good fit to have this organization represent public workers is anybody’s guess. The vast majority of members in Local 1985 until recently didn’t even know that NAGE existed. The results, as expected, have been nothing short of disastrous. Marc Lawson, the executive director, has managed to alienate nearly the entire 1985 membership with his proclamations that SEIU no longer exists in Georgia and insistence that everything is now to be done “The NAGE Way,” which is an outdated business union model that downplays organizing and member democracy at the state level. If this model were so great, then surely NAGE would have more than 46,000 members across the country—that’s nearly 10,000 members less than the recently affiliated State Employees Association of North Carolina.
When members complain, Mr. Lawson says that NAGE is just fulfilling a servicing agreement and doesn’t have the reigns of power. But by redrawing Local 1985 jurisdictions into NAGE locals and mailing out letters addressed to “NAGE/SEIU” members, NAGE is certainly acting like it does. The complaints are not just against Mr. Lawson and NAGE, however. Members are upset and feel disrespected that this so-called ‘transition’ is happening without any explanation or communication from the international. We have not stuck with the union and been patient these past fourteen months just to see our local handed over to an affiliate, whose motives are questionable, without a say in the matter. How can the international on the one hand proclaim its faith in “Justice for All” and on the other give its tacit consent to an illegitimate, undemocratic takeover by an organization that is the embodiment of the “Just Us” philosophy?
This is why we are encouraging Local 1985 members to read our letter demanding member control of our union and the right to chose our leadership, get in touch with us to sign on to it, and join us in taking back our union.
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<http://www.reformseiu.org/2008/08/we-want-our-union-back-letter-from.html
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May 20, 2008
Andrew L. Stern, International President, SEIU, CTW, CLC 1800 Massachusetts Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20036
Dear President Stern,
We want our union back.
We want the right to elect our own president and executive board, democratically organize and run the local with transparency, develop and implement winning organizing strategies, and create a new activist culture that will reestablish Local 1985 as the leading voice for working families in Georgia.
This is the future we thought would emerge from the trusteeship. What we’ve experienced instead, though, is a year’s worth of almost nonexistent communication, neglect, and uncertainty regarding the local’s direction. You appointed a trustee, Ms. Lee, who was already overcommitted and thus unable to spend any significant time in Atlanta, let alone run the day to day operations of the local as advertised. Her one official communication with the membership was an August 2007 letter announcing a trial servicing agreement with NAGE. We have not heard from her since, and evidently the initial 90 day trial period has been extended indefinitely.
Now NAGE is telling us that we’re in a “transition” to becoming a NAGE local. They’ve carved out new jurisdictions, announced upcoming elections, and told us that henceforth things are to be done the “NAGE Way”—all the while the majority of our members, who have never even heard of NAGE, have been kept in the dark by the international and the trustees. This is unacceptable.
The men and women of Local 1985 are proud to be SEIU members and have an affinity for the history and traditions of this local dating back to its founding. NAGE, however, is determined to destroy the institutional memory of 1985 in order to remake the local in its own image. Mr. Lawson, an unelected executive director, seems particularly obsessed in his insistence that we see ourselves as NAGE members and that SEIU meetings are now NAGE meetings. But more important than the name of an organization is what it stands for. NAGE has a sharply different outlook and practice from SEIU that members do not accept. We do not see our union as a business, nor do we believe that NAGE’s service model philosophy, that minimizes the importance of organizing and mobilizing members, will help our local grow. But NAGE is committed to shoving this program down our throats, and anyone who questions or disagrees is absurdly accused of “holding up progress” or “holding the membership hostage.” We were not the cause of the local being trusteed and we were not the ones who asked NAGE to move into our office. It’s our local, and we as dues paying members are the ones who should decide what direction it moves in and who represents us.
President Stern, are you going to allow a local that strongly identifies with SEIU to be sucked into an affiliate that adamantly doesn’t, without a debate or vote? Is that “Justice for All”?
SEIU has self-governing, statewide locals in North Carolina, Tennessee, and Florida. Why should Georgia be any different? What sense does it make to have a local president that is 1,000 miles away in Massachusetts? Why is this “transition” being imposed on us without our consent? We need answers to these questions and we’re not getting any. Members throughout the state are very disillusioned and dispirited with the way this process has played out, and as a result our numbers continue to shrink. Those of us who have remained in the union have been sitting in the dark for over a year now, and it’s time we heard directly from the international on why SEIU has allowed this situation to go from bad to worse. We need to hear from someone. Furthermore, we do not want to be forced into a merger with NAGE. Article 14, Section 4 of the SEIU Constitution clearly states: “Such merger or consolidation of existing Local Unions shall be conditioned upon the consent of the Local Unions.”
We have been patient long enough. If SEIU values us as members and is truly committed to organizing the South, then the international must heed the voices of the members of Local 1985 and support our right to run our own local and control our own destiny.
Sincerely,
The members of Service Employees International Union Local 1985