Tag: SEIU

Top Contender to Take over Massive Union Has Repeatedly Been Accused of Union Busting

Pennsylvania Daily Star Staff
April Verrett

The presumptive heir to the position of president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) has had employees under her command complain of union-busting tactics and retaliation, according to a report from the Center for Union Facts.

April Verrett, the current secretary treasurer of the SEIU and the former president of SEIU Local 2015, is a top contender to replace the current outgoing president, Mary Kay Henry, according to the report. In both positions, Verrett was reportedly part of the management that faced off with SEIU employees, who had organized separately from the SEIU, about working conditions and contract negotiations.

Read More

Commentary: Public Employees Opt Out of Their Union as Soon as They Know They Can

Admin

A new media campaign unveiled last month in Philadelphia and New Jersey is providing empirical evidence of what’s been obvious anecdotally all along — it isn’t loyalty that keeps so many public employees ensnared in a labor union five years after the U.S. Supreme Court banned mandatory membership and dues.

It’s fear and lack of information.

Read More

Commentary: SEIU Resorts to More Influence Peddling in Pittsburgh

RealClearWire

Two years ago, hell-bent on getting its hooks into the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) –  the largest private workforce in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania –  SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania effectively bought the Pittsburgh mayor’s office.

In November, the union intends to pay more than twice as much to consolidate its monopoly over the region’s chief executives by adding the Allegheny County executive’s office to its collection. And it’s employing the same winning strategy to do so: spending bucketloads of someone else’s money.

Read More

Democrats Maintain Control of Pennsylvania House With Boyd’s Win

Bradley Vasoli

Democrat Heather Boyd defeated Republican Katie Ford in a Delaware County-based special election on Tuesday to occupy the seat recently vacated by Democratic Pennsylvania state Representative Mike Zabel. 

Democrats held a one-seat majority in the chamber since the new legislative session began last autumn, but Zabel jeopardized his party’s hold on the House when he resigned in response to allegations he made untoward sexual advances toward multiple women.

Read More

Gov. Shapiro’s Pennsylvania Budget Proposal Rewards Union Donors

Bradley Vasoli

Unions donated copiously to Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro (D) during last year’s gubernatorial campaign and they’ll reap a handsome reward if the legislature approves a particular item in Shapiro’s proposed budget. 

The Fiscal Year 2023-24 spending plan includes a $1,274,000 initiative to increase by one-third the number of labor law compliance investigators at the commonwealth’s Department of Labor and Industry. The text of Shapiro’s proposal expresses concern that more labor cases need to be probed and that businesses need more education on workers’ right to organize. 

Read More

Pennsylvania House Republicans, Union Want Zabel to Resign over Harassment Allegations

Bradley Vasoli

Pennsylvania House Republicans and a union representing many social-service workers are calling on state Representative Mike Zabel (D-Drexel Hill) to resign over allegations he sexually harassed one of that union’s lobbyists. 

Andi Perez, the political director of the Pennsylvania and Delaware Division of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), is accusing Zabel of inappropriately touching her and not immediately relenting after she backed away from him. 

Read More

Pennsylvania Republican House Leaders Discuss Speaker’s Stalling Reconvening of Session, Failure to Investigate Harassment

Bradley Vasoli

Pennsylvania state House Republicans on Monday excoriated their Democratic counterparts for failing to reconvene and failing to start investigating sexual-harassment allegations against a Democratic House member. 

Republicans have blasted Speaker Mark Rozzi (D-Temple) for dragging out the process of finalizing operating rules and bringing the House of Representatives back into session. The speaker, whose party holds a majority of seats, initially said he would only agree to allow legislation to be considered once the House voted on a measure allowing adults victims of sexual abuse to sue their alleged predators despite the statute of limitations. The House passed such legislation last week. 

Read More

Major Government Unions Lose over 200K Members

The Center Square

The top four public labor unions in the U.S. lost hundreds of thousands of members since a 2018 Supreme Court case that ruled government employees could not be forced to pay a union to keep their job, a new report shows that.

The Commonwealth Foundation released the report, which found that the top four public labor unions – AFT, AFSCME, NEA, and SEIU – lost nearly 219,000 members altogether since the Janus v. AFSCME ruling.

Read More

Lawmakers Propose Enhanced Enforcement of E-Verify in Pennsylvania

Bradley Vasoli

Two Pennsylvania state lawmakers indicated this week they’re authoring legislation to enhance the effectiveness of a web-based system used to confirm workers’ legal U.S. residency.

In 1996, the federal government established the E-Verify system as a voluntary five-state pilot program to ease employers’ ability to check the immigration statuses of their new hires. It was expanded for use in all 50 states in 2003 and is administered by the Department of Homeland Security.

Read More