SERVICE EMPLOYEES (SEIU)
Missouri Local Rigged Election, says DOL
U.S. Dep't of Labor filed suit Jan. 4 to overturn the Jul. 1998 election
of Service Employees Int'l Union Local 50 in St. Louis because bosses allegedly
rigged the nominations. DOL charges that SEIU violated federal labor laws
by failing to provide timely and adequate notice of nominations, using
an unreasonable nomination procedure, refusing to provide information to
a challenger and failing to assure a fair election. Local 50 president
Don Rudd said DOL asked Local 50 to agree to a new election, but Rudd refused
because DOL sought to change the nomination process. Rudd said Local 50's
bylaws "were all approved by our international union." But SEIU said the
bylaws weren't in question; rather their application by Local 50 was.
Ex-Local 50 president Bill Stodghill, a past and possibly future adversary of Rudd, called it "a terrible day for labor when Local 50...would adopt undemocratic procedures. Anytime the government intervenes and takes supervision over a union's electoral process, it implies they have no faith in the current leadership in terms of running a democratic election." But Stodghill has a tainted past as well. In 1996, Stodghill was ousted amid allegations of wrongly spending the union's funds for his personal expenses. Rudd said "Stodghill was found guilty of improperly using members' money at four separate hearings held by the union." [St. Louis Post-Dispatch 1/5/99 & 6/4/98]
In addition to the unions and organizations covered in this Union Corruption Update,readers can look forward to news and information on other corrupt and abusive unions in future editions.
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Union Corruption Update is part of NLPC's Organized Labor Accountability Project which is investigating and exposing corruption and extremism in the Teamsters, LIUNA, AFL-CIO and many other union organizations. NLPC is a nonpartisan, nonprofit foundation promoting ethics and accountability in government through research, education and legal action.
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