News Story

Michigan Health Care Workers Seeking Exit from Scandal-Ridden SEIU Affiliate

Leader of rival union accuses local SEIU boss of spending $5,420 on pizza, but just $8,800 on collective bargaining

Health care employees at facilities in Muskegon and Saginaw say they're tired of self-interested union bureaucrats. The disenchanted workers are trying to leave the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), but say they have obstacles to overcome.

In March, workers at the Mercy Health Partners Hackley Campus in Muskegon and the Luther Manor skilled nursing facility in Saginaw filed petitions with the National Labor Relations Board for a chance to vote themselves out of the SEIU Michigan Healthcare union. Their goal is to switch to the National Union of Healthcare Workers.

Workers at the Saginaw facility are scheduled to vote Sept. 23. No vote has been scheduled yet for the Muskegon workers.

“We filed with the labor board in March and it usually takes about 45 days for the election to take place,” said Hasan Zahdeh, a cardiovascular interventional technologist at the Muskegon facility and spokesman for the employees. “But SEIU keeps filing charges and finding ways to delay the election.”

The health care workers claim that their SEIU representatives dragged their feet on negotiations for months after contracts expired, failed to enforce existing contracts and wouldn't even bother returning phone calls when members complained. They also argue that when the SEIU negotiators finally arrived at the bargaining table they got substandard results.

The SEIU Michigan Healthcare union was offered a chance to add its comments to this article. There was no response to the offer.

“Our experience with the leaders of SEIU Michigan Heathcare is that they seem to only be interested in collecting dues from us,” Zahdeh said. “They make backdoor deals with the employer and generally haven't represented the workers. We tried filing internal complaints and got nowhere. Finally we just said 'enough is enough.'”

SEIU Michigan Healthcare is currently the state's largest local health care union, with 55,000 members. The elections to break away would involve fewer than 200 workers. If the workers successfully split from SEIU, however, then it could be a significant foothold for the NUHW in Michigan. For the SEIU it would be a defeat and possibly a harbinger of other break-away elections to come.

The timing couldn't be much worse for SEIU, which just lost a major battle with NUHW. In July, NLRB administrative judge Lana Parke found SEIU guilty of coercion and unlawful threats in an October 2010 statewide labor election involving 43,000 California healthcare workers.

According to the NUHW, corruption has been the legacy of how the SEIU operates in Michigan. Former SEIU Healthcare Michigan President Rickman Jackson was forced out of office on Oct. 15, 2008. The story, which was covered by the Los Angeles Times, apparently fell below the news media radar screens in Michigan.

“I couldn't believe that story wasn't covered here in Michigan,” said Zahdeh, a former SEIU chief steward. “It really was a huge story, but I couldn't find any news coverage of it anywhere around here. I'm glad to finally find someone who's willing to pay attention to what's going on here.”

The current infighting between the labor unions includes accusations that Jackson's replacement, Marge Faville, is following in his footsteps with a $163,000 salary, a $47,000 union-provided SUV, and ways of getting union dollars into the pockets of her relatives. The tone set for the elections has been anything but friendly.

“We've seen their (SEIU's) financial reports,” Zahdeh said. “Here's a union with 55,000 members that only spends $8,800 on bargaining but runs up a $5,420 bill at a pizza place two blocks from Faville's apartment. By the way, we the members were also paying for her apartment. Then there's all the nepotism. It's unbelievable.”

Former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm appointed Faville to the Michigan Occupational Health Standards Commission in 2004. Gov. Granholm was also on hand for the festivities when SEIU Healthcare Michigan officially came into being on Aug. 17, 2008.

Nine days after the union was launched, the Los Angeles Times began running articles on the Jackson scandal. Jackson's departure came less than two months later.

According to its website, NUHW was started in 2009 in California by rank and file health care workers after SEIU cut deals in Washington, D.C., that the workers claimed had undermined their rights and compromised patient care. NUHW describes itself as a new, democratic union, with workers in control.

Meanwhile, SEIU Michigan Healthcare has been advertising for a new union organizer.

Michigan Capitol Confidential is the news source produced by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. Michigan Capitol Confidential reports with a free-market news perspective.

News Story

Less Than 0.001 Percent of Tenured Teachers Fired Over Past Five Years

Harbor Beach Community Schools paid one teacher tens of thousands of dollars to leave, despite the teacher getting caught kissing some students and head-locking one after being confronted for his behavior. Dearborn Public Schools paid four teachers a total of $197,353 to get rid of them after charges of sexual misconduct and possession of illegal substances on school grounds. Gladwin Community Schools has dished out about $40,000 thus far in a legal case against a kindergarten teacher arraigned on charges of furnishing alcohol for minors.

These are a few of at least 156 tenure cases brought by Michigan public school districts over the past five years. These 156 cases cost school districts and taxpayers at least $7.7 million to cover the costs of removing, or attempting to remove, tenured teachers.

Michigan Capitol Confidential sent Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for the costs to districts of their tenure cases over the past five years. These cases covered June of 2006 through June of 2011.

The Michigan Legislature has recently passed a series of bills that limits teacher tenure and seniority rules. Michael Van Beek, director of education policy at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, says the changes are good but more needs to be done to protect taxpayer money.

“These tenure reforms empower school boards and principals to better manage their teaching staff,” said Van Beek. “But we'll have to wait and see if schools decide to use this new power to positively impact student achievement or whether they'll continue to operate like they have in the past."

Van Beek also believes that districts were dissuaded from attempting to remove teachers because of union-backed collective bargaining rules and lawyer and court costs.

The 156 cases means less than 0.001 percent of tenured teachers in Michigan were removed or had school districts attempt to remove them over the past five years. This number includes teachers who resigned or signed a severance package after a district made attempts to get rid of them. According to the education documentary "Waiting for Superman," every year nationwide one out of every 57 doctors and one out of every 97 lawyers loses his or her license for malpractice. Drawing from U.S. Department of Education statistics, the film notes that only one out of every 2,500 unionized public school teachers with tenure gets fired in any given year.

One school administrator, who requested anonymity, agrees that cost and time are two of the main “facets” that needed to be evaluated by the Legislature. But the public school official believes the third and most important problem has yet to be addressed.

“The bigger problem is the Tenure Commission which for many years has been extremely pro teacher,” wrote the official in an email. “I have read cases where school districts have spent both time and money and have excellent documentation and a teacher should have been fired, but the Tenure Commission did not remove the teacher.”

“The make-up and power of the Tenure Commission is something that has to be changed.”

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Editor's note: Approximately 475 of Michigan’s 551 school districts, or 86 percent, replied to the FOIA request. Notable districts that have not replied include: Detroit Public Schools, Southfield Public Schools, Highland Park Schools, Mount Clemens Community Schools, Mona Shores Public Schools, Lapeer Community Schools, Lakeview Community Schools and Inkster Public Schools.

Michigan Capitol Confidential is the news source produced by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. Michigan Capitol Confidential reports with a free-market news perspective.