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Former SEIU Organizer: I Was ‘Required’ to Do ‘Political Work’
In a case that could have wide-ranging implications for the political future of the Service Employees International Union, a former SEIU organizer told a right-to-work group and a best-selling author recently that the union forced him and other workers to volunteer their time for Democratic political campaigns.
On a video segment provided exclusively to The Daily Caller, the organizer says he and other SEIU staff “had to do some political work. We were required as staff to do that.”
The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation and Mallory Factor, author of “Shadowbosses: Government Unions Control America and Rob Taxpayers Blind,” obtained an hour-long videotaped statement from the organizer, who now works for a different union.
Factor and the right-to-work group protected the former SEIU organizer’s anonymity by distorting his image and his voice because he fears reprisals from the union.
The SEIU did not respond to questions from TheDC about whether it routinely requires its organizers to devote their time to political campaigns.
But the union’s leaders, the organizer said on the video, “would tell us, ‘We need to go canvassing for this candidate, so we need you to sign this sheet to say that you are requesting a personal day today, so that you can go do this. We’ll make it up to you later,’” he said in the interview.
“And I [thought], ‘Is this really legal? Can you require me to volunteer for a candidate that I can’t even vote for?’” he recalled thinking. “I don’t live in that jurisdiction, that district that they are running from.”
“And that happened a lot around election time. The staff was — it was — I called it ‘mandatory volunteerism.’ And that happened to everybody. We were all told that we had to volunteer for this candidate on this day.”
National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation spokesman Patrick Semmens said the interview, which took place less than a month ago, confirmed what his organization has long known.
“I wish it were surprising that the SEIU was coercing this organizer into supporting union boss politics, but these days that’s standard operating procedure for Big Labor,” Semmens said in an email to TheDC.
Chalupa
October 31st, 2012
Serving Every Ideologue’s Urge
Ma Deuce
October 31st, 2012
I remember an interview with a union member after a Scott Brown – Fauxkahontas debate. He was wearing a union shirt and was asked if he had to be there.
He relied ” Yes. They will fine me $250 if I didn’t show up”
Billy Fuster
October 31st, 2012
If something isn’t done about it the taxpayers can take matters into their own hands by revolting.
Dr. Tar
October 31st, 2012
Just when I think I’m too paranoid about the Union / Dem party incestuous ness I see things like this and think I’m not paranoid enough and way too tolerant of the violations on the left.
I wish we had a death penalty for labor unions like they have in College Football.
Boobie the Rocket Dog
October 31st, 2012
“Former SEIU Organizer: I Was ‘Required’ to Do ‘Political Work’”
File this under NO SHIT SHERLOCK.