SEIU Local Head, an Andy Stern Protégé,
Used Union Funds for Family Deals

Tyrone Freeman was taken from his union job in Georgia to be appointed as the leader of a large California local by Andy Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union, Freeman was then easily elected without opposition as president of Local 6134, whose members take care of the sick and infirm in their patients' homes. The local was formed in 2006, with Stern consolidating six small protesting locals.

Freeman used the local's treasury as though it was his personal property, squandering the dues paid by his members, who earn an average $9-an-hour, for a series of transactions that benefited members of his family He also doled out money for an expensive golf tournament and payoffs to some former football player he admired.

The Los Angeles Times, using the annual reports that unions must file with the U.S. Labor Department, and other sources, revealed the extent of Freeman's lavish and highly questionable deals with family members:

• $177,000 to Freeman's wife, Pilar Planells, for her video production firm.
• $90,000 a year to Freeman's mother-in-law, who runs a child-care company.
• $16.000 to a basketball team coached by Freeman's brother-in-law.

Freeman also spent union funds liberally on sports events and athletes he was interested in:

• $400,000 to sponsor a golf tournament for a charity he favored.
• $100,000 to help promote the tournament.
• $50,000 to a former Los Angeles Ram running back, Eric Dickerson.
• $50,000 to Dickerson's Foundation.

Stern Is Criticized for His 'Purge by Merge' Tactics

Just before the scandal erupted, Stern was preparing to switch 65,000 home care workers into Freeman's local from a Northern California local run by a leading SEIU dissident, Sal Rosselli. Mounting criticism of Stern has come not only from SEIU members, but also from labor activists in other unions. Their ire has been directed at Stern's arbitrary use of trusteeships to put his appointees in charge of troublesome local unions, where they soon are easily elected to the union's top office, even though they have never worked in the industry.

Dissidents in locals whose members respond to appeals for democratic reform are fair game for Stern. He has the unchecked power to move local unions around in whatever pattern suits his plans. Juggling local unions, he can use "purge by merge" to kill off perceived growing opposition.

But clearly, Stern is embarrassed about the Freeman scandal, which exposes his authoritarian tactics. There is one question that he should be pressured to explain:

Why did he take a union member in Georgia and appoint him to run one of the largest SEIU locals in California? Let's demand that he answer that question.

Visit our web site at www.laboreducator.org