Frugal Café Blog Zone

Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on February 2, 2010

A probe into the ACORN-affiliated Service Employees International Union, aka SEIU, and its relationship with Barack Obama and Congress? Potential violation of the Lobbying Disclosure Act?

Be still, my heart.

Andy Stern, the head honcho for the SEIU, has been the most frequent visitor to the White House. Bet it wasn’t to get organic gardening tips from Michelle O…

From Dancing Czars: U.S. Attorney Reviews Call for Probe of SEIU Activities with White House, Congress:

Very surprising to me that this is happening. What happened, Eric Holder asleep at the switch? There is something very wrong when the President of SEIU is the most frequent visitor to the White House. As Obama has repeatedly said, ‘before doing health care I consulted with Andy Stern’, a lobbyist?. No question Obama is in the pocket of big labor. He apparently negotiated a very favorable tax exception to union members that the rest of the people in the U.S. would have not received.

From CNSNews:

Federal prosecutors are reviewing a request for an investigation into whether Andy Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), violated the Lobbying Disclosure Act for his frequent visits to the White House and with members of Congress in 2009.

Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) and its subgroup the Alliance for Worker Freedom (AWF) sent letters to acting U.S. Attorney Channing D. Phillips of the District of Columbia asking for a probe.

“Specifically, it is important to determine whether those and related activities could constitute ‘lobbying’ by Mr. Stern in violation of the Lobbying Disclosure Act,” said the Nov. 13, 2009, letter signed by ATR President Grover G. Norquist and AWF Executive Director Brian M. Johnson.

In a subsequent letter, the two groups asked for a probe into SEIU Secretary-Treasurer Anna Burger. The letters were also sent to Secretary of the Senate Nancy Erickson and Clerk of the House Loraine C. Miller, the two offices that supervise disclosure and reporting rules.

“I don’t think there is a lot that we can say at this point, other than to say that we continue to review the matter,” Benjamin Friedman, spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office, told CNSNews.com.

More SEIU problems, as reported at Sign-On San Diego: SEIU-sent officials to probe complaints:

International leaders of the union representing thousands of county government workers have arrived in San Diego to help sort out a dispute over management of the local group.

Andrew Stern, the international president of Service Employees International Union, appointed two personal representatives to investigate whether the local chapter wrongly paid former president Sharon-Frances Moore a six-figure severance and hired her as a consultant.

Local union officials said they welcome the investigation and help finding a new president. Moore cited personal reasons in resigning this month as president of SEIU Local 221.

Last week, the local’s executive board named three members to manage the union on a day-to-day basis until a successor can be named, but some union members complained that the action violated the organization’s rules.

In a Jan. 22 letter to local union officials from his Washington, D.C., headquarters, Stern said he was looking into the complaints and advised them to withhold any payments to Moore.

“I have directed my representatives to report to me within 30 days on the situation in Local 221,” he wrote. “In the meantime, I counsel the Local 221 officers and executive board not to execute or implement the challenged payments or contract at this time.”

Local 221 spokeswoman Melinda Battenberg said decisions regarding the severance and consulting agreement are internal union business that she cannot discuss publicly.

Specifically, rank-and-file members complained about a $107,000 severance package awarded to Moore and objected that she will keep working for the union as a consultant. Several people wrote to Stern to demand an investigation.

“The general membership of the Local 221 was unhappy before this meeting,” SEIU member Denise Knobloch wrote. “When word becomes more public about these issues, I feel that many more people will pull away from the union.”

Many of the same members previously had filed complaints with the U.S. Department of Labor claiming irregularities in the conduct and results of the July election of union officers.

Journalist Michelle Malkin has investigated SEIU and Stern for ages… here are a few of her most recent postings:

Culture of Corruption Watch: Probing SEIU shenanigans
SEIU thug-in-chief: Sorry for calling Democrat Senators “terrorists;” Update: UAW leader to members: “Shut the ^*%& up!”
Obama: Don’t blame me for backroom deals cut in White House backrooms
SEIU president Andy Stern clings to the blame-GOP card
Demcare’s backroom Big Labor buyoff

Other related reading includes this eye-opening post by Brian Johnson at Big Government: Why You Should Know About Craig Becker (and Why You Need to Be Worried).

Categories: Government, Law & Constitution, Social and Political Climate
Tags: Andrew Stern, Andy Stern, Barack Obama, Big Labor, Congress, Eric Holder, Lobbying Disclosure Act, Obama, Obama budget, political, politics, Pres. Obama, probe, SEIU, Service Employees International Union, Union, union boss, unions, visitors, visitors to White House, White House