Broadside Opinion

By Alan Moore, Staff Writer

As the Service Employee International Union (SEIU) continues to invade our campus, I thought it prudent to discuss some of the past transgressions of this evil organization. To the Sodexo workers attempting to unionize with them: you should first get to know your would-be master. It will make all the promises in the world but you’ll end up a patsy to its greed. Its laundry list of offenses includes embezzlement, beatings and intimidation.

The USC University Hospital employs 600 SEIU members. Recently, those workers were upset with the union’s treatment and filed decertification petitions so they could break away and affiliate with another union. But the SEIU filed charges to block their vote and is using money from worker dues to launch a public relations campaign to ban all unions from the hospital. If it can’t have the workers, no one can. SEIU seems to live by the code of the mafia — once you’re in, you’re in for life.

The SEIU is also connected to the Rod Blagojevich scandal. The disgraced former governor of Illinois attempted to trade a job with the SEIU-affiliated organization Change to Win for the appointment to President Obama’s former senate seat.

The SEIU is mentioned prominently in his criminal complaint as being central to the effort to engage in the pay-to-play scheme.

Beatings are commonplace for the SEIU. For example, last month a hospital worker was assaulted by an SEIU goon in Garden Grove, Fla. In April 2008, the union sent busloads of members to a labor conference in Michigan to violently interrupt a meeting of the California Nurses Association. Luckily, only one person had to go to the hospital even though there were several episodes of violence and intimidation.

In August of last year, two SEIU members were arrested for beating up Kenneth Gladney, who was peacefully protesting health care reform at a town hall meeting held by Missouri Representative Russ Carnahan (D-3rd).

Last November, Ken Hamidi, a cable access reporter, was severely beaten by local SEIU members at the behest of the union bosses for merely attending a union meeting. He was planning to write a story on union corruption.

Around the same time in Allentown, Pa., SEIU boss Nick Balzano violently ranted to the city council against 17-year-old Kevin Anderson for cleaning up a local park as part of his Eagle Scout project. Balzano claimed that union members were the only people allowed to do any work for the city. He told the council, “None of them can pick up a hoe. They can’t pick up a shovel. They can’t plant a flower. They can’t clear a bicycle path. They can’t do anything. Our people do that.”

That same month, SEIU representatives threatened to have their own immigrant members deported in Fresno, Calif. after outrage ensued when it was discovered that the SEIU tampered with ballots in a union election.

Also outrageous — union dues went to fund the equally corrupt Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN). Among ACORN’s many dubious achievements, they were recently caught on video giving housing advice for a brothel to journalists pretending to be a prostitute and a pimp.

Other scandals regarding union dues include Tyrone Freeman in California, who in 2008 embezzled money to buy cars, cigars, alcohol and to play golf. National board member Byron Hobbs resigned after being caught stealing $9,000 for personal expenses. Both are under federal investigation.

The list of SEIU’s violations is too long to mention them all here. I highly encourage you to visit www.nrtw.org,
www.purplepeoplebeaters.com and www.seiuexposed.com to learn more about the corruption of the SEIU.

So what is Mason doing about this problem? Nothing. Our campus is completely devoid of leadership. Our out of touch administration won’t lift a finger to combat the SEIU thuggery but they thought it necessary to send out a campus-wide e-mail, reprinted in Broadside, to give a platform to a couple of racist numbskulls for something that practically no one even knew about in the first place.

From threatening Boy Scouts to beating up peaceful protestors, the shamelessness of the SEIU rolls on. If you think they won’t resort to violence to get their way then think again. For those who believe the only issue here is wages and benefits, you are incredibly naïve. This struggle is about power, influence and money. The SEIU couldn’t care less about the Sodexo workers.