Security Guard Union Files Lawsuit Against SEIU Locals Alleging Racketeering

By Staff
Bureau of National Affairs
April 15, 2008

The Allied International Union April 4 filed a lawsuit in federal district court under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act charging officials of two locals of the Service Employees International Union--locals 32BJ and 1877--with racketeering, extortion, fraud, and other illegal activities (Allied Int'l Union v. Service Employees Int'l Union Local 32BJ, S.D.N.Y., No. 8-cv-3357, complaint filed 4/4/08).

The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, alleges that SEIU officials at both the international and local levels have engaged in a pattern of racketeering activity by engaging in "multiple and ongoing acts of extortion, coercion, and fraud in order to raid AIU's membership, destroy AIU's ability to represent its members effectively and force AIU out of business in order to supplant AIU as the exclusive bargaining representative of thousands of security officers in the New York City metropolitan area, Los Angeles, Calif., and elsewhere."

According to the complaint, AIU represents some 6,800 security guards employed by various companies in New York, New Jersey, Washington, D.C., and California. In early 2006, SEIU Local 32BJ began a campaign to increase its guard membership in New York that included harassing and coercing AIU leaders to relinquish their role as the bargaining agent for its members, the complaint alleged.

In 2006, SEIU's international provided Local 32BJ with more than $200,000 to organize security guards and another $600,000 in subsidies, according to the complaint. The local used that money to dispatch some 20 organizers to "raid" AIU members at more than 40 worksites, the complaint said.

In its complaint, AIU pointed out that the National Labor Relations Act prohibits a union that represents both guards and nonguards to petition the National Labor Relations Board for a representation election so SEIU could not seek to decertify AIU in units where it already represented guards.

Because of these restrictions, the local has worked to "disparage AIU and its officers and interfere with AIU's business relationships to bring about sufficient pressure to coerce AIU and others to cede the representation of their members" to the local, the complaint alleged.

AIU also charged that officials of Local 32BJ and Local 1877 in Los Angeles attempted to interfere with its internal election of officers by using funds, resources, and personnel from SEIU to campaign for "surrogates, who have attempted and continue attempting to wrest control of AIU from its long-standing leadership."

According to the complaint, in early 2007 SEIU approached several AIU members and promised them increases in pay and benefits if they assisted the local in taking over AIU. In April, these members and others were told that Local 32BJ would help them run for office within AIU.

Local 1877 also provided support and resources for a candidate for AIU vice president and campaigned for him at the Los Angeles International Airport, the complaint alleged.

The complaint also alleged that SEIU used "corporate campaigns" to pressure several companies to remove AIU as the bargaining agent for its guards. As one example, the complaint alleged that SEIU pressured Fordham University to take steps to remove AIU as the bargaining agent for security guards at its campuses by blocking the university's planned expansion of its Lincoln Center campus buildings in New York City. Its efforts included obtaining the assistance of several elected officials in New York, the complaint said.

In addition, the complaint alleged that SEIU used AIU members as surrogates to file deauthorization petitions, to remove a union security provision from the AIU contract, and pressured at least one company into suspending its longtime practice of deducting union dues from the paychecks of its employees.

A spokeswoman for Local 32BJ was not immediately available for comment April 14.