Posts tagged George Gresham
Opinion: It’s time to put American workers ahead of big labor
September 3, 2025 // in 2024 alone, the Department of Labor documented 177 enforcement actions against unions for fraud, embezzlement, wire fraud, and falsified records. Congressional investigations have targeted a dozen unions for similar abuses, highlighting a pattern of self-dealing that diverts funds from pensions, training programs, and strike support. When union officials embezzle or racketeer, it’s the everyday worker who pays the price through diminished benefits and tarnished reputations. Perhaps most troubling is the growing chasm between union leaders’ policy stances and the actual views of their members. Union bosses, often ensconced in Washington or state capitals, pour millions into liberal causes and Democratic campaigns, even as their grassroots base leans increasingly conservative or independent. In the 2024 election, while top labor officials doubled down on Democratic endorsements and criticized Republican outreach, many union households shifted toward Donald Trump.
Power-Hungry and Petty: How Shawn Fain Runs the UAW
June 25, 2025 // Fain had the union’s compliance director read the fabricated report of Mock’s alleged wrongdoing into the record at an executive board meeting in February 2024. Mock was never interviewed in the creation of the report, and did not know it existed until it was delivered in the meeting. Mock is a black woman. Fain coordinated with two other black women on the executive board, regional directors Laura Dickerson and LaShawn English, to strip Mock of much of her authority in the organization. Dickerson made the motion and English seconded it. The exact wording of the motion was scripted by Fain’s aides, text messages uncovered by the monitor revealed, and Dickerson said she had agreed to make the motion before the report was even finalized.
Michael Watson: The Union and the Republican Prize Patrol
May 19, 2025 // But as “the union that rules New York” waves goodbye to its self-interested longtime boss, allow me the opportunity to give a brief history lesson, one that should serve as a warning to those Republicans and conservatives who hope to appease unions into political dominance. Because even as he was launching the political careers of leftists like former New York Mayor Bill de Blasio (D), Gresham and his predecessor Dennis Rivera played union whisperer to a now-deceased faction of New York State politics: the Republican “Prize Patrol.”
NY’s largest health care workers union topples longtime prez
May 6, 2025 // Members of New York’s largest health care workers union just voted to topple their longtime president amid accusations of mismanagement and lavish spending. Yvonne Armstrong, senior executive president of Service Employees International Union 1199 East, easily defeated George Gresham in a landslide vote of 26,623 to 11,722 in a sign of major discontent over the current leadership.
Chair Walberg Requests Investigation into Alleged Union Embezzlement
April 17, 2025 // “According to the article, Mr. Gresham ‘has for years used union money to benefit himself, his family and political allies.’ These allegations raise serious concerns about whether the union’s officers have been treating the union treasury as a personal slush fund rather than upholding their legal duty to manage members’ dues for the members’ exclusive benefit. The Committee shares these concerns and is committed to supporting the enforcement of federal laws protecting union members’ rights.”
Another Example of Why Most Workers Can’t Stand Unions
April 15, 2025 // Do most workers want their paychecks skimmed to: compensate a union president’s daughter to travel with him? pay two personal drivers for the union president? pay for a union officers’ retreat at a luxury golf course? pay for very expensive flights to South Africa for unclear reasons? spend $300,000 per year in rent for a penthouse suite belonging to Harry Belafonte’s nonprofit? pay that nonprofit’s president a salary as the union’s “national program director” despite her doing nothing for the union? fund concerts that take place in the same town and at the same time as the union president’s annual family reunion? pay one of the union’s former drivers, who now runs a production company that books artists for those concerts, an even $5,000 three times for “airline tix,” at least partly in cash? help pay Jesse Jackson’s medical bills? These are all expenses alleged to have been paid by 1199SEIU, the largest health-care workers’ union in the country, in a story by Maya Kaufman of Politico. The union’s president, George Gresham, has been in office since 2007, when he was elected unopposed. There hasn’t been a competitive election for union president since 1989.
1199 SEIU boss George Gresham accused of corruption — but no Democrat will investigate
April 14, 2025 // His rivals accuse the chronically ill Gresham (who draws a $300,000 salary) of numerous misappropriations, including: $60,000 to cover his daughter’s room, board and transportation to accompany him on business trips as his caregiver. Over $300,000 on a “get out the vote” concert series that coincided with Gresham family reunions. $17,000 on a hotel next to Montefiore Medical Center when he was receiving dialysis treatment. $86,000 for flights to South Africa in 2014 and 2018. A no-show union job that’s paid a Gresham ally over $1 million since 2009.
Unionization of 1199SEIU’s own staff exposes internal tensions
November 22, 2024 // The in-house staff union has a formal unfair labor practice charge pending with the National Labor Relations Board over Hemmings’ termination. A second pending charge alleges that 1199SEIU officers were unlawfully polling employees to gauge their support for the in-house staff union. Another accuses 1199SEIU of changing a policy around paid leave and remote work, in violation of “status quo” protections for employees.