On the intimidation front, SEIU has worked with the radical Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN). The group once served as a valuable ally, but its reputation now lies in tatters thanks to a pair of amateur journalists who, costumed as pimp and hooker, filmed themselves obtaining advice from ACORN staffers on how best to shelter the proceeds of a child-prostitution ring from taxation.
SEIU did not sustain much damage from the scandal, even though, as a colleague of mine quipped, ACORN often acts as its paramilitary wing. SEIU's former political director, Patrick Gaspard, remains comfortably ensconced at the White House as political director Obama's Karl Rove and the connection does not appear to have hurt him.
The SEIU-ACORN link is deep and longstanding. At least one SEIU local, Chicago's Local 880, was organized by ACORN and run by it for 20 years. An SEIU official recently testified that the local had severed its ACORN ties, but Chris Berg, a former special assistant at the Office of Labor Management Standards, says, "I'm very skeptical." Keith Kelleher, who spent many years running ACORN in Chicago, is still the local's head organizer. "They've been wed together for so long, I don't think they can divorce," says Berg.
The local, which represents home health-care and child-care workers, attracted scrutiny when former governor Rod Blagojevich helped it secure a lucrative collective-bargaining agreement with the State of Illinois. Many cried foul, pointing to the $1.8 million that SEIU and ACORN had donated to Blagojevich's campaigns. This story surfaced again when Blagojevich concocted a scheme whereby he would appoint someone of Obama's choosing to Obama's old Senate seat in exchange for a six-figure sinecure at Change to Win. Obama and Stern are so close that Blagojevich thought a favor to one would be repaid by the other.
SEIU has given ACORN nearly $6 million since 2006 including $250,000 this year according to U.S. Department of Labor disclosures and the union's own statements. Some of this money took the form of grants, but ACORN also received significant sums for doing the SEIU's dirty work. In 2007, the SEIU paid ACORN $140,000 to harass a shopping-mall operator called General Growth Properties that would not let the union use the card-check process to organize the company's janitors (more on card check later). According to the company, ACORN's tactics included "making allegations and filing unsubstantiated claims with government agencies, then implying in handbills and press releases that the claims before they are even investigated, let alone proved are fact."
SEIU isn't above these tactics, but it reserves its full attention for bigger targets, such as Bank of America
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