By Tribune-Review

Published: Sunday, November 18, 2012, 8:50 p.m.
Updated: Tuesday, February 19, 2013

The SEIU's “purple wave” that demands union rights is crashing up against a jetty of rank-and-file members in California. They're protesting waste and corruption in their union and demanding access to financial records.

The workers' website (occupyseiu.com) says members of the Service Employees International Union see “waste every day” in the 2 million-member labor union. A recent protest outside the SEIU's headquarters was met by union officials asking participants how much they were being “paid.” (Protesters said they were there on their own time.)

The protesters also said they were videotaped by union bosses for a “blacklist.” That's the treatment alleged by SEIU member Mariam Noujaim, who says in a lawsuit that she was shut out after she reported suspicious voting at an SEIU election.

The members' protest also follows this summer's 15-count indictment against Tyrone Freeman, cited by the Los Angeles Times as a “rising star” in the national labor movement and head of California's largest union local. This so-called “advocate for the disadvantaged” is accused of stealing from SEIU workers to enrich himself.

The SEIU is no friend of workers. By law, workers should have the right to choose their representation and not be forced into SEIU locals that demand their dues but ignore their views.

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