Presentation Re.

The Emergency Trusteeship RE SEIU Local 73

By Christine Boardman on 9/24/16

I appreciate having the opportunity to speak today. However, I object to the way the
process has unfolded. Months prior to this on July 1, 2016 I had requested that the President of
the International assume original jurisdiction of the charges I initially filed against Matt Brandon.
President Henry assumed original jurisdiction on July 14, 2016. Instead of responding with a
hearing date and appointment of a hearing officer as in Section 7(f) of our SEIU International
Constitution contains, this trusteeship happened without the appropriate hearing as described
in 7(f) wherein it states In order to ensure that no trusteeship is imposed without an adequate
right to be heard or without other appropriate safeguards, prior to the imposition of a trusteeship
the International shall appoint shall appoint a hearing officer or officers . . .and shall issue a report
and recommendations, orally or in writing to the International President, who shall thereupon
make his or her determination. I then filed amended charges against Brandon for additional
violations of Article XVII on July 22, 2016 and I did not hear back from the International President
until August 29, 2016 wherein she also assumed original jurisdiction. This is basically 4 weeks
after you had already seized the office on 8/3/16. SEIU is not following its own Constitution and
By-Laws according to the time limits in the Constitution.
Instead of receiving the support required to maintain the integrity of the Local, I am being
punished for rocking the boat. While Section 7(f) of the Constitution and By-Laws state if an
emergency exists within the local union. . .a trustee may be appointed prior to a hearing. In
fact, there was no emergency and I challenge you to find an emergency, except for Matts
games within Unit 2. The International claims that this emergency trusteeship because of
incessant infighting. . .that disrupted the operations and functioning of the Local. This is not
true, and a genuine factfinder would find that to be not true. You like to cite the LMRDA. I
suggest you re-read the statute and case law.
Section 401(h) of the LMRDA requires that the unions Constitution & By-laws include an
adequate procedure for removal of officers guilty of serious misconduct. It also requires cause
be shown and receipt by the official to receive notice and hearing. None of that was done. The
LMRDA case law also states in Brett v HERE Local 879 at a minimum an elected official has a
cause of action when they suffer a retaliatory removal which occurred as a purposeful and
deliberate attempt to suppress dissent.

Lynn also states that the retaliatory removal of an elected official violates Title 1 and it
further holds that in 101 (b) that any provision of the constitution of any organization which is
inconsistent with 101 (a)(5) shall have no force and effect.
You have put me into a situation that I will have to sue the International Union. You have
ruined my reputation of more than 45 years in the trade union movement with a bs attempt to
get me out of office. I was doing my job and you will be hard put to show that I was not.
Your description of the serious misconducts sounds like two kids fighting on a play lot.
The fact is I was fulfilling my duties in suspending Mr. Brandon for violating his oath of office,
showing gross disloyalty/conduct unbecoming a member; gross inefficiency which might hinder
and impair the interests of the local; and violating the democratically and lawfully established
rules, regulations, policies, or practices of the Union. My actions were appropriate, responsible
and in the best interests of the local. The only time the local and the membership were impacted
(as claimed by the International at its takeover on 8/3/2016 was Mr. Brandons disruption of the
July 15, 2016 Executive Board meeting thereby forcing me to cancel the membership meeting
scheduled for July 16, 2016. A prompt response from the International would have taken care of
this; instead the actions of the International have tarnished the reputation of this local and myself
as well as the International for its undemocratic processes and not following timelines in its own
Constitution as well as violating the LMRDA.
I am confident that when I finish this testimony, the Hearing officer will understand that
my actions have always been in the best interest of the membership, and my actions against
Secretary-Treasurer Brandon sought to inhibit the damaging behavior that was harming
members as well as the reputation of Local 73. My attempts to call to the Internationals
attention corrupt and unethical behavior were met with the trustee takeover, and I plan to show
that my reaching out to the International to resolve this situation resulted in a wrongful takeover
of my position. I was summarily fired on August 3,2016 along with Matt Brandon. I was treated
like a criminal. This is not right when I was the whistle blower.
While Brandons unethical behavior goes back to 2014, his most egregious action came
to light on March 24th of this year by means of an Illinois Supreme Court decision that Brandon
had sought to help diminish the Municipal Pension fund benefits by voluntarily giving an affidavit
in the pension court case for the side of management. The affidavit had been given by Brandon
without any authorization or approval by me, and had been offered by Brandon in an effort to
do the bidding of the Emanuel administration.
Further in the interests of maintaining a back door power relationship with Rahm
Emanuel, Brandon negotiated away the rights of his Unit II members which is a public safety unit
of approximately 1800 members, including Aviation police officers, 854 Crossing Guards, Parking

Enforcement Aides, Traffic Control Aides and Detention Aides. Their contract expired on June 1,
2016. Without holding a single session of negotiations with Management or providing the
Committee with his drafted proposals. Brandon met with Emanuel alone. He then came back
to the Stewards and Negotiating Committee and told them lets negotiate next year and in
exchange for that they got a miserable 1 % increase. The majority of the members at this
meeting agreed to the extension, just so they could get the miserable raise and because general
negotiations could take two years or longer.
Brandon failed to mention that an extension of the contract for one (1) year sold out 854
Crossing Guards who do not want to go to the Office of Emergency Management and
Communication, better known as OEMC and instead wanted to keep their police uniforms and
work under the command of the Chicago police department. They submitted 17,000 signatures
to each alderman signed by the community, neighborhood block clubs. After very avid lobbying
with the Chicago aldermen, the Crossing Guards got 47 out of 50 aldermen to support the16m
including Alderwoman Carrie Austin. When I learned about the scheduled ratification, I cancelled
it. If the members would have ratified that contract, there would no going back. By giving up on
them he abandons 854 crossing guards and over 100 Aviation police. Both of these topics are
considered to be mandatory subjects of bargaining.
The Aviation police are sworn police officers and went to the Chicago Police Academy for
their trainings. In these days where terrorists are attacking airports and civilians, we need to
provide protection to the public. The areas that the Aviation officers serve provides full access
to every terminal at OHare Airport and with any armed attack the Airports are highly vulnerable.
And dont even try to tell me that in that kind of crisis the Chicago police will arrive in time to
prevent harm to the public and the property.
The City of Chicago has an extremely strong management rights clause. (I would attach a
copy but you seized all my documents on 8/3/16). If you extend your contract for another year,
you significantly harm Aviation police and Crossing Guards. You lose the right to negotiate.
Brandon stated to me, that he had not thought about the effect of the management rights clause.
In Brandons leaflet it stated (incorrectly) that all other terms & conditions of employment
remain the same. No they will not stay the same, they will worsen. The Local 73 Unit 2 learned
this because on Tuesday of last week when they protesting in front of City Hall. Why? Because
in typical Emanuel style, the Mayor gave every Chicago Union member that works for the city
(there are more than 41 unions), larger wage increases than what Matt negotiated with Emanuel.
What a slap in the face to our members.
I think then some of our members saw the light and what I was trying to do to save them.
One year from now, 47 aldermen are not going to be interested in Crossing Guards staying with
the Chicago Police Department and Aviation being armed at the airport.

In addition to negotiating the rights and interests of Local 73 members away in the
interest of maintaining his relationship with the Mayor, Brandon has repeatedly violated Article
V, Section 2 of Local 73s constitution and by-laws by refusing to recognize and respect the
Presidents authority over all the work of employees in the Union. This included Secretary of
State in Springfield IL, the Airport, the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority as a few examples
amongst many others. In no event did he describe to me his activities. I believe that all of these
activities are enough to demonstrate disloyalty, insubordination, gross inefficiency, and conduct
unbecoming a member. The Local 73 Constitution and By-laws is attached and my duties and
Matts duties are detailed on page 8 and 9,
I would like to describe and outline my legacy as President of the Local 73 in the 16 years
that I served. When I first became President I was advised that I would have $600,000 in the
bank and approximately just over 24,000 members paying dues. But not only did I not have
$600,000 in the bank, but I discovered I had a 1.4 million dollar deficit in the Local 73 budget. I
met with Mary Ann Collins and Debbie Schneider regarding the gross disparity of what was
promised and what really happened. They met with me on two occasions. The fact was that Pia
Davis and Denise Poloyac got their money plus numerous blank checks they took from the Local
73 checkbook. They used the blank checks to fund redecorating the office to which they moved.
Pia was a signatory on the checks.
It took me 14 years to get us a balanced budget, but we did. I never got a dime of money
from the International. I did it reducing my salary 25% from the salary my predecessor made of
$125,000 to $100,000. I made another 8 people take a 10% cut for several years. I never got the
deal that other locals in this city got which is they did not have to pay the Unity Fund $5 a month
on top of the International per cap. They didnt just get it one time but three to four more times.
In the meantime, we continued to pay full per cap & Unity Fund to the International. I should be
commended for pulling the local through extremely trying financial times
I created a 100 person Executive Board that was fairly equally distributed through all of
the Divisions that we have. Now we have 29,000 members paying dues which is a significant
growth. I am proud to say that this Local embodied and exemplified this all the way along.
The International claims that it was about the members being empowered by contract
enforcement. Local 73 diligently enforces contracts and seeks member participation in those
campaigns. In addition, it is my belief that we take more cases to arbitration than most other
locals. You have my assurance that collective bargaining responsibilities were met. We did it.
I hired a great group of organizers and they generally always met our quota for organizing.
However, it will be difficult for them in the adjunct professor campaigns from now on. Think
about how many locals in the public sector have as many organizers as we have maintained on

staff. On the downside of adjunct organizing, I can tell you that we will not get Columbia college
which after they disaffiliated from the IEA, their bargaining unit was 2,000 strong. They began
meeting with SEIU Local 73 regarding possible affiliation.
Diana Valera, the leader of that group, was continually asking questions about how much
independence would they have and can they make their own decisions. Putting an emergency
trusteeship in place at Local 73 has definitely cooled their idea of joining our local. Talk to Grant
Williams and Sean McGough.
In totality, not only did you strip us of all of our democratic positions, but you have left
people feeling as if they are separated from the struggle. You also dissolved the Member
Organizing Core. We were having up to 50 members come to each meeting and not paid for the
time they attended.
There is integrity in our local. The only place which was affected was the City of Chicago
which was led by Matt Brandon.
I feel that the entire emergency trusteeship has been a sham, and the International views
the local as something they will award to their friends, and not positions that require significant
experience and skill at accomplishing the task at hand. You are attempting to make me collateral
damage and I will not accept that.
I ask that the hearing officer reinstate me as President so that I may continue to do what
I believe and that is the strong belief that working people can overcome all obstacles in their way.
I did nothing wrong and everything right. If the International does not allow me to complete my
work and transition a new President at the end of my term which is April 2017. it will be a great
disservice to the local and our members.
Thank you.

______________________________
Christine Boardman