Day 8 of the NUHW Civil Trial

March 31, 2010. Day 8 of the civil trial against NUHW, Sal Rossilli, Joan Emslie, Barbara Lewis, among others for their actions to try to sabotage our union.

Debbie Schneider, Deputy Trustee, testified about the challenges that the trustees faced when the trusteeship happened at 2 pm on January 27, 2009. The defendants announced the formation of the new union, NUHW, the next day on January 28, 2009. Within the first week NUHW was out getting decertification petitions signed.

Ms. Schneider said that 110 UHW employees had resigned from their positions. Calls, emails and overnight letters were sent out to all employees telling them of their obligation to return all UHW property and asking them to come to a meeting three days after the trusteeship. 300 out of 400 showed up at the appointed place to return what they had. Of the people who resigned, memos were sent out in their final paychecks again asking them to return any UHW records, files, or property. Final, legal routes had to be taken to get more property returned.

Ryan Jurgensen, security guard at the Sacramento office, testified that on or about January 30, 2010 more than 20 boxes were being removed from that office as well as computer equipment. One person came by and removed a Public Address system stating it belonged to him.

We have rested our case. So now the defense will present their case.

The first witness who took the stand was Sal Rosselli, ex-president of UHW and the interim president of NUHW. (notice anything different? NO…me neither.) He testified that he was only looking out for the members and making sure that they were protected when he was questioned about violations of the constitution and by-laws of SEIU. When asked if he was concerned about trusteeship in the spring of 2007, he stated no he was not concerned due to UHW being such a large union. SEIU couldn’t just come in and take over.

Judge William Alsup had to remind Mr. Rosselli to answer the questions yes or no and not go into the fight between Andy Stern and himself. There was a letter sent to Andy Stern from the UHW E-board to schedule a disaffiliate vote. This was approved by the E-board at their meeting on January 9, 2009. On January 10, 2009 there was a steward and activist meeting where Sal told members about the letter while he was chairing the meeting. He then testified that he stepped down as the President of UHW and spoke as a rank-and-file member. On January 14, 2009 Sal received a response that the request for a disaffiliation vote had been rejected. In a video that NUHW’s lawyers played in court, Sal was giving a speech on the day of trusteeship, stating it was time “turn the page” with a new union that they would control.”

Rosselli stated that members had been having conversations with him for some time who just wanted to leave SEIU. Sal stated that when he left he left everything behind including personal items. After an order by Judge Alsup demanding the return of UHW property in April 2009, Sal stated that it became clear to him that it included his hand-written notebooks as well. He then turned in 6 boxes of UHW materials.

On cross examination, our attorney, Gary Kohlman, let Rosselli have it. He asked about the 30 contracts that were terminated by Mark Kipfer, who had received instructions to do so by John Vellardita. Rosselli claimed that the bargaining team knew of the contract terminations. He also admitted that members that were staying in the union halls over night were being paid by the E-board prior to the trusteeship.

Kohlman asked if at 2:01 pm on January 27, 2009 SEIU had the legal right to enter the buildings, and whether Rosselli had made any effort to make transition go smoothly with staff. Rosselli responded, I didn’t nee to tell my staff what to do they knew what had to be done. Rosselli claims that the first time he heard of the Shakers and Makers secret group was in this trial.

Can’t wait to get your feed back from today’s blog.

Sorry I wasn’t able to be in court Monday and Tuesday. Judge Alsup is a bit picky about coughing in his courtroom.