This one is particularly egregious as local SEIU chapters hired an official who had already been accused of sexual assault.
The labor website Payday Report reported last week that Pedro Malave, a former assistant director at 32BJ SEIU District 615, was fired in 2014 after allegations of sexual assault. Malave then found work at two California locals, SEIU-UHW and SEIU-USWW. The locals dismissed Malave after Payday Report inquired about the allegations last week.
Their excuse is that there's no centralized system.
The union said it was unaware of the allegations until last week. SEIU locals, which are separately incorporated, each have their own human resources departments, and no centralized system exists to share records, a union official told Morning Shift
That's no doubt true, and very convenient. But the bottom line is that SEIU officials would have known that Malave was likely to pursue his old career. It's child's play these days to find out where your old colleague is working even without a centralized system. And gossip usually fills in the blanks quickly. It also seems unlikely that Malave would have been hired without the local SEIU chapters checking with his old boss.
Malave is the fifth SEIU official in recent weeks to leave the union following allegations of misconduct, after the October resignations of Executive Vice President Scott Courtney and Chicago Fight for 15 leader Caleb Jennings; the resignation earlier this month of Fight for 15 Organizing Director Kendall Fells; and the firing earlier this month of Mark Raleigh, who ran Fight for 15’s Detroit chapter.
Quite a track record for the civil rights union.