E&W Blog

In Case You Missed It, George Gresham, the president of 1199SEIU, the largest health care workers' union in the U.S, was recently accused of treating member dues like a personal slush fund. American workers are realizing that union leaders would rather spend money on extravagant personal expenses instead of their own union members—and workers are tired of it. 
Another Example of Why Most Workers Can’t Stand Unions
Dominic Pino
April 14, 2025

Do most workers want their paychecks skimmed to:

• compensate a union president’s daughter to travel with him?
• pay two personal drivers for the union president?
• pay for a union officers’ retreat at a luxury golf course?
• pay for very expensive flights to South Africa for unclear reasons? …

These are all expenses alleged to have been paid by 1199SEIU, the largest health-care workers’ union in the country… The union’s president, George Gresham, has been in office since 2007, when he was elected unopposed…

The union denies wrongdoing and insists that its expenditures were ‘properly vetted and recorded.’ The crazy part is that it might actually be true. The rules governing union expenditures are so lax that it’s possible many of these absurd expenses are technically permitted.

…

Workers know that, which is part of the reason why only 5.9 percent of American private-sector workers are union members, a record low. They’ve heard about other union presidents like George Gresham in the past, and they know there are more like him who will be exposed in the future.

Read the full article here.