Anonymous email you may have received today Gree Pally Sent Friday, March 19, 2010 4:53 PM. To: All Staff ‘Attachments: nuh trial fver 3-10 (2) pd'(393 KB[Open a8 Web P Dear Staf, “Many of you received an anonymous email today, purported to be from a member of our staff, about the $3 million that Sal Rossel and the other ousted SEIU-UHW leaders removed from the local’ strike fund. This anonymous person apparently ead a highly slanted artic that claimed ‘what we have said about the $3 million was untrue. Like so much that comes out of NUHW, itis a complete misrepresentation of what we have sald. Here are the facts: We have always been open and clear about what happened to the strike fund. in our definitive statement on this ~ the white paper we released last summer ~we were explicit, andin fact linked to the E Board minutes that were attached to the anonymous email. What's more, the white paper was widely distributed and sent to all staff and all stewards, and it as been the ‘top link on our Web site since last August ~ and continues tobe today. Here's what the white paper said, which is 100 percent accurate: {$3 MILLION RAID ON MEMBERS’ STRIKE FUND In December 2008, Rossel and his associates raided the members’ strike fund, borrowing $3 milion to finance thelr activities and never paying the money bock. This lft members with a shrunken war chest to take on employers in the worst economy In 70 yeors, The transfer ofthese funds was ‘mentioned in minutes ofthe meeting circulated to UHW board members the following month, but it was never reported to the membership, presumably because union members see the strike fund as sacred, and it would have created questions and major controversy.” The money was moved from the strike fund tothe general fun at the Rosseli-ted UHW-SEIU Executive Board meeting December 12-13, 2009. The authorizing resolution said in part that the ‘money was needed because of “unanticipated expenses for transportation, food, lodging legal fees ‘anc costs and other lems relted tothe bate he and others were waging inside the unton 0 ‘maintain thelr personal power. It included the $670,000 spent on catering. the $1.7 million spent on the management law firm of Morrison & Foerster the more than $2.5 milion on public relations ‘agencies, and other expenses. An indication ofthe recklessness ofthe spending by the former officials is captured in a memo from John Vellarta, a close aide to Rosselli at UHWSEIU (and ‘now at NUH), to.an assistant in early January 2009 in which he writes, “Ie no longer have the ‘tocar of simply making arrangements without taking costs ino consideration." nema Minutes-of-12-12-08-UHW-SEIU-EB. Link to board minutes: hp/ww seiy-uhw.or putsto-//ww seiv-uw.ongfintemal/Vellardta-memo-o Link to Vellardita memo: 2009 pat ‘The fat is, Rossel and the others took the $3 milion out ofthe strike fund and spent iton their fight for personal power, leaving the fund badly depleted. And they did tata time when the Sutter, Daughters and many other contracts were expiring and needed the support ofa strong strike fund. We have begun restoring the money in our 2010 budget. 'As we approach the tial, in which we are holding Rosselli and the others accountable for what they di, and as we start to vote on decerts at hospitals and nursing homes that NUHW knows itis going to lose, you can expect more of these attempts to confuse people and distract from what they did to harm the members of our union. ‘The sues inthe trial are very specifi, as required by U.S. District Court Judge Wiliam Alsup, whois presiding. They do not relate to the strike fund. am attaching a leaflet we have put together that lays out the facts inthe tril | also want to relate an incident that happened just last weekend, in case there is any doubt about the fact that NUHW purposely sought to sabotage our union and deliberately harm members, ‘As you know, thousands and thousands of local documents were stolen and destroyed in the days immediately before and after the trusteeship. Last weekend, Dan Siegel, the lawyer representing NUHW in the tral, sant an e-mail to our attorneys calming that 17 boxes of files hhad mysteriously shown up on his doorstep. He claimed that none of them had been taken by Rosselli or any of the 26 defendants in the case but had no plausible explanation of how they {got there or why they were brought to him. They turned out to be Kaiser files from the Sacramento office, including lsts and grlevance files. They were still in their hanging folders, indicating that they had been scooped out of file draws and dropped into boxes. These are just a small fraction of the files that were removed, and only one of the things we Intend to prove in court that they did to undercut the very members they now want to represent. We believe its important that members and staff have the facts about the Issues regarding the former leadership of UHW and we encourage you ta bring any questions you may have to your supervisors and leads. Have a great weekend, In Sobsarty, 610g Pullman Chiat of Stat SEIULUHW. 408 621 8715