Michigan’s Service Employee International Union (SEIU) has confirmed it has removed two top officials from their positions amid an investigation into a large amount of money missing from the organization’s treasury.
The 9,000-member healthcare workers union announced that Union President Marge Robinson and the union’s secretary-treasurer Shalaya Bryant were summarily removed from office while the investigation into the missing funds continues.
The union refused to put a dollar amount on the missing money, but it is clearly substantial since the two well-known, and active officers of the union were removed from office.
“The union took steps to bring in trustees at the local and launch a pretty expansive investigation into what could have been going on here,” union trustee Inga Skippings told Fox 2.
The union said that the missing funds came to light after a whistleblower came forward to reveal abuse in the union’s vacation and financial loan policies.
“In 30 days there will be a hearing that lays out the findings, it will be open to the membership and we think about the next steps from there,” Skippings added.
SEIU secretary treasurer Shalaya Bryant earns an annual salary plus benefits of $103,493 a year, according to records. Margaret Robinson, though, earns far and away more than that as president of the Michigan chapter of the SEIU. Robinson takes in $209,889 annually according to records.
The Michigan SEIU lost 80 percent of its membership in recent years, due mainly to the state putting an end to the automatic skimming of union dues from healthcare workers’ paychecks, a law giving workers the first opportunity they’ve ever had to determine on their own if they wish to be union members or not.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com.