Bosses at New York City’s most powerful union have been accused of using the n-word, wanting black employees locked out and demanding sex from subordinates, The Post has learned.
A black worker at 1199SEIU says HR staff told her her supervisor was “racist” and “very mean” — but couldn’t be fired because the boss liked her.
Another said a union vice president groped her while raising funds for disaster-stricken Puerto Rico.
Bosses were even accused of “retaliation” — firing workers who complained about supervisors at the union, who sent cash to Democrats.
The lawsuit was revealed in a series of lawsuits against Service Employees Local Union 1199 SEIU United Health Care Workers, better known as 1199 SEIU.
They fly in the face of ultra-progressive unions that preach “equality, justice and democracy.”
The union says it mobilizes “against injustice – racial, economic and environmental,” according to its website.
Two of the lawsuits were quietly settled.
The union tried to fire the third.
A black worker at 1199SEIU says HR staff told her her supervisor was “racist” and “very mean” — but couldn’t be fired because the boss liked her.Beriza Luciano/ LinkedIn
The case includes senior facilities manager Lance Mincey, who is suing the union’s Greater New York Employee Participation Fund in 2021.
She claims in court papers that supervisor Karen Kowalsky regularly belittled African American staff, and when Mincey was a new hire in 2015, told her not to befriend other black employees, whom she called “diaper heads” and described as illiterate.
He also showed him images of lynchings.
“You’re not like them,” Kowalsky said.
“You are wise and intelligent … Don’t believe the inappropriate.”
The claims were revealed in a series of lawsuits against Service Employees Local Union 1199 SEIU United Health Care Workers, best known as 1199 SEIU.1199seiu.org
A few months later, Kowalsky told Mincey that her job was “not working out” because she always favored staff members against her, according to the lawsuit, filed in federal court.
“She then told Mr. Mincey that she likes to keep her black cat and black dog in the house because the expressions on their faces are priceless,” court papers allege.
“More importantly, he said he wanted to lock black people into office in the same way. Mr Mincey was shocked by this outrageous statement but felt he had no one to refer to as he was his direct supervisor.”
Mincey also said that in June 2016, Kowalsky told her he wanted to be a “black clown” for Halloween but all the workers around him were already “black clowns and n—–rs.”
When Mincey got up to leave the room, Kowalsky allegedly warned her that he would “press charges against her.”
In court papers, supervisor Karen Kowalsky regularly belittled African American employees, and when Lance Mincey was a new hire in 2015, told him not to befriend other black employees. Pacer
When Mincey reported the remarks to the union’s human resources department, she was told “we all know he’s a racist, but he’s got support from his superiors and he’s very mean,” court papers said.
Mincey sued 1199 SEUI National Benefit Fund in 2021.
The union denied the allegations of racism, and the case was settled in August, according to court papers.
In another lawsuit, a woman who started working for the union in 2015 as an organizing member said a male supervisor “would regularly talk about her sex life and explain how many affairs she had during her marriage.”
Rene Ruiz, the union’s vice president, told Beriza Luciano that if she hadn’t had an affair with him, he “could make her look like [she] do not (sic) work well with others,” according to court papers, filed in November 2018.
Mincey said in June 2016, Kowalsky told her he wanted to be a “black clown” for Halloween but all the workers around him were already “black clowns.” Pacer
A few weeks later, at a fundraiser for Puerto Rico, “Ruiz approached her from behind and reached by her leg and attempted to grope Plaintiff Luciano by moving his hand up her skirt,” court papers said.
Luciano was later fired and when he went to the union’s human resources department to discuss the termination and report allegations of sexual harassment by Ruiz, he hoped the union would place him in another department, court papers said.
Instead, “defendants terminated Plaintiff because of her gender, because of her opposition to being sexually harassed, and because of her complaints about her treatment,” according to court papers.
Luciano settled the following year with the union, which denied allegations of sexual harassment. Ruiz is still SEIU’s vice president and earns more than $124,000, according to public records.
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“As one of the largest unions in the country, the allegations of sexual harassment and discrimination at SEIU’s 1199 are deeply troubling,” said Charlyce Bozzello, director of communications at the Center for Union Facts, a conservative nonprofit that acts as a union watchdog.
“Before hurling allegations against the employer, the union should put its own house in order.”
In another lawsuit, filed in 2020, a disability outreach coordinator who has worked for the union’s National Benefit Fund since 1988 claims she was fired in 2019 while on short-term disability, after she repeatedly asked for help with a medical condition.
Sean Raymond, who has a medical condition that makes it difficult for him to sit or stand for long periods of time, pleaded with his boss to help him comply with his doctor’s orders.
“The employer knew that his actions were wrong because they were against the employer’s own policy,” Raymond said in court papers.
The union denied the allegations, and filed for the case to be dismissed, but it is still ongoing.
“Two of the three lawsuits don’t involve 1199SEIU — it’s incorrect to say they were filed against the union,” a union representative told The Post. “1199SEIU is not involved in the case regarding Lance Mincey and Sean Raymond. The Fund is a separate employer and separate legal entity from the union. They were the Taft-Hartley plan to manage employee benefits and by law were controlled by an equal number of management and union trustees. Based on publicly available information, Mincey’s case was resolved, and Raymond’s case was partially dismissed. But 1199SEIU is not linked to these proceedings. The case against the union involving Ms. Luciano is no longer pending and unheard.”
The local, the largest in New York City, helped propel then-Public Advocate Bill de Blasio to two terms as mayor of New York, supported the ultra-liberal Maya Wiley in her bid to replace him and backed U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D- NY).
The local controls billions in assets held by the union itself and in eight separate funds run on behalf of hundreds of thousands of members, public records show.
The fund finances health care, job training, pensions and childcare.
But the union has ignored its lobbying attempts to invest some of that wealth in minority- and women-owned investment funds, and last month was blasted by New York civil rights leader Al Sharpton for its failure to support the group.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
