SEIU Member Freaks Union Out with Transparency Lawsuit

One courageous member of the powerful state-employee union, SEIU Local 1000, is challenging the way they do business, trying to make public the union’s financial records.

Miriam Noujaim, who works for the DMV, is fighting the state’s largest union with a petition filed with the state to get permission to review and copy the last two years of the union’s travel and expense records. Her request is primarily designed for her to peruse expense account statements and reimbursement requests for President Yvonne Walker and three underlings. If she gets her way, Noujaim will have her attorney, Mark Goudy, in the room while she studies the documents.

The lawsuit filed by Noujaim cites public records revealing that Local 1000 gathered $58 million in revenue in 2011 but used $3.25 million of the total for travel. The records show that in 2012, the union accrued $62 million in revenue and spent $5.21 million on travel. The lawsuit alleges, “Some of the travel expenditures have been to send (union) board members to China” as well as other trips not connected to work.

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