Recall effort ends against SEIU leader

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on September 08, 2008 at 11:45 AM, updated September 08, 2008 at 12:01 PM

An effort to recall Joe DiNicola, the embattled president of Oregon state government's largest union, has fallen short.

Leaders of the recall campaign say they weren't able to gather enough signatures to force a recall vote against DiNicola, who heads Salem-based Local 503 of Service Employees International Union. The recall started after DiNicola tried to claim nearly $110,000 in back pay for overtime. The union denied the claim, saying he wasn't entitled to overtime but DiNicola continued to pursue it in court.

Organizers collected 5,281 signatures, more than 600 short of the 5,920 they needed to force a recall election. Still, they claimed a victory of sorts, saying that it showed the depth of unhappiness with the union president. In addition, they said they decided to quit gathering signatures in part because they don't want to conflict with the upcoming election of a new slate of officers.

I'm running the news release from recall leaders after the jump.

To Signature Gathering Union Sisters & Brothers:

This memo is probably the last word regarding our recall efforts to protect SEIU 503 from the ineffective leadership and greed of the out-going president.

Attached are: the cover letter submitted with the signed petitions, the "official" SEIU count of the signatures submitted, a copy of our news release, and a copy of the Official SEIU results of the 2006 election for Statewide Officers, revealing that the current 503 President was elected with only 2,688 votes.

Many petitioners have questioned why we handed in the 5,281 petition signatures (2,593 MORE signatures to recall than voted to elect the incumbent) to SEIU, even though we knew we did not have enough signatures to trigger a recall election. Below are some of our reasons:

* We wanted the implicit contract between signature gatherers and those members who signed to be honored.

* As ballots for statewide officers will be mailed out in less than two weeks, we wished to avoid any confusion that might result from continuing the recall effort during the election of new officers.

* Given that SEIU 503 is growing at such a rapid pace, we could not keep up with the ever-growing number of signatures needed to satisfy the 20% of members-eligible-to-vote requirement. Moreover, many of the early signatures would not be counted as the signers died, retired or transferred to management. The required number of validatedsignatures jumped from 5,200 to 5,400 to 5,900 in just this calendaryear.

* Despite several attempts to "rally the troops" and other attempts to recruit fresh signature gatherers, we found that most members were not interested in spending their own limited time and dime to get the job done.

* Our efforts to get realistic recall language adopted by the Board of Directors and the General Council failed for lack of understanding and the never-ending legal concerns.

When in SEIU 503 history have members done so much for so long without an "official" 503 game plan? This is truly history for SEIU 503. And without the requisite pizza! To date, there were at least 65 individuals who gathered more than 10 signatures. And dozens who provided hundreds! The sheer number is a strong message about members' loyalty to SEIU 503 as their Union!

There is no way to credit so many who did so much for so long to get us over the 5,200 mark. Despite the bad times, the good prevailed! Thank-you to each and every one who gathered signatures and to each and every one who signed! Please share this mailing with your co-workers who signed.