Texas SEIU Declares Bankruptcy To Avoid Judgment

Remember when a Houston jury smacked Texas SEIU with a $5.3 million judgment for filing false claims in their unionization campaign against Professional Janitorial Service?

Well this weekend Texas SEIU declared bankruptcy:

The Service Employees International Union in Texas filed for bankruptcy protection over the weekend, three months after a jury in Harris County hit it with a $5.3 million judgment.

Jurors in the 9-year-old case determined the union’s aggressive organizing campaign maligned Professional Janitorial Service, a commercial cleaning company.

The Texas branch of the nation’s second-largest labor union filed the bankruptcy petition Saturday in federal court in Corpus Christi. The union also filed notice with the Harris County court hearing the case that the bankruptcy petition will prevent the janitorial company from taking possession of property belonging to the union.

Since the jury’s decision in September, damages in the case have grown to $7.8 million when $2.5 million of interest was added.

The state-wide union, which has headquarters in Houston, warned that the judgment would put the group into a dire financial situation.

The head of Professional Janitorial Service says the SEIU’s plan to avoid judgment won’t work:

Brent Southwell, the CEO of the janitorial company, said it plans to continue seeking information from the union to ensure that it is not hiding money to dodge the jury award. He said the company could pursue action against the union’s national office, which has more than 1.5 million members, if the Texas branch is not able to pay the judgment.

“The SEIU won’t escape its fate after attacking my company,” Southwell said in a press release. “We will keep this process going for as long as the SEIU wants, first by making them reveal their secrets and then by making the union’s Washington, D.C., office pay for its sins.”

The union’s national office did not return a request for comment about the lawsuit or the resulting bankruptcy.

SEIU Texas was formed by workers from the Chicago-based SEIU Local 1, which sent organizers to the state to rally employees in the janitorial and service sectors to join the union. Those organizers waged a three-year organizing campaign to pressure PJS into accepting card check unionization rather than a secret ballot election organized by the National Labor Relations Board, the top federal labor arbiter. The union filed 19 unfair labor practice complaints to the NLRB over the course of its campaign, a popular delaying and pressure tactic utilized by union organizers. All of those complaints were dismissed or withdrawn.

Remember: Unions couldn’t even ram card check down America’s throat when they held the House, Senate and White House. With Republicans now firmly in charge, it’s deader than Jimmy Hoffa…

(Hat tip: Ace of Spades HQ.)

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