Politico: House committee requests probe of health care union’s spending

The House Committee on Education and the Workforce is calling for an investigation into “improper financial practices” by the union 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, citing recent reporting by POLITICO.

In a letter Thursday to a top federal labor official, committee Chair Tim Walberg (R-Mich.) expressed concern about “numerous troubling allegations” detailed in POLITICO’s investigation, which found union President George Gresham has for years used the organization’s funds to benefit himself, his family and political allies.

“These allegations regarding 1199SEIU’s expenditures on lavish travel, nepotistic arrangements, unexplained payouts to political allies, and concerts or events that do not benefit rank-and-file members, raise serious questions about whether the union and its officers have violated the law,” Walberg wrote in the letter to Office of Labor-Management Standards Director Elisabeth Messenger.

The nine-month investigation drew on the union’s self-reported financial disclosures to the U.S. Department of Labor, as well as interviews with more than 20 current and former employees, internal records reviewed by POLITICO and public social media posts.

A Labor Department spokesperson previously told POLITICO that the Office of Labor-Management Standards does not confirm or deny the existence of ongoing investigations, but is aware of the recent reporting on 1199SEIU.

The attention from Congress deepens pressure on the union’s top officers to explain its use of funds, which come from monthly dues payments by 450,000 health care workers across five East Coast states. Those members are in the process of voting by mail in the union’s first competitive leadership election since 1989, and the slate running to oust Gresham cites his financial stewardship as a key reason why he should not be reelected. Ballots are due by April 30.

You may read the full article at: https://www.politico.com/news/2025/04/17/house-committee-union-spending-probe-00295442.