Hospital union makes $40,000 political play

The mayoral campaigns will have to wait on the Ohio Elections Commission to decide whether a labor union's $40,389 expenditure in support of Mark Mallory violated any campaign finance laws.

But legal or illegal, the $40,389 from the Service Employees International Union District 1199 is an unprecedented amount for a single labor union to spend on a Cincinnati race. Especially for a union whose last contribution to a Cincinnati candidate was a $150 donation to Alicia Reece in 2001.

So why is SEIU so interested in Cincinnati politics all of the sudden?

Organizers say the Mallory support is part of a statewide push to elect labor-friendly mayors in Ohio, including Jack Ford in Toledo, Frank Jackson in Cleveland and Robert F. Hagan in Youngstown. In Cincinnati, the union has also endorsed Democrat Damon Lynch III for City Council.

"First of all, our members are very serious about beginning a process of electing folks who care about the working people of Cincinnati, Ohio," said Scott Courtney, the executive vice president of SEIU District 1199 in Columbus. "If you look at the two candidates, David Pepper is a millionaire who has a long history of supporting special corporate interests, and Mark Mallory has a long history of standing up for working folks. It was a pretty easy decision, frankly."

The SEIU is one of several unions that broke off from the AFL-CIO Labor Council in July, saying the labor federation was focusing too much on politics and not enough on organizing new members. But Courtney said the endorsement was not linked to any specific organizing campaign or issue.

Pepper said that's exactly what the endorsement was about. He said Courtney asked him directly to support an SEIU organization campaign at a major Cincinnati hospital -- something Pepper said he wouldn't commit to as a condition of endorsement.

"His statement seemed to forget the conversation I had with the leaders of that group. They had one priority -- one issue, and only one -- that would determine who they supported," Pepper said. "He couldn't have been more direct about the interests they had in Cincinnati. Apparently it's important enough to them that they would put $40,000 behind that issue."

SEIU District 1199 represents about 2,500 health care and social service workers in the Cincinnati area, but is one of the most aggressive and fastest-growing unions in the country. It is aggressively attempting to organize hospitals operated by Cincinnati-based Catholic Healthcare Partners throughout the country -- and in Cincinnati. Locally, the hospital chain runs Mercy Hospital Mount Airy, Mercy Hospital Western Hills, Mercy Hospital Anderson, Mercy Hospital Clermont and Mercy Hospital Fairfield.

Organizers for the Service Employees International Union District 1199 demonstrate at the Catholic Healthcare Partners corporate office downtown in April. The union's attempts to organize local hospitals may be behind its support of Mark Mallory in the mayoral campaign. (Photo by Michael E. Keating/The Cincinnati Enquirer)