John Ransom
Racketeering Charges against SEIU; What Does Obama Know?
Email John Ransom | Columnist's Archive Sign-Up United States District Judge Claude Hilton, acting in the eastern district of Virginia, has ruled that the French-based food service and facilities management company Sodexo can proceed with an extortion claim against the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).

The SEIU, which has strong ties to the Obama administration, has been accused of using ties to the federal government to harass companies such as Sodexo. The alleged methods include using regulatory or government action to pressure or embarrass the company or its employees.

As shown by recent action taken by the National Labor Relations Board, including proposed rules to steamroll union organizing over company opposition and the fight to kill non-union jobs created by Boeing, the administration is not adverse to flexing it’s union muscles at the federal level.

Sodexo, which operates as a contractor in government facilities, military bases, schools and hospitals, says that the SEIU tried to “extort [the company] by threatening financial damage unless [it] cave[d] into its demands. The SEIU's campaign was designed to illegally threaten [the] company.â€