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Fifth Official Outed From SEIU After Sexual Abuse Allegation

Reuters/Mike Segar

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Tim Pearce Energy Reporter
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A fifth Service Employees International Union (SEIU) official in recent weeks has been outed from the union due to allegations of sexual misconduct, harassment or abuse.

Pedro Malave was dismissed from management positions at two local SEIU unions in California last week. The action came directly after the labor website Payday Report questioned the groups about hiring Malave, who allegedly assaulted a woman in 2008 and 2014 while working as the assistant director of an SEIU district office in the Northeast, according to Payday Report.

“SEIU USWW has zero tolerance for sexual harassment or sexual violence, and had we had prior knowledge of any misconduct or harassment allegations against Mr. Malave, we would never have hired him,” one of the local SEIU unions in California told Payday Report in a statement. “SEIU USWW was not aware of the allegations against Pedro Malave until we received [Payday Report’s] email. Pedro’s employment with USWW has been terminated.”

The SEIU has now purged five officials, including Executive Vice President Scott Courtney, for varying degrees of sexual transgressions. The union has created an external advisory group to help investigate instances of sexual harassment, BuzzFeed News reports.

Malave was able to land other jobs in SEIU, despite officials believing the account of sexual abuse was “accurate.” Daria Alladio, the alleged victim, pushed the SEIU to put the abuse allegation on Malave’s permanent union record, but union officials refused or failed to do so, according to Payday Report.

“More than being upset about what happened with Pedro, I was really frustrated with how SEIU handled the situation,” Alladio told Payday.

“My fear is that he has continued his predator behavior,” Alladio added. “It doesn’t seem like he is going to stop, so my fear is that he is working with undocumented women, women who cannot speak English, women who are not going to come forward out of fear, and they are basically his ideal prey.”

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