Philadelphia, Pa.—With workers at Philadelphia’s largest LGBT health-care facility scheduled to vote Sept.
13 on whether to join SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania, the clinic’s management dumped a union-busting consultant it had hired after it was linked to repeated homophobic and transphobic comments on social media, as well as claims that the neo-Nazi violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, was staged. The Mazzoni Center terminated its contract with Creative Solutions and Visions in late August, after the Florida-based firm was revealed to own USA First 4 Ever, a white-nationalist blog. Mazzoni hired Creative Solutions after workers confronted interim CEO Steve Glassman at a community forum Aug. 10 and demanded recognition of the union. R. Perry Monastero, Mazzoni’s director of development and marketing, told Philadelphia Weekly in an email that “while we believe that the consultants who were onsite did an excellent job of educating our employees,” management had “received reports that Creative Solutions may have political beliefs that do not align with our organizational goals.” The weekly said multiple employees had confirmed that the contract was only terminated after “heated exchanges” between staff and management. Mazzoni has hired another “union avoidance” firm, the Labor Relations Institute. Read more
