Andrew Stern departs the SEIU now weakened by infighting and expenses

The Washington Post reports:

In 2008 and 2009, SEIU sent hundreds of its officials to California to wage a turf war with a big breakaway chapter, spending $2.5 million each year on hotels in the state, a fivefold increase from 2007. In Fresno alone, the organization spent more than $300,000 on lodging before narrowly winning an election over dissident leaders.

The battle in California also helped drive up the union's legal costs last year by 64 percent to more than $11 million, a bill that also reflected a separate showdown with the hotel and restaurant workers union and the fallout from corruption allegations involving several Stern loyalists.

Other expenditures in 2008 and 2009 include a $17,000 bulk purchase of Stern's book; $46,000 to a little-known Hollywood actor for "public persona development" of SEIU officials; and $1 million to a filmmaker who made a movie about SEIU.

Stern and other SEIU officials vigorously defend the union's $300 million budget. They note that the organization improved its finances last year, bringing them into the range of other high-spending unions. And they say they needed to expend money on the internal battles to protect the union from people who sought to weaken it from within.

Union corruption.