SEIU Local 87 Tied to Anti-ICE Riots Hired Sex Offender to Top Role

The SEIU labor union’s San Francisco chapter hired a convicted sex offender to a top position after she served jail time for child sexual abuse at a California high school with four underage boys.

The House Education and Workforce Committee just sent a letter Monday to SEIU Local 87, a San Francisco labor union which hired Noelia Linares, the convicted sex offender, as a business agent.

According to the Daily Caller:

The “pro-Democrat labor union’s San Francisco chapter hired an admitted sex offender to a top position after she served jail time for child sexual abuse at a California high school.”

“Noelia Linares, a business agent at SEIU Local 87, pleaded “no contest” in 2018 to sex crimes involving a minor. The plea stems from a 2017 arrest, according to documents obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation. Linares’ group is part of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), a national organization that backs Democratic political campaigns and helps migrant workers avoid deportation.”

As a union with more than 2 million members, many of whom interface with school-aged children, Chairman Tim Walberg (R-MI) expressed concern about the union’s hiring practices and whether legislative action is needed.

The local Daily Journal reported in 2018 Linares was arrested for sexual misconduct with four underage male students, and was charged with five felonies and three misdemeanors according to the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office. The charges included sexual penetration by a foreign object, oral copulation on a child under 18, distributing and showing pornography to a minor and unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor, according to prosecutors.

However, prosecutors dropped six of Linares’ charges in exchange for her pleading no contest to two others in 2018, according to court records, the Daily Caller found. Ms. Linares was convicted of sexual penetration by foreign object, a felony, and child molesting, a misdemeanor, serving one year in jail and nearly three years of probation until it was terminated in May 2021.

Chairman Walberg said in the letter addressed to Olga Miranda, President, Service Employees International Union, Local 87:

The Committee on Education and Workforce (Committee) is continuing to investigate the hiring practices of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and its locals with respect to the hiring of registered sex offenders. In July, the Committee began its investigation of the SEIU and its locals after it learned that SEIU Local 87 (Local 87) employs a registered sex offender as one of its business agents. Given the vulnerable populations many SEIU workers serve, this seems especially inappropriate, and the Committee seeks to understand how this occurred and whether reforms to the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (LMRDA) are necessary.

Ms. Linares is now on California’s sex offender registry with a crime description of sex penetration with foreign object of a victim under 18 years of age. By the time of Ms. Linares’ hiring by Local 87 in 2022, her crimes had been reported by press outlets, thereby providing you, as Local 87’s president, with notice that Local 87 was hiring a sex offender to serve as one of its officers.

Chairman Walberg said he wrote to SEIU President April Verrett in June to investigate the hiring practices of SEIU and its locals with respect to the hiring of registered sex offenders. “While SEIU provided a response to the Committee related to the national union’s practices, it did not provide any of the information the Committee requested about SEIU’s locals.”

Not receiving a satisfactory response, Chairman Walberg said, the Committee is expanding its investigation to locals that have demonstrated a lapse in judgement by hiring a registered sex offender.

Because Local 87 hired Ms. Linares and continues to list her as an officer on its website, the House Education and Workforce Committee seeks information from the SEIU.

Specifically, the committee asked for:

1. The number of Local 87 employees who are registered sex offenders and their positions within Local 87.

2. The policies and procedures of Local 87 for determining whether a job applicant is a registered sex offender.

3. The policies and procedures of Local 87 when it becomes aware that an employee has been ordered to register as a sex offender.

4. SEIU’s website highlights that it is “the second largest union of public service employees with more than 1 million local and state government workers, public school employees, bus drivers, and child care providers—including 80,000 early learning and child care professionals.”9 Given the role of Ms. Linares as a business agent, provide the specific procedures that Local 87 uses to ensure that she is not provided access to vulnerable populations during the performance of her duties.

As the Daily Caller notes, SEIU helped spark protests in Los Angeles that led to days of rioting after one of its leaders was arrested for allegedly obstructing immigration raids with supporters. SEIU has spent millions of dollars supporting Democratic candidates including former President Barack Obama, and former Vice President Kamala Harris’ failed presidential campaign.