As anyone who has ever experienced it can tell you, there are few things in the modern world that can make you feel so powerless and compromised as having someone else steal your identity. The exposed feeling one gets when that someone else has been making purchases as you, racking up charges on your account, creating credit cards in your name, leaves people feeling violated and may take years to recover from-both in terms of credit ratings, and in emotional damage.

Unfortunately, that was exactly what happened to at least 300 Kaiser Permanente employees, and on a significant level. It appears that it wasn’t a vulnerability of the employer, but a member of the SEIU that committed the fraud:

Mia Garza was an employee of the SEIU United Healthcare Workers Union in 2007 when she took home a computer file containing the personal information of 29,500 Kaiser Permanente employees. Garza then went on a spending spree using the stolen identities of at least 300 victims. Items included a $1,000 pair of shoes, Gucci bags and a mail-order Yorkshire terrier.

Fortunately, justice prevailed, and Ms. Garza was apprehended. And in quite a compromising state as well:

Mia Garza was sentenced by the Honorable Gary Ransom to 12 years, 4 months in prison to run consecutive to a 2 year, 8 month prison sentence for charges in Contra Costa County. A hearing will be held in January to determine restitution, which is expected to exceed $1 million.
…
Garza’s most notable arrest occurred in Sacramento in 2009. When arrested, she was wearing a preoperative surgical gown and was about to undergo a $12,000 liposuction procedure that she had arranged while posing as a victim, and using a victim’s credit card information.

The idea of a union is to protect company employees from being abused and taken advantage of by the employer. In this story, there is a very clear reversal where the union employee is taking advantage of the union members. This is incredibly damaging for the SEIU, and should raise the eyebrows of union members everywhere. If a SEIU employee is able to merely walk out the door with a file with the personal information of over 29,500 employees, then all union members could also be at risk.

The SEIU needs to prioritize the safety of their employees data. In today’s world, it is increasingly important to protect sensitive personal information, and the SEIU cannot effectively make the case that it is protecting worker’s rights if it cannot even effectively protect their private information. We encourage the SEIU to inspect their methods for data management and ensure that a situation like this never occurs again.