Comments on: The Battle for Labor’s Soul

By: Father Gene Boyle

Father Gene Boyle — Thu, 29 May 2008 22:22:44 +0000

Here is part of the prayer I delivered to the State Assembly on the occasion of a commemoration of the birthday of Cesar Chavez:
Strengthen in us, O Lord, the conviction that effective labor unions, like ours, the United Farmworkers of America, AFL-CIO, are by far the most powerful force in society for the achievement and protection of workers’ rights and the improvement of their conditions; that no amount of employer benevolence, no campaign to achieve a sympathetic attitude on the part of the public, no increase of beneficial legislation, as helpful as all these are, can adequately substitute for organizational efforts on the part of workers themselves to achieve a living wage, adequate benefits, especially health insurance and decent working conditions. Never let us forget, O Lord, the word of Pope John Paul II that labor unions that organize workers as an independent force are indispensable in modern industrial society and enable us to spread that word far and wide.

By: steve

steve — Thu, 29 May 2008 02:59:39 +0000

dear tom

seiu is a dictaroship masquerading as a union, andy has done nothing but put staff stooges into trustee locals, then taken locals out of trusteeship then held elections. maybe you could tell everyone what does franchise local require

By: J Powel

J Powel — Thu, 29 May 2008 00:33:04 +0000

As Mr. Csekey has pointed out, there are two sides to every story, and then there is the truth. The truth is that SEIU’s current form of organizing is leaving the dues paying member with little or nothing to show for their investment. Mediocre representation, shoddy back door negtiations, no voice or local autonomy and certainly no confidence in the leadership at any level. Sterns “pack them in” mentality along with an ever increasing dues structure will ultimatley be the final nail in the coffin the labor movement

By: Clint Reilly

Clint Reilly — Wed, 28 May 2008 22:32:23 +0000

Tom – I have been following the Stern leadership since his election. I worked with Stern on an SEIU organizing campaign in the 1980′s when he was John Sweeney’s lieutenant. His disloyalty and disrespectful treatment of his mentor has troubled me.

In the beginning, I concurred with many of his criticisms of the lassitude of the labor movement and Democratic politics. It is a fact that Andy made much of labor’s need to grow its membership through aggressive organizing. The end product of a true organizing effort is an empowered worker – able to negotiate from a position of dignity and strength. Andy organizes via public relations and speeches instead of the hard confrontation necessary to win real power. Standing next to corporate chieftains reminds me of Cesar Chavez trading the successful – but difficult – tactics of strikes and boycotts for direct mail campaigns aimed a scaring off shoppers who lived near Safeway stores. Of course, it didn’t work. As soon as Chavez cashed in Marshall Ganz and real organizing campaigns for political consultant’s direct mail campaigns, the UFW faltered.

Stern has perfected the seductive language of global unionism. But is not the AFL-CIO a far better messenger for this message than a union leader who represents primarily public employees, janitors and health care workers whose interests are far more local and regional than national and international. The container ships full of goods from China that move through Long Beach and Oakland Ports to Wal-Marts around the country are not handled at all by Stern’s union. Sure the chairman of Wal-Mart wants Andy next to him. But what about the reality that free medical clinics or taxpayer facilities finance health care for Wal-Mart’s workers. Sweetheart deals with corporate America is a failed policy that only further diminishes the labor movement and workers at the same time. By trading the union’s political clout with democratic lawmakers for fictitious contracts with corporate health care providers, Stern misses one point. What happens when the workers and politicians both discover they’ve been had? At its core isn’t the soul of a union the justness of its cause?

Sal Rosselli gets that. Does Andy?

By: Tom Csekey

Tom Csekey — Wed, 28 May 2008 18:07:53 +0000

I am a long term Bay Area resident, who now resides in Los Angeles. If you are really interested in the issues of the debate it would behoove you to familiarize yourself with the other side as well. Also it is not a question of Andy versus Sal. It is a question of the democratic decisions taken by our National Convention, and our International Executive Board. Sal has voted for many of the deals that you are mentioning. It was not until it was time for him to move some of his members into another Local Union, that he developed a “conscience”. It is really Sal against the vast majority of the membership in SEIU. I am not sure you are interested in understanding the issues. Not sure why you got into the discussion in the first place.