A discussion with SEIU's Andy Stern

by Brian Leubitz [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

This afternoon, I had the chance to sit down with a Andy Stern, president of SEIU International, and a few other bloggers. We talked about a number of things, a couple of which directly affect the labor movement in California.  Before we get to those more controversial elements, I'll address some of the great political work.

First of all, there's the They Work for Us and similar efforts.  SEIU was critical in Donna Edwards' victory over Al Wynn in MD-04. They are doing a good job of pushing the issues, rather than the candidates.  As Stern put it, you don't seal the deal by getting certified as the union after a long organization campaign, you have to get the contract.  Following up on our issues is the contract. If we don't follow up, we have really gained nothing.  Follow me over the flip...
But there were other issues to be discussed. First, we spent quite a bit of time on an organization effort at Catholic health partners(CHP) in Ohio.  The California Nurses Association got involved right before a scheduled vote, and the election ended up being pulled because of biases developed during a two-week pre-election campaign-free period. Here's CNA's take on it.  At the meeting, an RN from CHP talked to us about the disappointment that many CHP workers felt when the election was called.  CNA is clearly losing the PR war on this one, and I must say, I don't really get the tactics.  From what the RN said, CHP put up quite a substantial struggle, and through community and worker organizing, SEIU was able to get an election.  I hope that the CHP workers are eventually able to finish their organization.

To another issue: the concerns raised by UHW.  To be clear, these are real issues that cannot be explained away in five minutes. Rosselli argues that growth without standards doesn't serve their members in the best way.  Stern, for his part, argues that strength comes through numbers.  He uses UAW as his example: they had the Big 3 automakers all organized with high standards. Yet with the rise of the Japanese automakers, unorganized plants offered the same pay rate without the accompanying benefits.  And eventually the big 3 slowly shift down to the un-organized levels. Stern makes the point that organizing all workers IS in the ultimate interest of SEIU's members.  Ultimately, this is a very similar issue as the AFL-CIO and Change2Win dispute.

This long-running dispute is not the only issue. There's still the issue of organizing internationally, locally, and the democratic decisions related to that.  All parties acknowledge that union members feel the strongest connection to their own locals. When members engage, they tend to engage with their locals.  Stern points out that these corporations are national or international, and thus must be dealt with nationally or internationally. In the age of globalization, this issue isn't going away.

I'm hopeful that the conflict can be dealt with in a civilized and professional manner. The questions and disputes will almost certainly continue as they are issues of principle, but the labor movement will be better off if labor is united.