Save Our Unions

Whenever I get a chance to alert people to a new publication that I believe is important to the future of the labor movement, I try to take it. Allow me to recommend Save Our Unions. 

Save Our Unions is the forthcoming book by veterans labor journalist Steve Early.  Early is a longtime labor activist, former staffer of many years with the Communication Workers of America, as well as the author of Embedded With Organized Labor, and Civil Wars in U.S. Labor.

In Save Our Unions, Early explores the history and future of rank-and-file movements in the labor movement as a whole, expounding on his thorough coverage of the rank-and-file struggle against SEIU in California in Civil Wars.

I've been perusing the advanced preview I was fortunate enough to get my hands on(one of the few perks in this labor of love) and I simply cannot wait until it hits the shelves.  Save Our Unions will be a godsend to any activist member, reformer, or anyone who just wants their union to act like a union and not just a lighter version of management.  This book will light a fire under you and get you ready to take your union back!

Until Save Our Unions hits the shelves, I recommend checking out Steve Early's last two books that are must reads for anyone who cares about the labor movement. You can find them here:

http://www.haymarketbooks.org/pb/The-Civil-Wars-in-US-Labor

http://embeddedwol.blogspot.com/

In Solidarity,

Joseph Riedel

Change to Win - An Island of Two?

Mike Elk scored a huge scoop this past weekend, reporting that UFCW will vote to rejoin the AFL-CIO after its upcoming convention in August.

You can read Mike's full story at In These Times.

When I covered LIUNA's decision to return to the AFL-CIO back in 2010, I interviewed James Williams, President of the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades(IUPAT) to get his opinion on LIUNA's return.  One of my main inquiries was regarding whether the AFL-CIO should require LIUNA to pay back per capita as a condition of rejoining the federation.  My feeling back then was that not requiring some form of repayment would make it attractive for unions to leave the federation to avoid per capita for a time if they ran into financial trouble.  The union could then hypothetically rejoin the AFL-CIO without any penalty.

As Mike Elk reports in his story,

Details of the negotiations between the UFCW and AFL-CIO are unknown at this time. However, inside sources say the AFL-CIO is likely to offer the UFCW some sort of deal, such as a discount on dues, as motivation to rejoin.

I understand that having UFCW back in the fold is more important o the AFL-CIO than some back per capita taxes, but it doesn't exactly set a good precedent going forward.

The larger implication for the labor movement is that Change to Win can't really be looked at as a labor coalition or federation anymore.  However, I am floating a few new name ideas for the two remaining unions.  How about Steamsters, or SEI-2.  They could make t-shirts saying Purple and Black Attack.

Although the return of UFCW will certainly get people wondering if SEIU and the Teamsters will rejoin the AFL-CIO, I don't foresee that happening any time soon, with different reasons for each organization.

The departure of the Teamsters was almost entirely about two things: 1) money and 2)money. Also 3)Article 20.  The Teamsters are in deep with their pension plan, and I don't see them willingly adding more per capita taxes when they don't even have a way to pay for their own pension fund 20 years from now.  They also still like to raid other unions, which Article 20 prohibits.  It would be something to see the Machinists and Teamsters under the same roof again.

I could actually picture SEIU coming back to the AFL-CIO before the Teamsters.  SEIU has the money for per capita, and rejoining the AFL-CIO could be used as a strategic way of blocking the National union of Healthcare Workers(NUHW) from organizing more members, as NUHW is now affiliated with CNA, and therefore subject to Article 20, which prohibits raiding other AFL-CIO member unions.

However this hashes out, this will be an interesting year in the House of Labor.

In Solidarity,

Joseph

NUHW-CNA: A Real Match Made In Heaven

Some time ago, I wrote about the proposed affiliation between the International Association of Machinists(IAM) and the National Union of HealthCare Workers(NUHW).  While that proposed partnership never came to fruition, NUHW and the California Nurses Association(CNA) recently made their affiliation public.

I always held the opinion that CNA was a much better fit for an affiliation with NUHW than the Machinists, for various reasons.  The most obvious is that CNA is a healthcare union that would help bridge the gap between organizing professional and non-professional employees.  The partnership with NUHW sort of fills the doughnut hole, if you will. Secondly, as much as IAM would have liked to assist NUHW in the upcoming Kaiser election re-runs, I don't believe they would have brought as much to the table as CNA does.

For NUHW, this partnership brings two very big benefits:

1. By affiliating with an AFL-CIO member union, NUHW is protected by Article 20 of the AFL-CIO constitution.  Article 20 protects member organizations from being raided by other AFL-CIO affiliated unions.  While this won't help to keep SEIU from trying to raid their chapters, it is one less thing to worry about.  On a side note, I believe this clause makes the split between SEIU and the AFL-CIO almost permanent.

2. This partnership will bring much needed resources to NUHW in their ongoing struggle against SEIU.  They will certainly need CNA's organizing and financial assistance if they hope to have a chance to be victorious in the Kaiser fight.

I believe that this is a pivotal moment in the history of the American labor movement.  The Kaiser election will help to shape the direction of the labor movement for years to come.  Only time will tell which way it will go.

In Solidarity,

Joseph

The Great Disappearing Act

No, I'm not referring to Candidate Obama, or Medicare under Paul Ryan's budget.

I'm referring to the phenomenon that occurs with the staff of labor organizations every time there is an election.  If you are a union member, have you ever noticed that your union representation becomes as hard to find as a unicorn during election season?  The local office is as empty as a church on Sunday morning - unless it is being used as a campaign office.

 

The reason for this is one of the worst kept secrets in the world of organized labor.  Every election cycle, in direct conflict with FEC law, union staff are forced to "volunteer" for whoever the Democratic candidate happens to be.  In presidential election cycles, this can start as early as September, and in mid-term or special elections, it can start in October.

I experienced this firsthand during my time with a certain purple entity during the Senate Bill 5/Issue 2 election.  Instead of representing our members as we should have, we were required to work exclusively out of a campaign office.  Everything else became secondary, unless you had an actual arbitration hearing.  In full disclosure, the S.B. 5 recall was somewhat justified, as it directly affected almost a third of the members of our local who were state employees.  However this is commonplace in presidential and statewide races where this is not the case. So, if you happen to have a contract that might be coming up for negotiation, it might be a little concerning if all of the sudden, everyone is off doing political work instead of representing members. 

This is not limited to SEIU.  This is standard procedure with virtually every major labor union, with the exception of the United Electrical Workers(UE) and the National Union of HealthCare Workers(NUHW),  who prefer direct action to wasting its time with PACs.

I'm not saying the unions should not be involved in the political realm.  It is necessary and important, as elected officials have direct influence on the livelihood of union members.  What I am saying is that a union's involvement in politics should not come at the expense of member representation, which is almost always the case.

In Solidarity,

Joseph

What Closed Door Bargaining Actually Looks Like

The National Union of HealthCare Workers released a copy of the tentative agreements(TA's) reached by Kaiser Permanente and the Coalition of KP Unions - an organization almost completely controlled by SEIU.

This document shows exactly what happens when your union turns away from militant action and operates on a business model: They essentially become part of the company itself.

I recommend checking this out:

http://www.nuhw.org/storage/doc/documents/Annotated_TAs.pdf

In Solidarity,

Joseph

SEIU 25th International Convention

This coming week in Denver, SEIU will hold its 25th convention.  This will be the first convention since the largest hostile takeover in labor history, the illegal, and ill-planned trusteeship of United HealthCare West, which sparked the National Union of Healthcare workers.

For anyone who remembers the 2009 convention(for the record, I was not there, as I was not yet on staff at SEIU), the tension and infighting was palpable, as the leaders of UHW and their allies fought in vain to place checks and balances against these trusteeships based on personal vendettas. 

I implore any member who is a delegate to fight for internal democracy reforms, especially with respect to internal elections and trusteeships.   Most locals have stacked their delegate rosters with paid staff members and appointed members who will automatically vote whichever way the local president tells them.  

For example, of UHW's approximately 105 delegates, 43 were either members appointed as delegates without receiving any votes, or are officers who are delegates by virtue.  
Those who do not vote how they are told are not invited back to subsequent conventions, and run the risk of having internal elections rigged against them - but I digress...

If you are a member who is attending the upcoming convention, I am covering the events on The Virtual Picket Line.  I am looking for someone to send me a copy of the proposed SEIU constitutional amendments and resolutions.  If you might be able to send me this information, please send me an email at unionanswers@gmail.com

At least this convention, delegates won't have to be bussed in because the international raided the largest public sector union in Puerto Rico like 2009.

In Solidarity,

Joseph

Labor's New Odd Couple, Or A Match Made In Heaven?

There is the familiar old adage, politics makes strange bedfellows.  The recent announcement that the NationalUnion of Healthcare Workers (NUHW) and the International Association of Machinistsand Aerospace Workers (IAM) are discussing a possible affiliation may have some people reworking that statement to include the labor movement.   

Like many in the labor community, I have to admit I was puzzled when I first heard of this possible partnership.  Why would an independent union of healthcare workers who are locked in an epic struggle against what is arguably the most undemocratic union in modern labor history consider teaming up with a union that has no history of representing healthcare workers, and frankly, has had its own issues in the past with internal democracy?

            According to John Borsos (Vice-President of NUHW), “IAM shares NUHW’s vision to build a national healthcare union.”  The fact that IAM is not involved in healthcare is seen as something of a plus to NUHW, as Borsos believes this will afford his organization a greater level of autonomy.  Of course, all of these issues are yet to be hammered out by the two unions, and any affiliation would be subject to approval by the respective memberships. 

So why would NUHW choose IAM over another independent union, such as the United ElectricalWorkers (UE) or another healthcare union like the California Nurses Association(CNA)?  While Borsos confirmed that there were other suitors who showed interest in NUHW, he declined to confirm specific organizations who expressed interest. 

While detractors will likely speculate that the NUHW-IAM alliance is based solely on the fact that NUHW needs resources for the upcoming rerun of the Kaiser Permanente elections, it is important to point out that if there were the case, why wouldn’t NUHW just affiliate with Unite Here, who, according to the Department of Labor, gave NUHW $4.8 million in 2010?  When asked about what kind of support IAM would be giving NUHW in the upcoming elections, Borsos would only say that IAM would be offering assistance – “Both financial and otherwise.” 

While there is no question that NUHW will benefit greatly from this alliance, it should be pointed out that IAM will also benefit from its willingness to consider an affiliation with this upstart democratic union.  If they are committed to making their union more democratic, then this affiliation could be a step in the right direction.  While some may view this as the labor movement’s current version of the odd couple, skeptics should at the very least applaud the willingness of IAM to take on the purple monster, which is something that most unions have not had the intestinal fortitude to do thus far.   

(SEIU did not respond to repeated requests for comment on this story)

Book Review: Civil Wars In U.S. Labor by Steve Early

 

Ever since Florence Reese wrote the lyrics to Which Side Are You On? in 1931, that question has been posed between labor and the bosses. With his latest offering, The Civil Wars in U.S. Labor, Steve Early will have workers and activists asking themselves where they stand in the labor movement.

In Civil Wars, Early, who is a well known critic of SEIU’s lack of internal democracy, meticulously dissects the various internal issues that have plagued the organization over the last several years. At the same time he also gives a historical background to provide adequate context for the reader to understand where the problems originated. Early discusses the failure of the MAC (Member Action Center) Call Centers in a chapter that is humorously titled, Dial 1-800-My-Union? The MAC line was a running joke during my time as an SEIU Organizer with District 1199 in West Virginia, as it consisted of an answering machine and an email being sent to the organizer to fix whatever issue had been reported.

While Civil Wars gives a very detailed account of the hostile takeover of United Healthcare West that led to the formation of NUHW (National Union of Healthcare Workers), Early also points out that while this trusteeship is by far the most publicized and biggest action by SEIU, it is certainly not the first. Early explains how Andy Stern crushed dissent in other locals by forcing their members into other locals who were either already under trusteeship, or under the leadership of Stern loyalists.

Early does not end his coverage of SEIU’s woes with internal issues. In a section titled How EFCA Died for ObamaCare, Early explains how SEIU burrowed into a position of influence inside the Obama administration and effectively elbowed out other unions. This is something that has put even more stress on the already fractured relationship SEIU has with the rest of big labor.

As a former SEIU staffer, I found myself cringing as I read Civil Wars, much as many rock stars must have cringed watching Spinal Tap for the first time. I believe this book should be required reading, not only for members of SEIU, who will find Civil Wars to be a disturbing peek behind the purple curtain, but also for anyone who cares about the future of the labor movement.  I found Civil Wars to be a disturbing validation of what I experienced firsthand as an organizer with SEIU.  The chickens have finally come home to roost after twenty years of shifting from a grassroots democratic union into a top-down bureaucratic corporation that places a higher value on political influence than it does on member representation.  

Civil Wars offers a unique look inside the challenging proposition facing NUHW that is all too familiar for IWW members – surviving as an independent union.  Among the major labor organizations in the United States, only a few, namely IWW and the United Electrical Workers(UE) have survived over the long-term.  NUHW’s recent partnership with the Machinists(IAM) demonstrates just how difficult it can be.

While Early focuses on SEIU, the issues that are raised in Civil Wars are faced by members in many other unions. When unions begin to look more like the corporations they are supposed to be fighting than the militant, democratic voice for workers that they are meant to be, it is only natural that the battle lines will begin to form, as Civil Wars clearly shows.

The real question Early seems to be asking is, very simply, Which Side Are You On?

Changing of the Guard at the SEIU

With the retirement of Andy Stern, the SEIU has several choices to make as to which direction the largest labor union in the United States will take. Mary Kay Henry has several big organizational questions to answer as the new head of the SEIU:

Will she attempt to reunite the labor movement through reconciliation with the AFL-CIO?

Will Henry be able to return the SEIU back to it's roots as a miltant voice for low-wage workers?

A more in depth analysis by In These Times after the jump:

http://inthesetimes.com/article/5980/the_new_face_of_seiu