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Indybay Feature

SEIU Wages War on Progressives

by Randy Shaw via Beyond Chron
Tuesday, November 17, 2009 : The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) held a boisterous picket line in San Francisco last night, but their chants targeted a surprising adversary: labor leaders and their political allies. While California Democratic Party Chair John Burton (labor’s greatest California ally), State Senator Mark Leno and leaders of UNITE HERE, the Sailors, Plumbers, Building Trades, and Police and Fire unions, were inside the Plumbers Union Hall honoring the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW), SEIU was outside denouncing NUHW – and by implication its supporters – as corrupt.
Last week, SEIU informed Burton that it would end its $1 million annual donation to the state Party unless he withdrew his support for NUHW, which he refused to do. SEIU’s threat to labor hero Burton, and its reported statement to the United Teachers of Los Angeles (sponsor of tonight’s NUHW fundraiser) that it would seek to organize charter school teachers in retaliation for UTLA’s pro-NUHW stance, reflects a union increasingly at odds with the labor movement. In July, 25 international union leaders condemned SEIU’s raids on UNITE HERE, and new AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka has since vowed to defend UNITE HERE against SEIU attacks. SEIU is now isolated, viewing fellow unions and pro-labor politicians as adversaries, and its scorched earth campaign against its former California health care leadership is coming at a steepening internal and political cost.

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Richard Mellor
Tue, Nov 24, 2009 11:00PM
truth-seeker
Sun, Nov 22, 2009 4:49PM
Rank and File
Sat, Nov 21, 2009 1:32AM
Anti-Stern
Tue, Nov 17, 2009 10:48PM
John Reimann
Tue, Nov 17, 2009 6:01PM
Rank-And-File member
Tue, Nov 17, 2009 3:02PM
THC employee
Tue, Nov 17, 2009 9:42AM
Rank and File SEIU
Tue, Nov 17, 2009 9:28AM
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