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SEIU-UHW Stands for Justice

by Mike Rhodes (mikerhodes [at] comcast.net)
Service Employees International Union - United Healthcare Workers West (SEIU-UHW) is under attack. This article is about the reasons behind the attack and how it will affect workers in Fresno.
seiu.jpg
SEIU-UHW Stands for Justice
By Mike Rhodes

Organized labor in Fresno faces significant challenges as residents celebrate Labor Day 2008. Service Employees International Union - United Healthcare Workers West (SEIU-UHW) is now the largest and most influential union in Fresno County. SEIU-UHW is the “local” affiliate of SEIU - International, which is the largest and fastest growing union in the country. But, the rapid pace of growth has not been easy for SEIU. The local (SEIU-UHW), with approximately 10,000 workers in Fresno County and150,000 workers statewide, is under attack. The attack is not only coming from corporations that would like to weaken organized labor’s influence at the workplace, but by the International, which would like to dismantle the local and give a significant number of SEIU-UHW’s members to a local in Los Angeles.

SEIU-UHW’s dispute with the International, which has heated up in recent months, is about differences in how to organize workers, union democracy, what health care legislation to support in Sacramento, and the balance between growth and securing good contracts for workers. SEIU-UHW president Sal Rosselli, the local’s president, elaborated on these issues earlier this year, when he wrote a letter to Andy Stern, the president of the International. Rosselli wrote, “In United Healthcare Workers West (UHW), we have always believed that our international union should be about more than numbers and headlines. Over the past two years, a stark difference has evolved between SEIU’s projected image and its real world practices. An overly zealous focus on growth—growth at any cost, apparently—has eclipsed SEIU’s commitment to its members. As labor leaders, we are obligated to place the needs of our members first and to uphold democratic principles not only in the workplace, but also in our union. That is increasingly being blocked, circumvented and manipulated.”

Rosselli continued, “It is said that ‘democracy dies in the darkness.’ It is with deep disappointment and great concern that I have watched dark shadows fall upon SEIU, diminishing our hopes for revitalizing the labor movement.” To read the full content of Rosselli’s letter, go to: http://harpers.org/archive/2008/02/hbc-90002386 , where he goes on to detail the specifics of the local’s objection to the direction of the International.

The International has retaliated against SEIU-UHW, by threatening to remove approximately 65,000 home care and long term care (convalescent) workers and putting them in a Los Angeles local. 8,500 of those workers would come from Fresno.

The Los Angeles Times ran a series of articles in August, 2008 about the SEIU local in L.A. that would represent Fresno health care workers. According to the Times, the United Long-Term Care Workers union is under investigation for corruption and its president, Tyrone Freeman, was forced to step down. Among the allegations is that Freeman used the dues from union members to pay for projects that benefitted himself, family members, and friends.

The Times wrote “Freeman’s local has paid nearly $178,000 to a video firm operated by his wife at the couples home.” They also reported annual payments of $96,000 to Freeman’s mother in law for day care services run out of her home, a $16,000 contribution to a minor league basketball team run by his brother in law, and $219,000 to another video firm operated by a union staff person who is Freeman’s friend.

Freeman was appointed by Stern to run the 160,000 member United Long-Term Care Workers union and was working on an election that would move SEIU-UHW workers into his union. The way the election was expected to work was that the 65,000 SEIU-UHW home care and long term (convalescent) workers and the 160,000 United Long-Term Care Workers union members would vote on the merger. Many SEIU-UHW members did not think that was a fair process, since their members would be vastly outvoted. They suggested an alternative election process where only the home-care and long term (convalescent) workers effected by the election would vote. In an internal election, SEIU-UHW found that over 96% of home care and 98% of long term (convalescent) workers wanted to stay in UHW.

Last week, with the plan to transfer SEIU-UHW members to the LA local looking unlikely, the International told the Times they might put SEIU-UHW into trusteeship. That would mean the International would take over the local, install their own leadership, and run the union their way. With a federal investigation under way, another possibility is that Stern himself will be caught up in the LA scandal and be forced to abandoned plans to take over UHW.

A take over of SEIU-UHW by the International, or the transfer of a significant number of their members to another local, would have a significant impact on organized labor in Fresno. SEIU-UHW has been a powerful force for progressive change in this community, counter balancing the influence of the Republican Party and business interests with the needs of workers and their families. SEIU-UHW has supported and elected progressive candidates, helped on voter registration drives in Southeast and Southwest Fresno, and worked to get out the vote.

SEIU-UHW is also in an organizing drive to unionize the non-Registered Nurse staff at Community Regional Medical Center. For information about that campaign, see:

Community Hospital Workers Want Free & Fair Elections
Thursday Mar 20th, 2008
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2008/03/20/18487352.php

Community Hospital Workers and Their Allies Demand Fair Elections
Saturday Oct 20th, 2007
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2007/10/20/18454871.php

Federal Charges Filed Against Community Medical Centers Management
Thursday Oct 18th, 2007
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2007/10/18/18454572.php

Coalition Demands Fair Elections at Community Hospital
Wednesday Sep 12th, 2007
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2007/09/12/18447196.php

Workers Deliver Message to Hospital CEO
Thursday Sep 6th, 2007
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2007/09/06/18446112.php

Union Organizing Drive in Fresno - Largest in History
Tuesday Aug 28th, 2007
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2007/08/28/18444327.php

For more information about the Community Hospital campaign, see: http://www.fresnocmcworkersunited.org/

For more information about the struggle between SEIU-UHW and the International, see: http://www.seiuvoice.org/

###

Mike Rhodes is editor of the Community Alliance newspaper. He can be contacted by email at MikeRhodes [at] Comcast.net .
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