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."

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