top
California
California
Indybay
Indybay
Indybay
Regions
Indybay Regions North Coast Central Valley North Bay East Bay South Bay San Francisco Peninsula Santa Cruz IMC - Independent Media Center for the Monterey Bay Area North Coast Central Valley North Bay East Bay South Bay San Francisco Peninsula Santa Cruz IMC - Independent Media Center for the Monterey Bay Area California United States International Americas Haiti Iraq Palestine Afghanistan
Topics
Newswire
Features
From the Open-Publishing Calendar
From the Open-Publishing Newswire
Indybay Feature

Democracy on Trial: SEIU's lawsuit against union reformers goes to court

by National Union of Healthcare Workers
For the last year, SEIU officials in Washington, D.C. have been suing 29 local union reformers and whistleblowers who exposed the union's corruption and backroom deals and helped healthcare workers protect their democratic right to join a new union after a hostile takeover.
SAN FRANCISCO—For the last year, SEIU officials in Washington, D.C. have been suing 29 local union reformers and whistleblowers who exposed the union's corruption and backroom deals and helped healthcare workers protect their democratic right to join a new union after a hostile takeover.

On Monday, SEIU lawyers will have to argue their case in a trial that labor journalists and historians say is an unprecedented attack on workers' right to a democratic voice in their union.

"Are elected union leaders accountable to the workers who elected them, or must they only take orders from above, even when workers oppose it?" asked Cal Winslow, historian and author of Labor's Civil War in California: the NUHW Healthcare Workers' Rebellion.

"SEIU is advancing a dangerous legal theory that leaders can be personally targeted to collect damages, even when there is no allegation of personal gain, simply because of a difference of opinion."

The suit stems from SEIU's hostile takeover of a local affiliate in January 2009. SEIU President Andy Stern seized control of California's healthcare union because its members and elected leaders had opposed him on issues of bargaining strategy and union democracy. In response to the takeover, workers voted to form an independent, member-led union called the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW). Faced with petitions for more than 100,000 members to switch to NUHW, SEIU turned to aggressive legal maneuvers to suppress workers' efforts and deny them a free choice.

In addition to using false charges to delay federal and state labor agencies from scheduling union elections, SEIU filed a civil lawsuit, threatening damages of $25 million against former local union staff and elected leaders who have been supporting workers’ struggle to take back back their union.

SEIU has accused these respected California activists of an ever-changing list of offenses, including stealing money from the union—a slanderous claim that is contradicted by SEIU's own public statements and financial records, and appears nowhere in SEIU's lawsuit.

SEIU has reportedly spent down $10 million of members' dues money on four separate law firms to sue NUHW's staff and elected leaders—even suing NUHW's attorneys—and has squandered political capital by threatening many of the elected officials and labor leaders who helped raise money for NUHW's legal defense.

In contrast, SEIU assigned just two junior attorneys to an ongoing lawsuit against Tyrone Freeman, a Los Angeles union official appointed by SEIU President Andy Stern who is accused of stealing more than $1.1 million from low-wage workers.

Despite SEIU's legal strategy, NUHW has become California's fastest-growing union, with thousands of workers in hospitals, nursing homes, and Kaiser facilities joining NUHW over the last year. Caregivers have chosen NUHW over SEIU in 7 out of 9 elections.

* Download a factsheet on issues in the trial at http://bit.ly/trial-facts
* Read "Union democracy goes on trial" in In These Times by labor journalist Carl Finamore: http://bit.ly/finamore

Add Your Comments
Listed below are the latest comments about this post.
These comments are submitted anonymously by website visitors.
TITLE
AUTHOR
DATE
workingjustice
Thu, Mar 18, 2010 1:44PM
We are 100% volunteer and depend on your participation to sustain our efforts!

Donate

$110.00 donated
in the past month

Get Involved

If you'd like to help with maintaining or developing the website, contact us.

Publish

Publish your stories and upcoming events on Indybay.

IMC Network