He made the trains run on time and controlled the Unions

image - October 23, 2003

Fascism is recognized to have first been officially developed by Benito Mussolini, who came to power in Italy in 1922. To sum up fascism in one word would be to say "anti-liberalism".

...............Socialism and Democracy. Political doctrines pass; peoples remain. It is to be expected that this century may be that of authority, a century of the "Right," a Fascist century."


Image Source Page: http://marxistleninist.wordpress.com/2010/07/10/glenn-beck-champions-u-s-pro-nazi-text/



Tuesday, November 17, 2009

The Truth is Out There. Whos Truth?

Augusta, MaineImage via Wikipedia

More About:






This post contains large amounts of a direct mailing from NUHW, the new, or rogue, labor Union, depending on your point of view. Even though they are 180 degrees opposed to what many SEIU members believe and support the coincidence in what was done by SEIU in response to Democratic support of NUHW is the exact opposite of what was decided by the MSEASEIU. 
I expect this post to p.o. some of the people I work with, many I call friends. Open discussion can only be a friend to Union Democracy, please take this in that spirit.




You can not affect politicians without being able to put the troops on the ground, without financial assistance in any legal manner. If you just take your football and go home you will be forgotten.
We know that in Maine and we decided that we could not withdraw support from all politicians that supported the last State budget, the one that literally stole money from employees and made a mockery of the collective bargaining process. 
You can't just quit. In California SEIU is not quitting their battle against NUHW. NUHW isn't quitting the fight against SEIU, and in Maine we are never going to quit having our voices and our votes heard. Read the article and see if you think SEIU did the right thing or if they let hot heads rule over cool thinking.



Labor unions and political leaders rally to support NUHW

  In San Francisco, labor leaders and elected officials from all over the Bay Area gathered to honor democracy and celebrate healthcare workers' 75-year history of democracy and member power in California.

In response, SEIU had a guy outside in a chicken suit (Editor, this picture looks too dumb to be real. I can't believe anyone in SEIU would wear this).

Allegedly, SEIU-UHW ordered their staff to come and picket the event, hoping to scare away supporters and convince the press they had the support of workers.

Beyond Chron tells a version of the story:
Editor: ( The Chron is well written but comes with both an obvious anti-SEIU stance and a very powerful pro-labor attitude. You choose whether the story told is plausible)


"NUHW's fundraising has grown amidst rising labor movement anger at SEIU, and it now has enough money to fund its current campaigns."


"...[L]abor is increasingly going public with its criticisms of SEIU's tactics. For example, on October 27 the 19,000 member IBEW Local 1245 joined UNITE HERE Local 2 in submitting court papers challenging SEIU's blocking of over eighty NUHW petitions affecting over 27,000 California healthcare workers seeking to choose their union."


"The increasing willingness of other unions to openly back NUHW means that SEIU's efforts to frame NUHW as a 'rogue' labor organization guilty of 'raiding' other unions has failed, and that the labor movement now sees NUHW as health care workers' leading voice for democracy."

State Senator Mark Leno arrived at the NUHW fundraiser with a Senate Certificate of Recognition for NUHW's accomplishments. 

SEIU is allegedly threatening to cut off $1 million per year in funding to the California State Democratic Party. 
 If true, that $1 million of union members' money that won't be used to build power in Sacramento, but might be used to try to stop healthcare workers from joining NUHW.

Beyond Chron's Randy Shaw puts it this way:


"SEIU's decision to withdraw funding from the California Democratic Party in response to Burton's support for NUHW typifies the union's self-destructive strategy. SEIU's state employees depend on Democrats to protect them in Sacramento, so defunding State Party campaigns to elect Democrats is self-defeating."

"...when I suggested to [California Democratic Party Chairman] Burton that he could probably make up the funds by calling the many international labor leaders who have criticized Stern, he replied that he had "already started calling them last week."

SEIU and Andy Stern have probably done more for the revival of the labor movement than any three Unions in the last 20 years. Are they still on the right track and will the good they have done be lost in infighting and power games?

Update: For the SEIU take on this story go here
I was wrong, the chicken suit was real.



Enter your Email





Preview | Powered by FeedBlitz
Reblog this post [with Zemanta]
Posted by at
Labels: , , ,

2 comments:

  1. AnonymousDecember 2, 2009 at 10:57 AM

    Thanks for posting this. It does look like Andy and his people are putting SEIU on a go-it-alone path, at least in California. Making threats against powerful pro-labor Democrats in California seems like a risky proposition, to say the least. Which begs the question: is there anything Andy and his gang won't do in pursuit of their scorched-earth fight against NUHW and UNITE HERE? Consider today's even more incredible story in Beyond Chron, about SEIU trying to prevent workers at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital from unionizing. Here's the link: http://www.beyondchron.org/news/index.php?itemid=7604#more

    ReplyDelete
  2. Keyser SözeDecember 2, 2009 at 10:59 PM

    The body in the UHW Chicken suit is a woman. A none to bright homecare worker. Here's a frame grab (pic) from the Let it Shine video.

    http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AYrKk772k-fOZGY4cjJjcnZfNDBkcnBrcDloag&hl=en

    ReplyDelete

Comments will be moderated. Only obscenities and people's names will be removed. Please show respect to the other members. No Flames, no drivel.

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)