I've had a number of brief flirtations in my life. One was in 1993. I decided to become a manager. The experience was earmarked by all the characteristics of brief flirtations: heady anticipation followed by heaps of disappointment. As with all ill-fated assignations, a singular moment in time marked its demise. I had threatened to lock my service team of fellow mental health professionals in the meeting room until someone volunteered to take the last of that week's referrals. The response was quick and deadly, with snarls replacing the usual vapid stares. I had an instant revelation: management was not for me. I didn't like living on the dark side. I resigned and lost the eye twitch that had plagued me for months.
Fast-forward to the year 2000, when that same group of mental health professionals, along with 1000 of their colleagues in Northern California, voted to organize. A large minority was brought in kicking and screaming by a slim majority. Unions are unnecessary, the dissidents argued -- we can stand on our credentials, our education, and on our professional status as providers within Kaiser Permanente. But sick leave, as we had known it, was gone and we worried what would be next.
Our first local contract was nothing to brag about except that for the first time compensation was based on equity, not whim, and hiring practices were made transparent. Forced to give up a prime retirement benefit, we looked to the future for positive outcomes, hoping by organizing to stave off more unilateral changes to our benefits. We began to feel we had a voice.
Over the next years our voice grew stronger. In 2005 a second National Agreement between Kaiser and the 86,000 member-strong Coalition of unions had more teeth in it. As a neophyte in that bargaining process, I watched with amazement and gratitude as the UHW bargaining team along other coalition members deftly negotiated powerful agreements with Kaiser, bringing not only across-the-board wage increases totaling 19%, but equity in wages across the nation, plus a commitment that every single department in Kaiser would be led by labor-management teams by the year 2010. Even I had a voice, though my chapter represented only 1% of the Coalition.
And, because of that Agreement, I had a stronger voice back in my local Psychiatry Department. This is what I call success based on the strength of the members. Our local contract also improved, strengthened by a master agreement for all SEIU locals. As our voice became stronger, our union capacity grew, with more members making commitments to becoming stewards and taking leadership roles within our local chapter.
In 2006, word came that SEIU International had decided to reorganize its locals in California. Our Local 535 (with 6000 members statewide) was dissolved and our Chapter thrown in with United Healthcare Workers-West, the huge local that represented our support staff and other healthcare workers in California. Again, professional feathers were ruffled but those of us in union leadership positions promised our members more bargaining power with UHW.
There were universal objections, however, to the method of voting that SEIU had set up for the reorganization--done as a block for all the entire state and not by chapter. Murmurings again arose about whether being under the aegis of a union was any better than duking it out with management on our own. But we adjusted because we felt our voice would still be heard under UHW.
But now, SEIU International is telling me and my local union to shut up in the public discussion and debate over the direction of SEIU. Glossy mailers from DC show up in our mailboxes. One missive bluntly told us to "Stop Wasting Members' Dues Money" on protecting members right to stay in their own local. This mailer has been humorously debunked here (PDF).
Constructive discussion and dissent of the membership has been thwarted by the top leaders of SEIU. Our local UHW leaders and members face retaliation when we question the SEIU's top-down program. We have been threatened with receivership and hit with an onslaught of dirty tricks. Our President was targeted with a smear campaign led by a secret SEIU "skunk" team.
Not even my own management tells me to shut up (at least not out loud). What does the suppression of a minority voice mean for the future of SEIU, an organization that wants to be part of a movement for social progress? It certainly is no way to build an organization that depends on its members to stand up for their patients, their own interests and that of the larger community.
My grandmother obtained a Bachelors degree in Latin and German in the early 1900s. My mother, a champion debater, obtained her Bachelors in Political Science from the University of Chicago in 1937. Nobody tells the women in my family to shut up when they feel their position is both logical and morally correct.
I am nearly 65 years old. I have been in practice as a psychologist for 39 years. My colleagues and I are part of the voice within SEIU who believe that informed, active, and dedicated members who speak up for their rights are the strongest foundation upon which to build our union. It is those very members who are most able to reach out to the unorganized, to march with the disenfranchised, and to grow their union.
For an honest voice of dissent and discussion visit http://www.seiuvoice.org.