Hundreds of Service Employee International Union (SEIU) staff and members stormed a progressive union gathering in Dearborn, Michigan this Saturday -- dispensing injuries, bruises and split heads to conference-goers at a Labor Notes magazine strategy session. Today AFL-CIO President John Sweeney spoke out against the violence and called upon SEIU president Andy Stern to repudiate it too.
Stern's at the center of the controversy (in part recently covered by The New Republic and by the SF Weekly) because he seeks to crush resistance to his ideas in all corners of the labor movement. He has led SEIU into dangerous agreements with nursing home owners that seek to keep elder abuse quiet and prevent liablity for it. He's pioneered similar "partnerships" with Kaiser to keep caregivers from speaking out about problems inside the HMO. His brand of unionism is geared toward building membership numbers by giving employers what they want: sheep who listen to, not agitate against, the HMO bosses, nursing home owners and other corporate shepherds.
Stern's corporate unionism is tearing his union, SEIU, apart as West Coast dissent United Health Care Workers leader Sal Roselli, targeted by Stern for standing up to Arnold Schwarzenegger's bogus mandatory health insurance purchase plan, now leads a counter-revolution to democratize SEIU. The showdown in Puerto Rico in June will be a true David vs. Goliath story.
Why the violence in Dearborn? California Nurses Association leader
Rose Ann DeMoro, a close ally and dear friend of Consumer Watchog, was
slated to speak at the Labor Notes conference. She's talked on Stern on
60 Minutes and recently foiled a sweetheart deal between SEIU and an
Ohio hospital. (Her aggressive brand of unionism recently led to the
first unionization of a private hospital in Texas.) So the purple
shirted SEIUers marched on about 1,000 progressive unionists even
though they knew, according to Labor Notes leader Chris Kutalik, that
DeMoro had cancelled the speech. These photos tell the story. Here's Labor Notes written account:
SERVICE EMPLOYEES UNION ATTACKS LABOR GATHERING CONFERENCE-GOERS ASSAULTEDDearborn, MI—The Service Employees International Union turned their dispute with the California Nurses Association violent by attacking a labor conference April 12, injuring several and sending an American Axle striker to the hospital.
A recently retired member of United Auto Workers Local 235, Dianne Feeley, suffered a head wound after being knocked to the ground by SEIU International staff and local members. Other conference-goers—members of the Teamsters, UAW, UNITE HERE, International Longshoremen’s Association, and SEIU itself—were punched, kicked, shoved, and pushed to the floor.
Dearborn police responded and evicted the three bus loads of SEIU International staff and members of local and regional health care unions.
No arrests were made.
The assault took place at the Labor Notes conference, a biennial gathering of 1,100 union members and leaders who met to discuss strategies to rebuild the labor movement.
David Cohen, an international representative of the United Electrical Workers, asked protestors why they came. He said one responded, “they told us just to get on the bus.”
The protestors included several members with young children, who had to be ushered away when SEIU tried to force their way into the conference banquet hall. Protesters were targeting Rose Ann DeMoro, executive director of the AFL-CIO-affiliated CNA. DeMoro was scheduled to speak but declined to appear after threats were made against her union’s leadership.
Despite being welcomed to the conference earlier in the day—and given space to debate supporters of the CNA and the National Nurses Organizing Committee about neutrality organizing agreements—SEIU international and regional staff shouted down speakers at workshops and panels throughout the event.
“Labor Notes has always been a space for open debate, but when a union decides to engage in violence against their brothers and sisters, we draw a line,” said Mark Brenner, director of Labor Notes. “Violence within the labor movement is unacceptable and we call on the national leadership of SEIU, including President Andy Stern, to repudiate it.”
The California Nurses also report that board members have been harrassed at their homes by SEIU members sent to California to disrupt the nurses association operations.
It's time for Andy Stern to take a stern stand against these heavy handed tactics. Stern needs a little more collaboration with his brothers and sisters in the labor movement across America and little less coordination with his partners in corporate Amerrica.
