A new direction after Stern? (SEIU)

[IndianaGreen]

Unlike many unions, like my own, SEIU under Andy Stern became very undemocratic. Stern's top down management style did not sit well with the locals. Stern was more interested in rubbing elbows with the Beltway politicos than he was in building up the union and listening to the rank and file. He won't be missed, and neither will his handpicked successor.

A new direction after Stern?

Lee Sustar examines Andy Stern's dismal record, following the news that he will step down as SEIU president--and explains where the hope lies for repairing the damage.

April 23, 2010

WHETHER HE was pushed or jumped, Andy Stern's resignation as president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) highlights the failure of top-down, corporate-style unionism--and underscores the need for democratic, militant unions run by rank-and-file members.

What seemed like indisputable successes for the SEIU not so long ago have turned out to be hollow. The SEIU claims to be the second biggest union in the U.S., with 2.2 million members--but critics dispute that number, claiming that it includes free riders who pay agency fees for SEIU representation, but not union dues.

In any case, SEIU locals, especially those in the public sector, took their share of the hit in the loss of 800,000 workers from the union rolls during the recession year of 2009--losses that are likely to continue in 2010 given the weak recovery and continued mass layoffs in the public sector.

Stern is admired by many liberal commentators as a "new kind" of labor leader--but they tend to overlook the nitty-gritty of union operations and celebrate his political clout. SEIU's outsized role in get-out-the-vote operations for Barack Obama allowed Stern to place former SEIU staffer Patrick Gaspard in the role of White House political director, a job last held by Karl Rove.

But where Rove orchestrated both politics and policy, Gaspard has been unable or unwilling to advance labor's central political agenda: the proposed Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), which would remove many obstacles that employers routinely place in front of union organizing drives.

And despite being the most frequent outside visitor to the White House in the first few months of 2009, Stern proved to have little influence over the ultimate shape of health care legislation, which will eventually impose a steep tax on the good health care benefits negotiated by unions.

http://socialistworker.org/2010/04/23/new-direction-after-stern

[Robbien]

1. We can only hope there is a new direction

Andy Stern has made the SEIU as pro-corporate as he could get away with

[KoKo]

2. K&R!