SEIU Members OUTRAGED After Hillary Endorsement [View all]

[Segami]

The highly influential, 2-million-member Service Employees International Union (SEIU) endorsed Hillary Clinton for president yesterday. In her announcement, SEIU President Mary Kay Henry said that,

“Hillary Clinton has proven she will fight, deliver and win for working families. SEIU members and working families across America are part of a growing movement to build a better future for their families, and Hillary Clinton will support and stand with them."

http://www.politico.com/story/2015/11/seiu-endorses-hillary-clinton-215980

But a good number of those 2-million members disagree. A New Hampshire local SEIU chapter has broken from national leadership to endorse Bernie Sanders, and members around the country are protesting the union’s support of a candidate running on a $12 minimum wage, when the SEIU has been leading the Fight for 15.

From the International Business Times,

“The service workers’ union has poured millions into the.. Fight for 15, a protest-driven campaign that has helped pass $15 hourly minimum wages in Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles and shifted the national debate over what constitutes an adequate federal pay floor, currently $7.25 an hour.

But during the most recent Democratic debate, Clinton criticized a proposed $15 nationwide minimum, calling instead for $12. Both her opponents, Martin O’Malley and Bernie Sanders, support $15 an hour.

Many SEIU members prefer Sanders, including Rand Wilson, a staffer for the union's Massachusetts-based Local 888 and founding member of the grassroots network Labor for Bernie…

‘It’s important to support the candidate who’s supportive of our objectives,’ he says. ‘It’ll be hard to continue to support a candidate who supports $12 an hour when there’s a viable one who supports $15...’

Wilson predicts the move will generate backlash against the leadership. Sanders is seen as a more passionate defender of the union’s broader agenda.

‘It’s going to divide the membership in the face of important campaigns — the fight to raise minimum wages, immigration reform, breaking up the banks, the need to overturn Citizens United,’ Wilson says. ‘This is the time we need to unite.’

http://www.ibtimes.com/election-2016-key-labor-union-endorses-hillary-clinton-defying-rank-file-critics-2188461

From In These Times,

“Rodney Muhammad, an SEIU 1199 member in Massachusetts, echoed the contrasts between Clinton and Sanders that are often mentioned by Labor for Bernie supporters.

‘Being a union delegate and being deeply involved with the union, Bernie would have been the right person for the job. He’s pro-labor, he’s been on picket lines, he’s very proactive and he’s for $15 an hour. It just seems like Hillary Clinton has too many ties to Wall Street. She has not really done much to procure help for the unions over the past few years...”

http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/18616/seiu_endorses_hillary_while_rank_and_file_activists_continue_to_push_for_be

And, perhaps most telling of all, the SEIU Facebook Page erupted, yesterday and today, with person after person outraged at the Clinton endorsement.

Cathy Bosell Haye:

“Please retract the SEIU endorsement for Hillary Clinton. She does NOT represent the average working American. She takes funding from Wall Street PLUS foreign donations as well as contributions from Private Prison Corporations. So just exactly who does she work for?”

Louie Vidmar:

“Members, please copy the following text and email it to your union leadership:

I beg you to please reject SEIU’s endorsement of HRC for president! The union should take a thorough poll of it’s members before making such a disastrous decision!

I will be canceling my CAPE contributions until this is rectified!

As a truly progressive candidate for the Democratic Party nomination, Senator Sanders has the chance to inspire millions of Americans with policy proposals that put the interests of the 99%, front and center. His campaign will draw attention to what unions and collective bargaining have accomplished for workers and energize our movement.

Labor must step up to change the direction of American politics. We need politics to focus on the issues of our time: growing inequality and pervasive racism, the power of concentrated wealth and its corruption of our democracy, an escalating pension and retirement security crisis, runaway military spending and a militarized foreign policy, Medicare for All, and the need for new, bold solutions to our shared problems.

We call on labor leaders, union members and working people to unite behind Bernie Sanders for a voice in the presidential political process and to elect the President working families need – a President who will answer to the 99 percent!

We are Labor for Bernie 2016.”

Angel Rodriquez:

“This is scandalous, shameful, counterintuitive, problematic, defeating, and divisive. Pathetic.

‘SEIU's biggest national campaign is the Fight for $15 and a union. Across the country, we are organizing workers to strike and demand a $15 minimum wage.’

DESPITE THIS:

‘Hillary Clinton is on public record as opposing a federal minimum wage of $15 per hour.’’

THEY ARE ENDORSING CLINTON, WITHOUT CONSIDERING THAT:

‘It is hard to ask workers to strike for $15 an hour in one breath when we are opposing the candidate (U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders) who proposed national legislation for $15 an hour.’”

“You campaign for $15. Bernie is fighting for your $15. Hillary is capping it at $12.

Sure, this makes sense. SMH. Shameful. Seriously, SHAME ON YOU.

Denise Welte:

“This SEIU member will be voting for Bernie! Who actually gets labor unions isn't bought by one! Disgusted.”

Paul Moriarty:

“LET'S BE CLEAR: SEIU does not poll its members as to whom it should endorse. How can SEIU say it's going to fight for a $15/hr wage when it endorses Hillary Clinton who wants the wage set at $12/hr. Not to mention that Hillary is a disgrace to this country and will be the 21st century version of Nixon. As an SEIU member I DENOUNCE any endorsement of Hillary Clinton. What a joke!”


https://www.facebook.com/SEIU/?fref=ts

cont'

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/11/18/1451648/-SEIU-Members-Outraged-After-Hillary-Endorsement