Will SEIU obliterate a California local?

[dcsmart]

THE HIGHEST body of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) convened January 8 via teleconference to determine the future of its 150,000-member California affiliate, United Healthcare Workers-West (UHW).

If the electronic vote set for January 9 goes according to the plan of SEIU President Andrew Stern, the union's International Executive Board (IEB) will begin dismantling UHW.

The vote comes more than a year and a half after the UHW leaders challenged Stern's efforts to concentrate union power in his hands and pursue collaboration with employers.

According to Stern, unions need to adapt to the present by relegating tools like shop-steward structures and the strike to the past. Unions should be streamlined and more centralized, Stern says, so their leadership can focus more on finessing reforms from employers and politicians.

"I don't think anymore the power of unions comes from its ability to strike," Stern declared on National Public Radio's Talk of the Nation program. "I think it comes from its ability to participate in the political process and to change America in issues that we've been talking about, like health care."

FULL ARTICLE:
http://socialistworker.org/2009/01/09/will-seiu-obliterate-a-local


EDITOR:
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