An Internal Union (150,000) Dispute Turns Nasty, With a Local in the Balance

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/18/us/18labor.html

By STEVEN GREENHOUSE
Published: January 17, 2009

As president of a union local representing 150,000 health care workers in California, Sal Rosselli knows how to get under management’s skin, setting up picket lines at hospitals, ridiculing company executives in advertisements and sometimes even protesting outside their homes.


Jim Wilson/The New York Times

Sal Rosselli, head of a 150,000-member union local in California, was re-elected last week but might be ousted from the post.


But now Mr. Rosselli is using his street-fighting savvy to battle the head of his own union, Andy Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union, who is widely considered the most powerful labor leader in the nation.

The feud has grown so nasty that many members of Mr. Rosselli’s local, United Healthcare Workers-West, based in Oakland, petitioned this month for a vote to secede from the national union. The local’s board decided on Friday to schedule such a vote this March. These moves came in response to Mr. Stern’s efforts to oust Mr. Rosselli, remove 65,000 workers from his local and place it in trusteeship. The parent union has accused Mr. Rosselli of financial malpractice and fraud.

“Liar,” says Mr. Rosselli, who regularly denounces Mr. Stern as a top-down leader who retaliates against leaders who disagree with him.

“Hypocrite,” Mr. Stern responds.

The parent union has accused Mr. Rosselli of diverting $3 million into a political slush fund to protect himself against trusteeship and the chopping up of his local. Mr. Rosselli argues that it was an education fund for health care reform, and his backers say that the fund was legal, that only $100,000 was spent and that its goals were legitimate.

FULL story at link.