In the days immediately following the great Merv Griffin’s death, I bring to you a Quick Jeopardy-style “answer.” Nursing homes, hospitals and other healthcare facilities.
The “Question”? What are places that I would be a lot more comfortable if they were unionized. You know, I’m not all that into my healthcare facilities trolling for the worker who will work for 25 cents less than the next guy. But that’s what your typical healthcare facility will do, because, profit is king, right? And so, that is what brought me to the SEIU-UHW 2008-2010 Bargaining Convention in Oakland on Saturday.
The convention was a learning experience for me, but let’s get to that over the flip.
When I walked in to the Ballroom of the Oakland Marriott, I was inundated with purple. It was all over the place. Sure, I wasn’t surprised or anything, but, still, in the morning it’s very awakening. I talked with the CommDir of UHW, and then settled in to listen to the morning plenary session. (They use big words, I had to double check with dictionary.com that I was using the word properly.) I enjoyed the videos (I’m hoping that some of those make their way to the internets so I can post them), and the speeches. I was somewhat taken off guard when they pointed out the bloggers and well, heaped lots of (perhaps undue) praise upon us.
One thing before I move on to talk about a conversation that Elliott Petty (of Courage Campaign) and I had with Sal Rosselli. Sal, the president of UHW, looks an awful lot like Ron Silver. Here, see for yourself…which one is which?
Ok, well, I guess the fact that Mr. Rosselli is wearing a UHW shirt kinda gives it away. Especially considering the fact that Ron Silver is now a Bush-supporting wingnut. But I digress. We sat down with Mr. Rosselli, and I must say, that he was a man who was reaching out to new constituencies, with the blogosphere being the latest example.
I first asked him about some intra-labor issues, mostly about the split with the AFL-CIO. One thing that he cited as some inefficiencies between labor. This is of course, always in the news, with organizing being incredibly important (and difficult) these days. Need an example, look to West Covina or any number of similar stories.
When Sal came to the presidency of UHW, he moved to clean up the union and focus on its core competencies. He moved union workers from a cement plant and other random places off to unions that were more appropriate, and he spoke to unions that had healthcare workers. You see, he understands the importance of working to unite labor in one industry under one union. It increases the bargaining power, and, apparently it scares Sutter enough to have a whole webpage attacking him. And even they recognize the importance of having a dominance in one industry. Enough in fact to feature this quote on their attack page.
“It’s important for labor unions to take on a particular industry and organize it market-wide. For us to change the downslide in the percentage of workers we represent, we have to think differently. Corporate campaigns make sense.” –Sal Rosselli, President, United Healthcare Workers West; Sacramento Business Journal; June 4, 2004
But Sal Rosselli, like many people who work in the labor movement, has his share of big ideas. The UHW is a leader in getting promising young talent through the labor system. They have a remarkable retention rate and great programs to help younger UHW staff work their way up. They have a ton of staff under the age of thirty, and they are constantly recruiting young people. They have a strong staff development program as well as programs to help with development of rank and file members of the union. Are you interested in moving up at the hospital? Well, the union has a coordinator who can help you with that.
Developing young staff is only one way of fostering connections with younger workers. When I asked him this question, he didn’t even hesitate one second before saying, “well, that’s why I’m talking to you.” To be sure, the blogoshpere is no panacea for the labor movement. We have severe demographic problems in terms of people that read and write blogs. We are overly white. Now, many of us are trying to work on these issues (obligatory plug for Calitics en espanol here), but we can help each other here. How great would it be if unions encouraged their members to get email accounts and use them. Encouraged them to read blogs, write blogs, and to become more involved on and off-line. Blogs are a good gateway, and the coming-together of the blogosphere and the labor movement will surely benefit both parties.
I don’t need to give Sal’s whole biography here, you can read that at the SEIU site here. But I strongly encourage a quick glance over there, as he’s got a really interesting story. (And hey, he’s a past president of the Alice B. Toklas LGBT Dem Club, a club in which I am quite active.) He has a remarkable history as an organizer and labor leader, but at this point, I think I give him the most credit for seeing trends, spotting movements. He wasn’t the first to spot the blogosphere, or this new medium, but he’s working his darndest to see how he can leverage the new medium for the future of the movement.
And, that, my friends, is a darned good first step.
