Per reports from Randy Shaw from the UNITE-HERE convention in Chicago, the entire labor movement has allied with UNITE-HERE in opposition to SEIU’s raids into UNITE-HERE’s jurisdictions.

Here’s the key graf:

Laborers President Terrence O’Sullivan described SEIU’s conduct as “deplorable,” and said “we didn’t join Change to Win to raid and hijack another union’s members.” Change to Win leaders James Hoffa of the Teamsters and Joe Hansen of the United Food and Commercial Workers also pledged support, while Randi Weingarten of the American Federation of Teachers (one of the only two international presidents that SEIU claimed back its position) now supports UNITE HERE. UNITE HERE President John Wilhelm defiantly castigated SEIU as “the bosses union,” and said that his workers are now in a “two headed fight: a fight with the boss and a fight with the boss’s lackey union.” Wilhelm said there has been “real widespread revulsion” throughout the labor movement against SEIU’s conduct, and the UNITE HERE convention has announced a new labor movement unity, with SEIU alone on its own.

And here’s the key graf from Randy Shaw’s 2nd article:

One day after 15 international union leaders vowed to provide “material and moral” support to UNITE HERE’s defense against SEIU raids, the AFL-CIO sent a letter to the UNITE HERE convention condemning “all raiding of organized workers by any union.” This letter represents a dramatic shift in position for the labor federation, which previously had been advised by its general counsel to stay out of the fight between SEIU and UNITE HERE. Adding to building momentum against SEIU’s conduct were scathing words from Operating and Engineers President Vincent J. Giblin, who described SEIU President Andy Stern as the “Darth Vader of the labor movement” and who vowed to provide “every resource” of his union, including strike benefits, to help UNITE HERE in its struggle. It was also revealed on the Convention’s second day that former UNITE HERE President and now SEIU Executive Vice-President Bruce Raynor had shifted $23 million in cash from UNITE HERE to his new union prior to his departure; this prompted UNITE HERE’s Jim Dupont to lead the crowd in a roaring chant “They say arbitrate, we say incarcerate.”

This is a significant moment for labor. The time for progressives not taking sides in an “internal labor dispute” is over. This is a fundamental disagreement between “bottom up” and “top down” unionism. This is a disagreement between those who would organize workers at the grassroots level and those, like SEIU, who would hire consultants to raid jurisdictions organized through the hard-fought efforts of workers over decades.

The AFL-CIO, AFSCME, the Teamsters, and Randi Weingarten of the AFT (just one week ago a purported firm Andy Stern ally) are just a few of the organizations that have signed on to a statement opposing SEIU’s raiding tactics against UNITE-HERE and pledging support and resources to defend UNITE-HERE from SEIU and any employer intending to take advantage of SEIU’s attacks on UNITE-HERE.

Why is this important?

It’s important for two reasons.

For one, most significantly, this shows that the entire labor movement has stepped up and said to Andy Stern, “Enough!”  Stern, under the guise of unifying the labor movement actually used his powerful position as the head of SEIU to destabilize the movement and aggregate power to himself. Stern threatened to raid UNITE-HERE’s core jurisdictions if UNITE-HERE did not accept his terms regarding Workers United. Stern’s threats to raid UNITE-HERE’s gaming and hotel jurisdictions, however, proved to be a bridge too far. When labor leaders like Randi Weingarten, Thomas Buffenbarger, Gerald McEntee, James Hoffa and Terrence O’Sullivan come together in opposing Andy Stern, folks should take heed. That’s a big deal.

What this development points up is a unity movement within labor. That unity is arising, however, in opposition to Andy Stern, not under him.

Further, what the UNITE-HERE convention shows the netroots is something simple. We’ve been lied to. SEIU has consistently implied that Andy Stern and SEIU spoke for the US labor movement as a whole. That is simply not true and has never been true. We were invited to fall in line behind Stern and SEIU without ever asking questions about SEIU’s conduct with regard to UNITE-HERE or, here in California, SEIU’s trusteeship of the reform movement coming out of SEIU-UHW West. Most significantly, we were never given the truth about Stern’s top down model regarding organizing and bargaining, an approach that locked workers out of the bargaining process.

Today, neutrality regarding SEIU is no longer possible.

SEIU has systematically lied to the netroots about their raiding into UNITE-HERE, about SEIU’s attempt to thwart a reform movement coming out of SEIU-UHW and Andy Stern’s agenda in favor of top-down, predatory unionism.

What Randy Shaw documents from Chicago is a sea change within the labor movement. Labor is uniting in opposition to Andy Stern. Even within SEIU, there are powerful voices arising in opposition to Stern’s tactics. The 100,000 California healthcare workers committed to building NUHW and leaving SEIU are just the tip of the iceberg.

The question for the progressives, then, is whether and for how long to continue to embrace neutrality in a labor dispute that the labor movement as a whole has now spoken to with unanimity.

::

Please support NUHW, JOIN our growing FACEBOOK Solidarity Page!

{Paul Delehanty works for the workers building NUHW}