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Washington Post: At the peak of his influence, SEIU chief set to leave mixed legacy

By Alec MacGillis

“A combination of events destroyed what ought to have been a great legacy for Andy,” said John Wilhelm, the head of Unite Here, the hotel and garment workers union, with which the SEIU is feuding. “Andy could have been a really great labor leader. He’s a smart guy with a lot of abilities and a strong strategic sense. But something happened to the guy. It says in Scripture that pride goeth before the fall, and that’s what happened here.”

Beyond Chron: Bloody Nose for NUHW, Black-Eye for SEIU

By Carl Finamore

During a pre-trial settlement hearing with Judge Alsup, SEIU made a last-minute offer to drop their suit if NUHW just “shut down.” Defendants responded by stating that “NUHW is not ours to shut down,” recalled former UHW Research Director and defendant Fred Seavey in a conversation with me.

And certainly, NUHW remains standing after this verdict, there was no “knock-out” blow. In fact, just this January, 2,300 nurses and professionals at Kaiser Permanente hospitals voted by a margin of 85%-to-15% to leave SEIU and join NUHW.

Through it all, NUHW remains defiant and intends to appeal the jury’s verdict.

Of particular concern in the appeal, is Judge Alsup’s problematic jury instructions that defendants could not “obstruct or frustrate the ability of UHW or SEIU to carry out the [trusteeship] decision and did not induce others” to do the same after the January 9, 2009 SEIU International Executive Board (IEB) vote to transfer 65,000 UHW long-term healthcare workers out of the local.

These jury instructions, defendants feel, unfairly characterized the legitimate democratic rights of local union members and their elected leadership as being illegal. In effect, the jury instructions biased the jury in favor of SEIU’s central premise that all opposition to the international should have ceased after the January 9 IEB decision. Every dollar assessed in damages springs from defendants’ actions from this date.

USC community fights back against anti-union campaign by SEIU

Basil Nasir, Respiratory Therapist, USC University Hospital“What we’re seeing at USC is the same thing we saw in the Santa Rosa election. It’s what the rest of the labor movement already knows. SEIU is the boss’s union.” Just like at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital where SEIU got just 13 votes out of 662 eligible voters, […]

Ellen Dillinger’s “Under Trusteeship” visits court

“19 Stories Up in Earthquake Country” is the latest cartoon by Ellen Dillinger, a transcriptionist in Radiology at Mercy General Hospital in Sacramento. Click the small version below to view it full-size.

Los Angeles Times: SEIU President Andy Stern will reportedly step down soon

By Patrick McDonnell, Paul Pringle and Peter Nicholas

The Times’ findings led to the ouster of Freeman, the president of the Los Angeles chapter, and several other SEIU officials. Federal criminal investigations were launched.

Allegations of misuse of SEIU funds by local administrators fed criticism of Stern’s drive to consolidate the organization into bigger and bigger chapters.

One of the harsher detractors, Herman Benson, secretary treasurer of the Assn. for Union Democracy, said the corruption was a byproduct of Stern’s elimination of smaller locals where members could keep a closer eye on the leadership.

Benson said that five years ago, Stern could claim the “high moral position” in the labor movement after having started Change to Win and demanding that unions be more aggressive in organizing and mobilizing workers.

But then, Benson said, the battles that Stern sparked with the Oakland local and Unite Here cost him that lofty position.

The 2008 spending scandal centered in Los Angeles ripped through the SEIU just as the union began to rupture on the West Coast, with leaders of its 150,000-member, Oakland-based healthcare local rebelling against Stern’s stewardship.