SEIU Member Activists for Reform Today (SMART)
http://groups.google.com/group/ReformSEIU?hl=en
ReformSEIU@googlegroups.com
Today's topics:
* An Open Letter to The Nation on SEIU Controversy - 2 messages, 2 authors
http://groups.google.com/group/ReformSEIU/t/75d4de7742884e7b?hl=en
* CANCELLED -Rally JULY 13th Palo Alto "PICNICS" City Hall 4-7pm & CityCouncil
7pm - 1 messages, 1 author
http://groups.google.com/group/ReformSEIU/t/00da28eaead18831?hl=en
* Fwd: Randy Shaw: If You're Pro-Labor Then Quit Stalling The Arbitration Process for Nate Holmes! - 1 messages, 1 author
http://groups.google.com/group/ReformSEIU/t/370fd999627f2825?hl=en
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TOPIC: An Open Letter to The Nation on SEIU Controversy
http://groups.google.com/group/ReformSEIU/t/75d4de7742884e7b?hl=en
==============================================================================
== 1 of 2 ==
Date: Mon, Jul 6 2009 4:38 am From: sjminflorida@... An Open Letter to The Nation on SEIU Controversy by Randy Shaw‚ Jul. 06‚ 2009
Dear Editors:
As a longtime subscriber, I am very troubled that you have allowed SEIU to purchase the back covers of your July 6 and 13 editions to lodge false, malicious, and anti-union attacks on UNITE HERE. This is the first time that The Nation has sold such prize media real estate for anti-progressive attacks. Since you have failed to report on the dispute between SEIU and UNITE HERE, The Nation is effectively allowing SEIU to purchase and control what message is sent to your readers. Why is The Nation allowing paid ads to substitute for honest reporting on this conflict? Why is a publication that identifies with the progressive cause assisting SEIU’s efforts to destroy a progressive union? Last week UNITE HERE held its international convention, which saw 15 international union presidents, along with the AFL-CIO, publicly back John Wilhelm and UNITE HERE in this dispute. The Nation did not even cover the convention.
UNITE HERE has greatly raised living standards for hundreds of thousands of previously low-wage workers, achieving far greater union density in its core jurisdictions than SEIU. Yet instead of reporting these facts, The Nation relies on SEIU’s paid advertising. Your subscribers deserve an explanation.
A striking feature of SEIU’s battles over the past year, first in California with the former SEIU-UHW and then against UNITE HERE, is the silence of labor journalists, progressive activists and academics, and progressive organizations. Initially, many did not want to choose sides in SEIU’s “internal dispute” with Sal Rosselli and the former UHW leadership. SEIU’s raids against UNITE HERE, however, are not internal disputes, and yet voices who would expected to be heard should a progressive union come under attack -- such as The Nation -- have remained troublingly silent.
The only story in The Nation that even alluded to the SEIU-UNITE HERE dispute was a brief piece on March 9, which mentioned SEIU only in passing.
Media Refuses to Accept the New SEIU
To be clear, The Nation is not alone in inadequately covering this conflict.
For example, Washington Post columnist Harold Meyerson knows as well as anyone about UNITE HERE’s successful organizing and political work, yet his columns addressing the dispute consistently adopt SEIU’s framing of the merger as “a mistake from the beginning.” Meyerson knows but ignores UNITE HERE’s great post-merger organizing success, and has not even condemned SEIU for its attempt to sabotage Los Angeles’ UNITE HERE Local 11, who he has long championed.
Meyerson, like Stephen Greenhouse of the New York Times and a bevy of academics and journalists, has spent so many years promoting SEIU as the vanguard of a revitalized labor movement that they cannot accept, or publicly acknowledge, that the union has changed.
I understand this as well as anyone.
In the fall of 2008, the University of California Press released my most recent book, Beyond the Fields: Cesar Chavez, the UFW and the Struggle for Justice in the 21st Century. The book highlights the great work of many current SEIU leaders, including Justice for Janitors founder Stephen Lerner and SEIU Executive Vice-President Eliseo Medina. I credit these and other UFW alums with moving SEIU and the labor movement in a more progressive direction on organizing immigrant workers, Latino voter outreach, and other issues.
But SEIU’s conduct in 2009 contradicts this progressive tradition. I and other longtime backers of SEIU do the union no favor by condoning the union’s policy shift, either through silence, misrepresentation, or, in The Nation’s case, substituting reportage for a “pay to play” approach where SEIU controls the debate. The Nation has not allowed its prior support for Barack Obama to deter holding him accountable; why are you not applying a similar standard of accountability to SEIU?
Cracks in the Wall
Fortunately, more longtime SEIU supporters are learning of the union’s attacks on UNITE HERE and joining the labor movement in condemning such conduct.
Last week, a large group of Los Angeles community leaders who are “longtime friends and allies of SEIU” sent a letter to President Andy Stern urging him to “stop the activities against UNITE HERE.” The letter accuses SEIU of “openly trying to undermine the work of another union we admire,” and decries SEIU’s flyers urging UNITE HERE Local 11 workers to “repudiate their union.”
Also last week, over 150 academics signed a “Call for SEIU to Change Course.” The “open letter of concern about SEIU’s interference with UNITE HERE” states that “SEIU’s concerted efforts to undermine UNITE HERE belie the progressive ideals SEIU has upheld for decades, and ignore its own past and rightful insistence that unions need to organi
ze the unorganized, not engage in destructive raiding of existing unions.” While international union leaders, county labor councils, community leaders and academics line up to publicly praise UNITE HERE, SEIU pays The Nation to send a contrary message. As the labor and progressive movement overwhelmingly backs UNITE HERE President John Wilhelm, The Nation’s July 6 and 13 back covers harshly criticizes him, with the latter even including an insulting SEIU-funded sign-on petition urging that Wilhelm “Put Workers First.” The Nation may be the country’s only self-identified progressive institution unaware that John Wilhelm has always put workers first, and who would allow Andy Stern of all people to lecture him on this point.
Who Owns The Nation?
As a publication claiming to be “a wholly owned subsidiary of our own great conscience,” The Nation has created a covenant with its readers to be guided by principles and ideals, not advertising dollars. But your only coverage of a critical labor dispute over the past several months has been dictated by SEIU’s paid ads, not journalism. While The Nation delegated its reportorial responsibilities to SEIU, you ignored UNITE HERE’s convention, and have had no interest in providing readers with the perspectives of President Wilhelm or such leaders as Maria Elena Durazo or newly elected International Vice-President Tho Do. The Nation could have=2
0written a powerful story on SEIU subjecting UNITE HERE organizer Joe Daugherty to extreme harassment while he resisted SEIU raids on his Detroit local; Daugherty spent over six years battling similar tactics while leading UNITE HERE’s historic strike at the Las Vegas Frontier Hotel. The Nation could even have interviewed and provided reports on the opinions of UNITE HERE workers, many of whom spoke at the convention about their ambitious organizing plans. Instead, you relied on SEIU to post photos and quotes from workers as part of its paid advertising campaign.
And even worse for a publication that prides itself on transparency is that the July 13 attack ad against UNITE HERE and John Wilhelm does not identify the sponsor. This allows readers to assume it is an editorial position of The Nation, which was likely SEIU’s goal.
Every week, The Nation runs a full-page ad titled “Nobody Owns The Nation.” According to the ad, which features Dave Matthews, Mike Farrell, Russell Simmons and other celebrity readers, “That’s why so many somebodies read it.”
I think so many “somebodies” read The Nation because they expect it to cover issues without fear or favor, and to not dodge disputes that might upset donors. Unfortunately, your lack of coverage of the SEIU-UNITE HERE dispute has created a contrary impression -- sending a message that The Nation’s commitment to pr
inciple is selective, and can even run counter to what is best for organized labor and progressive interests. As a longtime reader, I know The Nation can do better. I hope you will take this criticism in the same spirit that you ask of President Obama when you question his decisions; the progressive movement only benefits when those who speak in our name are held accountable.
Sincerely,
Randy Shaw
Editor, Beyond Chron
Author, The Activist’s Handbook, Reclaiming America and Beyond the Fields: Cesar Chavez, the UFW and the Struggle for Justice in the 21st Century == 2 of 2 ==
Date: Mon, Jul 6 2009 10:35 am From: Ramsés Oh, great.  Another "progressive" boss with the self-entitlement to
speak on behalf of the Unions.  I used to be the head officer of the
Tenderloin Housing Clinic's SEIU 1021 chapter, and I can tell you that
this guy has a racial analysis no further than Brown vs Board of
Education (1954).  In fact, he fired one of our Black member leaders for union activity.  1021 is FINALLY going to arbitration on this.  Be
cautious with how you read stuff from progressive bosses like R. Shaw. -Ramses
--- On Mon, 7/6/09, sjminflorida@... <sjminflorida@...> wrote:
From: sjminflorida@... <sjminflorida@...>
Subject: [ReformSEIU] An Open Letter to The Nation on SEIU Controversy
To: "Reform SEIU" <ReformSEIU@googlegroups.com>
Date: Monday, July 6, 2009, 4:38 AM
An Open Letter to The Nation on SEIU Controversy by Randy Shaw‚ Jul. 06‚ 2009
Dear Editors:
As a longtime subscriber, I am very troubled that you have allowed SEIU to purchase the back covers of your July 6 and 13 editions to lodge false, malicious, and anti-union attacks on UNITE HERE. This is the first time that The Nation has sold such prize media real estate for anti-progressive attacks. Since you have failed to report on the dispute between SEIU and UNITE HERE, The Nation is effectively allowing SEIU to purchase and control what message is sent to your readers. Why is The Nation allowing paid ads to substitute for honest reporting on this conflict? Why is a publication that identifies with the progressive cause assisting SEIU’s efforts to destroy a progressive union? Last week UNITE HERE held its international convention, which saw 15 international union presidents, along with the AFL-CIO, publicly back John Wilhelm and UNITE HERE in this dispute. The Nation did not even cover the convention.
UNITE HERE has greatly raised living standards for hundreds of thousands of previously low-wage w
orkers, achieving far greater union density in its core jurisdictions than SEIU. Yet instead of reporting these facts, The Nation relies on SEIU’s paid advertising. Your subscribers deserve an explanation.
A striking feature of SEIU’s battles over the past year, first in California with the former SEIU-UHW and then against UNITE HERE, is the silence of labor journalists, progressive activists and academics, and progressive organizations. Initially, many did not want to choose sides in SEIU’s “internal dispute” with Sal Rosselli and the former UHW leadership. SEIU’s raids against UNITE HERE, however, are not internal disputes, and yet voices who would expected to be heard should a progressive union come under attack -- such as The Nation -- have remained troublingly silent.
The only story in The Nation that even alluded to the SEIU-UNITE HERE dispute was a brief piece on March 9, which mentioned SEIU only in passing.
Media Refuses to Accept the New SEIU
To be clear, The Nation is not alone in inadequately covering this conflict.
For example, Washington Post columnist Harold Meyerson knows as well as anyone about UNITE HERE’s successful organizing and political work, yet his columns addressing the dispute consistently adopt SEIU’s framing of the merger as “a mistake from the beginning.” Meyerson knows but ignores UNITE HERE’s great post-merger organizing success, and has not even condemned SEIU for its attempt to sabotage Los Angeles’ UNITE HERE Local 11, who he has long championed.
Meyerson, like Stephen Greenhouse of the New York Times and a bevy of academics and journalists, has spent so many years promoting SEIU as the vanguard of a revitalized labor movement that they cannot accept, or publicly acknowledge, that the union has changed.
I understand this as well as anyone.
In the fall of 2008, the University of California Press released my most recent book, Beyond the Fields: Cesar Chavez, the UFW and the Struggle for Justice in the 21st Century. The book highlights the great work of many current SEIU leaders, including Justice for Janitors founder Stephen Lerner and SEIU Executive Vice-President Eliseo Medina. I credit these and other UFW alums with moving SEIU and the labor movement in a more progressive direction on organizing immigrant workers, Latino voter outreach, and other issues.
But SEIU’s conduct in 2009 contradicts this progressive tradition. I and other longtime backers of SEIU do the union no favor by condoning the union’s policy shift, either through silence, misrepresentation, or, in The Nation’s case, substituting reportage for a “pay to play” approach where SEIU controls the debate. The Nation has not allowed its prior support for Barack Obama to deter holding him accountable; why are you not applying a similar standard of accountabil
ity to SEIU?
Cracks in the Wall
Fortunately, more longtime SEIU supporters are learning of the union’s attacks on UNITE HERE and joining the labor movement in condemning such conduct.
Last week, a large group of Los Angeles community leaders who are “longtime friends and allies of SEIU” sent a letter to President Andy Stern urging him to “stop the activities against UNITE HERE.” The letter accuses SEIU of “openly trying to undermine the work of another union we admire,” and decries SEIU’s flyers urging UNITE HERE Local 11 workers to “repudiate their union.”
Also last week, over 150 academics signed a “Call for SEIU to Change Course.” The “open letter of concern about SEIU’s interference with UNITE HERE” states that “SEIU’s concerted efforts to undermine UNITE HERE belie the progressive ideals SEIU has upheld for decades, and ignore its own past and rightful insistence that unions need to organize the unorganized, not engage in destructive raiding of existing unions.” While international union leaders, county labor councils, community leaders and academics line up to publicly praise UNITE HERE, SEIU pays The Nation to send a contrary message. As the labor and progressive movement overwhelmingly backs UNITE HERE President John Wilhelm, The Nation’s July 6 and 13 back covers harshly criticizes him, with the latter ev
en including an insulting SEIU-funded sign-on petition urging that Wilhelm “Put Workers First.” The Nation may be the country’s only self-identified progressive institution unaware that John Wilhelm has always put workers first, and who would allow Andy Stern of all people to lecture him on this point.
Who Owns The Nation?
As a publication claiming to be “a wholly owned subsidiary of our own great conscience,” The Nation has created a covenant with its readers to be guided by principles and ideals, not advertising dollars. But your only coverage of a critical labor dispute over the past several months has been dictated by SEIU’s paid ads, not journalism. While The Nation delegated its reportorial responsibilities to SEIU, you ignored UNITE HERE’s convention, and have had no interest in providing readers with the perspectives of President Wilhelm or such leaders as Maria Elena Durazo or newly elected International Vice-President Tho Do. The Nation could have written a powerful story on SEIU subjecting UNITE HERE organizer Joe Daugherty to extreme harassment while he resisted SEIU raids on his Detroit local; Daugherty spent over six years battling similar tactics while leading UNITE HERE’s historic strike at the Las Vegas Frontier Hotel. The Nation could even have interviewed and provided reports on the opinions of UNITE HERE workers, many of whom spoke at the convention about the
ir ambitious organizing plans. Instead, you relied on SEIU to post photos and quotes from workers as part of its paid advertising campaign.
And even worse for a publication that prides itself on transparency is that the July 13 attack ad against UNITE HERE and John Wilhelm does not identify the sponsor. This allows readers to assume it is an editorial position of The Nation, which was likely SEIU’s goal.
Every week, The Nation runs a full-page ad titled “Nobody Owns The Nation.” According to the ad, which features Dave Matthews, Mike Farrell, Russell Simmons and other celebrity readers, “That’s why so many somebodies read it.”
I think so many “somebodies” read The Nation because they expect it to cover issues without fear or favor, and to not dodge disputes that might upset donors. Unfortunately, your lack of coverage of the SEIU-UNITE HERE dispute has created a contrary impression -- sending a message that The Nation’s commitment to principle is selective, and can even run counter to what is best for organized labor and progressive interests. As a longtime reader, I know The Nation can do better. I hope you will take this criticism in the same spirit that you ask of President Obama when you question his decisions; the progressive movement only benefits when those who speak in our name are held accountable.
Sincerely,
Randy Shaw
Editor, Beyond C
hron
Author, The Activist’s Handbook, Reclaiming America and Beyond the Fields: Cesar Chavez, the UFW and the Struggle for Justice in the 21st Century ==============================================================================
TOPIC: CANCELLED -Rally JULY 13th Palo Alto "PICNICS" City Hall 4-7pm & CityCouncil 7pm
http://groups.google.com/group/ReformSEIU/t/00da28eaead18831?hl=en
==============================================================================
== 1 of 1 ==
Date: Tues, Jul 7 2009 5:25 pm From: Lynn K Apologies, we are regrouping.
From: nyskigal@...
To: reformseiu@googlegroups.com
Subject: Pls Help Rally JULY 13th Palo Alto "PICNICS" City Hall 4-7pm & CityCouncil 7pm
Date: Sun, 5 Jul 2009 21:21:22 -0700
50% is NEGOTIATIONS and 50% is NUMBERS - Please, We need your help!
That is why we need to maintain our presence through these most difficult negotiations.
Please join us July 13th at 250 Hamilton in Palo Alto
on Martin Luther20King Plaza
4-7pm Picnic in front of city hall
7pm event go to city council
We are asking for your help to celebrate and STAY STRONG for our contract resolution
in Palo Alto. These are the most difficult times we have faced in 30 + years as a union in Palo Alto. We need and will return your help. We need your help to demonstrate to our
city their need to be equitable in this economic downturn and not exploit their lowest paid employees. We are willing to help the city and to be reasonable - - - yet the city continues to ask for more tha is needeed to address their deficit from SEIU.
History:
Police and Fire were allowed option to defer raises for 09-10.
YET, The city has most recently asked SEIU for a 3-4% wage cut, and pay 20% into healthcare and new employees would retire at 60 and with 30 years...
THIS ?? WHEN WE ARE ALREADY PAID LESS THAN MEDIAN (of the 10 Bay area comparison cities) FOR OUR ENTIRE WAGE RETIREMENT AND HEALTHCARE PACKAGE!? And we are of the top most expensive cities?
Lynn Krug Palo Alto Chapter Chair 326-1618 home
566-4555 desk
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==============================================================================
TOPIC: Fwd: Randy Shaw: If You're Pro-Labor Then Quit Stalling The Arbitration
Process for Nate Holmes!
http://groups.google.com/group/ReformSEIU/t/370fd999627f2825?hl=en
==============================================================================
== 1 of 1 ==
Date: Tues, Jul 7 2009 9:41 pm From: Brian Cruz Hey folks,
Here's some information about an action/event in SF to help pressure this
employer from stalling this arbitration process (which our local is doing
little/nothing to push along). Hope you can make it if you're in town!
-Brian
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Let's Send The Message to Randy Shaw: If You're Pro-Labor Then Quit Stalling
The Arbitration Process for Nate Holmes!
Monday, July 13, 2009
Meet at 6:3
0pm outside Modern Times Bookstore at 888 Valencia to pass out
information.
Note: This is about Randy Shaw, not Modern Times Bookstore.
Last year Randy Shaw, Executive Director of the Tenderloin Housing Clinic
(THC), unjustly terminated Nate Holmes' for being an active, militant union
member in the workplace. Shaw is known for writing on progressive issues and
has a new book out on Cesar Chavez that he will be presenting at Modern
Times bookstore as part of LaborFest this year. This is precisely why Shaw
should know better than to treat workers, especially workers of color like
Nate, with contempt and to flagrantly violate the union contract that
protects them.
Please join community activists and union members to let Randy Shaw know
that writing books doesn't let him off the hook. His event will be at 7pm,
but we will be meeting at 6:30pm outside of Modern Times bookstore to let
those who are coming to hear Shaw's presentation know the truth!
To read more about the situation go to:
http://www.bluoz.com/blog/index.php?/archives/572-Randy-Shaw-and-the-SEIU.html
If you are interested in coming or what more information feel free to call
us at: 415.221.5519 or email winnfieldnate [at]
gmail.com<winnfieldnate@...>
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