In Puerto Rico: SEIU’s Stern Does A Balancing Act

Showing little sign of weariness on the last day of the SEIU Convention yesterday, Andy Stern is excited by the progress made over the previous three days. Delegates voted on approximately 64 constitutional amendments and resolutions ranging from universal health care, workers’ rights in Burma, to strengthening the collective bargaining process and defanging private equity firms’ vampiric outsourcing of labor. Days start at 7:00 a.m. and last ten to eleven hours. But Stern is optimistic. This is all part of the union’s plan to be at the forefront of the new wave of progressive politics.

Thirty-five years after he started out as a union organizer, Stern sounds like a proud father. "It’s exciting to watch [the workers] grow," he says. In fact, during the convention, Stern announced that membership had surpassed the 2 million member mark and does not show signs of abating.

The "Reform SEIU" coalition of locals, however, believes that Andy Stern is concerned more with consolidating power than in protecting workers’ interests, and that Stern and the SEIU’s Executive Board have taken credit where credit ought not to be due. Paul Kumar, Director of Government Affairs with the UHW West is one of Stern’s detractors. The UHW-W is not opposed to coordinating locals and utilizing the power of the SEIU to obtain better working conditions and benefits for its members. The UHW-W wants a unified health care industry.

What the UHW is opposed to is, according to Kumar, "workers being robbed of their own power by a philosophy of accommodation" to corporate interests. Kumar sees Stern’s "results-oriented" style as antithetical to the democratic process. Having witnessed a series of incidents in which members have lost control and a voice in the decision-making process, Kumar is dubious, at best, about SEIU’s intentions. To the UHW, their self-interest has been sacrificed in the name of affiliation.

To address this rift in the union, Stern has put forth a "Unity’ resolution at this Convention, which he asserts is intended to "keep us honest about the union’s mission." [Note: as of this writing, the Resolution passed without amendment.] And his most pressing concern is ensuring that the re-emergence of the progressive movement is not marred by divisiveness. “We are going to have a huge megaphone with the new president,” says Stern. Maintaining a sense of unity is going to be instrumental in passing a progressive political agenda.

Stern believes that the SEIU is capable of protecting the voice of the minority while respecting the will of the majority, but at the end of the day, his approach is more pragmatic. "We can’t let ‘perfect’ be the enemy of progress."

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3. Why Does SEIU’s Andy Stern Sound Like Rahm Emanuel?
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