As a threatened SEIU national takeover of the Oakland-based Healthcare Workers West appears imminent; the national press is beginning to pay attention.

The Wall Street Journal reported that SEIU national president Andy Stern met privately with Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich around the time that federal prosecutors say the embattled governor was discussing ways to sell the Senate seat vacated by Barack Obama for what the Journal called “a lucrative labor position.” On Sunday the New York Times reported the threatened trusteeship, quoting Neison Lichtenstein, a labor historian at UC Santa Barbara: “The cost of a trusteeship will be great. To my mind, it will mean the destruction of a very dynamic, progressive union that is the model for which most of American Labor should aspire.”

New York Daily News Labor columnist Juan Gonzalez weighed in with a blast at Stern, calling him a “scan artist” who was a “threat to labor’s soul” for his war with Healthcare Workers West head Sal Rosselli.  Gionzalez’ column, which summarizes many of the elements to the controversy, follows:

By Juan Gonzalez

Andy Stern, head of the nation’s fastest-growing union and a chief proponent of labor reform, is about to reveal himself as a colossal scam artist. 

Stern, president of the 2million-member Service Employees International Union, plans to kick off the new year with a stunning assault on democracy within his union. 

At a meeting of SEIU’s executive board, he is expected to dismantle one of its largest locals, California ‘s 150,000-member United Healthcare Workers West, by merging all or part of it into a new California affiliate, union sources say. By doing so, Stern plans to remove UHW’s highly regarded president, Sal Rosselli , the most persistent and effective advocate of rank-and-file democracy within SEIU. Stern is rushing to do away with the UHW and Rosselli despite overwhelming opposition from the local’s members, who flooded SEIU headquarters the past few weeks with more than 125,000 letters and petitions opposing the merger.

Even Stern’s supporters fear his take-no-prisoners strategy is about to spark brutal strife within organized labor, as other unions and labor-friendly politicians are forced to choose sides. 

Stern is pressing forward despite several scandals that forced the resignations of a number of top SEIU leaders after reports of financial improprieties.

“Andy did nothing about all the crooks in the union,” an ex-SEIU president in California said Tuesday. “But he’s going after Sal Rosselli, the one guy we all know is totally honest.” 

Take Tyrone Freeman Stern plucked him out of a small Georgia local in 1999 and put him in charge of Local 6434 – a huge home care workers unit in Southern California. 

Freeman resigned after the L.A. Times revealed he had funneled $600,000 in union contracts to his wife. The local also paid his mother-in-law $8,000 a month to baby-sit his child and those of other union staff, and shelled out $8,000 for his Hawaiian wedding.
Then there’s Rickman Jackson, a former Freeman aide whom Stern put in charge of all SEIU health care workers in Michigan. 

Jackson was booted and banned from holding office for three years after it was learned he was drawing a second salary from Freeman’s California local. He also secretly pocketed $2,500 in monthly rent payments from a union-created housing group. SEIU then gave him a job with a union local in Canada.

Stern also installed Annelle Grajeda as president of Local 721, an L.A-based public employee local.

 Grajeda, who became the top SEIU official in California, went on sudden leave of absence following news reports that her ex-boyfriend collected multiple salaries and consultant fees from SEIU while also drawing a salary as a county employee.

In each case, Stern installed these officials after several locals were merged and locally elected officials were cast aside.
Stern’s supporters praise him as a visionary. They say he’s brilliant at devising new strategies to recruit thousands of new members, and at merging weak locals into bigger and more effective organizations.

 His critics say he’s merely perfected a new form of business unionism: corporate-style takeovers, false advertising, and secret deals with politicians – all of it aimed at a mad scramble for more members. 

SEIU officials did not respond to several calls for comment 

”Our international union keeps reaching special agreements with our employers that the workers don’t know anything about,” Rosselli said. 

 This is a fight for the soul of organized labor, Rosselli added. 

”It’s between our vision of a bottom-up union movement and Andy Stern’s idea that a few folks in Washington should control all the decisions.”

   (New York Daily News)