The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) convention ended on June 4. Even in its last hours, the reform movement showed it will continue to challenge the undemocratic methods of President Andy Stern. A slate of 13 rank-and-file members stepped forward to run for International Executive Board seats. This so surprised the officers that they had to scramble to print ballots. The vote counting went well into the evening, forcing their ‘victory party’ to start before the results were announced.
The largest union in the U.S., the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), begins its national convention the weekend of May 31, in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Convention goers will have a very different experience from the well orchestrated ceremonies of past years. As delegate Sirlena Perry from SEIU Local 73 in Chicago put it, “There’s going to be big debate about how Andy has been doing things,” referring to the pro-business methods of SEIU’s president, Andy Stern.
Detroit, MI – Six busloads of SEIU staff and members attempted to force their way into the Labor Notes conference here, April 13. The attack, which injured several trade unionists, was a part of the what the SEIU International calls a ‘war’ on the California Nurses Association.
In the recent past, a fight inside the SEIU (Service Employees International Union), the second largest union in the country, has broken into the open. The leader of California’s United Healthcare Workers-West (UHW) union, Sal Roselli, has resigned from SEIU’s executive board. His resignation came amid charges that SEIU’s international leadership was taking control over local negotiations with employers, leaving the workers without a voice in their contracts.
Hoover, AL – In solidarity with the over 15,000 Goodyear Tire and Rubber workers who have been on strike since Oct. 5, demonstrations were held on Dec. 2 at Goodyear retail stores across the country. In Birmingham, over 100 workers and their supporters rallied at the retail store, while in Hoover, Alabama, a similar rally was held to protest the company’s unfair contract proposals, as well as to warn consumers of the risk involved in buying tires manufactured by strikebreakers.
Saladin Muhammad is a veteran leader of the labor and African American liberation movements in North Carolina. He is responsible for coordinating organizing in North Carolina and Virginia for the North Carolina and Virginia Public Service Workers Unions UE Locals 150 and 160. Muhammad is building the fight against a North Carolina law, NC 95-98, which limits workers’ rights to collectively bargain.
Raleigh, NC – Raleigh sanitation workers changed tactics, after months of protests to city management fell on deaf ears. The sanitation workers held a four-hour and a two-hour temporary work stoppage on Sept. 13 and 14, forcing city management to address their concerns. An important struggle has unfolded in the weeks since.
Gadsden, AL – Despite the heavy rains and the passing weeks, workers at the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. plant here are holding the picket line, demanding job security and better health and insurance benefits. All 1250 workers at the Gadsden plant have been on strike since Oct. 5, leaving the plant idle and plant supervisors scrambling to make tires on their own. The United Steelworkers of America, who organized the strike, represents eleven other plants in America and two in Canada, a total of 15,000 workers, all of whom are participating in the strike.
Workers' rights are under attack in South Carolina. Later this summer, five members of the International Longshoreman's Association (ILA) will be going on trial. Elijah Forde Jr., Kenneth Jefferson, Peter Washington Jr., Rick Simmons, and John Edgerton face up to 5 years in prison. They are changed with felony riot. In truth, they have done nothing wrong. They stood up to a union-busting shipping firm and exercised their right to picket. For that, South Carolina Attorney General Charlie Condon says they deserve “jail, jail, and more jail.”
Hamilton, AL – “This is a fight to the death. We will not let the scabs have this plant. If we can't have it, we will shut it down,” vowed the local United Steel Workers of America membership.
Gary, IN – Edgewater Systems for Balanced Living is a social service agency here whose services cover children with developmental disorders as well as adults with chronic mental illness. The 180 housekeepers, maintenance workers, therapists and teachers are members of Teamsters Local 743. These workers care for their clients, often giving out of their own pockets to buy things for them.
Chicago, IL – Members of Teamsters Local 743 are preparing to join the massive national march on Sept. 1 in Saint Paul, Minnesota to protest at the Republican National Convention. They see this march as part of the effort to defeat the Republicans this fall. This march will be the first time in 45 years that Local 743 is joining a national mobilization.
Chicago, IL – The U.S. Attorney here handed down a 14 count indictment against former Teamster Local 743 presidents Robert Walston and Richard Lopez and former Teamsters Local 743 employees Cassandra Davis Mosley, David Rodriguez and Thaddeus ‘Teddie’ Bania, March 6.
Chicago, IL – The University of Chicago Hospital employed Richard Berg as a housekeeper for 16 years. In 2004, they fired him at the request of Bob Walston, the criminal that was principal officer in Teamsters Local 743, Berg’s union. Berg had led the New Leadership Slate (NLS) that had twice won in local elections that year, but each time had been denied their elective offices by the massive theft of votes by Walston’s gang. The gangsters decided to eliminate the challenge once and for all: if Berg didn’t work in a Local 743 shop, he couldn’t be a member of the union and could never run for office again.
Chicago, IL – Five union reformers entered the offices of Teamsters Local 743 Dec. 31 to receive keys to the union hall from their opponents who had lost election in the fall. The old president Richard Lopez knew he was defeated and that he might be going to jail.
Chicago, IL – Sirlena Perry is a clerical worker and a trade unionist in Chicago. She has also been a supporter of the Teamsters 743 New Leadership Slate for many years. She gave a speech introducing members of the Slate when they were honored at this year’s People’s Thanksgiving in Chicago, an annual fundraiser for Fight Back! newspaper.
Fight Back! has been a supporter of the reform movement in the Teamsters since we began publishing, but the struggle inside Teamsters Local 743 began years earlier. We interviewed Richard Berg, the president-elect of Local 743 about the history and meaning of the victory over the sell-out gangsters that dominated that union for so many years.
On Sept. 1, 2008 the Republican Party will hold its national convention at the Xcel Center in Saint Paul, Minnesota. They will be there to nominate John McCain for president, and justify the wars against – and occupations of – Iraq and Afghanistan. The Republicans will gather to celebrate economic policies that have brought riches to the few and foreclosures, homelessness and unemployment to the many. Republican delegates will cheer the anti-immigrant attacks as party leaders try to use racism to cement their reactionary supporters. We can also expect attacks from the podium on women’s rights to control our own bodies and attacks on gay marriage.
Chicago, IL – A cheer rang out Oct. 22 as the U.S. Department of Labor announced the winners of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) officers’ election for Local 743. Richard Berg and the 743 New Leadership Slate beat the incumbent Ford-Galvan Unity Slate. After twelve years of difficult and sometimes frustrating campaigning, a new day is dawning in Local 743.
