SEIU is supposedly “helping” Professors at Webster and
Washington University, who have been trying to organize for quite some time. The
problem, according to one adjunct professor, is:
“SEIU practices the lowest forms of union behavior….They do
not understand the relative independence of thought and self-direction that
most adjuncts at Wash. U. (and Webster) bring to their jobs at a university.
They certainly do not understand, or care to understand or appreciate, the
mostly collaborative and collegial environment that we want and work to create
and maintain…It is in the nature and function of the SEIU to create discord
between adjuncts and unrepresented faculty and staff, and even between adjuncts
who wish to join the SEIU as members and those who do not.”
Furthermore, their communication with these employees has
been far from professional – “disdainful” in fact. E-mails are apparently so
full of typos, poor word choice, and misspellings, that is is hard for any
educated person, much less collegiate professors, to take them seriously. And
apparently, the SEIU organizers in charge of this campaign assumed Webster and
Wash U. to be catholic institutions – they are not!
This is the organization that claims they can do a better
job of communicating your issues with your working environment to your
managers. They can’t. It’s the reason 880 government workers in Fresno County,
California decertified SEIU this month.
Those in leadership positions with the Service Employees
organization are more interested in power and wealth than in helping those who
payroll them. This is made perfectly clear by looking at how they spend their
members dues money. Here’s one clue – it’s not on representation.
Last month, SEIU spent $2 million on a signature-gathering
initiative to get a cigarette tax hike initiative on the California 2016
ballot. They then spent $500,000 on an ad thanking New York Governor Andrew
Cuomo for getting a $15 minimum wage for fast food workers. Here’s one
interesting factoid: none of those people that will benefit from the $15 fast
food minimum wage are SEIU members. Check out this article if you're interested
in deeper insight into SEIU’s relationship with the state of New York.
We’ve known that SEIU uses its members money to gain
political clout. It’s nice to see though that sometimes it doesn’t pay off.
Over the past year, SEIU spent $35 million of its members money on a special deal
with the California Hospital Association. Among other things, SEIU promised to
utilize their political position to get $6 billion a year in new Medicaid
revenues for California hospital corporations. In exchange, CHA was going to
let SEIU organize their employees without a fight. Well, the deal seems to have
blown up in SEIU’s face. An internal recording revealed Duane Dauner, CHA’s
CEO, reporting that SEIU is struggling to pull through on their half of the
deal.
So what it looks like is SEIU spent $35 million dollars and
likely won’t gain one new member from it.
Last but not least, SEIU is getting sued by the Freedom
Foundation. The suit states that based on the Supreme Court decision last year,
SEIU should repay all the dues money that was taken from the home health care
workers who did not want to be a part of the union.
Source: Labor Relations INK August 2015
Comments
In 1971, I joined Washington University Medical School to
establish the Personnel function. I
expected union activity. I received a
Notice from the NLRB that the Service Employees Union had petitioned to
represent their 120 Maintenance employees. SEU sent Guido and Vinny from Chicago. I led the campaign against the union and I won
80% to 20%. It’s good to see the faculty is still full of “free enterprisers”.
Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader
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