A Union President Presses for Growth Amid a New Round of Criticisms By STEVEN GREENHOUSE
As 2,000 convention delegates gather in Puerto Rico, the Service Employees International Union is about to jettison a time-honored union tradition — having members go to their union representatives with their questions and grievances.
The delegates are expected to vote to have union members rely on call centers instead to handle their problems.
Union officials say these 24-hour centers would provide the union's members with faster and more expert service, usually in their own language, and would free up union representatives to focus on the union's No. 1 goal: organizing more workers.
But some union leaders and members complain that the call centers would hurt the union and its members.
"Sometimes you can't get through to these centers," said Eva Lozada, a home-care worker from Oakland, Calif. "It's like talking to an A.T.M. This will be bad for the union."
This is just one of the complaints that Andrew L. Stern, the union's president, faces as he seeks to transform the union, already the nation's fastest growing, to make it grow even faster.
Mr. Stern, whose union has nearly 1.7 million members, is facing considerable internal criticism that he is seeking to increase the union's size and the leadership's power at the expense of rank-and- file members.
"He's taking things in a bad direction because he's taking steps without involving any workers," said Sal Rosselli, president of United Healthcare Workers West, which represents 140,000 S.E.I.U. members in California.
Mr. Stern insists that the changes will help rank-and-file workers and are vital not just to make his union stronger, but also to transform the nation's politics and policies.
The union is organized labor's biggest and most vocal backer of Senator Barack Obama of Illinois and it is already making plans to mobilize more than 100,000 members, make 10 million calls and spend more than $50 million to press for universal health coverage and pro- union legislation in Mr. Obama's first 100 days as president — if he is elected.
"We're at a once-in-a-lifetime moment in American history," Mr. Stern said. "People completely understand that this new economy is not working for workers. People think America is headed in the wrong direction and want a serious change in direction. We believe we are in a position to make sure that happens."
Mr. Stern says it is important to push to unionize millions of workers both to lift wages and benefits for nonunion workers and to prevent union members' wages and benefits from being pulled down.
"For us the fundamental question at the convention is, Are we going to spend the next four years just worrying about us or worrying about achieving justice for all and passing on to others some of what we've been able to accomplish for our members?" he said.
The S.E.I.U. is expected to pass some bold resolutions, including the call center one, which Mr. Stern supports. "We have a 1930s teletype model of representation in the 21st century world," Mr. Stern said. "You can Google almost anything. But then you call your local union office and you have to push 1 or 2 and then you can't find someone who speaks the language you speak."
To make it easier to unionize workers at giant, nationwide employers, the delegates are likely to give more power to nationwide strategy councils that will help set the ground rules for unionizing and bargaining with those employers. The delegates are also expected to authorize top leaders to discipline local union officials and redraw the geographic lines of union locals when they flout the policies set by the nationwide councils.
Mr. Stern's allies say those measures are designed to make sure every local pulls together to maximize growth, but Mr. Rosselli says, "My main concern is these measures are designed to stifle dissent."
Mr. Stern said the resolutions are part of an effort dating from 1996, when he became the S.E.I.U.'s president, to increase organizing. The union now spends 50 percent of its budget on organizing, up from 20 percent. One resolution calls for unionizing at least 500,000 workers over the next four years.
In recent months, the union's top leaders have come under fire for accepting lower increases in wages and benefits in some hospital contracts in exchange for the hospital corporations' agreeing not to fight unionization drives at some of their hospitals. Moreover, the union's leaders have been criticized for negotiating secret deals with some employers that gave the service employees the green light to organize workers at certain locations designated by the employer, while the union made some concessions on pay or other areas.
Those moves have some members complaining that they have been left in the dark. But Mr. Stern's allies say those moves are innovative strategies to speed union growth.
"The union's mantra has been organize or die trying, and it has been pretty successful in increasing its numbers to help improve wages and benefits," said Janice Fine, a labor relations professor at Rutgers University. "Now the S.E.I.U. is grappling with the consequences of some of the steps it took to achieve that growth."