On our second day of SEIU's "Take Back Labor Day" caravan, myself and several other UHW members got a chance to sit down with International President Andy Stern. We had arrived at the afternoon rally in Madison, which was hosted by three locals from Wisconsin. Andy agreed to meet with us after it became clear that our members were not going to accept the same brush-off we've gotten from him in the past.
While waiting, we had numerous conversations with our brothers and sisters from the other SEIU locals that were present. Many of our fellow healthcare workers were willing to listen to our side of the story, which is that Andy and Anna Burger are trying to remove 65,000 workers from UHW without a fair vote. Several people I spoke with from 1199SEIU in New York said they had heard differing explanations of what was going on in California. Unfortunately, that seems to be the reality for a lot of SEIU members who have been fed misinformation by our International Union. We finally met with Andy, several of his staffers, and elected leaders of SEIU 1199 Wisconsin. His staff insisted we have no cameras and make no recording of the meeting, even though Andy had just spent 20 minutes being recorded at a press conference and having his picture taken with members from all over the country.
When we were all in the room in 1199's office, Andy spent a lot of effort attempting to divert the conversation away from him. When UHW member Brenda Washington delivered a passionate explanation of our great history of fighting for working people, and asked why the low standards at Local 6434 were tolerated for so long by SEIU's leadership, 1199 President Diane Palmer answered and tried to redirect our discussion to the issues at her local.
We pointed out several times that while we respect the struggle of the workers in Wisconsin and all over the country, we had not asked for a meeting with Andy Stern so that we could talk with someone else. Eventually, Andy responded to our queries, but the only thing he would say is that he is just one ordinary man, and that he leaves legal concerns to SEIU's attorneys.
This was not an acceptable answer. SEIU International has spent possibly millions of dollars attacking UHW. They've filed a bogus lawsuit alleging financial improprieties which was promptly thrown out of court. They've sent fliers to the homes of our 150,000 members bashing UHW's leadership and reiterating their disproven claims. They've held media events and conference calls with reporters to "announce" their allegations against us. They've sent auditors and monitors to pore over our finances on pointless fishing expeditions, while acting shocked that corruption was going on in other SEIU locals, whose leaders are noteworthy only for being very close to Andy. For him to sit there during our conversation and hide behind his lawyers was outrageous.
The only time he did tell us something substantial was when he said the debate within SEIU is healthy for the union. That would be true if Andy and his minions weren't so busy trying to squash that very debate. For example, many locals in SEIU have filed objections to the delegate selection process that preceded our International Convention in June, because of interference by International staffers in the process. Then there's the obvious retaliation against UHW for supporting a reform agenda that would empower the members rather than the union staff in Washington, D.C. Andy did not address these concerns.
We left feeling frustrated with our International leadership, but at the same time, our commitment to keeping UHW together and bringing back true democracy to SEIU has never been stronger.