From: "Bruce Raynor, UNITE HERE" <acooper at unitehere.org> Date: February 9, 2009 11:34:02 AM EST To: "Doug Henwood" <dhenwood at panix.com> Subject: The UNITE HERE Merger - A Missed Opportunity Reply-To: notice-reply-isu3g7ro7673imd at ga-mail.action.unitehere.org
Dear Doug Henwood,
You may have read about problems in our union, UNITE HERE, in the New York Times this weekend. As people who care about the labor movement, I think you deserve to hear what is going on directly from me.
By every measure, the 2004 merger of UNITE and HERE has been an abject failure and, unfortunately, it is time for our unions to divorce. Twenty-three elected UNITE HERE leaders representing more than 150,000 members are submitting a resolution to the General Executive Board today stating their desire to move on and leave this failure behind us.
This should be a time of incredible hope and concerted action from the labor movement, as we have the most pro-worker administration we have had in generations. And as workers continue to get beat down by this economic crisis, they need a strong labor movement more than ever. I would like nothing more than to be working with our members and elected leaders on the change we campaigned so hard for last fall, and that moved all of us when Obama took office last month. But before we can get the House and Senate moving in the right direction, we need to get our own house in order.
I have lived through and worked on countless mergers in my 30 years in the labor movement. Before this, all have succeeded. What has became clear to me and many other affiliate leaders - including HERE leaders that support this divorce - is that what John Wilhelm and his small band of zealots is pursuing is not a merger at all, but a hostile takeover. They want to seize control of the union and UNITE's assets that were built through 100 years of hard work by low income, largely immigrant men and women so he can then redirect them to the failed programs of a few of his favorite locals. We will not let that happen.
Wilhelm and HERE have a history of spending recklessly and squandering resources. At the time of the merger, HERE was nearly bankrupt. They had mismanaged their money, including their national pension fund and some of their welfare funds. We bailed out these funds so their members could have their health care and pensions. We will not allow them to run this great union into the ground.
Maybe the person who makes the best case for the divorce is John Wilhelm himself. At our merger convention in 2004 Wilhelm defined the standard for our success:
"The test of the success or failure of this merger should be whether UNITE HERE organizes substantially more workers in the years to come than our two unions have been organizing separately before the merger."
At that time, Wilhelm promised that we would come to this next convention in June 2009 with hundreds of thousands of new members.
But the facts speak for themselves. UNITE HERE has organized fewer workers than the two unions were organizing separately prior to the merger despite a skyrocketing organizing budget, yearly dues increases and a rapidly expanding staff.
Since 2005, UNITE HERE has spent more than $61 million on organizing in HERE's hotel and gaming sectors with little to show for it. The total membership of our union is stagnant, and only about 32,000 workers have been organized in those robust sectors. In contrast, only $10 million has been spent on campaigns in UNITE's traditional manufacturing, distribution and retail sectors, yet we have organized 7,000 new members in those struggling industries.
But not only have John Wilhelm and his associates failed at organizing, and squandered millions of dollars in the process, they have also failed to represent their members. Countless contracts with employers have expired without being renegotiated and members' grievances go unanswered. UNITE has a history of the strongest financial management and assets in the labor movement, staying solvent even at times that our industries have suffered and the national economy has struggled. And this has proved to serve our members well - and allowed us to build more power for workers even in the most trying times. This history is endangered by the Wilhelm clique's financial irresponsibility. They have demanded deficit spending since the merger, and - even in these difficult times - proposed a budget which would increase our annual spending by nearly $6 million, despite forecasting a shortfall of more than $25 million.
Failed organizing projects, squandered resources and no accountability; it would be unconscionable to let Wilhelm and his cronies carry out this hostile takeover. To that end, former UNITE leaders have also filed suit in federal court to undue undo the merger. But we should be able to get past this without the court's help. It is time to separate, for the sake of our members, for the sake of our union.
For more information, including the Resolution of the Committee to Re- UNITE and Rebuild, legal filings, a white paper on the failure of UNITE HERE to organize, and more, please contact Amanda Cooper at acooper at unitehere.org