And just for giggles, Matthews told Stern "I'm not a marxist but I believe in the labor theory of value," which he went on to say means when you work you should get paid.
On Sat, Apr 17, 2010 at 5:06 PM, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
> Steve Early has a fine post-mortem on Andy Stern:
>
> http://www.counterpunch.org/early04162010.html
>
> Stern spent scores of millions on all his internal and external fights, not
> to mention scores more on Dem candidates. Now the union is up to its ears in
> debt. Nice.
>
> Early's conclusion:
>
>> In light of all of the above, is it any wonder then that, as The
>> Washington Post just reported, “SEIU membership growth has slowed -- after
>> growing by 300,000 workers from 2006 to 2009, it added only 50,000 workers
>> last year, for a total of 1.86 million.” (In every press release, including
>> the one announcing Stern’s retirement, SEIU turns that real number, as just
>> reported by the U.S. Department of Labor, into “2.2 million.”) In addition,
>> as Alec MacGillis of The Post wrote:
>>
>> “The union's finances are far more leveraged than those of most other
>> unions -- it owes $121 million, while much of its $188 million in assets
>> include IOUs from strapped locals.”
>>
>> In all the tributes to Stern, the dollar figure that keeps getting
>> repeated is the $85 million that his union spent electing Obama and other
>> Democrats in 2008. Some reports even recall the $10 million SEIU set aside
>> afterwards for a 35-state grassroots campaign (called “Change That Works”)
>> designed to hold newly-elected officials accountable. The union spending
>> that goes un-noted, for the most part, is the cost of labor’s civil wars,
>> circa 2008-10. The total tab for progressive union mayhem, all SEIU-related,
>> easily matches Stern’s much applauded expenditures on national politics
>> during the same period. And that’s why The Washington Post headline, April
>> 14, had it right when it called Stern’s record “a mixed legacy.” A financial
>> day of reckoning is coming, but Andy won’t be around to settle up the bill.
>>
>
> Doug
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