Politicians often pay unusual deference to Andy Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union, because he heads the nation’s fastest-growing, most politically potent union.þþBut within some segments of labor, Mr. Stern has been accused of betrayal, of cutting “sweetheart deals” with employers, deals that Mr. Stern says make it easier to unionize more workers.þþNow Mr. Stern is going on the offensive, saying his labor critics often selfishly safeguard the interests of their unions’ members while ignoring the concerns of the 88 percent of workers who do not belong to unions.þþJust as it was wrong for many unions to exclude blacks, Hispanics and women in decades past, he said, it is wrong for unions not to do their utmost to unionize the nation’s nonunion workers.þþMr. Stern is speaking out in preparation for what is expected to be a tumultuous union convention next month in Puerto Rico.þþHis critics plan to introduce amendments to weaken his authority, accusing him of selling out workers by negotiating back-room deals that sacrificed some gains for current union members, like health coverage for retirees.þþMr. Stern is trying to frame his argument by saying that labor has two stark choices: “Just Us” unionism or “Justice for All” unionism. þþ“Just Us ignores the fundamental mission of the union movement — to build a more just and humane society for all working people, not just a small exclusive club,” Mr. Stern said. “At a time when seven out of eight workers have no union, 11 out of 12 in the private sector, to be a voice just for the few who do is to abdicate our founding mission.” þþAnticipating that the next president will be a Democrat who will make it easier for unions to organize nonunion workers, Mr. Stern said, “I’m throwing down the gauntlet at this moment of opportunity because we have to push each other and say to the whole labor movement, ‘We all need to think about how do we get bigger to help the tens of millions of workers without unions.’ ”þþLast week, the service employees filed a report with the Labor Department saying it had 1.65 million members and represented another 207,000 workers who paid the equivalent of union dues.þþMr. Stern’s leading critic, Sal Rosselli, president of the union’s giant health care local in California, accused Mr. Stern of making deals that were far too friendly to businesses. þþ“He’s pushing for the corporatization of the S.E.I.U.,” Mr. Rosselli said. “He’s hijacking worker power to centralize it in D.C. What he’s saying is rhetoric; it’s not real.” þþMr. Stern and other leaders of the service employees union have often pushed to have a nationwide bargaining team handle negotiations with large companies, a move that officials with the union’s locals sometimes say shortchanges local members. That nationwide bargaining team often puts more emphasis on striking deals that pave the way to organize more nonunion workers than rank-and-file members do. þþ“Andy is consumed with the idea of growth,” said Jerome Brown, the retired president of the union’s health care local in Connecticut. “He’s decided that the traditional way to organize and represent workers doesn’t allow fast enough growth. He is experimenting with agreements with employers that allow workers to organize more easily. That’s a great idea, but the question is, What do you give up to get those agreements?”þþMr. Stern said one message he would take to his union’s convention — and to all of organized labor — was that the bargaining power of union members would be undermined unless they did more to organize workers. þþHe pointed to the nation’s truck drivers, saying that their after-inflation wages slipped when the percentage of drivers in unions slid from 60 percent in 1975 to less than 25 percent three decades later.þþ“It simply is not possible for current members to pull up the ladder, barricade themselves in a fortress and continue to enjoy relatively high pay and benefits,” Mr. Stern said, while the majority of workers are nonunion and earn less.þþ
Source: NY Times
