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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 3, 2006)
SEIU’s Andy Stern: The new face of labor? It’s been a long time since an Ameri- can union leader was a media regular. But in the last two years, Andy Stern, head of the 1.8 million strong Service Employees International Union, has be- come somewhat of a celebrity, making the cover of “Business Week” and the “New York Times Magazine,” profiled in “Fortune,” and appearing on CBS’ “60 Minutes,” Comedy Central’s “Col- bert Report” and WNBC’s “Wall Street Journal Report.” Now he’s getting local press as well, as he tours the country promoting a new book, “A Country That Works: Getting America Back on Track.” Within the union movement, Stern is regarded either as the visionary who’s leading the rebirth of American labor, or the villain who caused labor’s biggest split in 50 years — last year’s exodus of five big unions from the AFL-CIO. SEIU is concentrated in the public sector, health care, and building serv- ices, like janitors and security guards. Since Stern was elected president 10 years ago, SEIU has grown by 800,000 members, four-fifths of that through new organizing. Now SEIU has plans to try to unionize the South. In his book, Stern describes his rise to power within the SEIU. He gives a peek into the behind-the-scenes work- ings of national Democratic Party poli- tics, and he details the power struggles within the AFL-CIO that led to the deci- sion by SEIU and several other unions to leave and form a new federation, Change to Win. Stern was in Portland Oct. 17 to meet with SEIU members and talk about his book at Powell’s Books, and answered some questions from NW Labor Press associate editor Don McIntosh about the split, foreign trade, health care, and pol- itics. Labor Press: Some local affiliates of other unions have stayed in local AFL-CIO bodies. Is SEIU going to al- low locals to continue to affiliate through ‘solidarity charters’after this year? Andy Stern: We don’t know yet, we don’t know if solidarity charters are going to continue. So far we’ve let every local make its own choice. I think there’s a more fundamental ques- tion, which is, ‘Why don’t we create a new mostly-political local solidarity or- ganization, with the NEA [the big teachers union], Change to Win, the AFL, the independent unions, and maybe groups like America Votes and ACORN. Because we need to create the highest level of unity possible, and it’s a rather limited debate what percent of the 11 percent of American workers who are unionized are going to be in a certain group. What’s the likelihood of SEIU or other Change to Win unions return- ing to the AFL-CIO? Highly unlikely. What do you think America ought to do vis-a-vis China that would protect working people in this country? I don’t think you can build walls. I think we need to recognize we live in a global economy. That doesn’t mean America can’t have a plan. We would fire the negotiators of NAFTA and the WTO if they were union leaders. We would unelect them. Because they re- ally didn’t protect America’s interests. We protected patents and intellectual property but we didn’t protect against China manipulating its currency. I think every country needs an economic plan. Ours needs to start with the most simple security issues. It’s outrageous that we can’t fix American battleships with American steel. And clearly there are ways to hold countries accountable to agreements they have signed. but it’s a huge portion of the economy. You’ve talked about taking service- sector jobs that can’t be outsourced and making them good jobs. But my sense is that producing things is the foundation of any kind of prosperity. We can’t all be serving each other lattes. Somebody’s got to grow the beans and make the cups. We have to reconceptualize what making things is. I’m not sure if you think Google is making things or not, But it doesn’t employ hardly any- body. Yeah, but you can go on. I don’t know if mapping the genome is mak- ing something. It is much better for a country to make things. It’s a much more robust economy. IBEW & United Workers F.C.U. is proud to partner with Albertina Kerr’s Holiday Giving Program to help strengthen the holiday spirit of giving. Throughout the month of November the Credit Union will be accepting non-perishable food items in our branch. The Giving Tree will be in our lobby from November 20th through December 18th. While you are here take a tag off of our Holiday Giving Tree or donate cash and one of Santa’s helpers will do the shopping for you! Donations must be unwrapped. 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Should America do business with countries where the workers aren’t free? I think they’re going to anyway. But I think we should ask ourselves some questions about how free American workers are, and not just on paper. It’s a pretty depressing moment — now we’re telling nurses they’re supervi- sors. We’re telling security guards they have no union. I’m not trying to make any excuses for China, but I think we should think about American workers’ ability to have a union. When the Wal Mart workers say they want a union, and corporate jets fly out of Ben- tonville and surveillance cameras go up, you’d say ‘This isn’t the country we love.’” If the Employee Free Choice Act [a union-backed labor law change] passes, I would guarantee you we could organize a million workers a Turn to Page 9) year. Quarry 8” Safety toe or reg. Gortex/Vibram. Black Try a pair on, you’ll like them. Tough boots for the Northwest. 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