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AUG. 6, 2010:NWLP 8/3/10 10:11 AM Page 11 UNITE HERE, Service Employees resolve major dispute The Service Employees Interna- right in elections scheduled for 2009. tional Union (SEIU) and UNITE Raynor formed Workers United and HERE announced July 26 that they joined with Andy Stern, then president have put an end to a bitter 18-month of SEIU, one of the largest unions in the country and an affiliate of Change dispute. UNITE HERE was formed in 2004 to Win. When Stern un- with the merger expectedly resigned of the Union of a few months ago, Needletrades, Industrial, and ‘We agree that we cannot newly elected SEIU president Mary Kay Textile Em- be spending our time — who de- p l o y e e s fighting one another over Henry feated Stern’s pick as (UNITE) and Hotel Employ- workers who are already his successor — made settling the ees and Restau- represented when there dispute a top priority rant Employees of her administra- (HERE). The are far too many people tion. presidents of who want and need a “Despite the ten- both interna- sions that have ex- tional unions voice on the job.’ isted between our — Bruce unions over the past Raynor of UNITE and John Wilhelm of HERE — months, John Wilhelm, Bruce Raynor negotiated to maintain leadership posi- and I have worked together to find tions within the newly merged union. common ground, and we’ve been able In 2005, UNITE HERE withdrew from to put our differences behind us,” the AFL-CIO and joined the Change to Henry said in a statement to the press. “We agree that we cannot be spending Win coalition. The conflict started when Raynor our time fighting one another over and Wilhelm couldn’t agree on strategy workers who are already represented for the union’s future. Then-president when there are far too many people Raynor split away part of the UNITE who want and need a voice on the job. membership when he saw that Wilhelm Our resources and our attention must was likely to win the presidency out- be put toward solutions for the crisis workers face right now. “We need to drive change for peo- ple in this country. None of us can go it alone. Moving forward, SEIU plans to link arms with our allies in labor and the progressive movement and forge stronger relationships with communi- ties to be a more aggressive force push- ing for the demands that help working people on the job, at the bargaining table, and with public policy makers all around our country.” Wilhelm credited Henry for making the settlement possible, telling In These Times magazine, “No question, if Andy Stern were still president, we’d be still combating with SEIU. His de- parture and her ascension made a big difference.” In a press statement, Wilhelm said “UNITE HERE is proud that the agree- ment preserves its exclusive jurisdic- tion to organize in the hotel and gaming industries. It also lays out a level play- Oregon Service Employees locals endorse John Kitzhaber Members of Services Employees International Union (SEIU) voted to endorse Democrat John Kitzhaber for governor of Oregon. Along with the endorsement, they also pledged to campaign actively on his behalf. SEIU represents more than 50,000 workers in state and local government, homecare, child care, adult foster care and the state universities, as well as thousands of workers in the private sec- tor including hospitals, nursing homes and property services. The endorsement was recom- mended by the union’s political action committee and affirmed by SEIU’s Oregon State Council following a par- ticipatory process open to all candi- dates who responded to a question- :RUNLQJ 3$,1" 0RVW,QVXUDQFH 3ODQV$FFHSWHG 3 528'/< 6 (59,1* 3 257/$1' : 25.(56 ) 25 2 9(5 < ($56 Former SEIU leader Andy Stern takes job at Georgetown Andy Stern, former president of the Service Employees International Union, has taken a job at Georgetown University’s public policy school as a research fellow. Stern will coordinate research at Washington, D.C.-based Georgetown on wage reform, labor policy and re- tirement security. Stern, 59, surprised the labor move- ment last May when he announced his retirement. Stern headed the SEIU for 14 years. He led five unions in leaving the AFL-CIO, then joined with the Teamsters and Carpenters unions to form the Change to Win labor federa- tion. The Carpenters have since left Change to Win, as has UNITE HERE. Stern is also a member of President Obama’s deficit commission. KHOSVEULQJWKH UHOLHI\RXQHHG RI LQ naire, appeared before members, and agreed to spend a day shadowing a member in the workplace. “We were impressed by Kitz- haber’s grasp of the issues, sincerity and candor,” said Barbara Casey, a so- cial services worker from Portland and chair of the SEIU Local 503 CAPE (Citizens Action for Political Educa- tion) committee. “But more than any- thing else, we believe he shares the val- ues of our members and Oregon’s working families.” Union officials said Republican nominee Chris Dudley, a former offi- cer of the NBA players union noted for finding ways around management ef- forts to cap salaries, spurned a chance to compete for SEIU’s endorsement. keep the needle trades and laundries, with the exception of those in the New England region of old UNITE, which chose to stay with UNITE HERE. According to In These Times, the two unions either agreed to compete for some types of food workers or carve out jurisdictions, such as grant- ing UNITE jurisdiction over business and industry food service and SEIU over health care industry food workers. The unions set up procedures to de- cide where another 11,000 still-con- tested workers will go. UNITE HERE represents more than 250,000 workers throughout the U.S. and Canada who work in the hospital- ity, gaming, food service, manufactur- ing, textile, laundry, and airport indus- tries. SEIU has 2.2 million members in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. %HHVRQ&KLURSUDFWLF 7LUHG AUGUST 6, 2010 ing field for both unions in the food service industry. “And it restores to UNITE HERE the bulk of the financial assets that have been tied up in federal court, including the Manhattan real estate. UNITE HERE and SEIU agreed to seek ap- proval from federal regulators to trans- fer ownership of the Amalgamated Bank to SEIU-affiliated Workers United.” The New York Times put the value at $75 million in cash and $70 million for the 28-story office building on Sev- enth Avenue in New York. Amalgamated Bank reportedly has $4.5 billion in assets. Under the agreement, UNITE HERE will have exclusive jurisdiction to organize in the hotel and gaming in- dustries in the U.S., Puerto Rico or Canada. Workers United, the faction that left UNITE HERE and joined SEIU, will 7UHDWPHQWIRUSDLQGXHWR RYHUXVHDQGUHSHWLWLYHPRWLRQ &KLURSUDFWLFDGMXVWPHQWV 7UHDWPHQWIRUDFFLGHQWDQG VSRUWVUHODWHGLQMXULHV 5HKDELOLWDWLRQH[HUFLVHV 7KHUDSHXWLFPDVVDJH ,QWHUQDOGLDJQRVLVDQGWUHDWPHQW /DEWHVWVDQG[UD\V 'U'DQ%HHVRQ&KLURSUDFWRU 6(7KLUWHHQWK$YHLQ6HOOZRRG &$// NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS PAGE 11
