Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Top 10 SEIU Bloopers, 2009 Part I


10. SRMH election. 13 votes? Dozens of staff, truckloads of glossy mailers... and 13 votes? And Dave Regan still gets a Christmas bonus? This fiasco is not unlike the Crothall/Tarzana Med Center election where SEIU reportedly sent in 21 staff for the 54 workers, and then had to ask for SEIU's name to be taken off the ballot for fear of not getting even a single vote!

9. Ruining EFCA for the whole Labor Movement. The boss tactics, the bullshit legal challenges, firing leaders, threatening loss of benefits if workers vote for the union--a cornucopia of violations. It would merely be embarrassing if it weren't about to play a starring role in 2010's national debate on labor law reform. You think the Chamber of Commerce hasn't already cut some ads on this? Andy, Tasty hopes you are smarter than you appear and there is a super secret plan at work on this one!

8.
Fresno! Vote for us or we'll call ICE. While SEIU is holding on to a slim victory for the moment, the Fresno vote was a disaster for them from start to finish. Dave Regan's threatening speech, Rebecca Malberg's ineptitude, and the Ten Million Dollar price tag pale in comparison to the lowest of all SEIU tactics: If workers were not voting for the Zombies their immigration status was threatened.

7.
Agreeing to Kaiser Layoffs and Pension cuts, and then pretending that they didn't agree. Ever do something so stupid that when you are called on it you have to be like: nuh-uh? Yeah, well SEIU did that with the Kaiser layoffs. The failure would be laughable, unless you are one of the laid off or soon to retire members who got screwed by SEIU.

6.
The Quality of Staff that SEIU has in California. If you run a huge union with literally thousands of smart well trained well paid staff and then you pick a huge fight with one of your largest locals and the turf becomes a war zone--what do you do? If you are Andy Stern you lay off loads of staff, fire all of the staff at the local in question (even the ones who aren't really that against you,) and then send every loser from every under performing local in the country in to run thing. Major FAIL! (Oh, yeah, and you have the least talented communications staff ever!)

...more tomorrow.