A reader from North Carolina sent along this jaw-dropping
story about SEIU’s silent support for the North Carolina’s Chamber of Commerce
and its campaign to slash unemployment benefits for hundreds of thousands of
jobless workers.
North Carolina Policy Watch calls
the campaign -- which will immediately affect 438,000 unemployed workers and
their families -- “one of the most radical attacks on the unemployed in modern
American history.”
This week, North Carolina’s legislature approved the draconian
cuts, according to an article
in the New York Times. The cuts will reduce weekly unemployment benefits by
35%, drop 170,000 of the state’s current jobless workers from benefit rolls, cut
by as much as half the number of weeks for collecting benefits, and implement
many other reductions.
Here’s what happened:
Last year, the North Carolina Chamber of Commerce and the
Republican Party launched a campaign to gut the state’s system of unemployment
benefits. In North Carolina, there happen to be lots of jobless workers: the
state has the nation’s fifth highest unemployment rate at 9.2%.
In response, grassroots groups banded together to fight
back. They include the North Carolina Justice Center, the National Employment
Law Project, NAACP, National Council of Churches, National Organization of
Women, Children First, the State AFL-CIO, Disability Rights North Carolina, and
religious leaders.
 |
| S. Lewis Ebert, CEO Chamber of Commerce |
According to these groups, the Chamber’s legislation -- known
as House
Bill 4 -- will push many families “into extreme poverty.” One group called
the bill “an unprecedented assault on struggling families” and “an evisceration
of the state’s unemployment insurance system.” Here’s additional info
on the bill.
What about SEIU?
SEIU is one of North Carolina’s largest labor unions. It
represents 55,000 public-sector workers through a local called the State Employees Association of North
Carolina (SEANC).
Now… it should be a no-brainer that a union would jump in
and fight to protect the state’s system of unemployment benefits, right?
Well, not if you’re SEIU.
In fact… every union across North Carolina opposed the
Chamber’s horrible cuts… except for SEIU. And that’s not all. SEIU’s Dana Cope (the Executive Director of
SEANC) actually bragged about SEIU’s silent support for House Bill 4.
In the run-up to the legislature’s vote on the bill, advocacy
organizations sent a tweet asking, “Could SEANC be the only union in North
Carolina NOT opposed to House Bill 4”? Cope
responded: “Certainly the largest one with 55,000 members.” Here’s a copy of
the exchange from Cope’s twitter page.
A reader in North Carolina writes:
I wonder, how many SEANC members have family members or friends who are unemployed and will lose everything when this bill becomes law?
The Chamber’s bill will have a particularly devastating impact
on 170,000 jobless workers. Due to the ongoing recession, these workers are
currently receiving extended unemployment benefits because there simply aren’t
jobs for them to fill. Not much longer. Under the Chamber’s bill, all of these
170,000 workers will lose their benefits on July 1.
So why is SEIU taking a position that’s so contrary to
workers’ interests? Tasty’s sources say that SEIU and Dana Cope likely cut a
backroom deal with the Chamber of Commerce and the Republicans -- perhaps like
the deal that SEIU-UHW’s Dave Regan cut
with the CEO of the hospital industry’s Chamber of Commerce in California.
In fact, in an earlier deal, Cope reportedly sold out the
teachers’ union by allowing the North Carolina legislature to take away payroll
deduction for union dues from the members of the North Carolina Association of Educators (an affiliate of the NEA) while
preserving it for SEANC’s members.
 |
| SEIU's Dana Cope |
From what Tasty can tell, it sounds like this is par for the
course for Dana Cope. It turns out that Cope has an ego that’s the size of Texas.
He features himself on his own personal website -- www.DanaCope.com – which gushes about his
lengthy “entrepreneurial career” and fabulous accomplishments. It even
features his personal blog.
Here are a few fun facts from Cope’s website: Did you know
that Cope was a “Vice-President of the Texas
Future Business Leaders”? He sure was!
And that’s not all. He was also a
member of the “Outstanding Young Men of America.” (Tasty is not kidding.) These
and other stomach-churning facts are splashed across Cope’s website in nauseating detail.
It’s no surprise, then, that SEIU and this ego-maniac were
so quick to sell out workers. In fact, Cope is a perfect match for the other
egomaniacal, fat-cat officials who populate the Purple Palace. And since 2012, Cope has served as a Vice President on SEIU’s International
Executive Board, a position formerly held by Tyrone Freeman. Looks like Cope will have a legendary career with his
Purple Palace mates.
