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| SEIU's Andy Stern with Honeywell CEO David Cote |
We’ve seen
it again and again: SEIU officials leaping into bed with CEOs to proclaim
"maverick" partnerships that (you guessed it) toss workers under the
bus.
Here's the
latest.
SEIU’s Andy Stern, David Rolf, and Laphonza
Butler are drawing
fire from worker advocates for their recent deal with the CEOs of Uber, Lyft, Handy and other
so-called "gig economy" companies.
The tech
titans are using a classic scheme to boost their profits by ripping off workers. How?
They misclassify
their workers -- including Uber drivers and Handy maids -- as "independent
contractors" rather than employees. As such, the workers have no access to health
insurance, vacation, holidays, retirement, and other benefits; no access to
unemployment insurance and workers compensation; and no company contribution to
Social Security and Medicare. And the workers are unprotected by most federal,
state and local minimum wage laws and other labor protections. And they can’t
form unions.
It's the
same scam used by FedEx, trucking companies at ports, and other greedy
companies.
In
California, Uber drivers are
suing their $62 billion company to be reclassified as employees and to
collect millions of dollars in mileage reimbursement and tips, which the
company has never paid to drivers. The suit could affect 160,000 workers.
SEIU
officials -- rather than backing the workers -- decided to become BFFs with the
CEOs of Uber, Lyft, Handy and other such corporations. Earlier this month, they
co-signed a lame, milk-toast letter that fails to take these corporations to
task for ripping off their workforces.
Instead, SEIU’s
joint letter offers hollow platitudes and vague proclamations -- with no
concrete commitments or funding from the corporations -- that are summed up in
the following excerpt from the joint letter:
Everyone, regardless of employment classification, should have access to the option of an affordable safety net that supports them when they’re injured, sick, in need of professional growth, or when it’s time to retire.
Worse yet, SEIU's
joint letter pointedly criticizes workers for suing their billion-dollar bosses
for ripping them off. The letter states: "We believe these issues are best
pursued through policy development, not
litigation…" (emphasis added)
SEIU is the
only union to sign the letter… which was also signed by Eli Lehrer, the President of "The R Street Institute," a
right-wing think tank inspired by Milton
Friedman and Frederick Hayek. By the way, the R Street Institute is
reportedly pushing for legislation to make it easier for companies to classify
what their workers as "independent contractors."
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| SEIU's David Rolf |
SEIU’s
lame-ass sell-out of precarious workers is what prompted worker advocates to publish
a recent critique entitled "When
Labor Groups and Silicon Valley Capitalists Join Forces to ‘Disrupt’
Protections for Employees" (In These Times, December 4, 2015).
The authors --
Jay Youngdahl and Darwin Bondgraham -- include a quote from
Shannon Liss-Riordan, a labor
attorney who represents 160,000 Uber drivers in their class-action lawsuit
against the company:
I’m concerned seeing labor groups on there. … I’m wondering whether they’re fully informed as to what they’re putting their names on.
Unfortunately,
cozying up to the boss is par for the course at SEIU.
Readers will recall similar
episodes such as Andy Stern’s dirty deals with Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott; pension-slashing
venture capitalist Gina
Raimondo; Honeywell CEO David
Cote; Andy’s billionaire patron Ron
Perelman; and the anti-teacher Broad
Foundation.
