In an effort to impose its will not just on the members of UHW, but on the more than 800,000 residents of the city and county of San Francisco, SEIU's trustees have teamed up with the Chamber of Commerce to unseat the progressive majority at the SF board of supervisors. (The Bay Guardian has the details.)The trustees' alliance with the Chamber is part of their ugly deal with the notoriously anti-union Sutter Health, and as the Guardian notes, "puts UHW, part of the Service Employees International Union, in the odd position of using membership money to attack progressive politics in San Francisco – potentially undermining years of work by another SEIU affiliate, Local 1021."
Beyond that--SEIU's latest deal with the devil actually undermines one of the only campaigns the SEIU-backed Change to Win coalition is currently waging: US Chamber Watch, an effort targeted at countering the Chamber's "extremist political advocacy."
According the the Change-to-Win sponsored website: "The mission of U.S. Chamber Watch is to promote greater transparency and accountability in American political processes by shedding light on the funding and practices of the largest private interest lobbyist in America, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce."
Having sold out in such a bold way, it's difficult for SEIU and Change to Win to achieve even a minimal level of credibility when they try to pose as working class heroes fighting for the downtrodden--in fact they come off looking like pathetic hypocrites (just ask Jono Shaffer).
But, as you know, Tasty likes to look on the bright side. So where's the silver lining in this latest tawdry development? It's here: the deeper the hole SEIU digs for itself in California, the more we can see what the purple machine really stands for these days!
First, they decapitate the extremely popular and effective leadership of one of the best locals in all of SEIU, then in a desperate attempt to keep thousands of unhappy members in the fold they bully, lie and cheat their way through the bad joke known as the NLRB process. When that's not enough they jump in bed with the boss to get NUHW supporters fired.
At this point even the holdouts who bravely tried to defend SEIU's actions over the last year and a half will be forced to admit it: SEIU will say or do anything to hold on to the dues it extracts from the members of UHW. Even if that means hooking up with the Chamber of Commerce.
