No Democracy, No Peace!

Report from a reader...

"This past weekend was the annual meeting of the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions (CKPU). Traditionally, delegates to the CKPU discuss “Partnership” issues and bargaining strategy. This year was very different, primarily because democracy is on hold at UHW while SEIU is in charge. The conference started badly for SEIU with Deputy Trustee Amado David trying desperately to convince other union leaders that UHW’s delegates were "democratically elected from all over California"!

But with the overwhelming majority of UHW’s Steward Councils having been removed or suspended by SEIU, there’s no way delegates could have been elected. In fact, nearly all the delegates had been personally invited by SEIU and many were already on SEIU payroll. A shining example was Santa Clara’s “delegate” Diane Barton, who told an NUHW supporter she was at CKPU “Because I wasn’t picked as contract specialist last year and now SEIU is paying me to be the contract specialist.”

A group of rank-and-file NUHW supporters arrived during the fancy sit-down Saturday lunch to talk with other union coalition delegates about the fact that a majority of UHW members have petitioned to leave SEIU. Unfortunately, SEIU’s trustees did what they always do when faced with dissent: they called the police.

Some NUHW supporters were shoved and screamed at by SEIU’s trustees. The CKPU Executive Director sided with SEIU, saying he supported NUHW supporters being ejected from the room. Security arrived, but when the police arrived, they did nothing.

And it was too late, the point had already been clearly made to other union coalition delegates. Until SEIU’s trusteeship fails and the trustees go back to Washington, DC, there will be no democracy in UHW. And without democracy, there can be no real bargaining in 2010."