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Local 509 asks questions about democracy in the SEIU

by Herman Benson

At the recent convention of the Service Employees International Union, delegates were able to vote on a proposal to change the method of choosing top international officers from the current system of election by vote of delegates to election by direct vote of the membership.

After a voice vote, the chair declared the motion defeated; but John Templeton, president of Local 509 which sponsored the constitutional amendment, considered the balance so close that he rose to call for a division of the house. At that point, the electronic sound system abruptly went out of order, so that there never was an actual count. The proposal for direct elections was not adopted, but it could count on strong support. Without a precise tally, we will never know how strong.

Local 509, the 7,000 member local of social workers in Boston, proposed that the international president, secretary treasurer, executive vice president, and executive board members be elected by the membership. Candidates could win nomination by receiving support from 5% of the voting convention delegates. Six weeks would be allowed for campaigning. All candidates would be allowed statements in the union's publication and would have the right to participate in any election forum.

But Local 509 obviously had broader concerns about the future of democracy in the SEIU.

According to reports from around the country, the SEIU international office has embarked upon a program of merging locals, establishing trusteeships over old locals, appointing officers of the new, and then campaigning to assure that the imported trustees and officers emerge out of elections in continuing control of the locals.
At the convention, Local 509 submitted a series of motions which, taken together, express serious misgivings over the future fate of democracy in the SEIU, concerns which are not limited to Local 509. Among its proposals were the following:

• No jurisdictional changes to be imposed without "extensive and thorough" consultation with the affected local.
• Elected local officers must be members of the local and recently employed within a local bargaining unit.
• On newly established locals: Members are to elect an executive board within three months of creation of a local. An interim president appointed by the international can serve for only one year. An appointed president, not a local member, will be ineligible to run for local office after the local's bylaws have been adopted.
• Eliminate the requirement of two years of continuous good standing as a condition of running for office. Substitute a requirement for simple good standing at time of nomination.
• Trusteeships to be established only as a last resort and never for political reasons.
• Rank and file members of new and trusteed locals should be encouraged to run for office.

We have no report on the precise fate of these proposals. Apparently they were all lost in the shuffle of standard convention procedures.

SEIU International President Andy Stern argues that a shift to a more centralized control is urgently necessary if the union is to mobilize its forces effectively in a drive to organize the unorganized. (Or, to use the newly fashionable cliche drawn from the lexicon of competitive free enterprise, to win a greater "density" in its "market.") It is necessary, Stern insists, to replace small locals and their officers who neglect organizing with a new dedicated leadership that understands the urgency of the need, that unions must expand or die.

Toward that end, he has recruited a staff from outside the union, many with a background in civil rights campaigns or with staff experience in other unions. But as he dissolves and merges locals and puts them under the tutelage of his zealous, but imported, staff, concerns arise over the fate of democracy in the SEIU. These misgivings are reinforced as Stern, in defense of his policies, seems to suggest that union democracy is an impediment to organizing and derides those in the union who, as he puts it, "scream about democracy."

Moreover, Stern is the leading spokesman for the New Unity Partnership --- four unions which aim to replace John Sweeney as AFL-CIO president. The NUP proposes to reorganize the whole labor movement in a centralized authoritarian mold.

Upon this background, SEIU Local 509 comes forward at the convention. Whether or not any specific proposal would meet the need, its program commands attention as an expression of mounting concern over the future of union democracy. The question is how the union will respond to that concern: come to terms with it or continue to deride it.

For a critical roundup account of recent SEIU experience with organizing and democracy see Steve Early in the September/October issue of Against the Current, No. 112.
For ongoing commentary, see Benson's Union Democracy Blog.

More resources on the New Unity Partnership of SEIU, UNITE-HERE, LIUNA and the UBCJA:
Local 509 asks questions about democracy in the SEIU
New Unity Partnership:Sweeney Critics would bureaucratize to organize.
Service Employees: Mass. merger in Local 888.
Benson's Union Democracy blog.
Student Labor Activists support union democracy.
SEIU's Unite to Win blog promotes discussion of their Proposals for New Strength, and related issues and plans.
Articles on the Labor Notes site on NUP from various sources.
See UDR articles on the Carpenters (UBCJA) for case studies in merger and bureaucratization.
Several articles on the New Unity Partnership are available on the BC Carpenters website.
Find articles on the consolidation of power in the Carpenters union on the main UDR page.
An exchange on union democracy between Herman Benson and Steve Fraser, on the Laborers.org website (click on Fraser's name for a link to his article)
Links to rank-and-file websites in the NUP unions: Carpenters, Hotel and Restaurant Employees, Laborers, Needle Trades (UNITE), Service Employees (building services, public employees).
Father Haggerty's "Wheel of Fortune" -- the original grand sectoral plan for the IWW.

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