Troublemakers Blog
June 04, 2008 / Mark Brenner
The afternoon started off with Andy Stern’s big speech. You can watch the whole thing on the web and I encourage you check it out and draw your own conclusions about Stern’s vision for the union.
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June 04, 2008 / Mark Brenner
Once I got my food I had a really interesting conversation at the lunch table with several rank-and-file SEIU members. I was sitting next to a woman from 1199 New York who remarked that this convention, her fourth one, lacked energy. The man sitting next to her commented on all the security.
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June 04, 2008 / Mark Brenner
Lunch on Day 1 of the SEIU convention was another déjà vu moment. As fates would have it, I got in line behind Gabe Kramer, a senior staffer at 1199 West Virginia, Ohio and Kentucky. Gabe was part of the crew that tried to barrel their way into the banquet at the Labor Notes conference in April. You can see him »
June 03, 2008 / Mark Brenner
After I made it into the guest area on the convention floor I found my way to the press section and settled in. (We’re in the back corner closest to the door if you want to come by and say hello.) I got a little panicky when the convention opened with a video so cheesy it made Tuesdays with Morrie look like Apocalypse Now.
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June 02, 2008 / Mark Brenner
Life sometimes kicks up ironies so fantastic you have to laugh out loud. On opening day of the SEIU convention there were more than I could count. The first one happened less than ten minutes after I got inside the convention center. (Yes, they did scan the barcode on my ID badge, albeit only once, and I did have to pass through a turnstile)
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June 02, 2008 / Mark Brenner
This morning started early, with a breakfast hosted by the big California dissident local, United Healthcare Workers-West (UHW). Sal Rosselli and three rank-and-file members—Mell Garcia, a UHW member at a Kaiser hospital, Rosie Byers, a 31-year homecare worker and UHW member, as well as Michael Fenison, a respiratory therapist in Englewood who joined UHW four »
June 02, 2008 / Mark Brenner
Today the die may have been cast for United Healthcare Workers-West (UHW), the 140,000-member local that has been leading a high-profile dispute with its parent body, the Service Employees International Union, over questions of centralization and member control in the union. UHW put forward a series of amendments to the SEIU constitution in late March, »
June 01, 2008 / Mark Brenner
The Puerto Rican convention center hosting the Service Employees International Union’s big confab is kind of an eerie cross between Superman’s Fortress of Solitude and a prison in some isolated part of rural California.
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February 26, 2008 /
We are planning a silent auction at the conference, with the proceeds going towards supplementing Labor Notes' shoe-string budget.
If you have a vintage labor t-shirt or a memorable picket line sign that you could donate to Labor Notes contact us at conference[at]labornotes[dot]org.
Thanks for your support!
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February 18, 2008 /
Labor Notes is proud to announce that Sal Rosselli will join our growing list of main session panelists!
Rosselli is president of SEIU United Healthcare Workers-West, a 150,000-member union of hospital, nursing home and homecare workers in California.
He has recently emerged as a leading voice for union democracy inside SEIU, challenging a move to centralize »