Labor Notes: Members Decry Loyalty Oaths, Cozy Deals: Reform Movement Forms in SEIU

From http://labornotes.org/node/1583

by Paul Krehbiel

On the heels of a public fight over the Service Employees (SEIU) International’s move toward labor-management partnership deals and hyper-centralization, members are joining a newly founded national reform group.

Several pockets of reform already exist in the union, but the largest is the SEIU Member Activists for Reform Today (SMART), founded in California in January. The group already claims members in 11 other states and Canada.

Members’ grievances against SEIU officials have been mounting after President Andy Stern merged many locals into mega-locals, removed elected leaders, and appointed his own agents in their place. SMART’s formation mirrors a conflict between Stern and Sal Rosselli, head of the 150,000-member United Healthcare Workers—West local, over the international’s consolidation of authority.

“The union is now a corporate-style organization where members and their issues are ignored. Members are furious,” said Joel Solis, a registered nurse and steward at the Department of Mental Health in Los Angeles County, now in Local 721.