Here are some photographs captured by RingosPictures.com during the May Day rally in Los Angeles, CA on May 1, 2011. Is red the new purple? We’ll let you be the judge.
Clicking images will take you to RingosPictures.com’s full photo essay on the May 1 rally.
Time for a little union mythbusting. This comes from California and the never-ending war between the SEIU and the National Union of Healthcare Workers:
I am sitting at a table in the Summit Hospital cafeteria in Oakland, California. Beverly Griffith, a spirited African-American grandparent who worked for 32 years in the Summit EVS (Housekeeping) department, taps my arm. “See that security guard at the table? He’s watching us. SEIU gets Security to follow me.”
I think to myself. How many grandmothers are security risks? So I ask: “Why would anyone follow you?”
“It’s harassment,” she insists. “I’m involved in the NUHW campaign to decertify SEIU. The election between these two unions takes place January 19th. Both management and SEIU are working together to make employees who converse with me feel uncomfortable.”
Follow the link and read the full article — it turns out Griffith isn’t the only employee who thinks she’s being watched. It’s also not the first time the SEIU has used thuggish tactics against the NUHW. So much for the SEIU being anti-corporate and defending the dignity of the common worker. At the end of the day, America’s number-one union is only looking out for number one.
After 20 inches of snow were dumped on New York City last week, the media has been atwitter about allegations made by one city councilman. Dan Halloran claimed he was 
approached by three Sanitation Department workers who confessed they had been ordered to slow down the snow removal as a protest against recent budget cuts.
The accused unions are the Sanitation Officers Association (which is part of the SEIU) and the Uniformed Sanitationmen’s Association (which is part of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters). Both have claimed that the sluggish plowing was due to budget cutbacks and that no one takes Halloran’s allegations seriously.
But apparently the feds do–at least enough to open an investigation:
Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn have opened a preliminary investigation into allegations that disgruntled sanitation workers sabotaged the cleanup after the blizzard last week that left some neighborhoods snowbound for days, people who have been briefed on the inquiry said Tuesday.
The investigation is focusing on whether there was a work slowdown and, if so, whether it was an effort to pad overtime. If the actions took place, two of those people said, they could constitute wire fraud or wire fraud conspiracy, both federal crimes. Both people spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation was continuing.
Between 660 and 720 Sanitation workers called in sick for the cleanup of last week’s blizzard — more than double the usual rate, The Post has learned.
About 11 to 12 percent of the Sanitation Department’s 6,000-strong force didn’t show up for work on Monday or Tuesday, city officials confirmed, as 20 inches of snow brought the Apple to a near-standstill.
Of course, there’s no way of knowing whether those absent employees were protesting or snowed in. But for what it’s worth, this is far from the first time Teamsters-affiliated sanitation workers have called in sick. The worst incident occurred in nearby Yonkers where garbage festered in some neighborhoods for weeks after a budget battle angered the local sanitation union. On one day, 46 out of 48 sanitation workers scheduled to pick up garbage called in sick. More details will come out in the next few weeks, and in the meantime, we are keeping an eye on this.
Earlier this year, the Service Employees International Union organized with other labor groups in favor of Arkansas Lieutenant Governor Bill Halter. Halter was challenging Democratic 
Sen. Blanche Lincoln in her primary. The SEIU was giddy at the thought of taking out Lincoln because she refused to bow down and kiss organized labor’s…er…because she wasn’t “progressive” enough.
Lincoln beat Halter in a run-off election and went on to lose resoundingly to Republican John Boozman in November. All this apparently sparked a rare round of soul-searching among SEIU bigwigs:
Khalid Pitts, director of strategic communications for the SEIU, said Monday the union might have gotten a better bang for its buck supporting candidates other than Bill Halter, who lost his bid to wrest the Arkansas Democratic Senate nomination from Lincoln.
“In retrospect, we were probably the wrong messenger,” Pitts said. “The message was right,” he added, asserting that Lincoln, who lost the general election last month to Republican Rep. John Boozman, repeatedly opposed organized labor’s priorities. Still, the SEIU has sparse membership in Arkansas and its support may have played into Lincoln’s hands, Pitts conceded, by “allow(ing) Sen. Lincoln to say that there were special interests – and she called it ‘Washington interests’ – who were coming into her state.”
We’re amused that the SEIU admits that at least some of its political spending was a mistake. But that doesn’t change the fact that the mega-union spent almost $3.2 million on a fool’s errand, all of it taken directly from worker paychecks. Arkansas is a conservative southern state and 2010 was a Republican year if ever there was one. Even if Halter was the Democratic nominee, he almost certainly didn’t have a chance against Boozman.
File this under: “Should we really be surprised?”
Anna Burger, the former number two at the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), has joined the board of directors at the Center for American Progress Action Fund.
In a statement, John Podesta, chairman of the board, said the group was “pleased” that Burger was coming on board. …
The action fund is an affiliated advocacy group of the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank.
The Center for American Progress (CAP) is well-connected among influential Democrats and the Obama Administration. As Time magazine reported in late 2008, “Just as candidate Obama depended on CAP during the campaign for opposition research and talking points, President-elect Obama has effectively contracted out the management of his own government’s formation to [CAP President John] Podesta.”
At SEIU, Burger was a close ally of Andy Stern, who recently cast the deciding vote on the deficit commission. Looks like the old SEIU brass will continue to be influential for a long time to come.
Sal Rosselli is the gift that keeps on giving. When Rosselli broke away from the SEIU and formed the National Union of Healthcare Workers, we could not have imagined just how many headaches he would cause for Andy Stern and Mary Kay Henry. Now, roughly a month after the NUHW lost a battle with the SEIU over Kaiser Permanente healthcare workers in California, the wrangling continues, according to the Sacramento Business Journal.
National Union of Healthcare Workers, an upstart rival to Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West, won two of three unit elections tallied Wednesday for almost 2,000 Kaiser Permanente members in Northern California.
Behavioral health services workers voted 603 to 196 for NUHW over UHW and optical workers voted for NUHW over UHW 154 to 142. Medical-social workers voted to stay with UHW, 148 to 139.
This is a win for the NUHW, although they already lost the lion’s share of Kaiser’s 47,500 healthcare workers back in October. Current score: SEIU, 43,000; NUHW, 4,300. The NUHW disputed the October results, claiming that the SEIU worked with management to intimidate members into voting their way.
Imagine that! If true, this wouldn’t be the first time the SEIU has used top-down intimidation tactics to achieve its goals in southern California. For more, read this damning letter by Paul Krehbiel, a former SEIUer who left in disgust and joined the NUHW.
Democrats took a severe beating last night, losing over 60 seats in the House of Representatives, and at least six Senate seats. Republicans also had momentous pick-ups among governors and state legislatures. Exit pollsters found that voters thought the government was too big and that they disliked Barack Obama’s agenda.
The results are very bad news for the country’s labor unions. Organized labor broke the bank this election season trying to stem the Republican tide. The American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), the largest public-sector union in the country, spent an astonishing $87.5 million to get Democrats elected, the biggest contribution in the race. The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) donated another $44 million.
It made very little difference. Now comes the day after. Just how will America’s most lovable labor leaders try to rationalize their way out of this one? Some did better than others.
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka:
“We did our job. No matter what demographic, you look at our membership, we had large margins for progressive candidates approaching 30, with Harry Reid it was higher. … I think [Democrats] are cognizant of what we did and if they aren’t they should pay heed to it.”
In other words, don’t blame us…or else.
SEIU President Mary Kay Henry:
“[W]e are looking to the new leaders elected tonight to show up in January ready to work for the American people — not for the agenda of the nameless, faceless corporations who poured hundreds of millions of dollars into our political process.”
I.e. please ignore the millions we pumped into campaigns.
United Food and Commercial Workers President Joe Hansen:
“In stark contrast to 2008, the election of 2010 will be remembered because the results were fueled not by hope, but by anger, frustration, and fear. … Empty and inflammatory rhetoric that derides health reform as ‘Obamacare’ and demonizes leaders as socialists will not right the imbalance in our economy or help working people make ends meet.”
In other words, we’re angry that you’re angry.
National Education Association President Dennis Van Roekel:
“NEA stands ready to work with the new Congress to put students first and ensure that education is the engine that moves America forward. We will work with all policymakers to maximize the achievement, skills, opportunities and potential of all students, to make sure they are prepared to become creative and productive citizens in our democratic society and diverse world.”
Because the NEA is all about students, not teachers.
AFSCME President Gerald W. McEntee:
“The loss of the U.S. House of Representatives is a real setback for working families. Washington Republicans have done nothing since the last election to curtail the Bush recession and bring down unemployment.”
It’s also a real setback for our wallets, which are feeling pretty empty this morning.
Whatever stages of grieving union leaders are at, soon the reality will set in. With a Republican-controlled House, labor legislation will get very little traction over the next two years.
Misleading commentary from the SEIU is nothing new, but a post on their blog today is truly astounding. In a laughable attempt to claim that EFCA will preserve workers’ right to a secret ballot, they quote today’s Wall Street Journal editorial, saying:
“The bill doesn’t remove the secret-ballot option from the National Labor Relations Act…”
Hmm… Here’s that sentence again, without the SEIU’s editing:
“The bill doesn’t remove the secret-ballot option from the National Labor Relations Act but in practice makes it a dead letter.“
Notice a difference? I thought so. The fact that the unions are still clinging to the 30-50 myth is a reflection of their casual relationship with the truth. In case you’re still not sure EFCA ends elections, just read the bill itself:
If the Board finds that a majority of the employees in a unit appropriate for bargaining has signed valid authorizations designating the individual or labor organization specified in the petition as their bargaining representative and that no other individual or labor organization is currently certified or recognized as the exclusive representative of any of the employees in the unit, the Board shall not direct an election but shall certify the individual or labor organization as the representative described in subsection (a). [emphasis added]
LaborPains is a joint blog of the Center for Union Facts and EFAC.
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