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SEIU NOT A MODEL EMPLOYER?
SEIU LOCAL 721, NOT A MODEL EMPLOYER?
In the battle for employee’s rights, it is a constant struggle to oppose creatively suppressive acts by employers who deliberately choose to run their business with their eye of profit sternly affixed only to their bottom line. It is these employers that cause the working world the most hardship and difficulties to the working families of our county. Especially at a time when our nations labor movement is being hampered by declining membership and a need for effective union leadership. The last thing employees need is to have to deal with divisive and misguided union leadership.
This appears to be the case at SEIU local 721, a recently merged union in California under the Change to Win campaign; http://strongervoice.blogspot.com/ . The staffers at this local have charged Local 721’s management of practices that would make a sweatshop blush. Including, but not limited to, violations of the Fair Labor standards Act (FLSA) and “prohibition of negotiations on any working conditions that are not spelled out in the contract, assigning weekend work to staff without discussion or additional compensation, deny staff members the right to organize concerted actions and assigning staff to work out of town with no meet and confer and with insufficient notice.”
Staffers have even been seen outside of 721’s building in Los Angeles with picket signs and banners.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/71166932@N00/sets/72157600563309299/
Among comments that have been posted on this website include;
“Unions like SEIU should be model employers, leading the way in protecting basic workers' rights and respecting workers' quality of life. By attacking workers' voices on the job, proposing a two-tiered system for retiree healthcare like Safeway did in '04, denying workers adequate reimbursement for their commute to worksites, and mandating weekend work, SEIU sounds more and more like a profit-oriented, heartless corporation rather than a labor union.”
“How can SEIU Local 721 pride itself on improving the lives of 85,000 city, county, and non-profit workers throughout California when it can't protect the work conditions and benefits of its own employees?”
“SEIU 721 management wants us to work weekends without compensation, without limits to how many weekends we work, or where we work. I guess John Tanner misses cracking whips over people's back. SEIU management treats us like we don't have families, like we don't deserve time to rest and enjoy our lives. They hire highly qualified, highly experienced people to work in SEIU but they turn around and want us to submit like a bunch of ignorant dogs.”
It would be a brazen miscarriage of justice to treat one’s employees this way and still expect to instill confidence in the labor movement. It’s hard enough to struggle for your rights against greedy corporations and soulless mega-conglomerations, but to have to contend with the people who are supposed to be leading us to our objective….and are not. That’s not what we were promised, that’s not what we expected and that’s not what should be happening.
SEIU: Wake up and smell the coffee!!
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