Mr. Teflon, Andy Stern of the SEIU, has thus far evaded any further inquiry into his alleged violation of lobbying regulations, and received an Obama appointment to a special “debt panel.” Since Congress doesn’t have the moral resolve to take action into the runaway federal deficit, Obama created an 18-member panel tasked to recommend ways to balance the federal budget by 2015. After observing the last several years of SEIU tactics, it seems Stern may be quite the dubious choice. Stern’s leadership of SEIU received a solar plexus punch when Local 1021 swept his appointed leaders aside in a recent election, capturing all of the major offices and winning almost total control of the Executive Board. The outcome was salt in the recent wounds created by SEIU losses at Santa Rosa Memorial and Kaiser Sunset Hospitals. Labor author Randy Shaw explained the election results as a referendum on Stern’s leadership:
Ultimately, the Change 1021 victory is another rejection of Stern’s model of top-down leadership, with its focus on members as dues payers rather than active framers of a labor movement. A union that once attracted top organizers from other struggles now sees a constant talent exodus, with the key organizer of its Houston janitors’ campaign leaving for the UFCW only last week.
Not one to mince words, when Stern sat down with a writer from The Cornell Daily Sun following a speech at the School of Industrial and Labor Relations, he equated American business leaders with communists. Quoting Stern,
…the private sector has decided that they want to give people a communist choice, which is no union. That’s all they really want on their ballot, and anyone who really tries to buck the domination and tyranny of the employer will pay a price.
