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Per NPR's
Liz Halloran:
Stern was embroiled in an ugly battle last year with the giant United
Health Care West, which wanted to break away from SEIU over management
and organizing issues. The California local was placed under
trusteeship by SEIU, which also fired 70 of UHC West's executives.
While Stern was stepping on other union leaders' toes, he shifted union resources from organizing workplaces to gaining influence among politicians.
He "became a force in Washington while falling short in efforts to revitalize organized labor" was how
Bloomberg led its Stern pre-postmortem.
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Sal Roselli, who symbolically spat on Andy Stern's grave
Estimates as to the amount of money the union spent during the 2008 elections reach as high as
$120 million. This spending was premised on the idea that Democratic victories would lead to passage of the Employee Free Choice Act, a bill now before Congress aimed at making it easier for workers to join unions. Stern has been a regular guest in the Obama White House. But EFCA is widely acknowledged to be dead on arrival. And Stern has been stuck touting passage of Obama's health care package as what he had in mind all along.
"Seventy million dollars into the 2008 election with nothing to show but bastardized, corporate-driven health care reform? I wouldn't want to have to brag about that," Brenner said.
Brenner suggests that if union leadership taps Henry, the SEIU might devote more resources to organizing workers, and less toward politics. Burger might double down on the unions' political bets he predicted.
Either way, he believes, SEIU leaders will continue to quash dissent as Stern did in California.
"It's a real tragic story," Brenner said. "For me ... all the crazy ways [Stern] went off the rails show that he lost faith
in the ability of members to be engines of union revitalization."
Photo of Andy Stern | Joi
