Instructions… Bottom of FormSEIU and the Black CaucusBy. Ron WaltersNNPA Columnist
Recently, the vice president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) sent a letter to the Congressional Black Caucus complaining of their growing relationship with the retail giant Wal-mart. Wal-mart previously contributed $50,000 to the CBC; it has increased its giving to $100,000 and, as the largest employer of Blacks.The company has been criticized for anti-labor practices. There are both local and national class action suits against Wal-mart for paying women less than men, not paying health benefits for workers and for creating less than satisfactory working conditions here and abroad. And many communities, such as Washington, D.C. and Chicago have fought the entrance of Wal-mart into parts of their markets because of their tendency to drive out small businesses. So, Andy Stern, head of the SEIU has been waging a battle against Wal-mart, targeting it for attempted unionization. The Congressional Black Caucus, however, has reacted to the letter from SEIU with mild outrage, suggesting that it was an arrogant attempt to ”put the CBC in its place” because the union has been generous to the CBC as well. But CBC head, Mel Watt and other members wonder if the same tone would have been used with Hispanic groups and note that no letter was sent to them, even though Wal-mart also finances some of their activities and employs their workers.This is an arrogant display of power by SEIU and the seeds of it may be found in both union and national politics. First, it feeds off of the personal ambition of Andy Stern who is challenging John Sweeny for the head of the entire AFL-CIO. Stern recently developed a set of proposals that would shift a substantial portion of the financial resources of the federation to organizing and the SEIU has had an impressive record recently in organizing Hispanics who have flooded into the service industries. So, it is doubtful that Stern would have sent the same kind of letter to the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, because indeed, he may view Hispanics as central to the future fortunes of SEIU. Does this mean that Stern takes a lesser view of Blacks? It may. One of Stern’s proposals is the reduced the size of the Central Labor Council, the table at which the main constituencies of the AFL-CIO sit. However, the venerable William Lucy, head of the Coalition of Black Trade Unions, has rebuffed this proposal because it would slight those unions that have a strong community base such as Blacks.One conclusion that can be drawn is that although Blacks comprise 30 percent of the organized workers in the country, under Stern, they may be further short-sheeted if he becomes head of the AFL-CIO. This conclusion may also be grounded in the fact that Stern and others believe that the politics of the labor movement in the future will be driven by Hispanics and not Blacks, even though Blacks probably make up more than 40 percent of SEIU. In the last presidential election cycle, the SEIU spent $40 million, but the largest organizations in the Black community that were active in voter registration and turnout did not receive financial proportionate support from SEIU or labor in general. By what reasoning then, do they dare to call the shots politically?Andy Stern has had a long relationship with Steve Rosenthal, head of American Coming Together, or ACT, one of the ”527” organizations that did receive a lot of financial resources from SEIU in the last election. One of my criticisms of Rosenthal in the last election cycle was that few of his tens of millions went to Black organizations, since he took the arrogant position from the outset that he could mobilize Black voter better than Black organizations. So, if Stern can depend upon Rosenthal to turn out his voters, why does he need to respect the political power of the CBC? I think that the source of this arrogance on the part of SEIU toward the highest body of Black elected officials is rooted in the way they assess the effectiveness of Blacks politically. They don’t see that Black leaders have cultivated an independent posture from which they mobilize their political constituency; they don’t see Blacks raising their own money for election mobilization. In other words, they don’t see them as owners of their politics; they see a dependent leadership and given that, they treat them as dependent wards. In fact, in the last elections some members of the CBC depended on Steve Rosenthal to mobilize voters in their own districts. Why then should they be surprised when they are treated like dependents? This is a telling act on the part of SEIU, because although they might temporarily step back because this incident has become publicly embarrassing, the attitude – which is the most important thing – will remain.Ron Walters is the Distinguished Leadership Scholar, director of the African American Leadership Institute in the Academy of Leadership and professor of government and politics at the University of Maryland-College Park. His latest book is “White Nationalism, Black Interests” (Wayne State University Press).###
