SEIU Local Leaders to UHW-W Election Committee: 'Democracy Begins at Home'

Leaders Call for staff-led UHW-W Election Committee to apologize to UHW
members for deliberate effort to disenfranchise rank-and-file

WASHINGTON, April 17 /PRNewswire/ -- Leaders of three SEIU local unions
called for a committee from SEIU local union United Health Care Workers-West
(UHW-W) to apologize to UHW-W members for a deliberate and undemocratic effort
to exclude the rank and file from participation in delegate elections for the
SEIU International Convention. The UHW-W Delegate Election Committee is led by
UHW-W senior staffperson Dan Martin.
The letter, sent today by Kristi Sermersheim, President of SEIU Local 521
in California, Rickman Jackson, President SEIU Healthcare Michigan, and Keith
Kelleher, President of SEIU Local 880 in Illinois, reads in part:
"It has become clear it was not a mistake to deny UHW-W members the
ability to run for delegate and participate in our union's convention.
UHW-W's response to members' complaints about rank-and-file disenfranchisement
speaks volumes about the value UHW-W places on union democracy and the respect
it has for members' opinions. A letter to one of these members explains why
you excluded rank and file members from running for the local's convention
delegation, stating" ... UHW specifically did this to insure that the people
who know the most about the Union and are most actively involved in it would
be delegates ...
"What's worse is the contempt you express for your own rank-and-file
membership. According to committee member [Michael] Rivera, "We had several
meetings to establish guidelines for eligibility and one of the questions
raised was how, once the membership was informed that the convention was being
held in Puerto Rico, do we conduct an election that best served the members
while avoiding a run of hopefuls in search only of a free vacation to Puerto
Rico?" These hardly sound like the deliberations of a "bottom-up"
organization ...
"We welcome healthy debate about SEIU and the future of the labor
movement,
but your hypocrisy undermines principled discussions. Democracy begins at
home."
Full text of the letter is at www.SEIUFactchecker.org
SOURCE Service Employees International Union

Andrew McDonald of Service Employees International Union, +1-202-730-7338,
Andrew.mcdonald@seiu.org