[Marxism] SEIU goons attack Labor Notes conference

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

(Posted to LBO-Talk by Doug Henwood)

[This is from the CNA, not a neutral source.]

A report from the magazine Labor Notes on the SEIU attack on their
conference in Michigan Saturday night, with two of their photos,
followed by the CNA/NNOC release


For Immediate Release
April 12, 2008
Contact Chris Kutalik 313-378-2588 or Mischa Gaus 773-627-3205

SERVICE EMPLOYEES UNION ATTACKS LABOR GATHERING CONFERENCE-GOERS
ASSAULTED Dearborn, MI­The Service Employees International Union
turned their dispute with the California Nurses Association violent
by attacking a labor conference April 12, injuring several and
sending an American Axle striker to the hospital.

A recently retired member of United Auto Workers Local 235, Dianne
Feeley, suffered a head wound after being knocked to the ground by
SEIU International staff and local members.

Other conference-goers­members of the Teamsters, UAW, UNITE HERE,
International Longshoremen's Association, and SEIU itself­were
punched, kicked, shoved, and pushed to the floor.
Dearborn police responded and evicted the three bus loads of SEIU
International staff and members of local and regional health care
unions.

No arrests were made.

The assault took place at the Labor Notes conference, a biennial
gathering of 1,100 union members and leaders who met to discuss
strategies to rebuild the labor movement.

David Cohen, an international representative of the United Electrical
Workers, asked protestors why they came. He said one responded, "they
told us just to get on the bus."

The protestors included several members with young children, who had
to be ushered away when SEIU tried to force their way into the
conference banquet hall. Protesters were targeting Rose Ann DeMoro,
executive director of the AFL-CIO-affiliated CNA. DeMoro was
scheduled to speak but declined to appear after threats were made
against her union's leadership.

Despite being welcomed to the conference earlier in the day­and given
space to debate supporters of the CNA and the National Nurses
Organizing Committee about neutrality organizing agreements­SEIU
international and regional staff shouted down speakers at workshops
and panels throughout the event.

"Labor Notes has always been a space for open debate, but when a
union decides to engage in violence against their brothers and
sisters, we draw a line," said Mark Brenner, director of Labor Notes.
"Violence within the labor movement is unacceptable and we call on
the national leadership of SEIU, including President Andy Stern, to
repudiate it."

--------------------

www.calnurses.org
For Immediate
Release
     April 13, 2008
Contact: Chuck Idelson, 510-273-2246, 415-559-8991

RNs Condemn Violent Service Union Attack at Michigan Event
Hundreds of SEIU Staff Bused in to Smash Into Meeting
to Attack RNs and Break Up Conference on Union Democracy

The California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing
Committee tonight condemned a brutal assault by busloads of purple
cloaked staff of the Service Employees International Union who
smashed into a conference of union members Saturday night in
Dearborn, Mi. and physically assaulted women and union members who
stood in their path.

"I am deeply concerned about this heightened attack on women and
nurses, directed by SEIU President Andrew Stern," said CNA/NNOC
Executive Director Rose Ann DeMoro, who was scheduled to speak about
the campaign for genuine healthcare reform at the banquet.

DeMoro cancelled her appearance at the event to coordinate support
for CNA/NNOC leaders in California after Stern and SEIU began sending
roving bands of staff to the homes of CNA/NNOC RN board members in
California Thursday and Friday, stalking and harassing them.

"There is an ugly pattern here of physical abuse and tactics of
intimidation that have no place in either our labor movement or a
civilized society," DeMoro said.

In Dearborn Saturday night,  up to seven busloads, carrying hundreds
of  staff in purple jackets and T-shirts drove up to the Hyatt
Regency Hotel where the banquet was being hosted by the magazine
Labor Notes culminating a weekend conference on topics including
union democracy, health care reform, and encouraging the resurgent
growth of labor.

Upon unloading from the buses, the hundreds of picket-sign wielding
staff stormed the hotel and pushed their way through doors to break
into the ballroom where the event was being held.

While breaking in the building, the SEIU staff, now joined by SEIU
staff inside the building, physically assaulted a group of union
members and activists at the door.

At least one woman, a retired auto worker and former business manager
for Labor Notes, was injured and went to the hospital after being
pushed to the floor and hitting her head on a table.

As the SEIU staff broke into the hall, some three dozen CNA/NNOC
nurses and leaders, there to attend the conference, including Malinda
Markowitz, RN, a member of CNA/NNOC's Council of Presidents, who was
scheduled to speak in DeMoro's place, were whisked out the back of
the hall for their safety, leaving in vans. The atmosphere was so
tense that hotel cooks tried to climb into the vans to join them for
fear of their own safety.

The evening assault at Labor Notes followed a day of disruption by
SEIU staff at workshops throughout the day at which various CNA/NNOC
members were on panels or participants.

"I am disgusted with the tactics of SEIU and their total disrespect
for what was going on here -- members from multiple unions who were
discussing an agenda to fight the increased corporate attacks on
working people," said Markowitz. "It's clear their only agenda here
was to disrupt and try to divide labor and workers. Physical violence
is absolutely unacceptable."

"I am absolutely appalled, to have a union coming in here with tons
of people ramming down doors. If they have these kind of resources,
why aren't they using them to help people in the trenches rather than
attacking nurses and other working people," said Danielle Magana, RN,
an NNOC member from San Antonio, Tex.

"If I were a nurse here I would not join such an aggressive union,"
said Prudencia Mweemba, an RN from Zambia who is a PhD candidate at
Kent State who was attending the conference. "What they did today
showed me they are irresponsible. I don't see how they can represent
people with such an attitude."

"Had I not seen this with my own eyes I would not have believed it,"
said Kimberly Helmick, an Ohio RN.  "SEIU did a big injustice to all
the labor movement people who were here."

DeMoro noted that irony of the attack on a conference, in which union
democracy was a major topic, coinciding with growing efforts by Stern
and SEIU International to suppress dissent in his own union and
signing contracts with employers that limit the voice of SEIU members
at the workplace.

SEIU contracts with nursing home chains, for example, have limited
the ability of caregivers to protest and report unsafe conditions.
Within SEIU, Stern has been engaged in targeting dissenters and
seeking to limit participation at his international convention in June.

Another example, she noted, was SEIU's pact with a Catholic hospital
chain in Ohio where SEIU had the employer file for an election to
impose SEIU as its handpicked union for RNs and other staff. The deal
also barred employees from discussing the election or the union.
Ultimately, Stern and the employer cancelled the election when the
deal was exposed in part because of CNA/NNOC criticism of  the deal,
the pretext of the Michigan attack Saturday night.

For more information about  SEIU's efforts on behalf of employers,
see www.ServingEmployersInsteadofUs.org .




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