[Marxism] From CNA/NNOC: "RNs Condemn Violent Service Union Attack at Michigan Event"

["Joaquin Bustelo" <jbustelo@xxxxxxxxx>]

I searched assiduously, but apparently Fox Business News did not find the
CNA/NNOC press release on the SEIU action fit to publish on their website.
As my mother used to teach me, "Dime con quien andas y te diré quien eres."
("Tell me who you're with and I'll tell you who you are.")

It should be noted that if anything close to the account below is true, the
SEIU has exposed itself to being destroyed. Under current U.S. law, use of
violence or the threat of violence to silence someone is "terrorism" and an
organization that organizes such an action is subject to being designated a
"terrorist organization," in other words, being declared illegal by
administrative diktat, having all its funds frozen and all its property
seized. That's on top of the normal laws against assault and battery,
criminal conspiracy, and so on as well as the state and federal RICO
statutes.

However, given Fox Business News's endorsement of the SEIU action, we are
probably safe in assuming we won't have to organize a defense committee for
the SEIU anytime soon.

*  *  *

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 


DEARBORN, Mich.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--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, at least seven busloads, carrying up to 500 SEIU
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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