Monday, July 23, 2007

The Labor Movement: The folks who brought you the weekend until SEIU took it away.

I can't believe SEIU 721 management is asking us staffers to waive our rights under the Fair Labor Standards Act! That's like telling people of color to waive or agree that they're exempt from the Civil Rights Act! What's next, is Andy Stern, John Tanner, or Annelle Grajeda now going to tell African American staffers to waive their right to vote because its getting in the way of the movement?!?! You know, SEIU management is starting to smell like a White Male dominated pile of Corporate bullshit and that's not in any way an exaggeration. Just last month, the Nation ran an article detailing Andy Stern's front-door deals with Wal-Mart but that is just the tip of the iceberg cuz the shit runs deeper in the locals.

SEIU 721 management wants us to work weekends without compensation, without limits to how many weekends we work, or where we work. I guess John Tanner misses cracking whips over people's back. SEIU management treats us like we don't have families, like we don't deserve time to rest and enjoy our lives. They hire highly qualified, highly experienced people to work in SEIU but they turn around and want us to submit like a bunch of ignorant dogs. They expect us to sacrifice our lives in the name of a movement - SEIU management's movement without any backing from SEIU members. Then they turn around and claim to be heroes for working families. HA!

SEIU is supposed to be the biggest, baddest labor union in America with over 1.8 million members, but in reality, it's busy trying to break labor laws just to win power over its staff. That's fucked up and SEIU management needs to check itself. We know about all the dirty, illegal shit that management makes us do. Like, making staff do political work under the guise of volunteering, not counting staffs' weekend work in financial reports, silencing vocal, democratic SEIU members, using member dues in questionable ways, blah blah blah the list goes on.

SEIU management needs to stick to principles of labor rights, human rights and civil rights or find itself alone with no member backing, no staff support, and just a bunch of arm chairs to rest their heads on thinking about how next to exploit people.