SEIU Union Officials Organize Violent Assault On Union Conference!

[Better Believe It]

Such activity has no place within the labor movement. This reminds one of the violent attacks on union members by the Teamsters union thugs when organized crime ran that union.


Nurses Accuse Members of SEIU Of Assault During Mich. Parley
By E.B. SOLOMONT
Staff Reporter of the Sun
April 15, 2008

A national union of nurses has accused members of the Service Employees International Union of physically assaulting some of its members at a labor conference in Michigan this past weekend.

The California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee, an 80,000-member group affiliated with the AFLCIO, also charged SEIU members with stalking and harassing its members in recent weeks. On Saturday night, union officials said, about 800 SEIU members converged at a Dearborn, Mich., hotel and pushed their way into a conference organized by a labor magazine, Labor Notes.

"It's disgraceful," a spokesman for the union of nurses, Charles Idelson, said. "That is just unconscionable and inexcusable."

According to witnesses, several hundred SEIU members forced their way into the hotel, shoving conference attendees. Witnesses said a 68-year-old woman, Dianne Feeley, was thrown to the ground and was taken to a local hospital to be treated for a cut on her head. "It was a scary situation," the editor of Labor Notes, Chris Kutalik, whose arm was bruised during the skirmish, said. "It just seems ironic. The whole point of the conference was to promote unity."

http://www2.nysun.com/article/74674


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CNA/NNOC: RNs Condemn Violent Service Union Attack at Michigan Event
DEARBORN, Mich., April 13, 2008 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/

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.


"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."

http://www.foxbusiness.com/article/cna2fnnoc-rns-condemn-violent-service-union-attack-michigan-event_559360_1.html

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Sound Politics
April 15, 2008
The Disgrace of SEIU

Remember this warning to keep an eye on SEIU? They're really outdoing themselves now:

In Dearborn Saturday night, at least seven busloads, carrying up to 800 SEIU staff in purple jackets and T-shirts drove up to the Hyatt Regency Hotel where the banquet hosted by Labor Notes was 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.

As Labor Notes themselves noted in a press release: 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-goers--members of the Teamsters, UAW, UNITE HERE, International Longshoremen's Association, and SEIU itself--were punched, kicked, shoved, and pushed to the floor.

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.

Nice fellas, those purple shirts.

http://soundpolitics.com/archives/010537.html

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SEIU International Attempts Disruption at 2008 Labor Notes Conference
— The Labor Notes Staff

SEIU protesters attempt to storm the banquet at the 2008 Labor Notes Conference.

As the 2008 Labor Notes conference banquet was beginning 200-300 chanting SEIU members and staffers rushed through the side door of the hotel, nearest the banquet hall. The doors had apparently been opened from inside by SEIU staffers attending the conference. Most were wearing the signature SEIU purple T-shirts; some carried signs denouncing the California Nurses Association. CNA Executive Director Rose Ann DeMoro had originally been scheduled to address the banquet, although her cancellation had been announced earlier in the day.

About 15 conference participants were acting as security at the banquet hall doors. When the chanting protesters entered, waving noisemakers, they and others quickly formed a double line in front of the doors, linking arms to block the way. Some participants were thrown to the ground by larger SEIUers. One protestor broke through the first line and, finding himself trapped between the two lines, flailed wildly. Former Labor Notes office manager Dianne Feeley, a retiree from American Axle, was pushed and fell, cutting her head, and was treated at an emergency room. Protesters continued to try to advance toward the doors, some nonviolently and others more aggressively.

Labor Notes welcomes debate on any and all issues facing the labor movement, both at our conferences and in the pages of our magazine. But that debate must take place free from intimidation. The SEIU International is not the first union to protest at our conference. But in our 29 year history we have never had a group of protesters storm our conference, or assault the brothers and sisters who attend it.

Neither intimidation nor violence has a place within our labor movement. Whatever the original intent, bringing hundreds of people to behave in a confrontational way towards a union that leaders have branded as the enemy was bound to result in violence. Such actions cannot help the labor movement to grow. We call upon the officers of SEIU to repudiate such confrontations.

http://www.labornotes.org/node/1604

[Gman]

1. SEIU quit the AFL-CIO just like the Teamsters

They're more an organized crime outfit than a labor organization. Good riddance to bad rubbish.

[Mountainman]

4. Stop it, I am a member of SEIU and not a violent person.

If you don't know what you are talking about STFU.


There are thousands of us and just like any group you can put together, there are ass holes. Most are decent people like all of us!

[Better Believe It]

5. Most SEIU Members Are Like You And Would Not Engage In Such Activity

Certainly the great majority of SEIU members like you would never engage in a violent attack or other disruption activity at a union conference.

In fact, some SEIU members and officers in attendance at that conference were opposed to that attack and are very critical of Andrew Stern's collaboration with employers at the memberships expense.

It seems that you haven't read the articles. That would be one explanation for your post since those who engaged in that attack obviously consisted of those "ass holes" you mentioned in your comment.

So, if you haven't actually read the articles please do so and I'd be interested in hearing your views on that event.

You might want to check out the following website for more information on Stern's attacks on SEIU officers in California.

http://www.seiuvoice.org/

[Mountainman]

6. I was responding to this post. I read the article.

"They're more an organized crime outfit than a labor organization. Good riddance to bad rubbish."

[mitchtv]

2. what seems to be the Beef with AFL?

They are no longer sffiliated?

[Better Believe It]

3. No .... The Seiu, Teamsters And A Few Other Unions Split Away From The AFL-CIO

California Nurses Association
Press Release
For Immediate Release
April 14, 2008

RNs Call on Service Employees Union (SEIU) President Stern To Renounce Violence Following Brutal Attack on Labor Event
Targeting Women and Nurses in Attack and Stalking at Homes

In the wake of a brutal attack on a labor conference in Michigan Saturday night by staff of the Service Employees International Union, the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee Monday called on SEIU President Andrew Stern to "renounce the use of violence, and stop targeting women, nurses, and working people for threats and harassment."

By their own admission, quoted in an SEIU press release after the event, SEIU said it sent 800 people to the event to confront CNA/NNOC Rose Ann DeMoro, the scheduled banquet speaker that night, and other female CNA/NNOC leaders who were at the conference.

Concurrently, SEIU representatives were engaged in stalking and harassing female CNA/NNOC Board members in their homes and in their nursing departments over the past few days.

"Together these actions reveal an unmistakable pattern of violence and specific targeting of women labor leaders that is reprehensible and should have no place in our labor movement or our country," said DeMoro today. "Stern has an obligation to the labor movement and the world to take a clear stand against such disgraceful behavior."

Labor Notes, an independent magazine, also issued a call to Stern and SEIU to "repudiate" the use of violence following the shocking events of Saturday night when purple-clad SEIU staff stormed the Labor Notes conference banquet, crashing through the doors, and assaulting union members in their way in an effort to rush the stage.

According to Labor Notes, "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-goers—members of the Teamsters, UAW, UNITE HERE, International Longshoremen’s Association, and SEIU itself—were punched, kicked, shoved, and pushed to the floor."

Meanwhile, roving bands of SEIUers continued their campaign against female CNA/NNOC Board members. On Saturday, one team arrived at the house of CNA/NNOC Board member Veronica Rocha, RN just as she and two family members were entering her car to drive to a memorial service. The SEIU team in the car followed them and at one point began yelling at them in the car.

"I really felt threatened and personally violated when they showed up at our place of residence uninvited and continued to follow us, knowing I did not want to interact with them. Nobody deserves to be stalked in this manner," Rocha said. "I really don't believe that they would appreciate an unannounced visit from CNA at their homes, disrupting their personal family life. I am proud to represent CNA, a professional organization with membership that supports and advocates for patients and safe staffing."

When CNA/NNOC Board member Janice Webb, RN arrived at her San Diego hospital to work in her nursing unit Saturday, the night shift charge said that “someone from SEIU was calling the unit last night asking for my phone number and address. I am unclear as to how many times they called."

"When will Stern and his gang learn that threatening women in their homes and harassing them in areas where they are caring for patients is abusive, immoral, and unacceptable behavior?" DeMoro said.

At the Labor Notes conference, the Saturday night attack followed a day of disruption by SEIU at the conference, as Labor Notes also noted in a press release afterwards: "Despite being welcomed to the conference earlier in the day—and given space to debate (CNA/NNOC) supporters—SEIU International and regional staff shouted down speakers at workshops and panels throughout the event."

Many others witnessed that as well, such as Heather Ives, RN, an Ohio NNOC member who said: "I came here to learn as a novice to the labor movement and the social movement. I wanted to gain knowledge of how to organize people for social causes in unity.

"There was so much anger and disruption in the workshops that I could not gain any knowledge. SEIU gave nurses a bad name - I am thankful I am not associated with an organization which is so negative, disruptive, and toxic," Ives said.

In a blog on the website Daily Kos, Nancy Lewis, a nurse practitioner who is a member of both SEIU and CNA/NNOC voiced her disgust at what she called SEIU's "bully-boy tactics:"

"These are the same tactics that Operation Rescue used to bully and intimidate health care providers at Planned Parenthood to the point where such hatred went beyond disagreement and picketing into stalking us at home and later overt violence directed at providers like me in our own work places. As a nurse practitioner, it is unconscionable to see this level of hatred directed at a peaceable assembly of labor activists and their hosts," Lewis wrote.

For more information about SEIU's record, see www.ServingEmployersInsteadofUs.org.

http://www.calnurse.org/media-center/press-releases/2008/april/rns-call-on-service-employees-union-seiu-president-stern-to-renounce-violence-following-brutal-attack-on-labor-event.html

[Better Believe It]

7. Statement by AFL-CIO President John Sweeney On Developments in the SEIU-CNA Disp

Statement by AFL-CIO President John Sweeney On Developments in the SEIU-CNA Dispute
Press Release
April 15, 2008

For several weeks I have been working to bring the Service Employee International Union (SEIU) and the California Nurses Association/NNOC (CNA) together to resolve their escalating dispute over representation of nurses. Unfortunately, the deplorable events of the weekend set back the progress we hoped to make.

There is no justification – none – for the violent attack orchestrated by SEIU at the Labor Notes conference in Detroit. While there may well be multiple sides to any dispute, violence in any form is reprehensible. Violence in attacking freedom of speech must be strongly condemned. Any attempt to deny the right of free speech threatens the foundation of our movement and the future of working people.

No union should understand the corrosive effect of violence better than SEIU, which was founded by courageous janitors in the face of employer violence in the 1920s and 1930s. I call on the leaders of SEIU to condemn what happened in Detroit.

Likewise, I call on the leaders of SEIU to withdraw their recent appeal to their local unions across the country to withhold dues from AFL-CIO state federations and central labor councils as a pressure tactic in their dispute with CNA. These organizations are not involved in the controversy in any way, and withholding resources at a time when we face the greatest political challenges in our history is a damaging affront to the determined, united efforts of the entire labor movement.

It is time for the escalation to stop. Our responsibilities as leaders demand that we rise above our differences and disagreements for the greater good. Last week the leaders of CNA agreed to meet with SEIU to discuss these issues.

Today I am renewing the call for both parties to come together and resolve the issues that divide them.

[Omaha Steve]

8. Unions used to be at a higher level

When Internationals started merging from membership reduction, raiding become the norm. The is no excuse for those that did this. I used to think more of Andrew Stern.

Proud AFSCME member.

[mitchtv]

9. as a former board member and officer of CWA, and

a retired TIU steward. I would like to condemn this action in the strongest possible terms. They have no business behaving that way. That is why we have union elections. If you can't effect an election, organize better.

[Better Believe It]

10. RN's Condemn Violent SEIU Attack On Union Conference

A Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UnB4-BzMtQ&eurl=http://www.calnurse.org/