SEIU

It's worth checking out the Sacramento Bee's excellent coverage of a fight between the Service Employees International Union, the largest labor union in the country, and the president of its California chapter. SEIU now has filed suit, which focuses on an account that the California chapter established in anticipation of a 2008 ballot measure campaign that never materialized. But, as with most labor battles, this one is about money and control. Who will get to be the SEIU boss for California? The international president, Andy Stern, has the upper hand for now.

For those of you who read an earlier post this week about an exchange between an aide to California Speaker Fabian Nunez and two officials of the California Nurses Assn., you will want to check out this excellent story by Shane Goldmacher in the Sacramento Bee. It shows that the divide in the national labor movement between Change to Win (the seven breakaway unions, including the largest, SEIU) and AFL-CIO (which the nurses joined two years ago) is a hot war, not a cold one. And it oculd hurt state and county labor federations, which have member unions from both sides. Nearly two years ago, the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, arguably the most powerful voice for labor in the state, narrowly averted a rift over AFL-CIO complaints that the federation's top officials were both from Change to Win affiliates.

It's also worth watching Sal Rosselli, president of an SEIU union, United Healthcare Workers-West. He is in open rebellion against the SEIU president, Andy Stern, who is the best known and possibly the most powerful labor official in America today. Union politics are typically opaque and get little attention. But Rosselli is angry and talking. Political observers are about to get a labor education, as a result.

This blog item -- and the angry responses to it -- are worth reading if you want to understand California and its labor politics. Those who remember the 2005 special election, where the state's leading unions achieved enough unity to deal a crushing defeat to Gov. Schwarzenegger's ballot initiatives, will recognize the players. The blog post is by Steve Maviglio, a Democratic strategist who works for Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez and helped run the campaign against Schwarzenegger's measures. And the responses come from Shum Preston and Chuck Idelson of the California Nurses Assn., which showed an incredible talent for organizing its members to confront the governor at appearances around the state. As a journalist, I've had extensive dealings with all three men, and have found all three to be knowledgable, thoughtful, and professional.