Who Speaks for the American Labor Movement?
I have previously reported on the genesis of SEIU’s attacks on UNITE HERE, and the hotel union’s increasingly successful counter-responses. Now SEIU President Andy Stern has joined with Bruce Raynor and Edgar Romney of his Workers United affiliates in raising the stakes of this fight. In a widely publicized letter that is also an advertisement covering the entire back page of the Nation magazine, Stern et al. asked “The American Labor Movement” to “join us in this call {to UNITE HERE President John Wilhelm} for binding arbitration on all outstanding issues so this conflict can cease.” At the time Stern promoted this letter, he knew that Wilhelm had already rejected subjecting his union’s future to binding arbitration. Yet Stern called upon his colleagues in the labor movement to help pressure Wilhelm to change his mind, in effect siding with SEIU against UNITE HERE in the conflict. Since Stern’s call for allies, the SEIU website only identifies two national labor leaders who hav backed
