Piece of shit SEIU prezidizzle to quit

[Caliga]

I fucking hate this guy, so I am: pleased 

Labor's Stern Said to Be Resigning
By KRIS MAHER

Andy Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union and one of the most prominent and powerful labor leaders in the country, is expected to resign his position with the union, according to an internal union email and one of the union's board members.

Mr. Stern's departure would cause a major realignment of the balance of power within organized labor, from labor-management relations to Washington lobbying efforts. It's not clear when an official announcement of his resignation will come or when it would take effect.

He has been credited with making the 1.8 million member SEIU one of the fastest-growing and most politically powerful unions. It spent more than $65 million in 2008 to help elect Barack Obama and Democratic majorities in Congress.

A member of SEIU's executive board said he received a phone call from SEIU's second-highest-ranking officer, Anna Burger, asking for his support as she sought to succeed Mr. Stern.

"He is resigning. They haven't given an exact date," said the board member.

The board member said that Mary Kay Henry, an SEIU executive vice president who oversees the union's long-term-care division, is also seeking to lead the union. "Right now it looks like it's between Anna Burger and Mary Kay Henry," he said.

Mr. Stern didn't return a phone call seeking comment. Ms. Burger, Ms. Henry and an SEIU spokeswoman couldn't be reached.

On Monday, Diane Sosne, president of a SEIU local in Washington state, sent an email to some SEIU staff that read, "Last night I received confirmation that Andy Stern is resigning as president of SEIU. He has not yet made a public announcement; we will share the details as we become aware of them."

The email was first reported in the Politico Web site.

Ms. Sosne didn't return an email message, and her office didn't return a call Monday.

Mr. Stern is well known among the business community for directing aggressive campaigns against companies in the janitorial and health-care sectors aimed at getting companies to remain neutral during union organizing drives.

Mr. Stern angered some in the labor movement when he pulled his union and several others out of the AFL-CIO in 2005, splitting the labor movement in half.

He and other leaders, including James Hoffa of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, went on to form the rival Change to Win federation. But the federation failed to gather momentum, and its executive director recently left.

Another union in the group, Unite Here, recent pulled out and rejoined the AFL-CIO in the midst of a long fight with SEIU over organizing in the hotel sector.

Over the past two years, Mr. Stern has been engaged in several internal union battles with California locals representing long-term nursing and other workers that were merged together, as part of the union's strategy of creating mega-locals focused by sector. "There will be quite an internal battle as to who succeeds him. There will be a lot of knives out there," an official with another union said on condition of anonymity.

[Razgovory]

What did he do to you?

[Caliga]

His goons spent years trying to organize the medical center I worked at in Boston.  He himself came up several times but I never saw him or anything.

They basically ruined Yale's medical center a few years before, so when we heard they were coming to town we were: less than pleased.  They made all of management take a bunch of classes to learn how to deal with union organizers and what to say/not to say to them.  I used to see those pricks walking around annoying people, including a chick that worked for me at one point.  Fortunately, she was anti-union so I did not need to fire her.

I don't know if they were ultimately successful or not as I left to move down here, but as of the time of my relocation they had not succeeded yet.

[Caliga]

*checks* it looks like they have not yet succeeded, but still haven't given up.  They apparently did organize St. Elizabeth's in Boston, but that hospital sucks anyway.  I'm sure they'll force it out of business now.

[Oexmelin]

Fortunately, she was anti-union so I did not need to fire her.

If she hadn't been, would you have fired her ? Would it have been legal ?

[Darth Wagtaros]

I hate the SEIU.  I have a choice of paying 64 bucks a month and being in the union or paying 64 a month and not being in the union.

When the budget vanished and there were gonna be layoffs we went to the reps asking how many, severance dealios, and all that crap.  Their responses were usually that management hadn't told them yet and they were afraid of annoying them with questions.

They do, however, send out a lot of flyers and e-mails asking for donations to fund their efforts to organize workers in Puerto Rico or Florida.  Idiots.

[Caliga]

If she hadn't been, would you have fired her ? Would it have been legal ?

No, and no.

[Caliga]

They do, however, send out a lot of flyers and e-mails asking for donations to fund their efforts to organize workers in Puerto Rico or Florida.  Idiots.

Yeah.  Because our CEO basically told Stern to fuck off and that he wouldn't help organize SEIU elections for him, he started running attack ads in the Boston  media saying shit like our hospital was badly managed, was a ripoff, offered poor quality health care, and so on.  Seems like a good way to get the hospital's employees to like you. 

[grumbler]

I hate the SEIU.  I have a choice of paying 64 bucks a month and being in the union or paying 64 a month and not being in the union.

When the budget vanished and there were gonna be layoffs we went to the reps asking how many, severance dealios, and all that crap.  Their responses were usually that management hadn't told them yet and they were afraid of annoying them with questions.

They do, however, send out a lot of flyers and e-mails asking for donations to fund their efforts to organize workers in Puerto Rico or Florida.  Idiots.

Large unions are as fucked up as large businesses or large government.  It is a facet of human nature that appears to be unavoidable as soon as you have bureaucracies making decisions, as the only people who get to be, or want to be, middle-level managers (of any of the three) are the kinds of morons who couldn't take a dump without written procedures.

[grumbler]

Because our CEO basically told Stern to fuck off and that he wouldn't help organize SEIU elections for him, he started running attack ads in the Boston  media saying shit like our hospital was badly managed, was a ripoff, offered poor quality health care, and so on. 

well, he was right, of course, but that wasn't because your hospital lacked union representation.  I don't think there are any hospitals that are well-managed and offering quality health care any more.

[Ed Anger]

Now if Gettlefinger of the UAW would drop dead, I could throw a party.

[Neil]

Large unions are as fucked up as large businesses or large government.  It is a facet of human nature that appears to be unavoidable as soon as you have bureaucracies making decisions, as the only people who get to be, or want to be, middle-level managers (of any of the three) are the kinds of morons who couldn't take a dump without written procedures.

There are no written procedures anymore.  Telecommunications tech has completely destroyed the initiative, drive and ability of what was once a decent profession.

[DGuller]

Large unions are as fucked up as large businesses or large government.  It is a facet of human nature that appears to be unavoidable as soon as you have bureaucracies making decisions, as the only people who get to be, or want to be, middle-level managers (of any of the three) are the kinds of morons who couldn't take a dump without written procedures.

Sorry about your career.  The real problem is a system of personal incentives that are misaligned with the incentives of the business at large.  Perverse incentives can make even the most talented employees destructive.

[grumbler]

Sorry about your career. 

Many people are sorry, like you, that they don't have a career like mine (in precisely the job I want, with near-complete freedom to do it the way I want to do it, very satisfactory compensation, and enthusiastic "customers"), so I feel your pain. 

The real problem is a system of personal incentives that are misaligned with the incentives of the business at large.  Perverse incentives can make even the most talented employees destructive.

You have it almost right - I think we need to proviso your statement by noting the problem is not one of explicit personal incentives, (though those create their own problems, primarily above the middle management level), but those of implicit incentives.  A bureaucrat makes decisions based on the bureaucrats imperatives, not the business ones, and the only person deemed knowledgeable enough to evaluate middle manager performance is the immediate supervisor.  So, the key attribute of success for the middle manager is making his/her boss happy, regardless of what that does for/to the business overall.

[Grey Fox]

Get the Popcorn, it's time for Dguller vs Grumbler round 225.