Labor Organizing for a More Perfect Union
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| Also listed in: Courage Campaign Staff |
Despite the recent, but well-deserved harangue of several local leaders by the LA Times, Organized Labor has been quite successful throughout California. Within a couple news-filled weeks an ongoing LA Times investigation into spending and compensation has led to three different Service Employees International Union (SEIU) leaders stepping aside. Despite the apparent shortcomings of leaders in question, SEIU has been good for its members in California and has benefited our society as a whole.
Consider the evidence, SEIU as a statewide institution has lots of juice in Sacramento. You may remember late 2007 when Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger attempted to negotiate what was supposed to be universal health care reform with Democrats under the leadership of then Speaker Fabian Nunez. SEIU's national leader Andy Stern was right in the thick of it.
That effort failed, but no paper in the state can deny its influence in Sacramento. Even amongst the United Longterm Care Workers where Tyrone Freeman is reported to have steered hundreds of thousands of dollars to family members. Folks in Los Angeles are fond of him for the resources he carraled into South Los Angeles.
As chairman of the board for the L.A. chapter of Southern Christian Leadership Conference (founded by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.) Freeman steered it through a period of shaky financing to strong footing. For his members, his leadership produced a substantial pay raise for the salt of the earth home care workers' from a dismal $4 an hour to $9 an hour, and also established the Homecare Workers Training Center to provide English as second language classes, computer education and career training opportunities.
Oh and they began to get something else they had previously never had, affordable health care coverage. But there's more. Freeman heavily supported the African American Voter Registration Education Project (AAVREP) chaired by State Senator Mark Ridley-Thomas which has registered tens of thousands of new African American voters throughout South LA to date.
Of course, the LA Times has yet to investigate the successes of organized labor. We will have to tell that story ourselves. This blog is by no means an effort to excuse the alledged misgivings of Freeman and the other leaders who have stepped aside. My intent is to provide a picture of why Freeman will be missed in South LA.
As for the union itself, it will go on. It is a democratic institution so when individual leaders go awry, local members have processes in place to protect their collective bargaining unit which has provided them and our society with so many benefits.
Lifting more than 100,000 home care workers out of poverty was just the start. This Labor Day, L.A. area union leaders pledged an ambitious agenda to create jobs for local residents in construction and manufacturing and to continue the work started to reach across to work with environmental groups for a common interest to the benefit of us all.
Consider the evidence, SEIU as a statewide institution has lots of juice in Sacramento. You may remember late 2007 when Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger attempted to negotiate what was supposed to be universal health care reform with Democrats under the leadership of then Speaker Fabian Nunez. SEIU's national leader Andy Stern was right in the thick of it.
That effort failed, but no paper in the state can deny its influence in Sacramento. Even amongst the United Longterm Care Workers where Tyrone Freeman is reported to have steered hundreds of thousands of dollars to family members. Folks in Los Angeles are fond of him for the resources he carraled into South Los Angeles.
As chairman of the board for the L.A. chapter of Southern Christian Leadership Conference (founded by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.) Freeman steered it through a period of shaky financing to strong footing. For his members, his leadership produced a substantial pay raise for the salt of the earth home care workers' from a dismal $4 an hour to $9 an hour, and also established the Homecare Workers Training Center to provide English as second language classes, computer education and career training opportunities.
Oh and they began to get something else they had previously never had, affordable health care coverage. But there's more. Freeman heavily supported the African American Voter Registration Education Project (AAVREP) chaired by State Senator Mark Ridley-Thomas which has registered tens of thousands of new African American voters throughout South LA to date.
Of course, the LA Times has yet to investigate the successes of organized labor. We will have to tell that story ourselves. This blog is by no means an effort to excuse the alledged misgivings of Freeman and the other leaders who have stepped aside. My intent is to provide a picture of why Freeman will be missed in South LA.
As for the union itself, it will go on. It is a democratic institution so when individual leaders go awry, local members have processes in place to protect their collective bargaining unit which has provided them and our society with so many benefits.
Lifting more than 100,000 home care workers out of poverty was just the start. This Labor Day, L.A. area union leaders pledged an ambitious agenda to create jobs for local residents in construction and manufacturing and to continue the work started to reach across to work with environmental groups for a common interest to the benefit of us all.