Purple People upheaval: What’s behind SEIU thug-in-chief Andy Stern’s resignation?; Update: The shadow of Richard Trumka; SEIU issues statement
Scroll for updates…SEIU issues statement…Stern to address rumors on Friday…
Will he declare “Mission Accomplished?” The news tonight of SEIU thug-in-chief Andy Stern’s resignation is quite a shocker given how much he reveled in his power and intimacy with the White House as its most frequent visitor. Indeed, here he is on Twitter just a few weeks ago bragging about an ego-inflating profile of himself in Washingtonian magazine — which describes Stern as the “new face of Labor” and the Big Labor boss who “helped elect President Obama” while “wired to the White House.”
Hardly sounds like someone “tired of the daily grind.”
Via Politico, the resignation deets:
Service Employees International Union President Andrew Stern, one of America’s most prominent labor leaders, is set to resign, according to a member of the union’s board and another SEIU official.
The President of an SEIU local based in Seattle, Diane Sosne, broke the news to her staffers at 11:35 this morning, local time.
“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,” Sosne wrote in an email obtained by POLITICO.
Sosne offered no explanation for the move, but another SEIU official speculated that Stern had finally tired of the draining job.
“Health care getting done is a good culmination,” the official said.
HuffPo lefties also confirm the rumors.
Behind the scenes and under the radar screen, as I’ve reported over the last year, Stern has installed a cadre of labor management stooges embroiled in financial scandals across the country and rankled rank-and-file watchdogs within the Big Labor organization. Obama paid no heed – appointing Stern to the federal joke of a “fiscal responsibility” panel.
And while fatcat union bosses toss hundreds of millions of dues into Democrat coffers, low-wage SEIU members’ pension funds are eroding and the organization’s debt is piling up. The union also remains under investigation by federal prosecutors for potential illegal lobbying activities at the White House.
A nasty fight in San Francisco with a rival union, UNITE HERE, has caused Stern major headaches and litigation costs.
As I reported in December, health care workers in Washington state also revolted against SEIU pressure.
And the Blago scandal, in which Stern plays a central role, still looms.
Union heavies don’t just relinquish their control and throw themselves under the bus for the standard bogus Beltway excuses (the need to “spend more time with family,” etc.).
This smells. Stay tuned.
***
Is Stern bowing to the ascendancy of AFL-CIO’s Richard Trumka? Trumka has ratcheted up the class warfare rhetoric, scored far Left accolades for his corporate-bashing speech at Harvard, and is planning to lead a march on Wall Street on April 29. An interesting passage buried in the Washingtonian piece Stern bragged about:
Stern has played a prominent role in the mood of factionalism, engineering SEIU’s departure from the AFL-CIO in 2005 to found Change to Win with a clutch of other growth-minded labor organizations such as the United Food and Commercial Workers.
Change to Win’s agenda was essentially to elevate the SEIU model of organizing—recruiting members and pressuring employers via corporate-accountability campaigns that targeted the public image of management—to serve as the industry standard for labor organizing. A no-less-prominent goal of Change to Win was Stern’s vision of a reorganized national leadership for labor—a federation that would streamline smaller, traditional craft-affiliated union locals into bigger operations able to organize across an economic sector. The textbook model of the corporate campaign was SEIU’s Justice for Janitors initiative in the 1990s, which proved influential in shoring up the International union’s power base.
But on balance, the Change to Win experiment has proved disappointing—and the federation may well be on the verge of being folded into a new accord to bring Stern and his allies back into strategic alliance with Richard Trumka, the former United Mine Workers head who last September was elected to succeed retiring AFL-CIO head John Sweeney. Negotiations with the former mother union are delicate, Stern says, but are moving gingerly forward—thanks in large part to the efforts of former Michigan representative David Bonior, an ardent labor advocate who once served as House Democratic whip, to bring both federations to the bargaining table this summer.
“You now have the first chance for every major labor union in the country to be in the same organization,” Stern says. The challenge, he stresses, will be to redress the schism that triggered the Change to Win camp’s defection in the first place—the mandate to keep growing versus focusing on politics and politicians.
“It’s a political-will question,” Stern says. “I’d say John Sweeney was still concerned about people having left the AFL, and his idea was everyone should rejoin it. I think the answer to this is really building something new that takes the best ideas from everybody, building something that works for the 21st century.”
He won’t project a timeline for an AFL agreement but says, “We’re extraordinarily close to solving this issue in a couple-of-stages process.
Gulp: Are we about to see a re-merger of SEIU and AFL-CIO into a new 21st-century Big Labor Frankenstein?
Question: Are we looking at the death throes of forced unionism — or its resurrection?
***
Update 11:29pm Eastern: SEIU issues statement in response to resignation buzz…
“The 2.2-million member Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is an organization united by the belief in the dignity and worth of workers and the services they provide. SEIU is dedicated to improving the lives of workers and their families and creating a more just and humane society.
“This week, the SEIU Executive Committee is gathering in Washington, DC, for a three-day meeting where it will celebrate the monumental achievement and the role of the union in passing healthcare reform. During that meeting, there will be a series of discussions regarding the union’s future, including our plans for growth in our core industries, our work to reform the financial institutions that trashed our economy, and our efforts to hold elected leaders accountable to working families.
“Over the past few months, there has been increasing speculation regarding SEIU President Andy Stern’s intention to step down as president at the end of his term in 2012. President Stern will address these rumors at the close of the SEIU Executive Committee meeting this week.”
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» Barack Obama: Can we call him a Socialist now?
He is in line for Obama’s new cabinet position. Dept of Thuggery.
Making way for his Supreme Court nomination? That;s semi-facetious, in the vein of “nervous laughter”.
Until the last 6 months I would have thought such a thing impossible even for the Malignant Narcissist in Chief, but after Obamacare I wouldn’t put anything past them. They know they are sunk after November, so such a move would have no new consequences.
Maybe he’s planning on a 2012 run to replace Biden.
Stern just needs to devote all of his time to trimming that budget deficit!
There is a revolution going on; no armies, no battles, no blood. Yet, a revolution is occuring. The left is determined to turn this country into a national socialist state and know that time is running out, come November. They are in a mad rush to get all that they want, in place, before the American people find out. It’s been simmering for years, and with a congressional majority and a socialist president, the move is on. Unless the American people wake up and stop this takeover, it may be too late to erase what the left has done. That is what the left is banking on. They know that reversing their embedded policies could be very difficult, if not impossible.
Stern’s Mama: “He’s a nice boy.“
Sounds to me like Andy jumped the ship before the last tax dollar is spent and the SEIU retirement funds find their way into the graveyard of history.
The cow dried up.
Stern was last seen riding a giant pig down Pennsylvania Avenue.
“Workers of the world, unite, it’s not just a slogan anymore” Andy Stern
Maybe he’s getting a better job, Secretary General of the U.N.?
Secretary of Goon Squads?
Someone has some big dirt on him.
Stern does not strike me as a man who would run from a fight with a rival AFL-CIO rival.
While it could be anything I would bet on scandal or a health problem.
I am guessing pictures of something.
Might the Secretary of Labor position be opening up soon?
Mafia related, somehow?
Scandal? Dirt? Oh, please Since when has that had an effect on democrats? True Socialists (and I believe these guys are the real deal) only yield power at the point of a gun. Either Andy is moving up, which I seriously doubt because at the highest levels of power it’s starting to get a little crowded, or he has been weighed in the balance and found wanting. By whom? And for what?
Whatever is driving this, it is something ugly and agreed it will be quite interesting to see how this unfolds. But to those of you who believe the Obama Revolution is rapidly coming to an end and the mighty “O” will soon be planning his return to academia there to write another volume of memoirs, well, you are in error.
The Revolution has just begun.
Oh No. Do we have the next Justice of the Supreme Court?
There have been rumors about the internal strife at SEIU for quite some time — I remember reading about one faction of health care workers trying to oust Stern in the summer of 2008, before the election. Notice that Stern’s position is that he will address the “rumors”.
Things haven’t been as calm as they let on, with the ACORN implosion, etc, who knows what is happening behind the scenes?
One thing’s for sure, no matter what the “official” reason is, it won’t be the truth.
The “official” statement will be made at what, Friday, 6 pm?
I think he just need to devote more time to running the Obama Presidency, having 2 jobs is tough.
Financial troubles, the free healthcare isn’t going to happen with the insurance boondoggle we now have created.
It’s a mistake to assume all union members are the same …
Absolutely agree. I also said the same thing over at Hot Air preceding the Healthcare fraud and got banned. While I am non-violent and believe in due process and the rule of law, those in power do not. There’s the rub.
Us = Marquis of Queensbury
Them = Saul Alinsky/Joe Stalin
So glad to see the SEIU formally attaching themselves to the beast.
I hate it when junk clutters the closet and the public are uninformed.
It wouldn’t surprise me to see Stern appointed to an Obama administration position. Maybe something to do with the healthcare takeover or a new labor relations board or something to do with Obama’s desire to regulate wages for everyone. He’s not going away that easily.
I hope they find his sorry butt buried under the other goalpost someday!
Dear Andy – former SDS radical who now advises Fearless Leader – who, most likely, will continue to advise Fearless Leader in some nefarious capacity.
But which
was destroyedretired?The master or the apprentice?
I don’t trust Stern further than I can spit, but I wonder if his own health is the reason for quitting? Maybe he got a touch of the chest pain that affected U of Florida football Urban Meyer.
Obama still has quite a few positions to fill, well over a year later. Perhaps Inspector General or Wage And Hour Administrator in the Dept. Of (non)Education?
Gorram purplebelly is just going to be sitting at the feet of his master. He’ll find some way to meddle for barry hussien and get paid for it with tax payer money.
**THIS IS WHY I’M GOING REAVER!! DON’T LAY DOWN PEOPLE!!**
The truth is that the people who are against the take over of our government want to resolve it in peaceful ways. It’s the looney left who are violent and radical and “itching for a fight”. It will be great if we vote the crooks and their cronies out of office in November but this is going to be a long fight. It has been going on since the 1920s when progressives first hit the scene.
It doesn’t help when We The People have entitlement mentality and will vote in anyone who will fill our outstretched hands.
You can be sure, his resignation is sanctioned by Obama, perhaps orchestrated by him. He wouldn’t resign unless something better was in the works. He played a huge part in getting Obama elected and he will be rewarded. Just wait. A few months down the road…probably part of an appointment during a Congressional break, Stern will be given a plum role in Big Government.
If the unions merge will it be too big to fail?
Can the government cut it up and oversee it then?
Freddy is going to replace Bob Gibbs? Mr. Gibbs wrenched his back stepping on his own lip.
Perhaps it is not the time for jokes but it either that or cry. What have my people done? Anyone surprised at these Obaminations is guilty of Voting While Stupid.
I’m guessing he’ll pop up in some high level position in the government. Probably something that doesn’t need Senate approval.
I suspect that there are forces (Soros et al) higher than OB behind this move. Andy has too much power to be stepping down for something other than moving up.
I predict an Obama appointment in the works for Stern.
Lemme guess..Surpreme Court Justice.
I heard rumors that he had been cast as the lead in a remake of the “Barney” show from PBS. Only this time Barney will use the “persuasion of power” and actually eat the kids on the show when they get out of line rather than singing inane songs…
OT, but too funny to pass up…a quote from a story regarding poor Barney Frank’s recent in-flight experience:
‘partner’? And…’Jim Ready’?? Really?
Careful Andy, don’t forget what happens if you cast a shadow on the brilliant image of the magnificent “O”. Tread lightly on your quest for glory. It is a path that has many “bus crossings”.
Stepping down my @ss.
He is being re-positioned to better serve his country.
We told you they was tricksy. We told you they was false…
Stepping down for less media scrutiny while he/should he be investigated.
Fortunately for Stern, he owns a controlling interest in the Attorney General and the Department of Justice so he really hasn’t a care in the world…
Obama’s motto: “Corruption Pays!”
Maybe it’s time for Andy Stern to meet Jimmy Hoffa
This probably deserves vigilant observation. I have a suspicion that something more lucrative may have landed in Mr. Stern’s lap – something less high profile…something with more power
Yeah, maybe hell needs to be unionized.
Yes – Trumka has quite a reputation in the coal fields.
Maybe Trumka offered to arrange the meeting.
How is this possible? Doesn’t Holder control that? Should have been dropped months ago.
When this knothead is done there he needs to mosey on over to Frank’s and Dodd’s place to protest the co-criminals and their racketeering operation. They should actually be praising the Wall Street crooks since they did the bidding of Barney et al and brought down the system – enabling their own bolshevik/gremlin style mayhem in the American economy.
Ready Johnson?
RedDog–LOL
Jim Ready to the rescue!
Otherwise known as: “How to Get Other People’s Stuff”
This stinks to high heaven, which means Soros is involved. The Zero and his communist cohorts don’t make a move without old George’s permission – and orders!
Maybe Stern will be given a government position, or maybe not. I wonder if Soros decided he was getting too big for his britches, and was thus no longer useful in implementing the Master Plan.
Oh, for a mole in the Soros camp!
Is this where you insert another Bawny Fwank joke?
Little Ma #60 – Yep, you betcha! Soros is always involved in these shenanigans. I keep thinking that Stern’s out to get someone else in and that he is going to honcho Obama’s reelection – engineering all kinds of illegal vote getting.
Andy Stern is no George Washington. There’s no way he’d voluntarily give up the enormous political influence he has over Hope-a-Dope so he can just go back home like Cincinnatus to his plow.
The devil’s in the details, and the important details have yet to emerge.
The health care reform bill passed and now its backers are resigning right & extreme left. Whats up with that?
This is serious – stop those prosecutors now!
Did Trumka take Stern to lunch at the restaurant where Jimmy Hoffa was last seen?
Did either Tiger Woods or Jesse James look really nervous yesterday? I mean, I’m just askin’…
Maybe he woke up with the severed head of a favorite pet in his bed.
General Stern, grand mufti of Obamastorm, citizen army. And a few tea party members will rue the day they dared call President Bowma a commie freak!
Headline: “Prime Purple Puke Takes Hike”
We should be soon reading about how he has skimmed all of their funds for his retirement.
Off topic but here is a very interesting report today by WaPo’s
Dana Milbank about the tone in DC during this latest of Obama’s endless summits.
Looks like everyone, even the fawning MSM, has had their fill of Obama.
Did it honestly take 36 comments to get to the core of the problem here? Stern has been the not-so-behind-the-scenes go to guy for Obama. He brought in millions of dollars for his POTUS campaign, he helped jam Obamacare down our collective throats, now he’s on this goofy “Fiscal Responsibility Panel”.
Does ANYBODY really believe Stern WON’T end up with a plum job in Obama’s administration? Big O owes him big time and now it’s time for Stern to collect. I’m warming up the popcorn machine now so I can keep up.
OT but last thought. After his “I won” comment to McCain, I’ve decided to call him “Crow-bama”. And yes, the sole reason for that is the terribly UN-presidential crowing he did, “I won” indeed. No, it has nothing to do with skin color or Jim Crow or any other stupid reason some idiot troll wants to try to pin on it.
Here’s hoping Andy had a Damascus Road Experience.
With what Michelle mentioned, I’m guessing indictment for something.
Why else would he resign so abruptly?
…and why would he only address these issues at the close of an Executive Committee meeting?
I’m sure that he’s resigning at the end of the meeting because that timing will force a backroom appointment instead of a committee vote for his replacement.