“Fear & intimidation carry the day for SEIU” - A Letter

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I read the article in Union Democracy Review on the recent SEIU vs. NUHW election at Kaiser in California (Sept/Oct. 2010). First, I appreciate very much the long and consistent support you've given to rank-and-file workers and union democracy for decades, including your on-going coverage of the struggle within and outside SEIU. Your work has helped the movement for union democracy advance, and that is vitally important in building the kind of trade union movement that we need to deal with the problems facing working people. While I have worked as a volunteer with NUHW and I have seen first-hand some of the tactics employed by SEIU, my comments here reflect my thoughts
only; I am not speaking for NUHW.

While the UDR article covers an important part of the SEIU vs. NUHW election, I believe it misses a major part of it. I do not think it is accurate to say about the Kaiser workers: “The majority chose instead to submit to an officialdom selected for them.” Kaiser workers did not choose that option. They responded to an incredible fear and intimidation campaign by SEIU where they were threatened with losing their wages, benefits and even their jobs if they voted for NUHW. SEIU, in collusion with management, helped get strong NUHW activists disciplined and fired. All of this sent a strong message to Kaiser workers: if you oppose SEIU you will pay a price. You wrote of this fear and intimidation later in the article, but in my view, that was the story.

The headline and lead should have been: “Fear and intimidation carry the day for SEIU.” In a traditional union organizing campaign against an employer, we’ve seen time and again where employer threats have scared workers into voting for no union. That did not mean the workers didn't want a union. It meant that the fear of reprisals outweighed their quest for a union. To say Kaiser workers “chose” to submit to an officialdom selected for them does not do justice to the many thousands of heroic Kaiser workers who lived daily with and endured these threats of wage and job loss for a year and a half by one of the largest, most ruthless, and most powerful unions in the country. Kaiser workers, and the NUHW, should be commended for standing up to SEIU abuses, and working to create a democratic alternative.

Paul Krehbiel

Editor’s note: Paul is absolutely correct that fear and intimidation did carry the day, which is what happens in many an NLRB collective bargaining election. But this was not a usual election. In this case, the workers, as for many years, were already represented by a union; and they had to decide between a union leadership they had previously chosen in a democratic election and a leadership outrageously and bureaucratically imposed upon them. It is encouraging that a strong minority of 11,364 unionists remained firm, stood up against fear and intimidation, and in a secret ballot voted for dignity and democracy in their union. They deserve credit. Several thousand other unionists in other elections which pitted the SEIU against NUHW did the same. It is sad that a majority in this case submitted to their fear.