"New Prescription for a Healthy Union Movement"

One of the contributors of the Talking Union blog, Carl Finamore, was at the NUHW convention, and has penned an article for Talking Union outlining the history of the struggle behind the NUHW-SEIU battle, his thoughts on why NUHW has been so successful to date in organizing, and ending with his opinions as to what is at stake in the upcoming months for NUHW and the labor movement in general...

The boldness to break away from one of the most powerful unions in the country and the confidence to build a credible alternative is a staggering commitment and could only be attempted by a rank and file movement that has consistently been mobilized and empowered over recent years.

“The shop stewards were the closest to the day to day activities of the workers,” Howard Wallace, Field Representative/Community Organizer (ret), SEIU- Local 250 Healthcare Workers Union, told me. “Very often they were the first to understand the issues. These unpaid, volunteer leaders had a lot of respect from all of us.”

There is much to think about from the dispute between NUHW and SEIU. Lessons better learned if the rank and file revolt is actually successful. They act for all of us by standing for militant and democratic unionism. Let us wish them well.

As they say in the blog biz, RTWT...