Harold Meyerson racks up the SEIU boss’s new initiatives. One asks Democratic candidates to spend a day with working-class candidates in the primary states, another, They Work for Us, monitors Democrats nationwide to make sure they don’t drift from the labor line (essentially a mirror image of the anti-tax Club for Growth on the right), and a third, Divided we Fail, is forming a coalition with the Business Roundtable and the AARP for single-payer universal healthcare.
Meyerson goes on to observe how Stern is turning SEIU into the United Auto Workers of the 21st Century.
It’s an interesting comparison, with one major caveat: Stern seems interested in directly affecting government policy, not corporate policy. For example, the UAW negotiated generous healthcare and pension benefits from the auto companies. Those “legacy costs” are now a major reason why the Big Three auto makers are having a hard time returning to profitability (we can argue about how major a reason, but they’re at least part of the story).
SEIU, on the other hand, is looking to de-emphasize the role of corporations in healthcare and pensions. So even if Stern has his way, we won’t be seeing Wal-Mart or Safeway crippled with legacy costs down the road, because his goal is to shift those costs (appropriately, in my view) to the federal government.
As for Stern’s other initiatives, I’m indifferent on the first one (it’s pure politics, but maybe it’s useful), and skeptical about the second (They Work for Us). The Club for Growth ran some pretty terrible candidates in ’06 and cost the GOP a few seats by running ultra-rightwingers in districts and states where they didn’t stand a chance.
Another important difference is that aside from a few major international retailers (i.e., Wal-Mart), most employers of SEIU labor are significantly smaller and have far more job sites than, say, a General Motors. So it’s really no point going after the employers — they’re pockets just aren’t deep enough to provide something like GM-style pensions. Stern and SEIU are smart to realize this.
Also, the nature of many service jobs is such that many (most?) of them are extremely transitory in nature. While most GM workers were happy to have their “job for life,” I can’t imagine that even the happiest maid really wants to keep cleaning hotel rooms forever. This limits the leverage a union has on the employer. Again, Stern is very smart to recognize this, and go after the people who can help — politicians.