SEIU Union and allied organizations held a picket at 2 downtown Burger King locations

by Jason Pramas

BOSTON/Downtown Crossing - Over 50 people from the Service Employees International Union and allied organizations held a picket at 2 downtown Burger King locations Thursday. The event was the latest in a series of "Enemies of Change" protests organized nationwide by SEIU in an attempt to stop major corporations from lobbying against the Employee Free Choice Act - which is up for a vote in Congress later this year.

If passed the EFCA will allow Americans the right to form unions if they turn in signed union cards to the National Labor Relations Board for a majority of workers in their workplace - bypassing the traditional union election system that unions say is very easy for employers to short circuit through means foul and fair. Once recognized, the new unions will still have to negotiate contracts with their employers and get them enforced.

The union chose Burger King as a protest target because it's a low-wage employer with large numbers of workers that spent $319,000 between 2006 and 2008 to fight passage of the EFCA. In addition, it is owned by Goldman Sachs - the financial giant which recently received economic bailout money from the U.S. government. The union believes the bailout money should have gone to working Americans, and not to one of the institutions they blame for the economic crisis.

SEIU regional director Harris Grumman explained, "This is another one of our series of "Enemies of Change" actions to focus attention on who's fighting the change people voted for back on November 4th. We're really working hard for the Employee Free Choice Act; so that people have the right to organize at their workplace to have better wages and benefits. And there's no worse case than Burger King - which is also partly owned by Goldman Sachs, and Goldman Sachs is one of the big bailout recipients. They got 10 billion in taxpayer money and they gave 6 and a half billion of that as bonuses to their CEO and executives.

"That amount of money, that 6 and a half billion, would have given every Burger King worker in the country an $18,000 bonus this year," Grumman continued. "Which is more than twice as much as they earn in a year. So we're just saying you're using this money to give yourself bonuses, you're using this money to fight the Employee Free Choice Act, you're fighting the rights of your workers to have better wages and benefits, and you're using the taxpayer money to make your profits. It's wrong wrong wrong all down the line. We're shining a light on that, and we want to make sure that this new administration and new Congress take action on it."

Union members and staff entered both the 128 Tremont St. and 1 Center Plaza Burger King stores and leafletted customers and Burger King workers until management ordered them - and members of the press - to leave the premises. They held a short march between the first and second stores - from Park St. Station and Government Center. Moving pickets were maintained outside both stores while leafletting proceed inside and outside the stores. A short rally was held outside the first store with speakers from the Greater Boston Central Labor Council and SEIU Local 615.

There was a light police presence and no arrests. Management at the 1 Center Plaza Burger King store did begin to get a bit physical in their attempt to eject activists and this reporter, but Boston Police officers cleared the store with no further incidents.

Grumann indicated that SEIU's EFCA campaign was just getting in gear.

"We're going to keep the pressure up on Goldman Sachs and Burger King, and we're going to also take this to other Enemies of Change like FedEx, Home Depot, WalMart and others. We already saw McDonalds back down and say we do not want to fight the Employee Free Choice Act; so our action at McDonald's ended their opposition to workers having democratic rights. So these actions do pay off. They're across the country. It's not the kind of publicity they want. They know they have a working class clientele. And they can't afford to turn them off. "

Burger King Corporation has not yet responded to a request for comment about the protest from Open Media Boston.

SEIU Hypocrites! SEIU lays off 75 workers. Workers picket SEIU and file unfair labor practices and age and race discrimination claims against SEI

Is this poetic justice or what?

In case you missed this, WaPo’s Alec MacGillis reported March 19:

The Service Employees International Union, considered the most influential union in the nation, has notified the union that represents about 220 of the SEIU’s national field staff members and organizers that it is laying off 75 of the employees.

In return, the workers union, which goes by the somewhat postmodern name of the Union of Union Representatives, has filed charges of unfair labor practices against the SEIU with the National Labor Relations Board. The workers union’s leaders say that the SEIU is engaging in the same kind of practices that some businesses use: laying off workers without proper notice, contracting out work to temporary-staffing firms, banning union activities and reclassifying workers to reduce union numbers.

“It’s completely hypocritical,” said Malcolm Harris, president of the workers union. “This is the union that’s been at the forefront of progressive issues, around ensuring that working people and working families are taken care of, but when it comes to the people that work for SEIU, they haven’t set the same standards.”

SEIU officials say the layoffs are part of a long-running plan to reallocate resources. Its national office will devote more of its resources to lobbying and communications in Washington to take advantage of Democrats’ ascendance. Most organizing would be left to local chapters, where officials say they have identified dozens of openings for the laid-off staff.

“This is not a financial issue,” said SEIU President Andy Stern. “We need to respond to the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity our members created by helping elect President Obama.”

And. Of. Course. There’s. More.

Walkingtodo at the LaborNerd blog (h/t Adios Andy!) reported from the March 17 New York Times:

[...] one of SEIU’s staff unions, the Union of Union Representatives (UUR) filed a complaint with the [National Labor Relations Board] NLRB, saying that 75 staff layoffs violated SEIU’s staff contracts. Apparently, UUR and the other SEIU staff union (OPEIU – the Office and Professional Employees International Union) are absolutely up in arms.

Walkingtodo adds:

Not reported in either article: In addition to the NLRB complaint, it appears that UUR has also filed a complaint with the Equal Employment and Opportunity Commission (EEOC), alleging both age and racial discrimination. Apparently the 75 layoffs are mostly middle-managment as opposed to upper managment positions. These occupied positions are laregly by middle aged people of color who suggest that they were passed over for promotions in favor of younger, white employees.

More scandal. Just what the labor movement needed.

Matthew Vadum wrote March 27 at the Canada Free Press:

George Soros-backed SEIU laid off 75 workers and they demonstrated outside the radical union’s offices.

The AP’s Sam Hananel writes March 28:

Sometimes even unions have union problems.

Dozens of employees of the Service Employees International Union picketed their own union Friday over its decision to lay off about 75 workers.

The staffers marched outside SEIU headquarters in Washington as they yelled into bullhorns, passed out flyers and chanted, “Justice for all, not just some.”

“This union is supposed to be at the forefront of the progressive movement, but it can’t seem to follow its own ideology,” said Malcolm Harris, president of the Union of Union Representatives, which represents 210 SEIU organizers and field staff around the country.

The UUR has filed unfair labor practice charges and age and race discrimination claims against SEIU. Harris called SEIU leaders “hypocrites” for calling out corporations that shed workers, yet moving to lay off their own employees. [...]

J. Justin Wilson at LaborPains.org reports:

“How do you spell hypocrisy? SEIU!”

That was the chant today in front of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). The SEIU “broke their union contract,” and laid off 75 unionized staff members. Those workers picketed the union today with slogans like “EFCA’s First Violator Who? SEIU” and “Stop Union Busting.”

Ed Morrissey at Hot Air writes:

It’s the perfect ending for an awful week at the SEIU. First they lose Arlen Specter and pretty much any hope of passing Card Check. Now they have their own employees accusing SEIU president Andy Stern of “union busting” by laying off 75 of the workers in their national office. The worst part for Stern? He had to listen to the moronic “hey hey, ho ho” chant outside SEIU HQ all day.

With a h/t to both Vadum and Philip Klein at American Spectator:

Theblogprof comments in “The Walmart of All Unions is Picketing Itself”:

Now would the union leadership send out their thugs with lead pipes to “have an intelligent conversation” with the union workers? Will they threaten themselves? Beat themselves up? Intimidate themselves? You have to chuckle at the irony here.

In the same vein, Ed Morrissey wrote March 27:

Gee, I wonder if the SEIU employees at HQ crossed the picket lines today. Did they hire thugs to beat themselves up — or did they hire them to beat up the protestors? Inquiring minds want to know…

Michelle Malkin snarked:

SEIU’s motto is the same as Barack Obama’s: Do as I say, not as I do.

Guess who’s exposing SEIU’s hypocrisy? Workers laid off by the union in violation of their labor contract.

Speaking of Obama, Vadum adds:

Two of SEIU’s locals, 100 and 880, are part of the ACORN network and SEIU is a part of Soros’s Democracy Alliance.

The title says it all in RBO’s October 20, 2008, article ACORN, SEIU, and the New Party joined at the hip in 2001. Thanks to the brief 30 days Google 2001 was available, we learned a lot about the interconnectedness of all three.

In 2001, the physical address for ACORN Downtown was listed as 650 S. Clark Street, Chicago, IL 60605, as was one office location for SEIU LOCAL 880, as well as ACORN Housing Corporation of Illinois — and the Illinois New Party — and they all shared the same email address @acorn.org.

SEIU Local 880, according to Illinois State Board of Elections files for Obama’s Friends of Obama PAC (political action committee), contributed fairly consistently to Obama’s 1995 to 2000 political campaigns:

SEIU Local 880 Political Fund, $250, 11/16/1995; $250, 7/8/1997; $500, 7/21/1998; $500, 10/15/1998; $1000, 1/20/2000; $500, 6/23/2000.

During the 2008 election cycle, SEIU Local 880 only contributed to one candidate — $5001 to Barack Obama.

We also learned in October 2008 that, not only had SEIU 880 endorsed Obama, but it was also involved in GOTV efforts on his behalf in Indiana.

Marc Ambinder wrote September 17, 2007, in The Atlantic (as posted on Obama’s official website):

A charged-up Sen. Barack Obama begged politically active members of the Service Employees union to join his “movement” to reform the Democratic Party. [...]

SEIU’s members are temperamentally suited to Obama; he is a longtime friend of Chicago’s SEIU Local 880 and worked closely with the union as an organizer and later as a state legislator.

Now for something truly ironic

A March 26 post at SEIU’s blog states Helping Laid-Off Workers Afford Health Coverage:

Laid-off workers can get much of their healthcare insurance paid for through a new law, reports the Metro Washington Council’s Community Services Agency (CSA). “The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) provides for premium reductions and additional election opportunities for health benefits under the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985 — commonly called COBRA — for folks who have lost their health insurance coverage due to lay-off,” reports CSA Executive Director Kathleen McKirchy. “Those eligible pay only 35 percent of their COBRA premiums and the remaining 65 percent is reimbursed to the coverage provider through a tax credit,” adds McKirchy.

Wonder how that’s gonna work out.

It’s all just such sweet poetic justice!!!

^{h/t J. Justin Wilson, LaborPains.org; more pix posted.}

Posted in Barack Obama | Tagged ACORN, Andy Stein, Barack Obama, Democracy