SEIU’s message to its unionized staff seems to be, ‘We want to work with you, but we’ll work without you.”
WASHINGTON, D.C.—When unionized employees of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) voted to authorize a strike against their employer–the SEIU–earlier this month, it demonstrated a certain amount of hypocrisy on the part of the giant labor union.
However, in a rather lengthy HuffPost article about the SEIU’s fight with its own employees, one statement illustrates how far the SEIU is willing to go against its own employees.
“Most employees found management’s final contract offer unacceptable, fearing it would weaken their job security and the viability of their own union. But they knew management planned to stand firm ― especially when they found printouts of management’s talking points in copiers around the building.
The document made clear in bold that management would budge no more at the table. It also included what some employees considered an ominous warning if they chose to walk out due to the impasse: SEIU “will be well prepared to conduct the business of our members without interruption in the event of a strike.”
Translation: We can get by without you.”
This isn’t the first time a union has threatened its own unionized employees if they were to strike.
A decade ago, when the unionized staff of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters threatened to go out on strike, the Teamsters’ president, James P. Hoffa, wrote a letter to its union locals that stated, “Though it pains us to do so, we must make contingency plans to operate in the event of a labor dispute.”
Related:
- How ‘Union-Busting’ Union Bosses Are Exploiting Their Own Employees
- SEIU Wants A Strong Labor Movement. Just Maybe Not Inside SEIU.
- SEIU’s Sexual-Harassment Scandal Just Got A Lot Messier…
- NLRB To Union-Busting Teamsters: Stop Harassing Organizers For Wanting Their Own Union
