Posted on 04/17/2008 8:13:08 AM PDT by SmithL
A deepening divide between two of the nation's largest labor groups – prompted by a maverick California nurses union – has labor leaders worried the rift could "devastate" the movement's election-year priorities.
Service Employees International Union, with 1.7 million members, has instructed local chapters across America to withhold funding from state and local labor federations to protest what they call union-poaching activity by the California Nurses Association.
The move could cost labor central committees – the backbone of labor's sophisticated political and get-out-the-vote operation – millions of dollars on the eve of June 3 legislative primaries in California and the Nov. 4 presidential contest.
It could prevent labor federations in California from fully flexing their muscles in contested Democratic primaries for the state Legislature. Labor also has made electing a Democratic president a top priority in 2008.
"It would devastate the labor council," said John Borsos, president of the Sacramento Central Labor Council. The move, he said, would deprive the group "of the funds necessary to sustain a political campaign."
The California Labor Federation declined to comment.
John Sweeney, president of the AFL-CIO, is scrambling to negotiate a truce, urging SEIU to continue paying dues and calling the holdout "a damaging affront to the determined, united efforts of the labor movement."
The California-based nurses union has expanded nationally, sometimes butting heads with competing health care unions.
Tensions with SEIU flared last month in Ohio. CNA representatives showed up as SEIU was attempting to organize 8,000 hospital nurses there "explaining to nurses that there were other options," according to CNA President Deborah Burger.
Burger accused SEIU, the nation's largest union, of striking a "sweetheart deal" that was bad for workers. Ultimately, SEIU retreated from its unionizing drive.
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
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