AFSCME and SEIU are fit to be tied over a
threat made by a Gephardt aid to repeal public employee collective bargaining in Missouri if the unions didn't stop organizing support for Dean in Missouri.
It's a little known fact that public employees in this country are second class citizens when it comes to labor rights. Public employees aren't covered by OSHA in most states and they can't bargain collectively or form unions unless it is formally permitted through legislation or an Executive Order. Collective bargaining rights are therefore the life-blood for unions like AFSCME, and, to a certain extent, SEIU. Threatening to rescind them is the height of union-busting.
Missouri state employees only recently gained that right through an executive order issued by Missouri Gov. Bob Holden (D) two years ago.
According to the Washington Post,
at a meeting Monday that included Missouri Gov. Bob Holden (D), Joyce Aboussie, the vice chair of Gephardt's presidential campaign, issued an "ultimatum" to representatives of the two unions.
The ultimatum, McEntee and Stern said, also included demands that AFSCME and the SEIU use none of their Missouri members to campaign for Dean in Iowa, that the unions make no independent expenditures in Missouri for Dean and that they not communicate with their Missouri members about Dean's candidacy.
If the unions did not abide by the demands, the two union presidents said, Aboussie said she would send a letter to the Republican leaders of the Missouri House and Senate, signed by some Democratic state representatives and senators, calling for the repeal of the governor's executive order providing state workers with collective-bargaining rights.
McEntee and Stern called the threat "an unconscionable and outrageous act" and called for Aboussie's removal.
A Gephardt spokesperson, while not denying that the event took place, reaffirmed his support for collective bargaining for public employees.
The Post article pointed out the significance of this affair
The exchanges underscored the anger generated by the AFSCME and SEIU decisions to endorse Dean, rather than Gephardt, a longtime labor champion during his quarter-century in the House, as well as the growing tension between the Gephardt and Dean campaigns.
Hopefully, the bad feelings will evaporate once a nominee is picked. It will be hard enough beat Bush next year, but impossible without a united and active labor movement.