In light of Andy Stern’s ongoing attempt to deny or justify the violence he directed against CNA/NNOC nurses and other peaceful attendees at the Labor Notes Conference, we have drawn together these 19 eyewitness accounts.
Stern’s Orwellian PR strategy makes the whole situation worse, and leaves RNs continuing to fear for their safety at the hands of a union that has repeatedly shown itself to be hostile, aggressive, and harassing to nurse leaders from CNA/NNOC.
The entire labor movement, not just SEIU, continues to suffer from this black eye, and Andy Stern needs to— at the bare minimum- confess to what he did and renounce the use of violence as a political tactic.
While this diary is not concerned with the larger debate with SEIU, the violence they perpetrated should make crystal clear why so many RNs in this country have a poor opinion of SEIU and do not want them to represent us. Nursing is a calling, a sacred domain of special work on behalf of the most vulnerable people who live among us: patients who are sick, or injured, and in the hospital. As women and men, nurses of the National Nurses Organizing Committee and California Nurses Association have organized themselves into a powerful professional association and labor union, whose power for good, will be as enduring as it is unlimited. Our members are motivated by an ethical appeal to our shared vision and shared values. Not by sticks and stones...
1. The Purple Punch-Out in Dearborn, CounterPunch
http://www.counterpunch.org/...
By STEVE EARLY
A rent-a-mob of rowdy, punch-throwing demonstrators burst into Labor Notes' biennial labor conference in Dearborn, Michigan, last Saturday night. When it was over, the local cops had been called in, one demonstrator had collapsed and died and SIEU's chieftain Andy Stern had etched himself another benchmark for intolerance... Several leaders of the pack wore purple bandanas to conceal their faces; others started pushing, shoving, and throwing punches when their path was blocked by the linked arms of a hastily assembled but experienced group of Labor Notes marshals (among them, veterans of many past encounters with far more formidable Teamster goon squads). Casualties suffered on the LN side included a retired auto worker and longtime socialist activist Diane Feeley. Diane (who once studied to be a Catholic nun) ended up with a bloodied head and a wound requiring stitches. Earlier in the day, her "union-busting" activities had included taking two busloads of conference attendees to the nearby UAW picketline at American Axle, where she once worked herself.
2. The Labor Notes Conference, Talking Labor
http://www.kclabor.org/...
Bill Ornash
By now most of you have heard of a scandalous physical attack on the gathering mobilized by the leadership of SEIU. At least two bus loads–some say more–of SEIU staffers were determined to invade the banquet and take it over. Some wore masks. Many wielded anti-CNA picket signs. Dianne Feeley, a retired UAW officer from an Axle local now on strike, who I have known for more years than either of us would care to admit, was injured in the scuffling as the good guys and gals kept the barbarians out of the hall. Eventually, after hotel security called the cops, the thugs retreated shouting "we’ll be back."
Andy Stern was not present. But nothing on this scale in SEIU gets done without his approval, if not suggestion. Violent intimidation is, of course, not unknown in the American labor movement. ... Now he has taken a tentative step in using the union staff to physically attack challengers within his union and rival unions--and not very concerned about any collateral damage....The entire labor movement should denounce this reintroduction of gangster methods and take whatever steps are needed to stop it cold now.
3. The Healthcare Union War--Tensions between the California Nurses Association and SEIU escalate at the Labor Notes conference, In these Times
http://www.InTheseTimes.org
By DAVID MOBERG
According to eyewitness accounts, the most aggressive leaders of the group—some with purple bandanas on their faces—hit and kicked some of the Labor Notes staff and supporters who were blocking the doors. But another line of conference attendees locked arms to hold back the rest of the crowd. At least one woman, a retired auto worker, fell as an SEIU protester tried to slip past her and cut a gash in her head.
Bill Fletcher, former assistant to the president of SEIU, witnessed part of the standoff. "Nothing I saw leads me to believe the intent [of the SEIU people] was to harm, but the intent was clearly to disrupt the gathering by almost any means necessary," he says. "This was not just a protest." He was troubled to find that some protesters seemed to have no idea why they were involved in the action. And he argues that SEIU—which other unions criticize for raiding their members, just as several health care unions criticize CNA for its raids on nurses—lost much of the support it may have had.
4. Conflict Between 2 Unions Intensifies, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/...
Steven Greenhouse
The A.F.L.-C.I.O. president, John J. Sweeney, denounced on Tuesday what he said was "a violent attack orchestrated" by the Service Employees International Union against members of other unions at a conference on Saturday in Michigan. "There is no justification, none, for the violent attack orchestrated by S.E.I.U.," Mr. Sweeney said in a statement. "Violence in attacking freedom of speech must be strongly condemned."
5. SERVICE EMPLOYEES UNION (SEIU) ATTACKS LABOR GATHERING— CONFERENCE-GOERS ASSAULTED
Press Release by Labor Notes, April 12, 2008 http://www.indymedia.org/...
The Service Employees International Union turned their dispute with the California Nurses Association violent by attacking a labor conference April 12, injuring several and sending an American Axle striker to the hospital.
A recently retired member of United Auto Workers Local 235, Dianne Feeley, suffered a head wound after being knocked to the ground by SEIU International staff and local members. Other conference-goers—members of the Teamsters, UAW, UNITE HERE, International Longshoremen’s Association, and SEIU itself—were punched, kicked, shoved, and pushed to the floor. Dearborn police responded and evicted the three bus loads of SEIU International staff and members of local and regional health care unions.
6. SEIU International Attempts Disruption at 2008 Labor Notes Conference
http://www.labornotes.org/...
The Labor Notes Staff
When the chanting protesters entered, waving noisemakers, they and others quickly formed a double line in front of the doors, linking arms to block the way. Some participants were thrown to the ground by larger SEIUers. One protestor broke through the first line and, finding himself trapped between the two lines, flailed wildly. Former Labor Notes office manager Dianne Feeley, a retiree from American Axle, was pushed and fell, cutting her head, and was treated at an emergency room. Protesters continued to try to advance toward the doors, some nonviolently and others more aggressively.
...It is important to note that SEIU’s planned disruption would have frightened and intimidated hundreds of union members who are not party to their dispute with CNA. In the crowded banquet hall, in which there was barely room between tables; in the panic people undoubtedly would have been injured. As it was, the entire waitstaff, members of UNITE HERE Local 24, fled. We are grateful to the conference-goers whose quick thinking managed to keep the protest contained.
7. Ken Paff, Teamsters for a Democratic Union
(Private e-mail, reprinted http://www.dailykos.com/... )
At least 3 buses of SEIU officials and members arrived, either all or mostly from 1199 Ohio. Some SEIU reps and organizers were recognized by participants. A few in the advance line, at the point of confrontation, wore bandana masks to avoid ID or pictures, but in at least one case, an LN participant pulled the mask off the SEIU official.
They arrived at exterior glass hotel doors near the banquet hall. They beat on the glass and chanted while hotel staff eyed them from inside, a bit removed from Labor Notes participants, who were in the banquet room or still streaming into it.
One of their inside people slipped past the hotel staff and opened the door from the inside, and they flooded in.
The delay there gave some participants time to organize a thin line of defense across the three sets of double doors leading into the banquet hall. The doors were closed and volunteer participants stood guard at them, some with locked arms.
The advance line of SEIU staffers led the chanting group forward and pushed and punched and tried to break in, and almost did. My friend Dan Campbell had his glasses broken from a glancing punch.
8. Debates, Yes! Assaults, No!- The Labor Notes Conference, Talking Union: A Project of the DSA Labor Network
http://talkingunion.wordpress.com/...
Duane Campbell, Stuart Elliot, Paul Garver, Michael Hirsch, Tim Sears
As labor movement activists who are members of the Democratic Socialists of America, we are deeply disturbed by the attempt by some Service Employees International Union staff members to forcibly disrupt the Labor Notes Conference dinner meeting in Dearborn, Michigan on April 12....a dispute does not give anyone a license to physically disrupt meetings of pro-labor organizations. In fact this offensive behavior alienated the majority of conference participants, including many from SEIU itself....Participation in democratic discussion and debate and leading by example are more effective and preferable to strong-arm tactics in winning new workers to the labor movement.
9. Joe Isobaker, SEIU Member, Labor Notes on Fight Back News
http://media.switchpod.com/...
The SEIU, which I’m a member of, our International President Andy Stern has declared a war against another union, California Nurses Association. The President of CNA is a very well-known progressive, they have a very fighting union and Labor Notes has invited her, Rose Ann DeMoro, to come here and be one of the keynotes speakers...when Andy Stern heard that she was here, he sent 6 busloads of staff members and people from the union to disrupt her speech and they pushed their way into the convention... there were hundreds of my union brothers and sisters...pounding on the glass doors of the front of the hotel...and they rushed in like it was a football game, they knocked over everyone in their way...To send wanna-be thugs to disrupt a conference of 1,000 trade union activists...it is an act of someone who is either power mad or who’s desperate.
10. MR Z MonthlyNotes on the 2008 Labor Notes Conference
By Jon Flanders
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/...
Then of course came the now famous banquet, which SEIU tried to disrupt. I was sitting at a table in the back and, like a lot of people, didn't know there was a problem until the door opened and the shouting started. I moved over and got a few pictures. Thankfully, the mob of staffers and misled workers didn't get through, and the event proceeded without further incident.
11. Jelger Kalmijn President, UPTE/CWA (private e-mail)
I was one of the people at the doors to the Labor Notes banquet when SEIU attempted to break-in and disrupt the meeting....The attack on the Labor Notes conference by SEIU staff and members is thug behavior meant to squash open dialog. SEIU was welcomed to participate in dialog but chose instead to disrupt with physical force. This hurts the entire labor movement. The national leadership of SEIU must descry this kind of behavior and denounce those who perpetrated it. The labor movement has a long memory and SEIU leadership only has a short window to explain itself before the record is written on a new low in labor activism.
12. Open Letter to SEIU Members on the Violence at the Labor Notes Convention
By SEIU Member Activists for Reform Today
http://www.reformseiu.org/
Seven busloads of SEIU staff and members (mostly from SEIU Healthcare Michigan and SEIU District 1199 WV/OH/KY) stormed the hotel to disrupt the event, allegedly to protest the scheduled keynote speech by Rose Ann DeMoro, Executive Director of the California Nurses Association. The CNA and SEIU have been engaged in a years-long conflict over organizing jurisdiction. The dispute has resulted in CNA efforts to undermine union elections with SEIU, and accusations that SEIU has sent staff to intimidate and harass CNA leaders in their homes and workplaces.
The violent action taken by some in SEIU on this night only worsened this inter-union dispute, in which workers are the big losers. It succeeded only in alienating many of the labor leaders at the event who did not agree with the CNA's actions in Ohio and Nevada. ... When conference participants (mostly rank-and-filers from unions around the country) tried to stop protesters from disrupting the dinner, the protesters (including some SEIU staff) pushed their way through the crowd by throwing punches and shoving people to the ground. One UAW retiree who had organized strike support for American Axle workers that day was taken to the hospital with a head injury, and others suffered minor injuries.
13. Bureau of National Affairs (April 15, 2008, sub. req’d.)
By Michelle Amber
SEIU spokeswoman Joyce Moscato told BNA April 14 that there was some pushing and shoving as SEIU members tried to get into the banquet and other conference attendees tried to keep them out, but added, "it didn't last long." She acknowledged that several people got hurt, including some SEIU members, but added that it was "not intentional." She also confirmed that an SEIU member died from a heart attack as he was boarding the bus after the incident.
14. Michelle Mahon, Ohio RN with CNA/NNOC
(You can see her speaking at www.ServingEmployersInsteadofUs.org, or read this account at http://www.dailykos.com/...
Dearborn is not an isolated incident of collective intimidation as a tactic employed by SEIU. In Springfield, Ohio as I participated in leafleting hospital workers to expose a rushed and unfair election between SEIU & CHP. I witnessed the more common variety of SEIU thuggery. Almost immediately upon my arrival I found myself surrounded by SEIU staff organizers, approximately 10, mostly men. They surrounded me and two other women yelling obscenities standing within inches of us. SEIU followed us around town and followed us into stores continuing to engage in aggressive behavior that fell just short of assault. This continued for days and was obviously planned, coordinated intimidation. As we walked to our cars on the icy streets in a blizzard they used their vehicles to "push" us off the road. A dangerous move, especially considering the road conditions, that could have had unforeseen and unintended consequences had one of us slipped or the car skid on the ice.
15. Bonnie Castillo, RN, with CNA/NNOC
(http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/4/15/175916/721/535/495763)
When the seven buses arrived at the evening banquet and people began pounding on the outside doors, it was all very surreal. I remember looking at our board members, our staff, and our RNs from all over the country. I first heard the word "bus" over the radio our security staff was using and got up to see what was going on. The next word was "move" and that's exactly what happened in a matter of seconds.
Once our board members were out I still thought somehow we might not all have to evacuate. Then I saw one of our security staff rushing towards me, saying "NO, Out!" I looked behind him and saw the doors shaking, the thugs yelling, drums and windows pounding, and we quickly ushered our last two tables out. I looked behind me and saw the hotel kitchen staff running as well."
16. Dave Rathke, Head of SEIU Local 100
http://www.chieforganizer.org
SEIU organizers will all learn this as well no matter what best face we try to put on this Detroit disaster, but this drama will haunt us for years as we try to reposition ourselves again as the bright, shining lights of the labor movement rather than the new face of hooliganism just as the bosses and their consultants and lawyers have claimed we always were anyway.
17. Letter from African-American SEIU Activists Sonia Askew, Angela Glasper, Lover Joyce, Jesse Smith
(private email distribution)
These SEIU members and children were led into the hotel where violence erupted at the initiation of SEIU staff. Why were these women and children put in harm’s way? Why weren’t they told the truth about their presence at this conference. Why were there only African African Americans and their children invited, with the exception of SEIU staff? Why would SEIU create an environment of hostility rather than encourage and participate in the debate over differences?
18. In Ohio Drive, Big Labor Shows Its Fissures, Wall Street Journal
(registration required:) http://online.wsj.com/...
Kris Maher
On Saturday, a scuffle broke out between members of the SEIU and participants in a labor solidarity conference in Detroit at which the executive director of the California Nurses Association was scheduled to speak. One attendee was sent to the hospital after cutting her head on a table, according to Chris Kutalik, editor of the magazine Labor Notes, which organized the conference.
Rose Ann DeMoro, executive director of the 66,000-member nurses' association, decided not to appear at the conference because of tensions between the unions. "Our folks are extremely upset about what happened," she said. "This is a nasty campaign."
19. Seeing is believing- photographs of the scuffle
http://www.flickr.com/...
Again, regardless of the specifics of the SEIU-CNA/NNOC debate, anybody looking through these nineteen accounts can see that SEIU's actions are consistently characterized as violent, inappropriate, and dangerous. It's high time that Andy Stern apologize for the behavior of his union, which affected not only CNA/NNOC members but all members of the labor community, and commit to observing nonviolence from this moment forth.
This kind of violence and deception towards women, towards people of color, and towards workers is never acceptable. Never.
-Zenei Cortez, RN
Member of the CNA/NNOC Council of Presidents.
NEW!
20.Labor Lobby Melee
Bennet Baumer, The Indypendent
http://www.indypendent.org/...
"They [SEIU protestors] were banging on the doors like a marching band base drum. Real quick they rushed through the door," said Roland Day, a unionized dockworker from Baltimore.
In the lobby, Day said that he and dozens of other conference participants formed a human chain in the attempt to stop the SEIU rush, but ended up clashing with organizers Frank Hornick and Rachel Holland who were accompanied by a horde, hundreds thick, of purple t-shirt-clad SEIU protestors.
"I tried to stop the big guy and was holding him back with all I had," Day said.