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La Lucha: SEIU Local 1877 Statewide Elections 2009
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SEIU Local 1877’s Statewide Elections: A Look Into Local Union Politics
November 26, 2009 by sharale
During the summer of 2009, I spent two months working with labor unions in the industrial sector in Nicaragua. As an international intern for United Students Against Sweatshops, I lived with a family of union organizers, shadowing them to training workshops and planning meetings, compiled extensive research about specific cases of labor rights violations, and interviewed workers and organizers in the labor rights movement from the local to national level. I had already been active with the Stanford Labor Action Coalition (SLAC), a campus group that organizes with workers at Stanford to protect their rights, but my experience in Nicaragua gave me a far greater conceptual understanding of the logic and politics of labor rights organizing, as a necessity for workers who are suffering daily but also as a site for structural change in a society that systemically oppresses its working class.
After returning to school from Nicaragua, I became increasingly interested in understanding union politics locally. Over the past three months, I spent time with workers active in their union. I attended meetings with them on campus with Stanford workers, with union members employed by other companies in the area, joined the protests organized by SEIU, observed the elections in late October, and most importantly, got to know the workers and organizers. This is a collection of glimpses into the importance of union representation to workers as well as the challenges they face in voicing their needs and exercising control within their own union.
In the San Jose SEIU Local 1877 office.
The majority of the janitors who clean and maintain Stanford University are represented by Service Employees International Union Local 1877. 18 million janitors in California as well as another 5 million workers in other sectors such as airport maintenance and security make up SEIU Local 1877 statewide.
“Nosotros los janitors sí necesitamos una unión, sí queremos estar organizados, sí queremos estar unidos, sí queremos luchar por mejorar nuestros salarios, nuestros beneficios, y condiciones.“
-Trabajador en Stanford
“We the janitors do need a union, we do want to be organized, we do want to be united, we do want to fight for better salaries, benefits, and conditions.”
-Stanford worker
Mural at the SEIU Local 1877 office in San Jose
Fighting for Workers
During the late summer and fall of 2009, workers at Colony Landscaping, one of the subcontractors hired by Stanford to hire workers to maintain the campus premises and work on construction, came forward to SEIU and to SLAC about abuses they were experiencing. Colony Landscaping had not been paying many of their workers the living wage, a violation of Stanford contractor rules. They had not been giving their employees adequate health care coverage, any paid vacation days or sick leave. Colony was not allowing workers to use protective gear when spraying poison chemicals because, Colony management reportedly stated, “it would scare the students.” Workers at Colony were not allowed to organize a union to bargain for better treatment, and the company actively intimidated workers with demands to produce proof of legal status.
The union successfully intervened to demand a living wage and back pay for those workers who had not been paid a living wage for the past several years. Finally, on October 9th, 2009, three of these workers were fired in what the union believed to be retaliation for standing up for these workers’ rights.
SEIU Local 1877 organized protests at Colony’s headquarters several times throughout the the fall to deliver the message to Colony that they must end these injustices and pay a living wage. Though SLAC has met with Stanford administrative officials, Stanford has been slow to act on these violations of its policy. Colony’s contract with Stanford will expire soon.
SEIU 1877 organizer Diana Aventura tells Colony, “Si no hay unión, no hay paz” (“No union, no peace”) at a rally on December 4th, 2009
Flyer by the Stanford Labor Action Coalition for a rally against Colony Landscaping’s labor rights violations
“Colony: Respeta el proceso para organizarnos” (“Colony respect our right to organize”)
Diana Aventura and Frankie Preciado, organizers with SEIU Local 1877 tell Colony managers about the concerns the workers had raised about labor rights violations at Colony headquarters during a rally on November 6, 2009.
A colony worker looks on during a rally and delegation to tell Stanford to pick a responsible contractor after Colony’s contract expires.
Workers after a rally at Colony headquarters.
The Struggle Inside
Though the work of the union in protecting workers’ rights is recognized and appreciated, many workers are gravely concerned about their treatment within the union’s structure. Namely, they feel, the bureaucracy of SEIU is increasingly anti-democratic. The current president of Local 1877, Mike García, has been in power for over twenty years. Workers feel that his administration is not concerned with fighting for their needs, while he receives an upper class salary for work that is meant to represent janitors, some of the lowest paid workers in the country.
Part of the problem is the lack of democratic systems within the union’s functioning. There is little discussion between representatives and the larger union membership. However, there are also charges of additional financial corruption. Precisely because the type of work exemplified by what SEIU Local 1877 organizers have done around rectifying Colony Landscaping’s abuses is so crucial, some workers are starting to organize themselves to reform the union and ensure that such campaigns are frequent and democratically run. On October 29th, SEIU Local 1877 held statewide elections for president, vice president, and executive board positions. Many of these workers organized a slate to challenge the administraiton of incumbent Mike García.
Doroteo García, candidate for vicepresident and leader in the campaign to make the union more democratic.
Doroteo García’s platform
The challenging slate was very active during the months before the election. They talked to SEIU workers on day shifts and night shifts in cities and towns from Sacramento to Los Angeles, driving hours just to talk to a group of ten workers for one. As an observer, it was apparent to me that this campaigning was in itself an accomplishment. Most workers were reluctant to participate in any discussion or listen to any speech about the union, responding at first with comments like “the union just steals our money, they don’t care what we think.” But Doroteo and others explained that this is exactly the problem, that it was time to retake the union and place decision-making power back into the hands of the membership at large, rather than a small group of administrators.
Nicolas Rivas, candidate for the executive board running with Doroteo García’s slate, campaigns in Salinas, CA.
Notes from a meeting of the slate challenging the incumbents to plan campaigning on election day.
Two workers during a discussion Doroteo leads about corruption in SEIU Local 1877.
Comparison
Almost all the janitors represented by Local 1877 are immigrants from Latin America. Several of those who are pushing for more democracy within the union remarked to me about the differences they saw between union politics in the United States and in their home countries in Central America. Some said that it is the hyper-bureaucratization of unions that is the main difference. The institutionalized nature of many big nationwide unions in the U.S. is in their opinion the reason there is such a disconnect between the regional administration’s actions and the workers’ needs and opinions. There is an absence of dialogue and more and more workers feel that they lack control and a voice in their union. During my time in Nicaragua, I too noticed this contrast. A look at how union leadership is chosen might be a metaphor for the comparison, a window into the constantly returning question of whether to prioritize democracy or efficiency?
Workers vote for the board of directors of their union at a factory near Managua, Nicaragua. There is a lot of discussion, sometimes heated, in which concerns are raised and considered before the voting begins
Workers at a national conference of a union confederation vote for their board of directors. With so many people, the process is tricky.
Ballots during the SEIU 1877 election.
Voting booths on election day for SEIU 1877
Inside of the SEIU 1877 San Jose Office
The Campaign
Though originally 23 people were running against Mike García’s slate in the election for statewide offices with SEIU 1877, the García administration allowed only 5 to run, justifying the disqualifications as consequences for the candidates’ petty technical flaws in the process to join the election, allegations that seem to be bogus.
Flyer distributed to workers listing the candidates challenging the incumbent administration. Only those candidates that have been circled in pen were not disqualified by the current administration.
Doroteo explains how the ballot works to an SEIU member during last-minute campaigning on election day.
Entering the polling location on election day
Inmar Laborio, active in the union, acts as observer on election day.
On election day two union members hold a sign that says, “Retake your union. Vote for Doroteo García, Laura Plumer, Jose La Serna.”
When there is water in the moon….
The incumbents won the election. A great deal of fraud is suspected by the challenging slate from using resources paid for by the union to campaign for the incumbent Mike García to allegations of mailing in filled out ballots in the name of workers who did not vote themselves.
One evening soon after the election results became known, Doroteo texted me the following:
“Si hay agua en la luna puede haber democracia en mi unión”
“When there is water in the moon there will be democracy in my union.”
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