Sounds like a good project.  Keep folks informed.  

We need to reclaim the Democratic Party for working people.

John Edwards said it well when he suspended his campaign:

And we do this -- we do this for each other in America. We don't turn away from a neighbor in their time of need. Because every one of us knows that what -- but for the grace of God, there goes us. The American people have never stopped doing this, even when their government walked away, and walked away it has from hardworking people, and, yes, from the poor, those who live in poverty in this country.

For decades, we stopped focusing on those struggles. They didn't register in political polls, they didn't get us votes and so we stopped talking about it. I don't know how it started. I don't know when our party began to turn away from the cause of working people, from the fathers who were working three jobs literally just to pay the rent, mothers sending their kids to bed wrapped up in their clothes and in coats because they couldn't afford to pay for heat.

We know that our brothers and sisters have been bullied into believing that they can't organize and can't put a union in the workplace. Well, in this campaign, we didn't turn our heads. We looked them square in the eye and we said, "We see you, we hear you, and we are with you. And we will never forget you." And I have a feeling that if the leaders of our great Democratic Party continue to hear the voices of working people, a proud progressive will occupy the White House.

No more will we let the Democratic Party walk away from the cause fo working people.

I'm glad SEIU is doing this.

Thank you.  Thank you for strengthening the union movement AND progressive movement.

This is great. The grassroots revolution in the Democratic Party is snowballing thanks to efforts like this.

Doesn't this site run anti-SEIU ads?

which primary candidates are you supporting this year?

Hi Michelle,

Can you comment on SEIU's decision to back the Republican caucus in the New York Senate, and work to ensure Democrats do not win the chamber?  

Democrats are down just 30-32 in the chamber, and the Republicans are holding up a wide variety of progressive healthcare and labor legislation.

I realize SEIU is close with Republican Sen. Joseph Bruno, but it would seem important to give new Gov. David Patterson working majorities in both chambers of the legislature.

Most importantly...the Assembly has passed single-payer healthcare, while it is bottled up in the Senate.  This is the only way to truly solve the healthcare crisis.

Your endorsement may have had to do with your pure view of what healthcare should look like, but it had nothing to do with actually accomplishing that.

I know that SEIU not only failed to ensure accountability of politicians in Colorado, but actively attacked and obstructed other unions for trying to do so.

A year ago we had a Governor, a State Senate leadership and a State House leadership all committed to passing a full collective bargaining law for state employees. The Democrats controlled all three for the first time in decades. It was an historic opportunity to expand worker rights in the public sector here.

SEIU, as part of its effort to curry favor with the business community, urged the governor to scrap the planned legislation for collective bargaining, and instead institute a weak executive order (which inevitably be scrapped by the next GOP governor, as has happened previously in Indiana, Missouri and Kentucky).

This executive order has no provisions for independent arbitration of the contract or arbitration of grievances. It explicitly states that there is no way to bargain for more economic benefits. It's basically what is called in the union movement "meet and confer" or "meet and beg." SEIU dresses it up as "21st century partnership" - typically SEIU will cover up a sell-out with lots of progressive-sounding buzzwords, that's their style.

Despite SEIU's backpeddling, the business community still reacted against even this weak order. So to further curry favor by undermining worker rights, SEIU supported a bill banning state employee strikes, amending an earlier statute guaranteeing the right to strike that was passed in the wake of the Ludlow massacre.

The Colorado Public Employee Alliance (affiliated with Communications Workers of America) has criticized these blatant sell-outs. See their web site:
http://www.cpeacolorado.org/

CPEA-CWA attempted to amend the anti-strike bill to have it sunset with the executive order, but SEIU lobbyists opposed the CWA amendment. So SEIU gave up Colorado workers' right to strike for a temporary executive order that isn't even full collective bargaining. The strike ban will stay in the law when the executive order is revoked.