This belongs at the top of every Democratic blog in the universe. This story's breaking this afternoon in NY's 19th Congressional District via the The Middletown, NY Times Herald-Record, where the most righteous of all political journalists, Hunter S. Thompson, started his career.

I'm sure our nothing-less-than-awesomely progressive Congressman John Hall is going to have a field day with this outrageous piece. I hope this makes the top of every news outlet in the country in the next few hours. If you're reading this, please spread this one far and wide! Time's a wastin'!

HOSPITAL WON'T ACCEPT ITS OWN EMPLOYEES INSURANCE

--St. Luke's Cornwall says insurer is slow to pay, unresponsive--

By Christian Livermore
Times Herald-Record
July 07, 2008 12:32 PM
http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dl l/article?AID=/20080707/BIZ/80707022

In what hospital officials say is a financial decision but union members chalk up to spite, St. Luke's Cornwall Hospital has stopped accepting its own employees' health insurance.

See more below the fold

In an extraordinary convention just concluding in Puerto Rico, here's what you didn't hear from Andy Stern's paid PR blitz.  SEIU was under siege throughout by protest encampments of the popular Puerto Rican Teachers' Union, responding to SEIU's raid of the island's largest  union-- during a strike to improve horrific educational conditions.  

Inside the convention, to the detriment of the overall labor movement,  Stern successfully squashed  the internal dissent by SEIU's democracy activists, thereby further concentrating power in himself.  The CEO model.

And in an extraordinary development, Stern announced that  SEIU is basically doing away with labor reps in favor of outsourced call centers...which makes sense, in that if you sign no-strike promises to your employer, why would you need to mobilize your members?  

There's more!  SEIU is continuing its war against state and national RN unions by now picking up John McCain's frame of attacking "government-run healthcare" as their latest salvo against the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee (AFL-CIO).  If anyone doubted SEIU's willingness to sell out genuine healthcare reform in a second, there it is.

Details below...

"Politics didn't lead me to working folks - working folks led me to politics" - Barack Obama 6/4/08

Let'er rip...

[For those who missed the live video link in Todd's front page post and liveblogging]

I like what I'm hearing.  Barack Obama spoke before the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Convention today.  Yesterday, he said this about SEIU's help for him in the primaries:

"SEIU's endorsement has made a tremendous impact over the course of this campaign. Their trademark purple has been a presence everywhere--at rallies, at worksites, and most importantly, on the doors and phones, talking to voters about the kind of change we can bring about if we change our politics."

I have video of the speech below. It's great. Please watch it if you can. This is how Obama will win the votes of working folks. I hear in Barack Obama a key theme that attracted me to John Edwards:

Change is building an economy that rewards not just wealth but work and the workers who work hard every day

We need a nation that rewards work, not just wealth.  Barack Obama will help make that change, if we all work for it.  

(also on dkos and doucudharma)

Barack Obama will be speaking via video to the SEIU convention today at 10:50am Eastern -- 7:50am Pacific -- or shortly after that.  You can watch it by clicking here or watching below:

Webcast powered by Ustream.TV

Update [2008-6-4 11:17:46 by Todd Beeton]:"Our partner, our brother, the Democratic nominee and the next president of the United States, Barack Obama." The place is going absolutely nuts.

Barack: "We won because we followed what I call Stern's first principle: organize, organize and organize some more."

"What holds us together is this fundamental belief that we are all in this together. That we are our brother's keeper, we are our sister's keeper...It's the idea that's at the heart of this campaign...They call it the ownership society but what it means is 'you're on your own.'"

shorter Barack: conservatism = "tough luck, you're on your own."

Update [2008-6-4 11:21:25 by Todd Beeton]:Barack: "We can not let John McCain serve out George Bush's third term...It's not change when John McCain chose to side with George Bush 95% of the time as he did last year."

"Change is rewarding not just wealth but work and the workers who work hard every day."

Change is having a president who's worked with you on that picket line, who doesn't choke on the word 'union.'...We will finally make the Employee Free Choice Act the law of the land." The members in the hall stood up for that one.

Update [2008-6-4 11:24:28 by Todd Beeton]:The members are chanting "Si se puede!"

Update [2008-6-4 11:28:20 by davej]: "Politics didn't lead me to working folks - working folks led me to politics"

Update [2008-6-4 11:30:49 by Todd Beeton]:Wow, confetti is everywhere and U2's "Beautiful Day" is playing. Definitely a festive atmosphere in here, everyone wearing purple SEIU Obama t-shirts.

I'm not the only blogger down here in lovely Puerto Rico covering the SEIU convention.

• Dave Johnson, of Seeing The Forest, has his take on the Accountability project over at The Huffington Post.

  So SEIU will step up to the plate to with serious resources that does two things. First, it finally gives politicians whose hearts are with us a reason to vote with us. Second, it tells politicians who don't agree with a progressive agenda (of reducing corporate power over our lives and restoring democracy to the people) that their time is past, that we will run candidates against them in the primaries and these candidates will have strong support.

  While this is election activity, it begins to put an enforcement component onto our progressive movement's policy agenda.

• Also, Tim Tagaris is down here as well, doing some net outreach on behalf of SEIU. He's posting over at Open Left.

  All told, SEIU spent over $1 million dollars in an "unprecedented effort" to help elect Donna Edwards in Maryland's 4th Congressional District earlier this year.

  And as part of the "Justice for All" platform at SEIU's Convention -- you'll be seeing more primaries like this fought in the coming months and years. [...]

  The goal is not simply to run primaries and win, but to elect representatives who will work and vote for universal health care, freedom to form a union without employer interference, economic fairness, an end to the war, and more.

  Donna Edwards will be speaking in front of the convention tomorrow. Come back here for a livestream and some liveblogging of her speech.

• Now even with all this talk of "justice for all" and accountability, it's not all roses and butterflies. There's a deep-rooted conflict that's playing out here between the SEIU International and the United Healthcare Workers West local based in California. This is worth a far more extensive post than a bullet point in a round-up, which I intend to write tomorrow, but I recommend reading this NY Times article for an intro to the conflict:

  [SEIU President Andy] Stern...is facing considerable internal criticism that he is seeking to increase the union's size and the leadership's power at the expense of rank-and-file members.

  "He's taking things in a bad direction because he's taking steps without involving any workers," said Sal Rosselli, president of United Healthcare Workers West, which represents 140,000 S.E.I.U. members in California.

  Mr. Stern insists that the changes will help rank-and-file workers and are vital not just to make his union stronger, but also to transform the nation's politics and policies. [...]

  Mr. Stern says it is important to push to unionize millions of workers both to lift wages and benefits for nonunion workers and to prevent union members' wages and benefits from being pulled down.

  This Nation article is a more in depth look at it:

  At the heart of Stern's vision is a drive toward growth, to organize the "90 percent of workers without a union." Without growth, he argues, any union gains are built on sand--"a higher compensation island in a growing nonunion sea." This singular focus is rooted in a realization that, given the long slide in union ranks since the 1950s, the labor movement must build a critical mass of members ("density") in key industries in order to wield power against ever larger and bolder multinational employers.

  On the other hand:

  In what Stern sees as a classic example of "Just Us" unionism, Rosselli worked out a deal with better terms for his members that only covered Tenet's California facilities. But Rosselli is vehement that he was serving national goals: his members accepted healthcare givebacks in order to win the right to criticize Tenet publicly and throw up solidarity pickets--exactly the tools needed to aid SEIU's organizing drives in Florida and beyond. Good contracts now, Rosselli wrote in a letter to Stern, "are the best examples we can use to organize the unorganized." SEIU, he says, has lost sight of that.

  For more on UHW-W's side of the story, check out SEIUVoice.org.

  You can find SEIU International online over at SEIU2008.org.

Watertiger NYC from Fire Dog Lake is here too, will have a link to her piece tomorrow.

I'm not the only blogger down here in lovely Puerto Rico covering the SEIU convention.

• Dave Johnson, of Seeing The Forest, has his take on the Accountability project over at The Huffington Post.

  So SEIU will step up to the plate to with serious resources that does two things. First, it finally gives politicians whose hearts are with us a reason to vote with us. Second, it tells politicians who don't agree with a progressive agenda (of reducing corporate power over our lives and restoring democracy to the people) that their time is past, that we will run candidates against them in the primaries and these candidates will have strong support.

  While this is election activity, it begins to put an enforcement component onto our progressive movement's policy agenda.

• Also, Tim Tagaris is down here as well, doing some net outreach on behalf of SEIU. He's posting over at Open Left.

  All told, SEIU spent over $1 million dollars in an "unprecedented effort" to help elect Donna Edwards in Maryland's 4th Congressional District earlier this year.

  And as part of the "Justice for All" platform at SEIU's Convention -- you'll be seeing more primaries like this fought in the coming months and years. [...]

  The goal is not simply to run primaries and win, but to elect representatives who will work and vote for universal health care, freedom to form a union without employer interference, economic fairness, an end to the war, and more.

  Donna Edwards will be speaking in front of the convention tomorrow. Come back here for a livestream and some liveblogging of her speech.

• Now even with all this talk of "justice for all" and accountability, it's not all roses and butterflies. There's a deep-rooted conflict that's playing out here between the SEIU International and the United Healthcare Workers West local based in California. This is worth a far more extensive post than a bullet point in a round-up, which I intend to write tomorrow, but I recommend reading this NY Times article for an intro to the conflict:

  [SEIU President Andy] Stern...is facing considerable internal criticism that he is seeking to increase the union's size and the leadership's power at the expense of rank-and-file members.

  "He's taking things in a bad direction because he's taking steps without involving any workers," said Sal Rosselli, president of United Healthcare Workers West, which represents 140,000 S.E.I.U. members in California.

  Mr. Stern insists that the changes will help rank-and-file workers and are vital not just to make his union stronger, but also to transform the nation's politics and policies. [...]

  Mr. Stern says it is important to push to unionize millions of workers both to lift wages and benefits for nonunion workers and to prevent union members' wages and benefits from being pulled down.

  This Nation article is a more in depth look at it:

  At the heart of Stern's vision is a drive toward growth, to organize the "90 percent of workers without a union." Without growth, he argues, any union gains are built on sand--"a higher compensation island in a growing nonunion sea." This singular focus is rooted in a realization that, given the long slide in union ranks since the 1950s, the labor movement must build a critical mass of members ("density") in key industries in order to wield power against ever larger and bolder multinational employers.

  On the other hand:

  In what Stern sees as a classic example of "Just Us" unionism, Rosselli worked out a deal with better terms for his members that only covered Tenet's California facilities. But Rosselli is vehement that he was serving national goals: his members accepted healthcare givebacks in order to win the right to criticize Tenet publicly and throw up solidarity pickets--exactly the tools needed to aid SEIU's organizing drives in Florida and beyond. Good contracts now, Rosselli wrote in a letter to Stern, "are the best examples we can use to organize the unorganized." SEIU, he says, has lost sight of that.

  For more on UHW-W's side of the story, check out SEIUVoice.org.

  You can find SEIU International online over at SEIU2008.org.

Watertiger NYC from Fire Dog Lake is here too, will have a link to her piece tomorrow.

I'm not the only blogger down here in lovely Puerto Rico covering the SEIU convention.

• Dave Johnson, of Seeing The Forest, has his take on the Accountability project over at The Huffington Post.

  So SEIU will step up to the plate to with serious resources that does two things. First, it finally gives politicians whose hearts are with us a reason to vote with us. Second, it tells politicians who don't agree with a progressive agenda (of reducing corporate power over our lives and restoring democracy to the people) that their time is past, that we will run candidates against them in the primaries and these candidates will have strong support.

  While this is election activity, it begins to put an enforcement component onto our progressive movement's policy agenda.

• Tim Tagaris is down here as well, doing some net outreach on behalf of SEIU. He's posting over at Open Left.

  All told, SEIU spent over $1 million dollars in an "unprecedented effort" to help elect Donna Edwards in Maryland's 4th Congressional District earlier this year.

  And as part of the "Justice for All" platform at SEIU's Convention -- you'll be seeing more primaries like this fought in the coming months and years. [...]

  The goal is not simply to run primaries and win, but to elect representatives who will work and vote for universal health care, freedom to form a union without employer interference, economic fairness, an end to the war, and more.

  Donna Edwards will be speaking in front of the convention tomorrow. Come back here for a livestream and some liveblogging of her speech.

• Now even with all this talk of "justice for all" and accountability, it's not all roses and butterflies. There's a deep-rooted conflict that's playing out here between the SEIU International and the United Healthcare Workers West local based in California. This is worth a far more extensive post than a bullet point in a round-up -- a post I intend to write tomorrow -- but I recommend reading this NY Times article for an intro to the conflict:

  [SEIU President Andy] Stern...is facing considerable internal criticism that he is seeking to increase the union's size and the leadership's power at the expense of rank-and-file members.

  "He's taking things in a bad direction because he's taking steps without involving any workers," said Sal Rosselli, president of United Healthcare Workers West, which represents 140,000 S.E.I.U. members in California.

  Mr. Stern insists that the changes will help rank-and-file workers and are vital not just to make his union stronger, but also to transform the nation's politics and policies. [...]

  Mr. Stern says it is important to push to unionize millions of workers both to lift wages and benefits for nonunion workers and to prevent union members' wages and benefits from being pulled down.

  This Nation article is a more in depth look at it:

  At the heart of Stern's vision is a drive toward growth, to organize the "90 percent of workers without a union." Without growth, he argues, any union gains are built on sand--"a higher compensation island in a growing nonunion sea." This singular focus is rooted in a realization that, given the long slide in union ranks since the 1950s, the labor movement must build a critical mass of members ("density") in key industries in order to wield power against ever larger and bolder multinational employers.

  On the other hand:

  In what Stern sees as a classic example of "Just Us" unionism, Rosselli worked out a deal with better terms for his members that only covered Tenet's California facilities. But Rosselli is vehement that he was serving national goals: his members accepted healthcare givebacks in order to win the right to criticize Tenet publicly and throw up solidarity pickets--exactly the tools needed to aid SEIU's organizing drives in Florida and beyond. Good contracts now, Rosselli wrote in a letter to Stern, "are the best examples we can use to organize the unorganized." SEIU, he says, has lost sight of that.

  For more on UHW-W's side of the story, check out SEIUVoice.org.

  You can find SEIU International online over at SEIU2008.org.

Watertiger NYC from Fire Dog Lake is here too, will have a link to her piece tomorrow.