What's the story behind SEIU union boss and media darling Andy Stern, the most frequent visitor to the Obama White House, being forced out by his own union? It's remarkable that they let the bad feelings slip out. You would think that all parties concerned would phrase it as, "Now that ObamaCare has passed, Andy Stern has decided that he would like to spend more time with his family."
Stern has long followed a quantity over quality strategy of signing up as dues-paying members huge numbers of poorly paid Hispanics. About once a decade, he wins for them a janitors' strike in one city (LA in the 1990s, Houston in the 2000s), but mostly they seem to do more for Stern's reputation than Stern does for Alberto and Blanca. Stern is committed to continued political promotion of illegal immigration, which just stabs his existing members in the backs.
I don't really understand SEIU's strategy. I sometimes wonder if the are not "capitalist fronts," the opposite of the old "communist fronts." Businesses want more cheap immigrant labor so Andy signs up all the warm bodies and tells them to vote for more cheap labor.
Makes sense for Andy but I don't understand what's in it for all his Hispanic workers.
There are organizations on the left that are pretty much full time capitalist fronts. If you are a banker, and if ACORN is hassling you about not giving the boss of their local office a job at the bank, and thus marches and screams against you as racist imperiling your purchase of another bank under the Community Reinvestment Act, well, the Greenlining Institute specializes in giving you "regulatory air cover" by saying that, yes, you are fully committed to diversity, according to us, the famous social justice outfit, Greenlining. And then, maybe, you fund some Greenlining activities.
Is SEIU like that?
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The number of typographical errors in that post puts it in YouTube comment territory. Not drinking on the job I hope.
"Now that ObamaCare has passed, Andy Stern has decided that he would like to spend more time with his family."
That was almost exactly what I had heard on NPR. Other than noting that he was quite young for a retiring Union Leader, they said he was moving on to other projects now that ObamaCare had been passed.
Steve, you didn't edit this with your usual care. I've never seen spelling and usage errors in your work.
'Makes sense for Andy but I don't understand what's in it for all his Hispanic workers."
Seems to me it's proof, contra the popular wisdom, that ethnocentrity means more to low-IQ people than money-centricity, love of family over love of wealth.
What's in it for Hispanics? Well, even a janitor job in America pays way more than in Mexico, so they want to come here. And when they get here, they miss their families and want to bring in Cousin Jose. Even if all the distant cousins being here means you yourself get paid less. (They can all bunk in together in McMansions in the foreclosure process, see, as one big happy family.)
Tragically, too few of us White Americans love each other enough to keep them OUT.
I don't really understand SEIU's strategey.
Why Labor Leaders Favor Genocidal Immigration.
ummm... what's up with all the typographic errors?
A lot of typos there, Steve.
I think the American "labor" movement asks itself one question: "Is this good or bad for the Democratic Party?"
Then they make their decision.
"Makes sense for Andy but I don't understand what's in it for all his Hispanic workers."
Hint:
Communism isn't really about the workers.
It is about switching the leadership.
I am against illegal immigration, because it makes me think about when I was studying in G.B., and I was thinking that one of the greatest problems for somebody like me was to have to endure a bad reputation because of other foreigners of the same country who have a bad behavior. Also the best way to avoid those with a bad behavior is to make an organized selection of the foreigners who are coming.
Steve, clean up that last paragraph. I can hardly understand what you are saying.
Next time take your Advil before ttyping.
Nice, but obviously you wrote this when you were drunk. Apparently drinking effects only your spelling - or perhaps just your typing - and not your logicical thought processes. Or maybe you posted from your iPhone?
As for Andy, I'm sure he's got the Big Business CoC telling him "Don't throw me in that briar patch, Andy! Don't bring in more cheap labor to organize!"
Gee, if only Andy Stern and much of the business elite had something in common, some sort of ethnic tie that might explain it? I'm thinking, thinking, but I can't really come up with anything.
By the way, here is the Greenlining Institute's Board of Directors and here is their staff. Diverse, no? Like we always suspected, in the eyes of the Left a truly diverse America is an America with no whites around whatsoever.
For all they care we could all move to Australia.
At which point they'll follow us.
Did you type that on your iphone?
I sometimes wonder if the are not "capitalist fronts," the opposite of the old "communist fronts."
They work in tandem, it's rarely one verses the other. The globalists use crony capitalism (cartels), free trade, and convoluted investment instruments(derivatives) to accomplish the same ends that the Frankfurt school acolytes make happen with their takeover of the media/academic establishment, promotion of decadent and transgressive culture, and assault on every stabilizing institution held sacred to the majority of Americans of European descent. It is the intention of both to destroy Western Democracies and replace them with a soft tyranny and a diminished standard of living placing the US and Europe much closer to parity with the developing world.
It's an asymmetrical assault, but the Useful Idiots always think they are fighting for their side. The labor unions are just another force for displacing native born workers, and even Cesar Chavez was against an open border policy of unlimited immigration, because he knew if limits were not enforced with work visas, the prevailing wage of the workers would be under constant assault.
Interesting post. The whole illegal immigration movement has long been underwritten by an unholy alliance between the Left (Ted Kennedy, Barack Obama) and the Right (John McCain, Bush II). The Left wants more ethnic voters who will be dependent on government and who will mostly vote Democratic. The Right (at least some parts) wants more docile, non-troublemaking workers. So there you have it. Cesar Chavez, who organized the California agricultural workers, well understood the dangers of illegal immigration and was strongly opposed to it.
So does the Stern-SEIU policy of promoting illegal immigration stab the existing members in the back? Of course it does. But remember - these immigrants are docile and non-troublemaking. They're not likely to complain about anything.
"Andy signs up all the warm bodies and tells them to vote for more cheap labor."
SEIU members like the idea of bringing their impoverished relatives to the US to live much better than they do at home.
I've been to Mexico & seen it. The worst neighborhoods in LA (Lennox under the LAX flightpath, area around Nickerson Gardens housing project, N Long Beach by the 710 freeway) would be well above average in Mexico City. All utilities here are present & functional, streets are graded w/ few potholes, concrete sidewalks, guaranteed payments for health, food, housing, education & more from Uncle Sugar.
Steve - the spelling and grammar mistakes are getting out of control. Proofread, buddy. Proofread.
Andy's not alone. Tamar Jacoby and David Brooks would pretty much qualify for the same title in my opinion.
Brooks, in calling for an America with 400 million people, is particularily grating to me. Why not just cajole current Americans to have 3 kids per couple instead of 2 and achieve the same thing by century's end if thats what he wants? But of course his eye is on the prize: An America with a white minority. He never fooled me, and Jacoby didn't either. Trotkyites.
I think Stern genuinely cares about low-wage workers, but 1) he is economically ignorant, like most leftists, and 2) he doesn't distinguish between American low-wage workers and foreigners (he did run an international union).
And in truth, there isn't much a union leader can do to raise the wages of workers in low-margin businesses like office cleaning. There just isn't that big a pie to slice up in fields like that. Make labor too expensive, and employers will increase automation (which would be good for our economy overall, but not so good for Pablo).
I think Stern had a boil the ocean strategy of trying to encourage unionization in China to raise labor wages elsewhere.
Did you write this at 3:00 am? The last paragraph has so many typos it's practically incomprehensible.
Is this a clever want ad for a proofreader?
If the Dems get their Amnesty passed, is that the end for the Repubs? I mean, that will effectively be the end of all GOP hopes in the South West. They may even lose Texas.
You mean left wing groups extort vigorish from capitalist pigs?
Who would have thunk it?
Anti-Capitalist, are we?
So you're a White Nationalist and a Socialist?
A National Socialist?
hehe.
I joke.
Been reading through your old blog post and I am reminded of that skit on South Park where the local authorities have one job: To frame blacks.
Why? because rich successful blacks makes the cops sick.
You hate successful blacks because your suspicion is that they have gotten away with something.
Do you not see why some would accuse you of being racist?
>I don't understand what's in it for all his Hispanic workers.
Really Steve? Really? It's blindingly obvious what's in it for them: increased power and influence for their people, their race. Most people in the world are not the deracinated individualists we Western whites are.
Tanstaafl,
I don't really understand SEIU's strategey.
Why Labor Leaders Favor Genocidal Immigration.
Didn't you hear? It's just because they have such high IQs. And they're aping the New England Puritans. Or something like that... Not for any of the reasons you cite. Oh no. Of course not.
Steve,
You were browsing some "other websites" and typing with one hand when you posted this, right?
I think Stern's motivation is at least partly ethnic hostility towards America's white European majority.
SEIU's strategy is to make America into Mexico. As simple as that.
It benefits SEIU, and the hereditary leadership, because you have this huge pool of impoverished labor you can mobilize like a street army to extort money at regular intervals.
Think like a gangster, and you answer most questions of this type.
Maybe it's been fixed, but the last paragraph doesn't look that bad to me. One very long meandering sentence, but that was rhetorically effective, I thought.
No one hates rich, successful blacks.
I don't hate Michael Jordan.
What I cannot stand are racial minorities who avail themselves of the racial spoils system, and then turn around and act like it was "hard work" that made them so successful.
Jesse Jackson, Professor (sic) "Skip" Gates, et al come to mind.
All utilities here are present & functional, streets are graded w/ few potholes, concrete sidewalks, guaranteed payments for health, food, housing, education & more from Uncle Sugar.
For now...
How much longer can that carry on?
I think Stern had a boil the ocean strategy of trying to encourage unionization in China to raise labor wages elsewhere.
Ahhh that was nice of him. And how did that work out?
"Captain Jack Aubrey said...
By the way, here is the Greenlining Institute's Board of Directors and here is their staff. Diverse, no? Like we always suspected, in the eyes of the Left a truly diverse America is an America with no whites around whatsoever."
Nice. And it figures - the only white dude on the staff is interested in "green assets". From his bio:
"Colin Miller is from Eugene, Oregon and graduated from Stanford University with a BA in Urban Studies and a concentration in Race, Poverty, and the Environment."
Loser.
Anti-Capitalist, are we?
To the extent capitalism results in the centralization of wealth and power, we have to oppose it. Same goes for "communism", although as originally understood by Robert Owen involved cooperation rather than conflict among the classes.
What a relief to see from the comments here that apparently this entry had more than a few typos. I thought my reading comprehension had gone straight to hell.
(Not trying to be funny, I have short-term memory loss and difficulty concentrating so sometimes reading is well-nigh impossible for me.)
As to the topic at hand, Andy Stern reminds me Bill Maher, and that makes me unable to regard him with anything other than distrust and contempt.
Overseas IME it's generally assumed that most US Labor Unions are capitalist front organisations, at least since the Mafia took them over in the 1920's.
However it's worth noting that actual Communists are supposed to believe in 'international workers of the world' transnationalism - Marxism was transnationalist back when capitalism was seen as nationalist, so there may not be any contradiction there. US Unions that actually operated in the interestests of their members may simply have been a freak flash in the pan.
As I recall, Charlie Manson wanted to start a race war -- thinking that when the Blacks won they would be too stupid to govern themselves, thus he would emerge from the desert to assume his fated role as hippie Jesus/Hitler.
When I see Stern on TV he strikes me as a cult leader. Could be he is following a variation of Manson's Helter Skelter strategy, instead of sparking a race war he will simply win with numbers.
"Colin Miller is from Eugene, Oregon and graduated from Stanford University with a BA in Urban Studies and a concentration in Race, Poverty, and the Environment."
I suspect 'trustfunder' or, my favorite, 'trustafarian' is more appropriate.
Re nationalism and socialism: have you guys looked into producerism? It's not a bad ideology, and somebody needs to stand up for these guys...
As somebody who worked around SEIU for years, I suspect that some fast and loose dealings may be about to come to light. Best to be elsewhere when they do, even if you aren't the primary person of interest. Stern isn't stupid.
Stern has certainly organized a lot of workers but the type of workers he organized tend to be very low skill, very low wage, with very few benefits. It's likely that they were little better off after being organized than they were before, but Stern got the union dues as well as the bragging rights to all that "progress".
In addition he was caught in some kind of deal in which the business he was trying to "organize" had veto rights over which sections he was allowed to organize. He tried to keep that part quiet, of course. It would be awfully easy to let him organize the sections on the watch list - you know, the ones set for down-sizing if not outright closing. How is this different from working for the employer instead of your members?
Missing from your story, Steve, is this rather odd fact: Three of the Change to Win unions have Ivy League educated Presidents: SEIU, which organizes mainly low skill, poorly educated often IMMIGRANT service workers; HERE, which organizes mainly low skill, poorly educated often IMMIGRANT hotel/restaurant workers; and UNITE, which organizes mainly low skill, poorly educated often IMMIGRANT garment workers. Why?
Most of the presidents of craft and professional unions worked in the primary area covered by their respective unions.
Forgot to mention in a previous post:
Unless SEIU changed its policy recently, it doesn't have good health care benefits for those who retire from working at SEIU. With all the buy-outs and push-outs that they've been through in recent years, I'd suspect that they have quite a few early (before 65 and Medicare) retirees. That's right, SEIU was contributing to the health care crisis that Stern was dedicating his time and other people money to solve.
Sort of like the liberals who are really big on government benefits for "the poor" - that is solving the poor's problems with other people's money - but who don't contribute much of their own money to charities that help the poor.
Hypocrites, in other words.....
The goal is someday to celebrate - from a penthouse suite on the top floor of a 200-story skyscraper in Tel Aviv - your ascendancy to multibillionaire status in a world populated entirely by 90-IQ mulattos getting a dollar a day. Preferably while Unions and Committees and Institutes and Foundations composed of your personal friends and ethnic confreres beam fulsome praise of you and each other ("a superior person of superior will...a man of the highest ethics and dignity...profoundly hard-working...a genius...a real mensch") to everyone, especially the benighted drones below. Andy himself may not get there, but likely hopes to get close.
What that goal has to do with the original stated goal of unions is anyone's guess. My guess is zilch.
(Tanstaafl: thanks.)
"Nice. And it figures - the only white dude [Colin Miller] on the staff is interested in "green assets".
You overlooked Braelin Murray and Chris Vaeth, so that's three out of 22, not too bad under the circumstances. Vaeth has a gay-activist background, so that explains that.
Even more weirdly (or tellingly), there are only two clearly black people on staff, both women. No black males.
"Anonymous said...
Anti-Capitalist, are we?"
Yeah. Hell Yeah! I'm all for free enterprise, as it is the natural condition of man to work for his own self interest. I'm opposed to socialism because it does not recognize this central fact of reality, and because it places power in the hands of government, and the sort of busy-bodies who are drawn to socialism.
That said, it does not mean that I trust the wealthy, or that I think that anything they care to do is or should be okay with me. What is a capitalist? Someone with capital to invest. That's all of us to some extent nowadays (we all have 401Ks), but not in any meaningful sense. The fact that I own a little stock through a mutual fund makes me a passive investor, not a capitalist. A real capitalist nowadays is someone with a lot of capital who does nothing but invest. This can be a useful activity (William Boeing, Elon Musk), or it can be a parasitic and destrucive activity (George Soros).
It is a libertarian fantasy (as indeed so much of libertarian thought is fantastical) that just allowing the rich to do whatever they want to do will be in the best interests of society as a whole. It won't be.
The goal is someday to celebrate...your ascendancy to multibillionaire status in a world populated entirely by 90-IQ mulattos getting a dollar a day.
If indeed there is a conspiracy to destroy the West it's certainly proceeding apace. Western countries are going bankrupt, birth rates have fallen to insanely low levels, and the Third Worlders are invading without a shot being fired - in fact, the invasion is being financed by those being invaded.
"
If indeed there is a conspiracy to destroy the West it's certainly proceeding apace."
Central and Eastern Europe and Russia will always be homogeneous.
You overlooked Braelin Murray and Chris Vaeth, so that's three out of 22, not too bad under the circumstances. Vaeth has a gay-activist background, so that explains that.
The Greenlining Institute should be sued for not being adequately diverse. For equitable representation at least 70% of their staff and BoD should white - higher than that if their baseline entry requirement is a college degree.
What struck me was the large number of staff members with degrees in ethnic or gay studies. I'm on the fence about ethnic studies departments. Is it a way of creating nutty left-wing activists or just a way to identify them? I'm absolutely 100% certain I would never hire an ethnic studies grad.
SEIU thugs also beat the hell out of people.
Has Andy Stern ever worked, in the Galbraithian sense, a day in his life?
David,
SEIU also tries to shut down debate. See below and note the SEIU shirt in the background. As someone who believes that open debate is the best and safest way to get good ideas out, I find this appalling.
http://www.numbersusa.com/content/resources/video/recommended/amnesty-march-webcast-highlights-part-i.html
Another possibility:
Stern used the SEIU the way Jesse Jackson used Operation PUSH -- only instead of shaking down businesses, he shook down the gov't on the behalf of the healthcare industry. Now comes the pay off.
A little different take on Stern here:
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/apr2010/ster-a22.shtml
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