“After a great amount of my own thought, hearing opinions from many of you, and holding them up against my own criteria—I recommend that Anna Burger not only temporarily—but then permanently—become the 10th President and first woman to lead our union.”

That’s what outgoing SEIU President Andy Stern requested in his April 16th letter to the International Executive Board of SEIU, as he named Anna Burger as his preferred successor.

But locals from New York, Los Angeles, Oregon, and Washington State, as well as Canada, all lined up behind Mary Kay Henry tonight to commit their votes.  According to Politico’s Ben Smith,

“It’s done,” an SEIU insider emailed moments ago.

Tonight’s development comes only days after Anna Burger’s plea to the International Executive Board:

“During my 38 years in SEIU, I’ve held every position but one and now I’m asking for your support… to be the next International President.”

However, building tensions between locals across the country that saw Stern as a divisive figure, too politically entrenched and connected to the DC complex, have left the union itself divided.  Some have seen Mary Kay Henry as a more uniting force that might break the national union away from the chains of the DC operations and bring the power of the locals back to the members again and keep the peace amongst other locals. Others (including me) speculate that she’ll infuse new life into those very DC operations and could possibly even accelerate some activities; she apparently has fewer enemies than Stern or Burger did.  As Politico reports,

“One person familiar with the deliberations said the swing voters decided that Henry was closer to a consensus choice, as opposition to Burger had already begun to divide the union. If Burger was to win, they decided, she would have had to win cleanly, and it was already too late for that.”

But Henry is by no means devoid of enemies.   She’s been a driving force between the very public and now famous SEIU-UHW battle, including her part in the union’s lawsuit against former leaders.

Mary Kay Henry’s history with SEIU began in 1979, as she rose through the ranks and became a leader and chief healthcare strategist, then was elected to the International Executive Board in 1996.  Today, Henry serves as International Executive Vice President of SEIU, a step beneath Anna Burger.  Henry’s efforts have been very focused in the health care sector and on building labor coalitions and partnerships with hospitals and health care facilities.  That said, we can probably expect to see SEIU’s stronghold on this sector continue to grow stronger.

In addition to her posts at SEIU, Mary Kay Henry has also been a labor adviser to and member of the Subcommittee on Catholic Health Care of the U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops, an organization that in itself has become a major political force, having brokered deals with the likes of Nancy Pelosi for crucial votes in the eleventh hour of major bills, most notably on health care reform.  Additionally, she is a member of the executive board of Families USA, a left-leaning non-profit group that serves as a think-tank for most of SEIU’s and other progressive organizations’ research and reports to support universal health care.

While Anna Burger serves as International Secretary-Treasurer to SEIU, her future remains uncertain at this time.  Perhaps she’ll become even closer to the White House, where I’m sure her friend Andy Stern will often be in his free time.  I assume she’ll also remain at her post if she can swallow her pride long enough to accept a defeat that’s likely left her – and her ego – feeling blindsided.  Even when she’s fighting for “the little guy”, she can hardly ever do so without forcefully creating different classes of people and driving a wedge between them.  Even as she summed up her letter to the other SEIU International Executives last week, she wrote:

“I will do my best for the home care worker who loves grandmothers who aren’t their own; child care and school workers who hug kids long after their shift is done; hospital and health care workers caring for us against great odds; janitors who mop the floors of men who never look them in the eye; security guards who protect the skyscrapers of CEO’s that steal more in one minute than those workers make in a lifetime; public workers who keep us safe and provide a decent society but work for politicians who scapegoat and undermine what they do; and for all men and women who work hard, play by the rules and just want a shot at the dream of a better life.”

Typical rhetoric for the Queen of Labor.  (And by that I meant Anna Burger, not Andy Stern).  Even when in common company, divide the common man.

While Henry is known inside of SEIU and other labor groups, she’s not exactly a household name outside in political circles.  So it remains to be seen how that will factor in as SEIU settles into external relations under her new leadership.  Speaking from my own experience though, it’s often times the new blood that moves more quickly and easily to reach an organization’s objectives, since colleagues and working partners are usually more open to giving a new leader some time and breathing room while they prove themselves in their new position.  President Obama is probably the best case in point.  And just look at how much [damage] he’s done in less than two short years.

For now, we sit back, we wait, and we watch.  Carefully.

* Author’s note:  No, the “Stop” and “SEIU” signs were not photoshopped to appear in the photo as “Stop SEIU”.  But don’t think for a moment I didn’t notice it…

Every single friend, family member, and neighbor I know is in the exact same position.

That’s why so many of us are appalled at the behavior of some of the union bosses these days.  Even some of the most ardent union defenders I know (the few people who typically argue with me over union policy) have had enough with all the headlines like this:

“As National Bargaining for 100,000 Union Members at Kaiser Permanente Begins… SEIU-UHW Members Tell Kaiser: Keep Your Hands Off Our Healthcare Benefits”

And they have also had enough of behavior like this:

When tens of thousands of citizens descended upon Washington DC time and time again over the course of the last year, concerned over their current health benefits being taken from them to subsidize someone else’s health benefits, they were called vitriolic names and demonized in the media.

But when SEIU and other unions demand their health benefits remain untouched, it’s not only justified, it’s glorified.

When a multitude of patriots, concerned about the fiscal state of the country, pleaded for their voices to be heard as they begged the government to make responsible budget cuts and to stop all the new spending, they were vilified and characterized as ‘racist’.

But when unions go on strike to protest the fact that their employer, a hospital that serves a low-income neighborhood primarily insured through Medicaid and Medicare, is reducing their raises from 14.5% to 4% and cutting back a tuition benefit, they garner the support of every news anchor within earshot.  (Meanwhile, the rest of us are willing to accept a 0% raise).

When Tea Party protesters repeatedly held rallies to express their concerns about the government’s takeover and bailouts of entire industries like the banks, they were labeled as ‘dangerous extremists’.

But when SEIU protesters chased down bank executives with knives and cleavers at the American Bankers Association last October, they were applauded and hailed as heroes by onlookers, the media, and even members of Congress. (Meanwhile, the executives were actually from small and medium sized community banks, not the big dogs).

At what point do the other 89% of Americans who are NOT union members stop sitting quietly like scared little sheep and start acting like the majority?

This past September Lisa Snyder, a 35 year old Michigan mother,  made the news when she received a disturbing letter from the Michigan Department of Human Services.  In it, the letter warned her that she was in violation of the law.  Her offense?  Watching a handful of neighborhood kids  each morning for about 20 minutes as they waited at the end of her driveway for the school bus to arrive, with the blessing of their parents. State law in Michigan prohibits the home supervision of unrelated children for more than four weeks in a year without a child care provider license.  Turns out a neighbor had complained and the Michigan Department of Human Services, the watchdog for home child care licensing, intervened by sending the warning letter.  In Michigan, state employees for the DHS are represented by the United Auto Workers (UAW) labor union.  Coincidentally, the union that represents the state’s home child care workers?  Also the UAW.

AFSCME: American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
FCC: Family child care   |   FNN: Family, friend and neighbor
” Building a Union of Family Child Care and FFN Providers”
by SEIU & AFSCME members to the National Women’s Law Center

So, are these the unintended consequences of, as Michigan Rep. Brian Calley described it, “agency officials interpreting a 36-year-old statute regulating day care centers more broadly than necessary”? Or intended consequences that UAW is the union that represents both the home child care workers  AND the government agency that serves as its enforcer and watchdog in the first place?   Let me point out that in 15 out of the 16 states in its home child care organizing strategy, SEIU designates the organizing lead either to itself or to its collaborating partner union, AFSCME – Michigan is the only state in which they deviate and incorporate UAW.

Also in Michigan, a story of three women who run their own independent businesses out of their homes, caring for neighborhood children. They each recently  received a letter indicating that they are now dues-paying members of the Child Care Providers Together Michigan union – a complete surprise to them.

[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]

After a 2006 Executive Order by the Michigan Governor awarded the union (a partnership of UAW and AFSCME) bargaining rights for home child care workers, all it took for the union to convert all 40,000 child care workers to dues paying members was 5,900 signed union authorization cards.  That left some independent home child care workers, who’d for years considered themselves self-employed, feeling dismayed and stunned. Such began cries of forced unionism and initiated a lawsuit against the Michigan Department of Human Services.  The lawyer for the plaintiffs, Patrick Wright from the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, explains that the whole arrangement -

is nothing more than “a government ’shell corporation‘ designed to get around possible political and constitutional obstructions to the arrangement”.  Wright offers a detailed backgrounder on this case and a fantastic explanation of the scheme behind the actions.

So, was this an instance of unintended consequences that were simply unforeseen by the state of Michigan and its representatives working with the unions?  Or was unionizing 40,000 child care workers under the quiet cover of an apparently under-advertised vote by mail campaign an intended consequence for AFSCME and UAW?  More importantly, why is SEIU’s part in this production so downplayed?  Their joint documents clearly indicate that SEIU is driving the national movement to unionize home child care workers all across the country.  Not to mention SEIU’s “Kids First” program, which is both the beneficiary and the business driver behind all of these new home child care union members, in concert with AFSCME’s efforts.

Some of these examples seem to be reminiscent of other SEIU unionization efforts.

Most recently, there is the case of the National Union for Healthcare Workers (NUHW), an independent union that was formed by the democratically elected Executive Board members and stewards of SEIU United Healthcare Workers-West (SEIU-UHW), the result of Andy Stern’s two year hostile takeover of the union before it became SEIU-UHW. Fellow BigGovernment contributor, Publius, wrote about their recent struggles with SEIU in the post, “Union and Whistleblower Complaint Documents SEIU Ballot Fraud”. On the heels of that post comes another titled “Whistleblower Video Reveals SEIU Ballot Fraud“, which exposes scandalous video of SEIU’s typical unionizing tactics from a June 2009 union election against the NUHW, which I’ll reference here for convenience (but be sure to read the full post above!):

There are of course countless articles that recount  the landmark 2005 action by former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich when he issued an executive order that gave home-based child care providers the freedom to form a union for the first time ever in the state’s history. One of many unintended consequences of that decision was the empowerment of SEIU to visit workers at their workplace – their homes.  This opened up the door for similar problems in a number of states.

And stories of unintended consequences abound in California, not just in reference to the struggles of what has since become UHW, but also on the struggles that existed between SEIU and other labor unions, such as the California Nurses Association (a struggle that still remains) and for a time in multiple states, even labor union partner AFSCME.

A great, detailed timeline of SEIU’s history of attacking other labor unions, including its own, is maintained by UNITE HERE’s specialty website that issues an open call for SEIU to change its course.

But why is SEIU so eager to carry out its strategy to turn all of these home child care workers into state employees and unionize them?  AFSCME answers it well in their own talking points:

“By employing millions of independent providers across the country, states are undercutting public employee wages and conditions, and threatening our jobs. AFSCME must organize independent providers to fight for decent wages and benefits, and to prevent the erosion of our own living standards.“

Click to view flyer

There’s also the benefit of billions and billions of dollars in state and federal aid that goes not only to the care providers (for nutritious food and expenses), but to the unions for education and research and various other things. And when you have independent home child care providers who, given the choice to unionize and receive government food subsidies, would prefer to give up food subsidies if it meant remaining independent and self-employed, why would you deny them that?  Why place that burden on the state and federal taxpayers when it does not need to be there?

Well, that simply solidifies the next benefit, which is the benefit of thousands of additional dues-paying union members at a time.  And with more members of course comes more power and leverage.  In fact, it’s worth pointing out what others have also noticed tucked away inside the Senate health care bill.  SEIU’s leverage would seem rather evident in a few key sections:

The Personal Care Attendants Workforce Advisory Panel, one of a multitude of new bureaucratic agencies created in the bill, will help dictate how many workers staff our health care facilities and home workers, along with their benefits and wages, etc.

SEIU will also benefit from a likely appointment on the National Health Care Workforce Commission (Page 1279), a commission of 15 members to be appointed by the Comptroller General to include individuals  with national recognition for their expertise in health care labor market analysis, including health care workforce analysis, in addition to health care workforce education and training, among other expertise.

It’s not so much the workers’ rights that anyone really takes issue with – unions of course have every right to make recommendations for the best wages and benefits on behalf of their members.  And it’s not so much the notion that labor unions would have input to the analysis and education of health care workers that some might take issue with.

The real issues at hand are those of unintended consequences:

• As states negotiate their health care, home care and child care contracts and turn more of them over to labor unions like SEIU, the universe of unionized health care workers expands.  Add to that the government-run option, and that universe expands exponentially – to an unbalanced level. It’s hard to imagine there would be any private health care workers left in a few years. (Especially when the union repeatedly assaults any defense of the free market system and capitalism).
• With the recent behavior of SEIU and its incessant attacks on companies and individuals they perceive to be “too wealthy”, will a union with so much power granted to it by the government take it upon itself to determine to whom and how care is delivered?  Rather than boycott advertisers, will they refuse care if they don’t like what you say or how much you make?
• Will SEIU’s notoriously aggressive tactics in negotiating contracts seep into our personal health affairs?  Think about it – this is a union that has allegedly harassed its own affiliates, stalked home care workers and nurses at their homes for not electing SEIU to represent them, forced home child care workers into unionism, and broken into people’s mailboxes to steal their voting ballots.  What will its leaders do when health care workers’ contracts don’t go the way they’d like?  Will they go on strike and leave patients stranded?
• How many other “babysitter” laws will be added into legislation or their interpretation stretched to fit the needs of growing SEIU’s membership?
• What else will SEIU try to somehow attach to health care, in an effort to embed itself into every facet of our personal care?  Aside from actual health care workers, SEIU currently ties the following workers, all SEIU members, to health care:  Cafeteria Workers, Laundry Service Workers, Janitors, Building Service Workers, and others.
• If state governments like Michigan can unionize workers who happen to receive public subsidies as part of their private business operations, how will this apply in the arena of health care with a government-run plan?  Will SEIU seize this as an opportunity to step in and unionize any facility or provider receiving subsidies?  And what about individuals?  The government and SEIU enforce this logic for business bailouts.  Government also  uses the same logic to enforce mandatory participation in the Green for All weatherization programs in states like NJ.  What’s to say the same logic won’t be applied to individuals in the public option?
• With a monopoly on the health care workers in the country, what kind of “Justice for All” plan of accountability will the SEIU launch after their “close the wealth gap” issue isn’t achieved?  Will they embark upon a “close the health wealth gap” instead?
• Once SEIU has expanded to all of health care, what’s left?  Will they come after your union next?  Or try to unionize you?  Perhaps they’ll unionize private consultants, accountants, home caterers, writers, Joe the Plumber, homemakers and moms.

Will we conveniently chalk it all up to the law of unintended consequences? Or will anyone in Congress or average American citizen voters have enough sense to start looking for intent in such consequences?