Tuesday, March 03, 2009

SEIU - Blowing The Deal for Janitors in the Press



Two of my best pals are Doctors ( Mr. MDs). Clark is an Internal Medicine Superstar and Manning is the best surgeon in Southwest Texas and Mexico. Both told me 'If you can feel your heart pumping gallons of blood, you have a problem. See a doctor and quick. The Beauty of any living organ is that you should not know its there.'

When any Organism or Organization kicks up with genuine Old Timey Activism, it seems, then you are a dead man.

If your collective bargaining unit is flapping its arms like a baby sparrow on a crowded side-walk before it has entered into negotiations with management, you workers are screwed, blued and tattooed - maybe color that up to Purple.

Yesterday, SEIU Chicago with Tom Balanoff, did all of the old Trotskyite stuff right - organized a march to the Czar's Palace, waited for cossacks to saber workers, and flooded the route with Press and sprinkled the podium with the colorful assortment of politicians it has purchased - Toni Preckwinkle and Joe Moore.

If you click my post title and watch the Progress Illinois video catch Joe Moore's weaving and grinding up on the podium - he looks like a horn-dog on Viagra overload, or a five year old boy with a kidney full of Mountain Dew Red in a way too long line at Target.

Here's the deal. Unions engage in collective bargaining for their rank and file. Good ones engage management and actually bargain the best deal for their workers. The press is never invited.

SEIU pressures politicians to change laws and ordinances that raise taxes and secure
some pittance of a raise. SEIU's dues paying membership get to march in the cold and listen to rhetoric. At the end of the month they have more month than pennies.

The Press buys SEIU's nonsense, because SEIU talks and talks and talks and then makes Purple People march. Good theatre; bad labor practices.

Janitors are paid lousy wages. Ask Tom Balanoff and SEIU to bargain in good faith and not in the media.

Anybody hear anything from The Building Owners and Management Association (BOMA)? Nope. Read anything in the SEIU tanked up media - you know the ones who always use 'Labor" when they mean SEIU? Nope. BOMA is used to dealing with real labor unions. The ones that succeed for the rank and file.

They (BOMA) already won.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Perhaps the tactic is to rev up the membership's expectations far beyond anything realistic, then, when as MUST happen in this economy, SEIU and BOMA agree on a minimal increase, Tom and his minions can blame it all on the mess left by the departing Bush administration. By the way, folks, how many of you still have a 100% employer paid health plan (of any kind!)? The Downtown janitors do.

But never fear -- these modest folks aren't stupid -- they know how much space is vacant and being vacated in their Buildings as a result of the financial collapse.

Enjoy the Purple People while they last, and don't shed too many tears for BOMA.