Who Rules SEIU? And Who Decides the Fate of UHW?

On Thursday, January 8, a group of 70 Service Employees International Union (SEIU) officials will join a conference call, set up in Washington, D.C., to decide the fate of 150,000 members of United Healthcare Workers-West, SEIU’s third-largest affiliate.

Among the actions the SEIU International Executive Board (IEB) may take is transferring 65,000 long-term care workers in California, against their will, from UHW into a new statewide entity with officers appointed by SEIU President Andy Stern. Either on this call or during a meeting Jan. 20., Stern’s board may also approve a headquarters take-over of UHW’s remaining 85,000 members. This would be accomplished via a Stern-imposed trusteeship that would replace all UHW elected leaders and further obliterate their local, one of the fastest-growing and most dynamic in SEIU.

Why aren’t all countries rich?

Amsden and Chang demonstrate that poor countries can develop, even against the interests of powerful empires. To pull themselves out of poverty, they had to buck the Washington Consensus and reject free trade until they could compete with world’s most productive enterprises. They had to ignore what the powerful nations said and, instead, imitate what they did.

The authors have offered a powerful counter narrative to that touted by the epigones of free trade, and provide useful intellectual tools for those seeking global economic justice.