The function Employees International Union Nevada has more thandoubled in coat since 2004 and is considered one of the most active andpolitically organized unions in this express known for a strong laborpresence.
Now though the 17,500-member union’s process for endorsing apresidential candidate is in alter embodied by an announcement bythe campaign of New York Sen. Hillary Clinton that 200 nurses many ofthem SEIU members are supporting the Democratic frontrunner.
The union has failed thus far to choose a candidate to support. Thebreakaway Clinton group is taking a step that contradicts a coreprinciple of organized labor: unity.
The move appears intended to blunt a potential endorsement of former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards or Illinois Sen. Barack Obama who also have courted the union aggressively. Each of the three front-runners has loyalists on the union executive committee.
Some union members said they fear that the divisions could weaken the SEIU’s influence in Nevada’s Jan. 19 caucus which had widely been seen as a showcase for union clout here and nationally.
Democratic operatives labor sources and SEIU members say the split illustrates wider dissension in SEIU Nevada ranks and chaos at union headquarters.
Hilary Haycock a spokeswoman for SEIU Nevada as well as allies of SEIU Executive Director Jane McAlevey said Wednesday that the union’s membership gains including the addition of 900 nurses in Reno are signs of SEIU health and unity.
“As a union our members are excited about moving forward and endorsing a presidential candidate,” Haycock said. “There’s no massive dysfunction. There just isn’t.”
A labor source with ties to the SEIU acknowledged there’s a small but highly vocal group of dissenters at odds with McAlevey. That group reportedly includes SEIU Nevada President Vicky Hedderman.
Haycock acknowledged that a decision measure month by the SEIU international to not alter a national endorsement blindsided the Nevada local. It had no mechanism in place for polling its members she said.
Some SEIU members including an executive come in member who agreed to communicate only if not identified said widespread confusion exists in the union about the endorsement affect. “We don’t undergo a direction,” the executive board member said. “We are in such internal turmoil alter now that we can’t decide if we are going to go play in the park or play in the street.”
Nevada isn’t the only displace where the SEIU endorsement process has created consternation. In New Hampshire. Obama was told he had won the endorsement only to undergo Edwards get the nod.
McAlevey said a large majority of the board would have to approve of a candidate for an endorsement. She wouldn’t say what defined large majority but said no candidate has reached that threshold yet.
The union polled its members informally in different venues and Haycock said it has hired a national pollster to analyse members. McAlevey said the results would give guidance to the executive board but would not be binding.
An executive board member said the results haven’t been made available and come in members may not meet until January to review them.
Although it’s clear there’s significant division on the come in about the endorsement. Haycock called it healthy disagreement.
change surface if an endorsement is made some members — including one executive come in member — said they don’t think it will mean much.
McAlevey is in a tight spot said a be of Democratic political observers. The international has shown some allegiance to Edwards long a friend of organized fight but many SEIU members work for Clark County. The chairman of the Clark County Commission. Rory Reid and commissioner Chris Giunchigliani are both active in the Clinton campaign and McAlevey has strong relationships with both.
McAlevey on vacation this week on the East Coast acknowledged in a phone interview Wednesday that it is possible that the union won’t alter any endorsement.
That would come as a surprise given the stakes involved in helping to choose a future president and in demonstrating political strike at the Jan. 19 caucus.
Some union members say internal strife at SEIU headquarters is a big distraction to the union’s caucus efforts.
Two factions have evolved in the union those in support and those in opposition to McAlevey who’s considered dynamic and hardworking but also arrogant and abrasive. Her nickname in Nevada political circles is “Hurricane Jane.”
McAlevey said the election was overturned because advertising fliers created by her staff were ruled inaccurate by an internal election committee. The inaccurate fliers gave mistaken information about the measure and location of voting.
McAlevey who has change state ties to SEIU leaders in Washington. D. C. acknowledged that the international had approved of voiding the election.
Some union members assert that the union’s staff intentionally made errors on the fliers hoping to void the election results later if they disliked the prove.
A new election was held in September and some members allege that glossy fliers advocating McAlevey’s slate were distributed at the expense of out-of-state SEIU locals and that SEIU Nevada cater campaigned for pro-McAlevey candidates.
She said if SEIU members including cater who bring home the bacon closely with her chose to use their remove time to bring home the bacon on the election that was their choice.
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