Why Workers Unite

CBS News' Brian Goldsmith Interviews SEIU Leader Anna Burger

(CBS)  Political Players is a weekly conversation with the leaders, consultants, and activists who are shaping American politics. This week, CBS News' Brian Goldsmith talks with Anna Burger, secretary-treasurer of the Service Employees International Union -- the country's largest and fastest growing labor group -- about what it will take for presidential candidates to earn her endorsement, and why the Iraq war is a labor issue.

CBSNews.com: The SEIU, with almost two million members nationally, would be a pretty mighty army on behalf of one of the presidential candidates. What is your process for deciding whom to endorse?

Anna Burger: We began in January where we first invited the Democratic candidates. We gave them an opportunity to speak to our executive board about why they were running and some of the issues. We then invited the Republican candidates to our executive committee meeting, and Gingrich and Hagel both came.

We asked all candidates, Democratic, Republican -- and if there's an Independent, we'll ask an Independent as well -- to do a number of things. First, we asked them to “Walk A Day In Our Shoes” which is to spend a day with a member, partly on the job, and partly at home, and know what it's like to be a worker in America.

Then we asked each one of them to be interviewed by one of our members about three questions: about the American dream and what they will do to reclaim it, what they will do about health care, and what they will do about worker's rights to have their voices heard on the job.

We expect them to come out with a health care plan by August 1.

We then will get to our Member Political Action Conference, which we'll hold with about 2000 of our most politically active members.

And we will have the candidates speak there. And the next day our executive board will meet. We'll make a decision then if we're ready to endorse.

CBSNews.com: And what's your budget for helping your endorsed candidate through the primaries, and then helping him or her win the general election?

Anna Burger: Well, in the four early states, we already have on the ground campaigns and activities to educate our members about the candidates.

We also have an organization that's called Americans for Health Care that we support. And it has been actively on the ground in all four of those states, plus other states, educating voters about the candidates on health care issues. We are now developing plans for all of the February 5th states, and the January states that are starting to pop up. So I don't have the final budget.

CBSNews.com: And what are the lessons that you all have learned from 2004 when you endorsed Howard Dean, and obviously he wasn't successful? What do you think you can do better this time?

Anna Burger: I think what we learned in 2004 was that having members involved in talking to workers who are just like them is really important to do. We did a huge mobilization in 2004, but we're trying to do it more with the workers who live in those states so that they don't have to pack up their bags and move.

CBSNews.com: So you found it was more effective to have workers talk to workers in their home states as opposed to workers coming in from out of state?

Anna Burger: Right. We just got to thinking that they build relationships that last beyond the election. So that we can build a capacity that doesn’t end during this election, but continues for another election.

CBSNews.com: Now you talked also about your relationship with Republicans. And SEIU is known as a more bipartisan union than most. Is there any chance though, that the SEIU would endorse the Republican nominee in the fall of 2008?

Anna Burger: Well, our Republican member committee has already met. And what they've said is that the issues that are facing working families are the same issues whether you're a Republican member or a Democratic member or an Independent voter. And that the critical issues are the rights of workers to have their voices heard, health care for every single man, woman, and child in America, and reclaiming the American dream so that our kids can have a better life than we do.

And so they're asking all of the Republican candidates to do the same thing that we've asked the Democratic candidates to do. And the Republicans said that based on the responses to that, whether they were going to spend time with our members as workers, whether they're willing to come up with a healthcare plan that's universal, and whether they'll support worker's rights to have their voices heard on the job, that would determine whether they would recommend anybody for support.

CBSNews.com: Thus far have any of the Republican candidates met those criteria?

Anna Burger: So far, I think Mike Huckabee has agreed to “Walk A Day In Our Shoes.” And the other candidates have not responded well.

CBSNews.com: So they would have to meet those criteria, even to get an SEIU endorsement in the primaries?

Anna Burger: Right.

[brianbwb-2009]

A day is not enough, because they can go back to their moneyed lifestyle the next day, after a couple glasses of Dom they will forget again.

Here's a better idea, take away their access to money and credit, for a month, jo job, start from zero. Let them start out homeless, and see how far they can get in one month in a city like LA, or New York, or worse, Detroit.

They won't soon forget that lesson...

[prinzowhales]

Another Labour-fakir peddling a 'pant load' as sound labour policy. These people have been selling out Labour for decades...trying to inculcate the false idea in the minds of America's Working class that they are really Middle Class and should sit quietly by while the nice Capitalists divvy up the spoils of an Oligarchical Economy in which administered prices are disguised as being determined by market forces--or, "market farces" as I like to call them--such as Enron's dog and pony show of traded energy.

Working Americans need to stick together, form their own party and shake off their handlers who steer them to the Democratic--and, as has been the case with the Teamsters--the Republicans.

[processor2]

"Workers of the world unite"
IS NOT an American slogan

But it does explain why liberals like unions so much.

...

[ioweign]

"Workers of the world unite"
IS NOT an American slogan

But it does explain why liberals like unions so much.

...
Posted by processor2 at 10:50 AM : Jul 13, 2007

It's about people.

Who got you a 40 hr work week?

processor2 - Small mind small goals

[drummer94]

Workers can unite because they can unite. The laws say so. Men DIED to get that right. Henry Ford would still be alive today, albeit very wrinkled, with the billions upon billions his company makes/made. Men just wanted to be treated fairly. They didn't want to die on the line. The money was always secondary. And that is your history lesson for today.

[l8c6]

People in this country need to come to a realization. The average working american has been flat out placed to the side. The multinational corporatists have infiltrated our shrinking representative government and have been insidiously replacing political positions with the hoes they own who spout a public interface of anti-government rhetoric directed at the average citizen. More fine tuned on site pimping is conducted by the lobbyists.

They have used nationalism, fear of terrorism etc. to control public opinion and the lives of young men and woman to fight for their interests. They march to a different drum and do not share the beat with the masses of everyday working americans. The reality, the average person really has no clue what this country's government is all about. Every day people from foreign countries have stories that many americans would not believe is their country in action.

The multinationals are of an elite nature that does not respect the artifical boundry of the U.S., they cross these boundries in the fashion of a separate society and solely are the ones who reap the benefit. Thus the apparent inconsistency of "protecting the homeland" and being weak on immigration.

Politicians have virtually no credibilty. They are beyond unworthy of trust. They have lied to the people far to often and far too profoundly. They do not represent the people of the United States but rather a multinational elite.

[dan9111]

The Democrats already had their chance at honor, and blew it by getting rid of Joycelyn Elders. They can never be forgiven. The idiotic plan to make everyone earn less than what they're worth in the name of working-welfare (or should we say bitter lazy narcissism) is a great plan. In the rubble of civilization we'll at least know who is to blame, and they will get no sympathy from those who know they do the real work.

[hypnotoad72]

l8c6 - and if many foreign people hate America, complete with their stories, why do they keep coming here? Surely not to tell us of ourselves, which definitely don't represent all of us...

I'll agree there is a discontinuity regarding protecting the homeland and immigration/offshoring concerns. And as some of the news stories I read suggest the initial sticker prices of offshoring are turning out to be smoke and mirrors, we should be seeing more jobs coming back to America soon.

[lars008-2009]

it is fascist nazi terrorislam stupid%u2026.

non muslims of the world unite... fight against the tyranny of the fascist nazi terrorslam imperialist empire of the darkside...

I was a fanatic...I know their thinking, says former radical Islamist
By blaming the Government for our actions, those who pushed this "Blair's bombs" line did our propaganda work for us.
More important, they also helped to draw away any critical examination from the real engine of our violence: Islamic theology.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=465570&in_page_id=1770
Bless the Beasts and Children
Fascist nazi terrorslam kills every man woman and child in the village again%u2026 typical mo for terrorslam%u2026
http://www.michaelyon-online.com/wp/bless-the-beasts-and-children.htm
thank you demonic-rats%u2026
New Video From Al Qaeda Number Two
"You must be patient and steadfast," he says. "Rejoice, for victory is near, with Allah's permission, and the herds of crusaders have begun to split up and their sole concern has become searching for a way out."
http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2007/07/new-video-from-.html
Sentencing them, Judge Charles Openshaw said the men had engaged in "cyber jihad", encouraging others to kill "kuffars" or non-believers.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=070705142313.zr9n5g5g&show_article=1
45 Muslim doctors planned US terror raids
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/07/05/nterror405.xml

[l8c6]

l8c6 - and if many foreign people hate America, complete with their stories, why do they keep coming here? Surely not to tell us of ourselves, which definitely don't represent all of us...

I would ask you which foreign people you refer to that are coming here...those from horribly corrupt third world countries who would gladly illegally enter any number of industrialized nations but are not permitted or the very gifted who are ushered in for their intellectual properties?

[l8c6]

lars008 ,

Yes, nice that your right wing republican ideologues have been receiving funds from multinational private corporatists that saw to it business was absolved of social responsibilty in cutting deals with the royal families of these terrorists bringing them to levels of incredible wealth enabling them to build these barbaric western networks of terror.

[l8c6]

I should clarify:

barbaric western (funded) networks of terror.

They'll say, you don't understand business, this is how business is, we cannot become isolationists.

Did anyone hear Henry Kissinger on Charlie Rose last night? He said the problem for many western nations is the problem they are having asking their people to sacrifice.

Yes, Joe Blow and your kind, you need to sacrifice so that the multinational corporatists and the 3rd world country royal elite can take your places at the table and rule autocratically. If you look at the build up of wealth in Dubai, I don't think one can surmise that is for the greater good of society. It's for the self-righteous entitled who have no vision for humanity.

The great equalizer is that each and everyone of us rich, poor, smart and stupid face our mortality.

Belief or non-belief in a benevolent God of justice is the final debate.

[lars008-2009]

Demonic-rats find god

GOD IS GREAT: DEMS GOT RELIGION, SAYS MAG...

Leveling the Praying Field
http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1642649,00.html

hahahahahaha

[l8c6]

Lets see: Union..less work but more money; Over paid for what the job requires..Have to hire 4 people for one job..Have major blaclmail power.
Yep good reasons to be Union..Of course most of the larger companies they control are now ALL MONEY LOSERS ...Best friends to the over sea labor markets = UNIONS !!!!!!!
Posted by FARTKNOCKER2

What has Rush Limbaugh, Anne Coulter and the likes of these mouthy media hoes done to deserve their millions. What is their contribution? Those you listen to with one hand busy.

You are so full of absolute cancer. I hope one day the working people of this country rise up and demonstrate to the human excrement that spout such ignorance just how lazy they are when it comes to fighting for their posterity.

Your ilk need to get busy licking the rosebud between Rush's supersized fat buns and get off the backs of hard working americans.

[l8c6]

Without unions...employers would take advantage. No lunch, deplurable working conditions, long hours, unfair pay. Now, according to our wonderful Supreme Court...one cannot sue their employer, if he/she finds out they are not being equally paid - men are paid more than the women - even in the same job. Merrill Lynch, JP Morgan had big lawsuits from women.
Posted by zoe20006

Yep, and the message is privatization is a bad thing....POWER TO THE PEOPLE, bring back representive government before our democratic society is destroyed. SOMEONE WILL RULE !! Do you want the autocrats that Lars and Fartfcker are hoes to or do you want a place at the table?

[l8c6]

Lets see: Union..less work but more money; Over paid for what the job requires..Have to hire 4 people for one job..Have major blaclmail power.
Yep good reasons to be Union..Of course most of the larger companies they control are now ALL MONEY LOSERS ...Best friends to the over sea labor markets = UNIONS !!!!!!!
Posted by FARTKNOCKER2

A sign of you ignorance and naivete...."american" corporations are multinational concentrations of wealthy commerce that are already overseas fool. They expect the working citizens of the western world to sacrifice so they can rule and amass the ultimate booty.

[lars008-2009]

Without unions...employers would take advantage. No lunch, deplurable working conditions, long hours, unfair pay. Now, according to our wonderful Supreme Court...one cannot sue their employer, if he/she finds out they are not being equally paid - men are paid more than the women - even in the same job. Merrill Lynch, JP Morgan had big lawsuits from women.
Posted by zoe20006

Yep, and the message is privatization is a bad thing....POWER TO THE PEOPLE, bring back representive government before our democratic society is destroyed. SOMEONE WILL RULE !! Do you want the autocrats that Lars and Fartfcker are hoes to or do you want a place at the table?
Posted by l8c6 at 01:51 PM : Jul 13, 2007

name one non corrupt union???

[ubrew12]

FARTKNOCKER2 said: "Lets see: Union..less work but more money; Over paid for what the job requires..Have to hire 4 people for one job...Best friends to the over sea labor markets = UNIONS !!!!!!!"
The problem is union management is shut out of company management, so can't respond with more finesse to actual financial conditions in the company. Thus, all they have is a broad brush, called the STRIKE, and that's wielded horribly or not at all. A middle ground is needed, where a union can support management goals. Of course, unions wouldn't be necessary if anti-trust legislation broke companies up on behalf of labor as they currently do on behalf of customers. The status of the individual laborer diminishes inversely with the size of the company, leading to the well known abuses. Break up companies, means more company managements with a greater respect of their laborers, as well as laborers with more options for rehiring available to them when they exercize the ONLY tool you right-wingers would allow them: the option of leaving the company. As it is, companies are so large that when employees leave they often have to undergo extensive retraining and/or moving across the country to find another job. The only ones who like that are Bush-clones like yourself.

[mcvet]

name one non corrupt union???

Posted by lars008 at 02:12 PM : Jul 13, 2007
+ report abuse

That's the EXACT same think Hitler said when he locked all the Labor Leaders up. There are many and I do mean many labor unions that aren't just not corrupt but do a very good job of representing their members. Take off the Swasitka Lar's, this is AMERICA and AMERICAN's have a LEGAL and MORAL right to a UNION! Sieg Heil Bush.

[tucano2]

Oppressed workers used to have no collars, then blue collars, and now white collars. The objective of management remains unchanged to extract the most work with the fewest workers at the smallest payroll. It is pure bunk to think an individual can successfully go up against an entire so-called Human Relations (used to be called "Personnel") department whose individuals are measured by how badly the can screw others and get away with it. Any one with a brain who is not actually the owner of the firm ought to be in an appropriate Union. That is the pursuit of individual interest - which is the Adam Smith type Republican Party foundation.

[sjc_1]

I am reading a book written in 1997 about the global labor market and the race to the bottom. Where Nike takes its shoe manufacturing to Viet Nam because the wages are low and they have no unions.

I find it ironic that some used to call unions communist and now capitalists flock to a communist country because they have no unions.

One final comment on unions that I would like to make seems simple, but it could be effective. Why don't unions leverage their pension money and buy companies outright? They would compete directly with companies that are not labor union owned and then the most efficient model wins.

No one said that labor can not become management. This is not a new idea, but one that I think needs to be looked at more closely in several industries. Imagine a UAW buyout of Chrysler, instead of letting it fall into the hands of people that do not have labor's best interests at heart.

[fizzal-2009]

You can fight for what you wantfor health care but in the end they will just stick something up yor *** and send a picture around the world and let some doctor in China tell you what too do.

[lars008-2009]

Lar's, this is AMERICA and AMERICAN's have a LEGAL and MORAL right to a UNION!
Posted by MCVet at 02:32 PM : Jul 13, 2007

they have the right not to be forced to join a union...

they have a right to a non corrupt union...

[sjc_1]

I look at the world labor market like a large above group swimming pool. (odd analogy, but hang with me)
The U.S. labor economy is the water in this pool and the rest of the world in the surrounding yard. If the walls collapse on the pool 1000s of gallons flow out, but there is very little water on the surrounding land, it flows off.

This analogy is meant to illustrate that we can completely destroy the U.S. economy and not really do much in the rest of the world to create a consumer class. If 1 billion people have money and 6 billion do not, it becomes a zero sum equation without productivity gains shared with those that create the gains.....labor.

[toolmangler-2009]

they have the right not to be forced to join a union...

Posted by lars008 at 12:14 PM : Jul 14, 2007


I was a Shift Superintendant and as such saw a work force come out losers by forming a Union. They weren't big losers but they still came up short. Years later (because of layoff) I returned to being a blue collar worker (tool & Die maker) in a union. This one worked good for the people. Having been on both sides of the situation I make this observaton. Whether or not to unionize must be up to the workers concerned. But know this, if you unionize then every person must be a dues paying member otherwise there is division in the workforce.