UNITE HEREIU update.
Posted here by
Terry Bankert 2/28/09
http://attorneybankert.com/
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE- I received this email press release at 5:30 PM from "Julie Kelly" <jkelly@uniteherenynj.org>. I sent her a response on how to verify the release and was instructed to contact Sherry Kane. I do not know Kane. I went to a Unite Here web site and the press release was not listed. I ask for verification from my original contact , from Unitehere.org, who replied . She said John Gillis is a Vice President who comes from the Unite Side of the Union. He runs the NY/NJ Regional Joint Board. In general in this union people from the Joint Board are former Unite. People in the locals are former Here. Gillis is also the named plaintiff in the lawsuit Gillis v. Wilhelm (Wilhelm being the former President on the HERE side).
I am a hobby vlogger I don’t mind serious business as this is but just how do you confirm internet sources. I will just be transparent as above and will run with this as legitimate.
–begin press releaseFebruary 27, 2009Contact: Sherry Kane, 347-245-2123Statement from John Gillis, UNITE HERE International Vice Presidentand New York/New Jersey Regional Joint Board General ManagerNew York –
John Wilhelm and a faction of Unite Here comprised solely of former HERE leaders filed a request for a court order midnight Thursday February 26, 2009 seeking to stop the votes of 150,000 members of the Unite Here union. The voting process will be the largest and broadest in the union's history, involving workers across the nation. The process is both constitutional and highly democratic, allowing members to utilize their rights to determine the future of their union.Fearing this action, its open process, transparent reporting, and ensuing publicity the Wilhelm faction seeks to block it in federal court. The legal mechanism chosen in an attempt to silence the faction's critics and stifle debate about the union's future, employs utilization of the consent decree Wilhelm signed in 1995 when the union was threatened with a government takeover because of organized crime's influence in HERE. It revives memories of HERE's own stained history, and its attempted cynical application would have made the union's former mob bosses proud.
–end press release
The Unite Here web site identifies,.
John Gillis International Vice President/Manager18 Washington PlaceNewark, New Jersey 07102Tel. 201-422-0900Fax 201-863-0030Email:info@uniteherenynj.orgWeb: http://www.uniteherenynj.orgNew York New Jersey Regional Joint Board, Retail Division
see: http://www.unitehere.org/about/localdbjb.php?local_aff=New%20York%20New%20Jersey%20Regional%20Joint%20Board
The principal combatants of the civil war in Unite here are
Bruce S Raynor General President aligned with the Unite faction. And
John W Wilhelm President of the Hospitality Industry.
See their
picture and background .
http://www.unitehere.org/about/officers.php
Friday, February 27, 2009
Faction trys to cancel national Union election. UNITE HERE
Doughtery, one dysfunctional union guy.
GOOD MORNING FLINT!
BY Terry Bankert
2/27/09
Posted first on Boggling for Michigan
http://www.bloggingformichigan.com/frontPage.do
Some people just want to be paid for the work done.
How about you?
A worker living paycheck to pay check does not want a power struggle in a union that represents them.
They just want to be paid a fair wage rate, and to be paid timely for services rendered.
Factions can war over labors future but our working neighbors are concerned about affording dinner.
All big business organizations have shake outs.
Big Labor is big busines or a big organization, they have shake outs too.
In Detroit we saw a snapshot of the conflict going on in the union representing Hotel workers "UNITE HERE!"
Some of their members at the Detroit Riverside Hotel did not get paid.
We saw the MDP labor caucus march over from convention to confront the Hotel owners.
They met instead deposed union leader Dougherty acting as an apologist for management even though the workers had not been paid.
Hey, when they , big unions,have decision makers moving around 500 million dollars and 400,000 members like "UNITE HERE" its logical to wonder, what is the real agenda.
Are the "dysfunctions" we have seen and suffered under perpetrated by Big Business and Wall Street,( you remember, the collapse of the financial institution of the world) damaging the fabric of our US economy active in Big Labor?
Some argue what we are seeing is a functional union removing a dyfunctional local leader.
FYI ( this was posted as a comment on a previous article in BFM)--
this is not a war between UNITE and HERE The internal struggle at UNITE HERE is not between the two old merged unions.
It just seems that way because the presidents are on opposite sides.
There are many many old HERE locals lining up with the "Raynor side" and a few old UNITE entities moved to the "Wilhelm side".
It's not about industries or old loyalties, it's about sound organizing versus a bizarre cultish approach to what a union should be.
On the Wilhelm side you have folks addicted to bizarre loyalty tests and "pink sheeting" where they'll spend millions to organize 500 workers tying up a couple dozen overpaid organizers on it for 5 years as they keep workers in the dark and totally beholding to the organizer.
Stewards and reps act like overseers in the shops and keep those shops "organized" by cutting out the "disloyal" workers and befriending the bosses.
On the Raynor side you have folks who are sick and saddened to watch the hard earned investments of garment workers back to the 1800s pissed away on the failure after failure of ridiculously expensive cultish "organizing" drives and the salting of already organized shops to spy on the union's own members.
This is the side that also can't fricking imagine why Wilhelm openly opposes EFCA and yet fully understands his fixation on the Amalgamated Bank.
As this moves forward, keep a sharp eye on which side the BOSSES support.
That will tell you everything. by: GRO @ Posted to BFM Tue Feb 24, 2009 at 19:20:22 PM EST
What can we learn from the " civil" war in "UNITE HEREIU"?
"By one measure, one day earlier this month was that rarity of rarities for American labor: a good day.
The measure was that of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, which announced that union membership actually increased by 428,000 in 2008. "1
Imagine that during the Bush years union membership has gone up. Imagine what will happen under Obama, that is if big labor gets its act together.
"By another measure, though, it wasn't a good day at all for American unions..(for example).
In Oakland, Calif., the Service Employees International Union - with nearly 2 million members, the nation's most vibrant union and California's largest - took direct control of one of its stellar locals, the 150,000-member United Healthcare Workers West, ousting the elected local officers, who in turn announced that they would seek to form a rival union to the SEIU."1
Even in Detroit as we watch the civil war within UNITE HEREIU play out I have to ask is this turmoil good for our country.
In previous article I posted my pictures and video ( go to the slide show) of the Michigan Democratic Party Labor Caucus on 2/21/09 at the Detroit riverside Hotel. I have found out the Union Guy confronting the Union protesters as he stood behind the counter seemingly defending management is Joe Daughtery.
I saw this in a worker You Tube Post. SHAME ON RIVERSIDE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JC7V35b_mkg
In the above were some of the same people in my video of the 2/21/09 Protest at the Detroit Riverside Hotel.
See my pictures and video: Thumb Nail -pictures http://www.flickr.com/photos/30366181@N05/sets/72157614264662984/
Slide show - active video http://www.flickr.com/photos/30366181@N05/sets/72157614264662984
In the era where big business and big unions have issues causing division.
We have to keep our eye on the ball to protect the little person.
It does not appear that all are focused on protecting their workers or shareholders, here in Detroit and elsewhere.
Did the workers at Detroit Riverside Hotel ever get their paychecks?
Next I hope to talk to some of the workers and find out.
Posted Here By Terry Bankert 2/27/09
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[1] http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090225/OPINION01/902250317
[2] http://www.chitowndailynews.org/Chicago_news/Unions_national_troubles_cause_confusion_but_locals_fight_on,22805 http://attorneybankert.com/
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