The Service Employees International Union’s executive board recently voted to endorse Hillary Clinton for president, and its rank and file members are in a rage over the decision.
SEIU’s executive board announced the union’s endorsement of Clinton from Washington, D.C. Tuesday after what it describes as a “months-long member engagement process” that involved tele-town hall meetings, three national member polls and “more than 200 local executive board debates and discussions with thousands of local union offices and elected member leaders … representing 1.2 million SEIU members…,” according to an SEIU release.
“Hillary Clinton has proven she will fight, deliver and win for working families,” SEIU president Mary Kay Henry said. “SEIU members and working families across America are part of a growing movement to build a better future for their families, and Hillary Clinton will support and stand with them.”
The SEIU announcement featured several members gushing over Clinton’s supposed support of “working people” and the union’s “Fight for $15” an hour minimum wage.
The SEIU endorsement is the latest in several early endorsements of Clinton for president by the country’s largest labor unions, which have also included support from the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers. And much like the previous endorsements, SEIU’s nod to Clinton is enraging members who believe Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders better aligns with their views.
The SEIU Clinton endorsement is “going to divide the membership in the face of important campaigns – the fight to raise minimum wages, immigration reform, breaking up the banks, the need to overturn Citizens United,” Rand Wilson, SEIU member and founder of Labor for Bernie, told International Business News. “This is the time we need to unite.”
Politico points out the union endorsement comes just days after Clinton refused to back a $15 per hour federal minimum wage during the most recent Democratic debate, stating that she instead prefers a $12 minimum wage. Both of her primary challengers – Sanders, and Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley – publicly support the $15 minimum.
“It’s important to support the candidate who’s supportive of our objectives,” Wilson said, joking that the union should rename the initiative the “Fight for $12.”
“It’ll be hard to continue to support candidate who supports $12 an hour when there’s a viable one who supports $15. It’s awkward for leaders and organizer to explain that to people they’re working with, to low-wage workers, it’s awkward.”
“I think for organizers and leaders of the Fight for $15,” Wilson said, “this will really let the air out of the tires.”
Clinton’s documented ties to Wall Street power brokers, as well as her past seat on the board of Walmart, is also fueling animosity about the endorsement from SEIU members, Politico reports.
SEIU members are pointing out those conflicts of interest and others on the union’s Facebook page, where many of members are sounding off about the Clinton announcement.
“Anyone that thinks Bill and Hillary Clinton care about working people just isn’t looking at their record. SEIU must think their members are idiots,” Jim Nichols wrote. “Unions should be empowering workers and raising expectations not participating in the culture and politics of dependency that has infected leadership within the Wall Street wing of the Democratic Party.”
“Retract your support for $hillary. She does not support the heart of your fight for $15 campaign. #BernieSanders is the true middle class champion and he should be the one you support. Listen to the people and not the “political power” that $hillary has,” Iggy Lizana posted.
“Hillary Clinton is a corporate shill and a fake progressive. Shame on SEIU playing the kneel down to money game,” Brian Cassidy added. “Not proud to be a member.”
“Please retract the SEIU endorsement of Hillary Clinton. She does NOT represent the average American worker,” Cathy Bosnell Haye wrote.
“At the least our Union leadership could have endorsed nobody for the primaries and that would have been a somewhat credible compromise. Talk about backing the one percent,” Mike Haire wrote.
The SEIU Facebook page features hundreds of similar comments.
It’s the same situation the American Federation of Teachers faced when president Rhonda Weingarten announced the union’s Clinton endorsement in June, more than a year before the election.
The SEIU endorsement – along with pledges from the NEA, AFT, and the AFSCME union – means Clinton “now has the support of unions representing about 9.5 million union members, or nearly two-thirds of the U.S.’ 14.6 million union workers,” Politico reports.
“Their endorsement I think is very very important,” Steve Rosenthal, for political director for the AFL-CIO told the news site. “They have a wide reach across the progressive spectrum because they’re smart and strategic and have huge resources.”
But just because the union’s executive board is all in for Hillary, doesn’t mean individual unions won’t pledge their support for someone else.
“On Friday, SEIU 1199 (one of the union’s largest locals) opted not to endorse any candidate,” Politico reports. “SEIU 503, Oregon’s largest public employee union, did the same.”
And In These Times reports at least one SEIU local union, in New Hampshire, has already endorsed Sanders.
“Being a union delegate and being deeply involved with the union, Bernie would have been the right person for the job,” Massachusetts SEIU 1199 member Rodney Muhammad told the site. “He’s pro-labor, he’s been on picket lines, he’s very proactive and he’s for $15 an hour. It just seems like Hillary Clinton has too many ties to Wall Street. She has not really done much to procure help for the unions over the past few years. The SEIU should have waited until after the primary to make an endorsement.”
Clinton released a YouTube to thank SEIU for the endorsement.
“I’m so proud to have earned the endorsement of Service Employees International Union, and your 2 million members,” she said.
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