SEIU Member Activists for Reform Today – SMART

SEIU Member Activists for Reform Today (SMART) is an organization of rank-and-file members of SEIU who believe that members are the real source of strength for our Union and the people behind every victory. Members have fought for years in our work sites, in the streets, and in the halls of government to make SEIU the largest and strongest union in the country – now 1.9 million workers strong. Members also know that growth is critical to our success, and to rebuilding a fighting labor movement – but not growth at all costs, and not without full participation of the members.

For the sake of growth at all costs, some recent agreements orchestrated by SEIU’s leadership in D.C. have traded away high contract standards, limited members’ free speech and ability to protect the public we serve, and compromised our right to strike. All this has been done without real member involvement.

Many in SEIU have grave concerns that in recent years, SEIU’s leadership in D.C. has drifted away from our membership, forgetting that we are the ones who make our Union strong. Dozens of mergers have been imposed without any member involvement or truly democratic procedures, resulting in trusteeships that replace elected leaders with appointed ones. Constitutional changes have given the president and International Union’s Executive Board unprecedented powers to force coordinated bargaining, appoint our bargaining teams, and settle our contracts.

It’s time to remind our leaders that SEIU is a union of, by, and for the members!

• Member dues pay their salaries
• Members fight to win every day in the workplace
• Members are the political voice and power needed to win in government
• Members are the most effective organizers of new workers
• Members win the victories that generate SEIU’s growth.

SMART is building a membership reform movement that will:

• Prevent the recent abuses of power by our leaders
• Preserve democracy, member decision-making and involvement
• Focus on winning higher standards along with growth.

We are proposing a Reform Platform at SEIU’s Convention in Puerto Rico in June 2008, and we need your support. Be part of our movement! Join SMART Today!

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SEIU 2008 Convention Delegate Training

EVERY FOUR YEARS, elected delegates representing every local union come together for the SEIU Convention to determine the direction of our International Union. At the Convention, delegates will vote on policy resolutions and amendments to the SEIU Constitution & Bylaws, will elect the International officers and executive board members, and will set the direction of SEIU for the next four years and beyond.

As we approach the

SEIU 2008 CONVENTION
discussion on several key issues is critical for determining the future of our union:

Many rank and file members of SEIU are concerned about what’s at stake for members at this convention and believe union democracy is at risk. We believe you should have information about this debate taking place within SEIU so that you can make an informed decision about how you decide to vote on resolutions and amendments that will be presented at the upcoming convention.

We welcome you to come and learn about the debate taking place about the future of SEIU and what role members and their local unions will play in shaping our own futures in the workplace, in political life and in our society.

SEIU Member Activists for Reform Today (S.M.A.R.T.) invites you to a training for Convention Delegates over the Memorial Day weekend:

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
Saturday, May 24, 2008
11:00 am
UHW-West Office
5480 Ferguson Dr.
Los Angeles, CA 90022


NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
Monday, May 26, 2008
(Memorial Day)
11:00 a.m.
UHW West Office
560 Thomas L. Berkley Way
Oakland, CA 94612

All rank and file members of SEIU are welcome to attend.

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We are SMART:

On an ongoing basis, we will be featuring the words and faces of those who want reform in SEIU. If you'd like to appear here, email a photo and a quote stating your reason for joining SMART to info@reformseiu.org.

Zev Kvitky, SEIU Local 2007

President and Executive Director
SEIU Local 2007, Higher Education Workers (CA)
Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA

"Local 2007, SEIU Higher Education Workers (CA) is endorsing the S.M.A.R.T. platform. We have fought long and hard for all of our victories, and owe our continued success to our strong membership and dedicated rank-and-file leaders. Our democratic process and member involvement has done far more than ensure support for a program and vision; it has helped develop the leaders to carry that vision forward. Workers are the backbone of any real union. A union that excludes us from decision-making and participation, and arrogantly claims to act in our best interests, is a spineless organization unworthy of the union label."

B. Ross Ashley, SEIU Local 1 (Canada)

Mt. Sinai Hospital
Toronto, Ontario, Canada

"I've been a member of this union for 34 years now, since I started working at Mt. Sinai Hospital in Toronto. I've always thought our union had the most committed leadership among the unions in the health care field here in Ontario. Over the years our locals here have been the subject of raids by another organization here which does not display the same commitment to our members as SEIU does ... when I see Andy Stern behaving like Buzz Hargrove of the CAW, I get angry."

John Solis, SEIU Local 265

Chief Shop Steward
SEIU Local 265 Cemetery Workers and Greens Attendants

"I am joining S.M.A.R.T. because I support workers who have fought for years to have a voice in their workplace. It is the members who have made SEIU the strongest union in the country. Members need to continue to have a say in their bargaining and union decision making. The voice of members must always be heard."

Ed Perez, SEIU Local 1000

SEIU Local 1000 Member & Executive Board Member
CA State Workers (Sacramento)

"SEIU’s constitution and bylaws say:

We must provide meaningful paths for member involvement and participation in strong, democratic unions.

Sadly, under the current SEIU leadership in Washington, D.C., we are seeing a top-down and business-oriented approach to building the union. Real member participation in decision making within SEIU has become a sham. It’s up to all of us to keep the promise of a strong, member-driven and democratic union. That’s why I’ve joined S.M.A.R.T. and will ask my co-workers to do the same.

Jonathan Wilkes, SEIU Local 1000 & 2008 Convention Delegate

SEIU Local 1000 & 2008 Convention Delegate
Communications Officer State of California, Fire Aviation Management

"Together we win reform, divided we lose rights, benefits, pay, and a voice on what is done with our dues! I support the S.M.A.R.T. platform and look forward to taking the fight to our Local and most importantly to the International."

Monty Reed Kroopkin, SEIU Local 221

Steward, Local 221 (formerly Local 535)
County of San Diego

"I dreamed I saw Joe Hill last night...and Lucy Parsons, and Mother Jones and Emma Goldman and Martin Luther King, Jr. and Cesar Chavez and zillions of other people and they all said they joined SMART because they were thinking of starting something just like it, but found out it was already here."