From: "Monty Reed Kroopkin"
Date: Fri, 14 Mar 2008 20:58:39 GMT
To: lois.balfour@seiu221.org
CC: info@seiuvoice.org, info@reformseiu.org, democracy4seiu@gmail.com
Subject: material you handed out at Steward Council
Sister Lois Balfour,
Director of Bargaining and Training, SEIU Local 221
At our Local 221 Stewards Council meeting on March 6, you handed out a letter (dated March 7) from Tyrone Freeman, president of ULTCW, to Sal Roselli, president of UHW-West. Attached is a copy of that letter, along with a copy of a reply from elected members of the UHW-West Executive Board.
These are but recent installments in a controversy which is well documented (both sides) at the SEIU Voice website, which is run by members of UHW (www.seiuvoice.org) You did say you had been aware of the controversy for some time. Therefore, I do not understand your decision to pass out material representing only one side's views. And, let's admit it, that unlike the SMART proposed reform platform (which I handed out) which has a positive focus on changes we may make to strengthen SEIU, these letters contain a large amount of hard feelings and acrimony, which is bound to upset some readers and may even distract from civil discourse about policy.
I also want to make it very clear that SMART includes members of many SEIU locals. The issues concerning UHW are a media 'high profile' tip of the iceberg of all the issues which SMART is addressing. Here in Local 221, for example, we have the issue of provisional Local 221's first appointed president, Marc Earls, promising us that within 6 months of the start of Local 221 we would have a constitutional convention and then elections for executive board and officers positions. More than a year has gone by and Local 221 is still being run by appointees. This is only one example of the many issues driving SMART, all across the U.S and Canada.
In fairness, I believe you should distribute the UHW e-board members' reply to Freeman to all the stewards present at our March meeting of the Local 221 Stewards Council, and to anyone else you gave a copy of the Freeman letter. If you do not, we may rightly conclude you are not interested in a balanced and democratic consideration of the facts.
There is also now an Open Letter from SMART members concerning these letters, and closely related recent events, at the SMART website: To SEIU officials and Tyrone Freeman
In struggle,
Monty Kroopkin
Local 221 Steward
Formerly, Elected Union Negotiator, SEIU Local 535
cc: other SEIU members
Tyrone Freeman’s false letter (dated 3/7/08 but received 3/5/08)
The response to Freeman’s dirty tricks by the rank-and-file nursing home members of UHW’s Executive Board (3/7/08)
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