March 2008 - Posts

• Two Contests Awarding Thousands for Innovative Ideas, Inspiring Stories

  SEIU is sponsoring “Everybody Wins,” a contest in which a public division member with an innovative idea about how to improve the quality of public services could win up to $5,000 personally and another $20,000 for their local union. To learn more about that contest, click here. Meanwhile, the Reader's Digest Foundation will donate a total of $1 million to nonprofit organizations through an initiative called "Make it Matter." Every month, the foundation will select one individual's story of a significant, good deed done for ones community and then grant $100,000 to a nonprofit organization in honor of that person. Reader's Digest magazine will then feature that person in its new column, "Make it Matter." Submissions for "Make it Matter" will be accepted by the foundation on a rolling basis throughout 2008. To learn more about the program and submitting a story, click here. posted Mar 26 2008, 05:04 PM by jwilkinson with no comments

• Nurse union sinks effort at peaceful vote

  SPRINGFIELD (EDITORIAL, NEWS-SUN) March 13, 2008 -- Three's a crowd when it comes to the attempt to settle a long running dispute between Springfield Regional Medical Center and a union that has waged a struggle to represent its workers. An unusual deal to settle the question appeared to have been reached between the hospital and the Service Employees International Union to hold a non-contentious vote on unionization. The California Nurses Union, no friend of the SEIU, had other ideas. It entered the process at the last minute bearing a monkey wrench. The vote set here for Wednesday, March 12, was called off after the rival union sent representatives into the hospitals here to talk to workers. That poisoned the effort to skip the usual histrionics that too often mark such votes. The idea was to let local workers decide without a lot of pressure from either side. To view the rest of this editorial, copy and paste the below into your web browser: http://www.springfieldnewssun.com/o/content/oh/story/opinions/editorial/2008/03/13/sns031308editunion_R.html  posted Mar 17 2008, 10:08 AM by jwilkinson with no comments

• Sebelius in town to stump for Obama; Kansas governor criticizes McCain

  TOLEDO (THE BLADE) -- Kathleen Sebelius, the governor of Kansas, was fired up yesterday, and it wasn't just about Barack Obama, her candidate for president... Ms. Sebelius spoke to a small group composed mostly of Service Employees International Union members at the University of Toledo's law school auditorium. She urged her listeners to knock on doors and make phone calls for Mr. Obama, and maybe make history. "If Ohio comes in for Barack on Tuesday, you will deliver the nomination to the next great president of the United States," Ms. Sebelius said. To view the rest of this article, copy and paste the below into your web browser http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080302/NEWS09/803020353&SearchID=73310448637398 posted Mar 03 2008, 01:31 PM by jwilkinson with no comments

• In Ohio, Candidates Court Unions

  Battle May Decide Tuesday's Primary PARMA, Ohio (Washington Post) -- Not far away, in northeast Cleveland, two representatives of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), which has 30,000 members in Ohio, made their way across a mostly African American neighborhood of worn Victorians in a mud-streaked Buick Regal to drum up support for Obama among a new vanguard of organized labor -- hospital workers, grocery store clerks, home-care aides. Their pitch: Obama would make things happen because he is building a movement. "He's been able to bring together different people, black and white, different parts of the country, and that's what it's going to take to get health care and jobs," said Gabe Kramer, 32, an SEIU organizer. It was thankless work on both sides, with many residents not at home and others not deigning to open the door. But it represented the most visible manifestation of a clash that will help decide the outcome of Tuesday's Ohio Democratic primary and with it, perhaps, the outcome of the party's extended presidential nomination battle. To view the rest of this article, copy and paste the below into your web browser http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/01/AR2008030101555.html posted Mar 03 2008, 01:15 PM by jwilkinson with no comments

• Mass. governor speaks at event

  Volunteers from Baltimore; Lansing, Mich.; and Penn State spoke at the event. YOUNGSTOWN (THE VINDICATOR) — Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick addressed a crowd of more than 100 union members and U.S. Sen. Barack Obama supporters at the New Bethel Baptist Church on Hillman Street, stumping for the Democratic presidential candidate in the final days before Tuesday’s primary election. The Saturday evening event was hosted by the local chapter of the Service Employees International Union with cooperation from the Teamsters’ union. Obama campaign volunteers from as far away as California and Cameroon, Africa, were in attendance, as well. To view the rest of this article, copy and paste the below into your web browser http://www.vindy.com/news/2008/mar/02/mass-governor-speaks-at-event/    posted Mar 03 2008, 01:09 PM by jwilkinson with no comments

• Obama's success in Ohio rests on shoulders of ground troops

  COLUMBUS, Ohio (CNN) -- Hillary Clinton drew the early support of much of Ohio's Democratic Party and most of its high-wattage politicians. And she was the overwhelming choice of the blue-collar workers who form much of the state's Democratic base. Barack Obama had his own staunch -- if slightly less high-profile -- Ohio loyalists: Valli Frausto and Jeanine Michael. To view the rest of this article, copy and paste the below into your web browser http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/03/02/obama.grassroots/index.html posted Mar 03 2008, 10:33 AM by jennifer.farmer with no comments