The Service Employees International Union has demonstrated a history of blatant “pay-to-play” political tactics. And “pay-to-play” is probably why the SEIU has been at the forefront of promoting ObamaCare, with a “robust” public option.
In 2002, the union spent well over $1 million and worked tirelessly getting Rod Blagojevich elected governor of Illinois. Shortly after he was sworn in, he signed an executive order, allowing SEIU to unionize 20,000 state health care employees. It was the first such move by any governor on SEIU’s behalf. Dozens of campaign contributions from the SEIU to Blogojevich are compiled in a list posted on shopfloor.org, a blog maintained by the National Association of Manufacturers.
In 2000, SEIU worked aggressively to elect Bob Holden governor of Missouri. The reasoning? In the words of “A St. Louis labor activist:”
The state council here used to be headed up by Grant Williams, a former ACORN organizer who got into the SEIU by way of ACORN’s SEIU local and rose to become an international vice president in the union. His strategy was to campaign heavily for certain Democratic politicians and rely on them to hand him members. In 2000 he backed Bob Holden, who won the race for governor. One of Holden’s first acts was to sign an executive order granting the SEIU the right to have agency fees automatically deducted from the checks of state workers. After that, Williams had to keep backing Holden’s camp in order to defend the executive order.
So as SEIU is working so aggressively to pass ObamaCare with a government-run health plan, it’s not because the union gives two hoots about the uninsured. Andy Stern wants his self-admitted $60 million investment in electing Obama to pay off. And if SEIU’s past is any indication, Stern will be at the front of the line to unionize all those new government bureaucrats overseeing ObamaCare.
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