Shaky endorsement, divided union

Tony Cook and J. Patrick Coolican

Thursday, Nov. 15, 2007 | 6:53 a.m.

The Service Employees International Union Nevada has more than doubled in size since 2004 and is considered one of the most active and politically organized unions in this state known for a strong labor presence.

Now, though, the 17,500-member union's process for endorsing a presidential candidate is in disarray, embodied by an announcement by the campaign of New York Sen. Hillary Clinton that 200 nurses, many of them SEIU members, are supporting the Democratic frontrunner.

The union has failed thus far to choose a candidate to support. The breakaway Clinton group is taking a step that contradicts a core principle of organized labor: unity.

The move appears intended to blunt a potential endorsement of former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards or Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, who also have courted the union aggressively. Each of the three front-runners has loyalists on the union executive committee.

Some union members said they fear that the divisions could weaken the SEIU's influence in Nevada's Jan. 19 caucus, which had widely been seen as a showcase for union clout here and nationally.

Democratic operatives, labor sources and SEIU members say the split illustrates wider dissension in SEIU Nevada ranks and chaos at union headquarters.

Hilary Haycock, a spokeswoman for SEIU Nevada, as well as allies of SEIU Executive Director Jane McAlevey said Wednesday that the union's membership gains, including the addition of 900 nurses in Reno, are signs of SEIU health and unity.

"As a union, our members are excited about moving forward and endorsing a presidential candidate," Haycock said. "There's no massive dysfunction. There just isn't."

A labor source with ties to the SEIU acknowledged there's a small but highly vocal group of dissenters at odds with McAlevey. That group reportedly includes SEIU Nevada President Vicky Hedderman.

Haycock acknowledged that a decision last month by the SEIU international to not make a national endorsement blindsided the Nevada local. It had no mechanism in place for polling its members, she said.

Some SEIU members, including an executive board member who agreed to speak only if not identified, said widespread confusion exists in the union about the endorsement process. "We don't have a direction," the executive board member said. "We are in such internal turmoil right now that we can't decide if we are going to go play in the park or play in the street."

Nevada isn't the only place where the SEIU endorsement process has created consternation. In New Hampshire, Obama was told he had won the endorsement, only to have Edwards get the nod.

McAlevey said a large majority of the board would have to approve of a candidate for an endorsement. She wouldn't say what defined large majority, but said no candidate has reached that threshold yet.

The union polled its members informally in different venues and Haycock said it has hired a national pollster to survey members. McAlevey said the results would provide guidance to the executive board but would not be binding.

An executive board member said the results haven't been made available and board members may not meet until January to review them.

Although it's clear there's significant division on the board about the endorsement, Haycock called it healthy disagreement.

Even if an endorsement is made, some members - including one executive board member - said they don't think it will mean much.

McAlevey is in a tight spot, said a number of Democratic political observers. The international has shown some allegiance to Edwards, long a friend of organized labor, but many SEIU members work for Clark County. The chairman of the Clark County Commission, Rory Reid, and commissioner Chris Giunchigliani are both active in the Clinton campaign and McAlevey has strong relationships with both.

McAlevey, on vacation this week on the East Coast, acknowledged in a phone interview Wednesday that it is possible that the union won't make any endorsement.

That would come as a surprise, given the stakes involved in helping to elect a future president and in demonstrating political clout at the Jan. 19 caucus.

Some union members say internal strife at SEIU headquarters is a big distraction to the union's caucus efforts.

Two factions have evolved in the union, those in support and those in opposition to McAlevey, who's considered dynamic and hardworking but also arrogant and abrasive. Her nickname in Nevada political circles is "Hurricane Jane."

The turmoil came to a head in June when anti-McAlevey forces won a significant number of executive board seats.

McAlevey said the election was overturned because advertising fliers created by her staff were ruled inaccurate by an internal election committee. The inaccurate fliers gave mistaken information about the time and location of voting.

McAlevey, who has close ties to SEIU leaders in Washington, D.C., acknowledged that the international had approved of voiding the election.

Some union members allege that the union's staff intentionally made errors on the fliers hoping to void the election results later if they disliked the result.

A new election was held in September, and some members allege that glossy fliers advocating McAlevey's slate were distributed at the expense of out-of-state SEIU locals and that SEIU Nevada staff campaigned for pro-McAlevey candidates.

McAlevey said the second election was ruled proper by the local election committee and the international.

She said if SEIU members, including staff who work closely with her, chose to use their free time to work on the election, that was their choice.

Haycock said the election is over, and the board has begun to unify and move on.

Not everyone sees it that way. Some SEIU Nevada members continue to protest the election to the international.