|
Andy Stern: 'Beautiful Day to Get Arrested'
Service Employees International Union President Andy Stern was arrested Friday -- handcuffs and all -- and union members cheered as their longtime leader was taken away in a police van.Stern, undisturbed, smiled with pride. After all, his arrest was real but prearranged with Maryland police as part of a union rally taking aim at food and facilities management services company Sodexo Inc. "It sure is a beautiful day to get arrested," Stern said in a speech to the roaring crowd before being handcuffed alongside fellow protester actor Danny Glover in front of Sodexo's headquarters in Gaithersburg, Md. The possible charge those two and the 10 others arrested face: trespassing, said P.R. Starks, a public information officer with Montgomery County police. All 12 -- self-named the "dirty dozen" because of their call to "clean up" Sodexo -- were taken in police vans to a nearby station where they would be issued citations, Starks said. They were later released. Sodexo said in a statement that the SEIU is conducting a "smear campaign" of misinformation against the company in an attempt to drive out other unions that have historically operated within the food service industry. Sodexo said most of the participants at these "orchestrated events" have not been Sodexo employees, "but rather students and others who have been incited by SEIU." Sodexo said it respects the rights of its employees to unionize or not unionize as they choose, and denied allegations of interference. The protest marked the end of an attention-grabbing week for Stern, who announced his resignation Wednesday amid buzz about his union's increasing financial strains and costly legal battles with rival unions. In a videotaped departure message, Stern boasted about his union's aggressive organizing tactics, which helped make it the fastest-growing union in the country. The 59-year-old labor leader still isn't saying what's next for him, but he said Friday in a brief interview before his speech at the rally that he'll continue to work on the White House Bipartisan Fiscal Responsibility Commission and at some point "get a job." He also said he'll stay involved in SEIU activities, and declared in his speech that "the labor movement is going global" just like capital, trade and finance have. Sodexo, a global company, is "exhibit A" of the movement to win fair wages and stop intimidation of workers who want to organize, Stern said. Posted by: Fred 2010-04-18 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=294873 |