If you didn’t know anything about the American labor movement, FOX Chicago’s report last week on the political connections between Gov. Rod Blagojevich and the Service Employees International Union (whose Illinois State Council sponsors this website) would be a poor introduction.
While FOX Chicago generally provides decent coverage of the local political scene, this piece from investigative reporter Larry Yellen seemed tailor-made for the FOX News mothership, providing a platform for unchallenged right-wing arguments under the guise of objectivity.
Two experts are interviewed during the segment: Joe Calomino of Americans for Prosperity and Stefan Gleason of the National Right To Work Legal Defense Foundation. Yellen identifies the first organization a “government watchdog,” but fails to note that it’s primarily funded by the Koch Family Foundation, one of the largest single sources of funding for conservative organizations in the U.S. To get a sense of the group’s orientation, check out their Hot Air Tour, a campaign to prevent the scourge of “global warming alarmism.” National Right to Work isn’t much better. The nonprofit’s sole purpose is to launch legal actions against labor organizations.
Not surprisingly, Calomino and Gleason misrepresent the union’s motivation for working with the governor in 2003 to extend organizing rights to home health care workers employed by the state. Calomino suggests that it was a giant quid pro quo: Blago gave state-funded personal care attendants and home daycare providers the right to organize by signing two executive orders, SEIU netted 70,000 new members (and $11 million in additional member dues), and the union eventually donated $1.2 million dollars towards the governor’s reelection campaign. Gleason makes Calomino’s point even more explicitly: “SEIU wanted to turn them into union members who could be compelled to pay union dues,” he says, “and Blagojevich was happy to oblige.”
But absent from the FOX report—like the trio of ads from pro-business groups that surfaced last week—is any mention of the entire rationale behind labor unions: to fight for better wages, health care, and job security for the average worker. Unions aren’t profit-oriented ventures and the dues they collect are not an end unto themselves. SEIU, the United Auto Workers, and other labor organizations raise money from their members so that they can fight for the bargaining rights of working people.
Indeed, the Illinois home health care workers in question certainly needed someone to stand up for them. From Chris Hayes’ January 2004 In These Times article on the contract negotiated by SEIU:
Illinois’ 37,000 homecare workers may provide vital day-to-day care and assistance for 67,000 state residents, but the majority still make poverty-level wages and receive no health benefits. A study released by Local 880 in April showed that Illinois ranked 44th nationwide in pay rates for homecare workers, with a median hourly wage of $6.60. Nearly half have no medical insurance. And in a survey conducted by SEIU, 49.4 percent said that in the past year they had to choose between buying food and paying utility bills.
FOX called up SEIU for a comment, but officials couldn’t discuss the information because of their cooperation with the U.S Attorney’s ongoing investigation. Of course, countless voices from the labor community could have provided FOX with some contrasting views. Apparently, Yellen wasn’t interested in offering any critical context.
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