Readers here may be familiar with the internal battle inside one of the country’s largest unions, SEIU.  The head of SEIU, Andy Stern, gave his leading opponent two WHOLE minutes to speak on a resolution on the floor of their annual convention in Puerto Rico. 

Stern, of course, is a backer of appeasement in China with the Chinese government’s labor arm and as indicated in Roselli’s remarks seems to have picked up on some intimidation tactics while on his visits to Beijing over the last few years.

What is, thankfully, missing from this brief video of a roundtable discussion on labor and globalization held at the SEIU convention in Puerto Rico? Representatives of the state run labor organization in China, the All China Federation of Trade Unions! Only genuine union representatives from Canada, South Africa, the U.S., and elsewhere. 

Perhaps the ACFTU was lurking off camera, who knows. But I consider this a small victory in light of the new cozy relationship between SEIU’s Andy Stern and the Chinese regime. Perhaps Stern knew that bringing his friends from Beijing over to Puerto Rico would have provided his opponents in the rank and file membership a lightning rod for galvanizing their effort to restore democracy to the union. 

Not long ago, Sal Rosselli, the California-based leader of the SEIU opposition, sponsored a visit by independent Chinese labor leader, Han Dong Fang, to Los Angeles. A video of Han’s remarks to an SEIU audience can be seen here.

And, of course, a video of my debate with the academic supporters of the ACFTU can be found here.