Twenty-eight elected members of the executive board of United Healthcare Workers-West, the third largest local of the Service Employees International Union, have filed a federal lawsuit accusing the top officers of the international with violating the members' right to free speech. (Torres v. Service Employees Int'l Union, N.D. Cal, No. C08-04368, complaint filed 9/17/08).

The lawsuit, brought one week before internal trusteeship proceedings against UHW-W, alleges that SEIU President Stern and Secretary-Treasurer Anna Burger have violated Title I of the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act. UHW-W contends that these leaders have engaged in a "lengthy, pervasive, and unprecedented campaign of retaliation" against dissenters, creating an "atmosphere of intimidation that has, and will continue to, chill criticism of their policies and conduct." The suit also charges Stern has spent millions of dollars of SEIU members' dues money to finance his "internal war."

The lawsuit charges that Stern and Burger:

-- sought a trusteeship of UHW for political purposes and in violation of federal law and the SEIU Constitution;

-- used mailings and recorded phone calls to spread false information about UHW leadership;

-- collaborated with anti-union employers to undermine UHW's organizing and collective bargaining efforts;

-- filed frivolous litigation attacking UHW's elected leaders;

-- “carpet-bombed” SEIU leadership nationwide with negative publicity, attacks and threats aimed at UHW, “sending an unmistakable message that any dissent would be met with an iron fist.”

Union leaders accusing union leaders of efforts to chill free speech, retaliate against dissenters, and create an atmosphere of intimidation. Yet this is the very environment that the labor movement asserts does not exist when union leadership engages in organizing activities. The allegations in this lawsuit ought to raise further concern for those who oppose EFCA’s efforts to eliminate the protection of the secret-ballot in union recognition efforts.