SEIU Chief says the Democrats Lack Fresh Ideas

Stern Asserts That a Kerry Win Could  Set Back Efforts to Reform the Party
Breaking sharply with the enforced harmony of the Democratic National Convention, the president of the largest AFL-CIO union said Monday that both organized labor and the Democratic Party might be better off in the long run if Sen. John F. Kerry loses the election. Andrew L. Stern, the head of the 1.6 million-member Service Employees International Union (SEIU), said in an interview with The Washington Post that both the party and its longtime ally, the labor movement, are "in deep crisis," devoid of new ideas and working with archaic structures. Stern argued that Kerry's election might stifle needed reform within the party and the labor movement. He said he still believes that Kerry overall would make a better president than President Bush, and his union has poured huge resources into that effort. But he contends that Kerry's election would have the effect of slowing the "evolution" of the dialogue within the party. Asked whether if Kerry became president it would help or hurt those internal party deliberations, Stern said, "I think it hurts." [more]

• The 1.6 million-member SEIU is the largest and fastest growing union in the AFL-CIO, and the largest union of health care workers in North America.