Oregon: Seiu

... from the news blog that keeps a watchful eye on organized labor - the political backbone of the Progressive movement - The Union News. ... revisit the past week's top stories. (click on the date for that day's full news post)
February 28.

Social-justice protests sweep U.S. ... Several thousand neopatriots – some shouting “Give me liberty or give me death!” – took to the streets in over 30 US cities Friday, representing what some of them call the beginning of a new conservative counterculture in America. “The spark has been lit,” says Ben Mihalski, a “house husband” from Cobb County, Ga.

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. -- Seeing hundreds of people in purple Service Employees International Union T-Shirts on Monday morning passing out signs supporting Democratic presidential nomiee Barack Obama (D-Ill.) was a Democratic Convention déjà vu. It certainly seemed out of place at the La Quinta Inn, which was home to Oregon and Iowa's delegations for the Republican National Convention.

Steve Novick is taking some heat today from organizations including the SEIU, AFL-CIO, and Oregon Nurses Association over wording in on one of his recent pieces of direct mail, which raises the question of just what constitutes negative campaigning in this heavily contested U.S. Senate primary.

The piece points out a number of differences between Novick and Democratic primary rival, state House Speaker Jeff Merkley, including early opposition to the war in Iraq, Social Security taxes and, for these unions, the kicker: Health care.