SEIU & Obamacare

"...Card check [Democrat's 'Employee Free Choice Act'] is all about helping SEIU [Service Employees International Union] take over the health care sector; Mr. Obama's health care plan is all about pouring more government revenues into [SEIU President Andy] Stern's bailiwick. That's why the two are related. Private sector unionism hasn't fared well in recent decades (think GM), but labor has flourished in the public sector, where union bosses can maximize the return on their political clout while insulating their members from the competitive pressures of the marketplace. Obamacare would make Mr. Stern king of 17% of GDP.

"Maybe it's not a coincidence that Massachusetts, which in recent years introduced a universal health care mandate, is also the scene of a big SEIU organizing campaign. Boston's SEIU chapter is furiously pushing to unionize the big teaching hospitals. It's already put two years into Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and up next are Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women's Hospital. The union has also successfully organized more than 20,000 home health assistants in the state and has won an agreement from Christi Health Care not to oppose its efforts to unionize about 13,000 employees at six hospitals owned by the Archdiocese of Boston.

"Card check would certainly make this work easier. The health-care revolution, it seems, will be unionized."

-- Brendan Miniter, Wall Street Journal