With the entire external organizing crew focused on long term community projects exclusively in Portland, I can only wonder how this was sold to the membership, or in fact, if it even was sold to the members.  read more »

First of all, I learned something important about the whole California debacle. I'm not going to out my sources about this. I am satisfied that they are reliable. My information is from people who participated fully in the restructuring meetings. But I'm not going to name names, so I understand that this brief narrative will be taken with a grain of salt. That's fine.  read more »

I'm just going to confess. I'm weary of our little shout outs. I don't think they are effective, in fact I suspect they piss more people off than they convert to our cause. We ought to rethink our methodologies. We need to disseminate good, well detailed information, confronting the tough questions, not side-stepping or spinning them.

It is often said that Democrats have a wide tent. As one with a long background in structural inspections, I would remind us that once a tent structure reaches a certain critical width, it will collapse. I've witnessed the Democratic Congress collapse under it's own 60 vote weight on issues critical to American working families. The Republicans have shown unity. The Democrats are self-destructing. I can't say it any plainer.  read more »

After a long time where I've woefully neglected my posting, I'm going to share a random thought I had last month.

This was right before the May primary election. Driving down the I-5 corridor, the various candidate signs were lining the sides of the freeway both northbound and southbound. Then, one day, out-of-the-blue, nestled in amongst the "Vote For ME" signs, there was a new addition. It read, "Cage Fight!"

It seems like a good idea whose time has come.

I know that some brothers and sisters in 503 think this is an "anti-503" site, but I haven't read anything that gave me that impression. The only hang up I see is the name "eye on the 503" because it's so similar to the anti-SEIU union, NUHW, which has a web site called "Eye on SEIU."
I'd like to see this site become a worthwhile, constructive forum for good union members to express themselves. Just a thought, would changing the name possibly help?
Respectfully,
-Buck Eichler, SEIU 503 retirees