Dave Regan, executive vice-president of SEIU and appointed trustee of SEIU-UHW gave a speech last night to hundreds of SEIU organizers who have been shipped into Fresno from around the country.

Dave Regan is the public face of SEIU in Fresno County where 10,000 homecare workers are voting in an election to leave SEIU and join their own union, NUHW.  Here's a sample of what SEIU's top spokesperson in Fresno had to say:

Local California blogger Adios Andy has a great post up about how workers from all over California are volunteering in the upcoming June election in which 10,000 Fresno County homecare workers are seeking to leave SEIU and join NUHW.

For the last month, Andy Stern's SEIU has been trying to stop worker activists at Doctors Medical Center in San Pablo from organizing to win an election and build their own union, NUHW. Today they counted the votes.

158 workers voted for NUHW.
24 workers voted for SEIU.

There's a story behind this David vs. Goliath victory, and it has implications for everyone who cares about the labor movement and grassroots efforts to build workers' power. Let me tell you why...

Sometimes in the midst of a broader organizing effort there's a moment that clarifies exactly what you're fighting for. NUHW activist and union member Eloise Reese-Burns has just such a moment to share with us tonight.

Eloise Reese-Burns has worked as a certified nursing assistant at Cottonwood Healthcare in Woodland California for 39 years. This month, along with 350 of her co-workers, she become one of the first official members of NUHW, a member-led union of healthcare workers formed just this year.

Building NUHW will not be easy. But Eloise Reese-Burns explains why it is necessary...

When Alec MacGillis of the Washington Post noted last Wednesday that this is "an awkward moment for the SEIU," he alerted readers to a reality those following the labor movement have recognized for some time.

Andy Stern, President of SEIU, viewed as "a possible savior of labor" per MacGillis, has led SEIU into a pattern of activity that calls into question whether SEIU's leaders really believe in the principles they claim to stand for.

The simplest way to understand the gap between SEIU's words and its actions is to understand that, for Andy Stern, the consolidation of power has consistently trumped principle. While supporting Stern and SEIU once seemed like 'one stop shopping' for progressives looking to support workers, that support increasingly comes at the price of turning a blind eye to a troubling pattern of hypocrisy.

In the five weeks since SEIU International trusteed California's SEIU-UHW West something enormous has transpired: California's healthcare workers have spoken.

What those workers have said is crystal clear: We choose NUHW.

{Tonight, Amy Thigpen, the author of this diary, and members of UHW are sleeping in their union halls across California due the threat of imminent seizure of those buildings by SEIU International, which instituted a takeover of UHW West today. Tonight, I'm posting this diary for Amy while we work on getting her and other members a mydd userid. -paul delehanty}

Last night I slept on the kind of carpet you don't really want to examine too closely.  It's splotched with decades of coffee stains and salsa and too many conversations still seem to hang in the stale air, but there I was, curled up on my air mattresses in the union hall in downtown Oakland, the home of United Healthcare Workers West, my union.   On my right my sister the Medical Assistant slept peacefully, on my left my sister the Call Center Representative, across my sister the Ultrasound Technician, and my sister the Optical Technician.  All of them healthcare workers, member leaders and officers in our union.  I realized that I loved this stale, stained room, with carpets held together by duct tape, I love the room because it holds the waking dreams of my sister and brothers in UHW-W.  The place may be held together by duct tape but we as a union are held together by something stronger.

When we got word that the format of Scott Kleeb's debate against Mike Johanns in Grand Island, Nebraska last Thursday night allowed Scott to ask Mike a direct question, there was no question what our campaign would do.

We turned that debate question over to Scott's Nebraskan supporters.

Our campaign sent out an email across Nebraska and in response Scott received 164 questions to ask Mike Johanns at the debate. Now, while these questions speak a great deal about how Nebraskans feel about Mike Johanns, we think they speak even more powerfully about the concerns Nebraska's voters have about the future of our nation.

Tonight, I'd like to invite you to take a look at what amounts to a snapshot of Nebraska and the issues facing our nation in 2008...