Breaking News: SEIU Takes Over Oakland Affiliate; Local Boss Roselli Bounced

A press release just issued by the Washington, D.C. headquarters of the Service Employees Union International announced it has served trusteeship papers on its rebel health-care workers local, known as the United Healthcare Workers-West. The Oakland-based UHW, headed by its president, Sal Rosselli, has been engaged over the last few years in a struggle with SEIU's executive board, led by its president, Andy Stern, over the latter's program of consolidating the union's locals into more centralized mega-locals. In particular, Stern has ordered that 65,000 UHW members, who care for home shut-ins, be removed from Rosselli's control and placed into one giant local of long-term-care employees, based in Los Angeles.