It included robo calls and mailings soliciting disgruntled members, and a website alleging lavish spending among HERE leaders. The secessionist campaign-aimed at discrediting HERE leaders and the merger itself-was launched with help from Steve Rosenthal, a consultant with ties to SEIU.

“We see this as having the big brother on the football team,” said a UNITE-side staffer. HERE declined, but International President Bruce Raynor, UNITE’s pre-merger leader, pursued talks. SEIU President Andy Stern offered UNITE HERE a place within the Service Employees union in late January.

The regional boards, called “joint boards,” scheduled a late-March convention in Philadelphia for Workers United, where the color scheme is sure to be some shade of purple. At the Pennsylvania-wide meeting, however, hundreds of elected delegates voted unanimously to leave UNITE HERE. In Philadelphia, 14 of the 21 voting delegates were paid staff. The votes to secede were cast by around 1,000 delegates nationwide, who are elected in some regional boards and handpicked in others. UNITE and HERE merged in 2004, but their clashes over control of resources and organizing strategy are reaching a fever pitch. At a mid-March executive board meeting, HERE allies vowed to recover ownership of the boards’ property and funds, and moved to slap lawsuits on officials who used union funds in the secession attempt. HERE leaders failed to stop the regional board votes in court, which they say are unrepresentative and violate the union’s constitution. UNITE leaders embraced a partnership with the Service Employees (SEIU), and signaled they would form a new union, Workers United, to compete for members in HERE’s hotel and gaming jurisdictions-while snatching as many members as possible on the way out. The months-long tug of war within UNITE HERE continued in March when UNITE-controlled regional councils voted to leave the union.

Union unite here news on casino merger