New Orleans     We followed with interest a story in the New York Times today by Steven Greenhouse about yet another new initiative by the Service Employees International Union called Qvisory Tools for Life. With the article was a picture of the CEO for Qvisory, named Eileen Quigley, that had her hidden in a window behind a tree and was so obscure that I missed it the first several times I looked at the article. What is a Qvisory?

* It’s on-line.
* It’s for young workers below 35.
* It’s funded by SEIU and the Rockefeller Foundation — strange bedfellows
* Despite being on-line it will charge fees for the services.
* It’s purpose is to provide financial information and services (insurance and credit cards maybe)

Hmmmm. And, SEIU is putting in $500,000 in order to do exactly what? Andy Stern, SEIU President said two things:

* “This new effort is seeking to be a safety net for these young people as they move from job to job.”
* “What I’ve learned, for better or worse, is that when it comes to an online community, they lead you, you don’t lead them.”

Huh? So, what is this really? Is this a way for SEIU to aggregate lists of younger workers for other reasons either organizational or political? Let’s hope so. On it’s face unless something like that is the case, this seems like a project that doesn’t make much sense for SEIU or much of anyone else.

I’m missing something. Help me?