Service Employees International Union chief Andy Stern has been closely associated with the young Obama administration, visiting the White House weekly and providing assistance in the President's efforts to pass comprehensive health care reform. While the SEIU reportedly spent $60 million in an effort to get Obama elected, Stern's level of access to the administration is proving controversial among some government officials and even other union leaders.
See "Obama's curiously close labor friendship", Peter Nicholas, Los Angeles Times, June 28, 2009