Breakthrough Gains for Workers and the Public
SEIU local unions’ decisions to increasingly pool resources and strength have led to the development of new models of organizing that overcome employer opposition and other barriers to unite workers on a large scale.
Homecare. SEIU members’ combined political strength in California and the combination of local, state, and national resources made it possible to help home care workers there establish their legal right to a union, which in turn led to a coordinated effort to help their counterparts in Oregon, Washington, Michigan, Illinois, Massachusetts, Ohio, and Wisconsin to do the same.
Childcare. Building on the experience in homecare, SEIU locals pooled financial and political strength to help 49,000 child care providers in Illinois win the right to a union, and then began spreading that model to Oregon, Washington, Maryland, Maine, and Pennsylvania. To date, more than 75,000 family child care providers have united in SEIU and there are current campaigns in Massachusetts, California, Connecticut, and Rhode Island to unite an additional 120,000.
Security. SEIU property services local unions used their combined strength and global relationships with unions in other countries to win an agreement with the largest security company in the world – based in Sweden – and then worked from that base to help thousands of mostly African American security officers to organize and improve their lives.
Hospitals and nursing homes. We have won national agreements with some of the largest hospital chains that helped nearly 4,000 workers at hospitals in Florida to organize so they could negotiate agreements on improvements for themselves and their patients. We won agreements with national nursing home chains that led to respect for workers’ rights and common efforts to win badly needed funding.
Multi-service. In a joint campaign, SEIU and UNITE HERE are working together to unite workers in the multi-service industry that is dominated by huge global corporations that contract to provide food and other support services to governments, businesses, hospitals, school systems, universities, and other institutions. Together we have won agreements with two of the three largest multi-service firms that give workers the freedom to form a union through majority sign-up and have helped 14,000 workers gain a union so they can win improved pay and benefits.
South and Southwest. Following the
members' decision at SEIU's 2004 Convention to help unite workers in
non-union regions of the United States, more than 35,000 have gained a
voice with SEIU in the South and Southwest. In Texas alone, nearly
20,000 employees have united with SEIU. Using our existing strength in
dealing with national building owners and cleaning contractors,
janitors in non-union markets such as Houston and Miami were able to
organize, win improvements and lay the groundwork for more victories in
the South. In addition, SEIU members in Colorado recently won the
right for more than 30,000 state employees to form a union and
negotiate for improvements in their jobs and services.