SEIU

  • California Reformers Beat Appointees in SEIU Megalocal’s First-Ever Election
    Larry Bradshaw
    Feb 28 2010 - 10:23am

    Reform forces from across Service Employees Local 1021 swept out appointed leaders in the local’s first-ever elections. The reform slate took 26 of 28 positions, including the top seven spots, in an important test of SEIU's "megalocal" model.

  • Who Are the Partners in Kaiser Partnership?

    Book Review: Healing Together: The Labor-Management Partnership at Kaiser Permanente, by Tom Kochan, Robert McKersie, Adrienne Eaton, and Paul Adler (Cornell ILR Press, 2009)

    Most labor relations academics are unabashedly anti-union, reflecting the influence of business and the decline of organized labor. The authors of Healing Together are pro-union in the sense that they still see a place for unions in the modern economy, even if that place is to assist management.

  • Oregon Unions Save Services, Tapping Voter Anger to Tax Wealthy
    by Margaret Butler
    Feb 18 2010 - 4:45pm

    Faced with more public services blood-letting, Oregon voters chose to tax those most able to pay. It’s given union activists hope that relentless organizing can settle bulging state deficits by targeting recipients of the bubble economy's billions.

  • Service Unions Try for Patterns
    Mark Brenner
    Feb 16 2010 - 8:57am

    A few unions are forcing new types of pattern bargaining onto the table. While service sector unions usually have limited themselves to setting standards within local labor markets, UNITE HERE is using its Hotel Workers Rising campaign to push for a sort of pattern in the major chains it has organized.

  • How Could Little NUHW Beat Giant SEIU? Stewards.

    Here’s my 2 cents on the NUHW win among the Kaiser Permanente professionals. In my view, it was the result of several key ingredients—but especially the existence of stewards councils that continued on their own even under the SEIU trusteeship:

  • NUHW Takes Kaiser Elections
    Mark Brenner
    Jan 26 2010 - 5:09pm

    The National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW) chalked up an important win today in Southern California as hundreds of professional and technical workers at Kaiser Permanente voted to leave the Service Employees (SEIU) and join the upstart NUHW.

  • Labor Notes Conference: Home-based Workers Swelling Labor's Ranks, Still Struggling for Dignity and Power

    One unique aspect of the Labor Notes Conference is the special meetings that allow far-flung activists to gather and share information on a rare cross-union basis. This year's April 23-25 conference in Detroit will feature a daylong meeting of those involved in organizing and representing home-based workers—challenging work undertaken in the absence of a common workplace.

  • Viewpoint: Pink Sheeting Debate Only a Pretext for Attack
    Chuck Hendricks
    Jan 8 2010 - 11:00am

    I am not aware of any current UNITE HERE staff who think pink sheeting is a real issue—either important or widespread enough—for us to pursue. Nor have I seen abuses like those claimed. Most of us, however, are clear about how the allegations of pink sheeting have been used against UNITE HERE.

  • Viewpoint: Pink Sheeting and Harmful Organizing Methods at UNITE HERE
    Arlen Jones, Greg Hoffman
    Jan 8 2010 - 11:00am

    UNITE HERE is known as a dynamic organizing union that mobilizes its members around effective comprehensive campaigns. But it suffers from a deeply undemocratic decision-making structure that uses abusive methods to recruit and retain low-level staff and members—and to quiet dissent.

  • Bronx Battle Line: Development on City's Dime Must Push Up Wages
    by Mischa Gaus
    Jan 7 2010 - 5:49pm

    Refusing to promise a living wage, a New York retail developer lost out on about $60 million in subsidies. Campaigns nationally are tying public money used in mega-projects to decent wage and working standards.