Introduction
The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is one of the most influential labor unions in the USA, with representing a whopping 2 million members. The primary objective of the SEIU is to organize the workers in three major sectors, namely, property services, health care and public services (About).
SEIU’s main belief that unites the 2 million members is to protect ‘the dignity and worth of workers and the services provided are dedicated by SEIU to improve the lives of workers and their families and creating a more just and humane society’ (About).
Types of work SEIU members do
The work is done by SEIU members for the three sectors, i.e. health care, property services, and public services (Infocards).
Healthcare
The largest union in North America is the healthcare arm of SEIU, in view of the member’s count that is 1.1 million strong. It includes, doctors, nurses, and nursing home workers; besides that the health care union, also includes the dietary aides, environmental service workers and lab techs on the member’s portfolio.
The health care union came into existence in 2007, with the sole vision of formulating a united platform for health workers in the United States, Puerto Rico and Canada; who have been providing quality service to 60 million patients across the countries in an efficient and effective manner (Infocards).
Property Services
The workforce is categorized by the low end force from different sectors, providing significant services, which includes, janitorial jobs, cleaning jobs, maintenance and arena workers’ jobs, security and other related jobs.
The SEIU has one of the largest unions of property services contingent, under their umbrella, and for more than 20 years have been campaigning successfully for economic justice for workers effectively.
Public Services
This category includes the governmental workers, from schools, bus drivers, and child care providers and early child care professionals, the public services is the second largest public service union with over 1 million workforce on the union’s platform.
SEIU Structure
It is important for an organization of the magnitude of SEIU; to operate, manage such a huge workforce and the sectors effectively, to get the desired results in relation to wages, benefits and rules and regulations in the workplace, while representing the workers. The team includes officers, constitutions, governing bodies, and bylaws (Infocards).
Structurally, besides the local unions, there are more than 15 state councils representing a particular state, working tirelessly to organize and combine programs and campaigns effectively.
SEIU History
SEIU as mentioned above is one of the strongest unions globally and with such an extensive operational set up, it is important to check the storied history of this dynamic entity, that initiated by the union of immigrant janitors in 1921, from Eastern Europe, Spain Turkey Africa and Ireland in Chicago, and formed the Building Service Employees International Union (BSEIU) (History).
The company today is rooted in the heritage with the primary focus being standing at the forefront of the immigrant justice. The name change to SEIU was done in 1968 and with a modest start with 200 members the company grew to 25,000 members by 1960, and now stands at 2 million members (History).
SEIU being launched by immigrants, constitutes the largest representation than any other union, the growth of SEIU also includes, mergers, with different unions, to create one strong voice.
The year 2004 saw a restructured strategy to restore and rebuild the labor movement after the presidential elections, to stop the years of union decline, and SEIU merged with four other major unions International Jewelry Workers Union and the Drug, Hospital, and Health Care Employees Union (SEIU History).
The main aspect of the Unions premise was to move with the flow of the ongoing trends and in this regard in 2005, in association with 6 other unions, namely, the Teamsters, UNITE HERE, the United Food and Commercial Workers, the Laborers, the Carpenters and the United Farm that Workers formed the Change to Win Federation that represents 6 million workers, to attain maximum benefits of the changing global economy (SEIU History).
Anna Burger was elected as the CTW federation chair to head the labor federation, making her the first woman in the US history (SEIU History).
The aforementioned, showcase, the best aspect of the SEIU in relation to standing up for communities irrespective of the gender, caste, color, and creed.
Way Forward
SEIU has taken up the minimum wage fight and are part of a strong movement to empower the 64 million Americans and also other workers on a global level, to stand up against minimum wage less than $15 (Blog).
The intention of every labor movement is to create noise, and with strong support, generated from Hillary Clinton, supporting the #Fightfor15 and on a global level, Jeremy Corbyn supported the push, and the SEIU is leading the push for achieving the minimum wage increase not only in the USA, but on a global level (Blog).
The future looks busy for SEIU, and to able to achieve the objective, it needs to push on and add more unions on a global level, to create more pressure and noise.
Works Cited
About. Services Employees International Union (SEIU) 2016. Web 28 April, 2016.
Blog. The Fight for $15 is a global movement 2016. Web 28 April, 2016.
History. A union of janitors is born 2016. Web 28 April, 2016.
Inforcards. What type of work do SEIU members do? 2016. Web 28 April, 2016.
Inforcards. How is SEIU structured? 2016. Web 28 April, 2016.
Inforcards. What does SEIU do? 2016. Web 28 April, 2016.
SEIU History. SEIU Minnesota State Council 2016. Web 28 April, 2016.
