SEIU Houston Janitor Victory

The SEIU organizing drive among janitors in Houston is a success! What's interesting about the victory--other than the fact that it brings in 5,000 new members in the hard-to-organize South--is the way the victory was pulled off.

Check out these two paragraphs:

The service employees, which led a breakaway of four unions from the A.F.L.-C.I.O. last summer, has used several unusual tactics in Houston, among them lining up the support of religious leaders, pension funds and the city's mayor, Bill White, a Democrat. Making the effort even more unusual has been the union's success in a state that has long been hostile to labor.

"It's the largest unionization campaign in the South in years," said Julius Getman, a labor law professor at the University of Texas. "Other unions will say, 'Yes, it can be done here.' "

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They Are Out!

The Change To Win coalition is now officially breaking with Big Labor. Will this signal a new era of militant unionism in America and internationally? Only time will tell. The always excellent Johnathan Tasini over at Working Life has the full scoop:

Well, not that this surprises anyone here but, yes, SEIU and the Teamsters have pulled out of the Federation—effective immediately (sorry for the delay—can you believe it, no wireless at the press conference!!!). And I hear from insiders that the UFCW will pull out by the end of the week. As for UNITE HERE, a senior person told me, "that the other shoe doesn't always drop on the same day."

Read more...

Change To Win Coalition

June 15, 2005 marks a momentous day in labor history.

The Change To Win Coalition was formed on June 15, 2005, and is an embryonic formation initially made up of the five largest unions within the AFL-CIO, including the SEIU, Teamsters, UFCW, UNITE-HERE, and the Laborers. As of June 27 the Carpenters union has also joined.

The goal is to "...to promote coordination, cooperation and collective action on organizing, bargaining and political action on a local, national and global scale. This organization, currently named the Change to Win Coalition, would also be open to other unions, including the Carpenters, who share our goals. It will enable this group of unions to carry out innovative strategies to advance workers’ interests."

The combined unions now represent over 6 million American workers.

The coalition has put together a 43-page document outlining a series of resolutions to be presented during the upcoming AFL-CIO (of which all these unions are members) convention on July 25th. A summary of the resolutions can be found at Working Life where Johnathan Tasini (JT) has posted The Insurgent Convention Agenda.

In fact, most of this post is summarized from the Working Life blog, which is an excellent insider blog about American labor in general, and JT is a contributing writer for TomPaine.com and the Utne Reader, as well as the author of several books.

The SEIU Gets Smart(er)

The University of Iowa (UI) is in the same boat as many colleges. Namely budget shortages due to capital projects and poor spending practices by senior administrative staff, leaving the majority of staffers left holding the bill -- in the form of low wages.

Over 3,600 professional staff are saying enough is enough, with 1,100 signing on to file a petition to join SEIU Local 199. After the regents passed a wage increase of 4.5%, which I'm absolutely sure they thought was exceedingly generous on their part, the staff at UI decided it was time to take action.

UI research scientist Gerene Denning said:

"What I found was sometimes it was very hard to get the P&S staff perspective sort of heard, and I think that's part of what a union does for you," said Denning, who has been a UI professional and scientific staff member for about 25 years. "It kind of gives you an organization through which you and your peers could sort of have a voice in things."

The average pay for these staffers at UI is $50,000 per year, which is very poor indeed when you consider that the jobs often require advanced degrees, even PhDs, and that senior administrative staff make well over six-figures for largely managerial duties.

The bottom line is that the big-money alums could care less about worker's wages, and that attitude carries over throughout the senior administration. It is not a priority unless the workers make it a priority. The only way to effect that change is to organize. The alternative is to watch your paycheck degrade vís-a-vís inflation while some fat-cat slaps his WASP last name on another building that no one needs.

Read more here and here.