SEIU Joins AFL-CIO to Build Worker Power, Win Unions for All Workers
PHOTO: Officers with the AFL-CIO officially presents the SEIU with its new charter to affiliate with the AFL-CIO at the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Civil and Human Rights Conference.
The AFL-CIO and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) announced Wednesday that they are reuniting to launch a new, long-term effort to make it easier for workers to win a voice on our jobs with their unions. Two million SEIU service and care workers will join the nearly 13 million-member AFL-CIO, and together, we will push back on union-busting and win for working-class families.
At a critical moment when everything is on the line for the nation’s working people, the labor movement is uniting to challenge the status quo and build a movement of workers who will fight—on the job, in the streets, at the ballot box, in our communities—for higher pay, expanded benefits and new rules that empower them to join together in unions and organize across industries.
"Workers know it’s better in a union, and together we are stronger in our organizing and bargaining fights because there is power in unity,” said AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler.“CEOs and billionaires want nothing more than to see workers divided, but we're standing here today with greater solidarity than ever to reach the 60 million Americans who say they’d join a union tomorrow if the laws allowed and to unrig our labor laws to guarantee every worker in America the basic right to organize on the job.”
With this news, millions of workers are doubling down on a vision to fundamentally transform our lives. Workers want to join unions because we know that pay is too low and grocery bills are too high. Child care costs as much as rent, which also costs more than it should. Everything we need to live is just one more chance for corporations to profit from us.
“SEIU members are ready to unleash a new era of worker power, as millions of service and care workers unite with workers at the AFL-CIO to build our unions in every industry and every ZIP code,” said SEIU International President April Verrett. “Working people have been organizing our workplaces and communities to build a stronger economy and democracy. We are ready to stand up to union-busters at corporations and in government and rewrite the outdated, sexist, racist labor laws that hold us all back. We’re so proud to join together as nearly 15 million members to redouble our commitment to building a thriving, healthy future for working people.”
Millions of workers across the United States are locked out of labor law, including critical protections and union rights, due to a history of systemic racism, sexism and fierce corporate opposition to unions. Nonetheless, over the past year working people have joined together to make significant gains, including electric bus manufacturing workers at Blue Bird winning a union contract in Georgia, drivers for ride-sharing services winning the right to join a union in Massachusetts, and workers across Missouri winning a $15 an hour minimum wage and guaranteed paid sick leave.
“I’m proud to be part of the next generation of the labor movement,” said Naomi Martinez, a Starbucks barista from Phoenix. “We’re taking on big corporations that try to stand in our way, standing up to politicians who try to divide us, and creating powerful connections with workers across industries as we win and build our unions together.”