SEIU Rejoins AFL-CIO
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Back in 2005, SEIU led a group of unions out of the AFL-CIO to form an alternative federation. Change to Win was supposed to revitalize organizing. It turned out to be SEIU leader Andy Stern’s project to stroke his own ego and nothing else. Completely worthless. Most of the unions soon left it. But SEIU stayed out of the AFL-CIO. I always thought this was really bad. As a huge and politically activist union, the AFL-CIO needed it to counter the more conservative building trades. Finally, twenty years later, SEIU is returning to the fold.
The Service Employees International Union, which represents nearly two million workers in industries like home health care and janitorial services, said on Wednesday that it would become part of the A.F.L.-C.I.O., an umbrella group of more than 50 unions that represent more than 12.5 million workers.
The boards of the two groups formally approved the affiliation arrangement earlier in the day.
April Verrett, the service employees’ president, said in an interview that the union had begun discussing the possibility of joining the A.F.L.-C.I.O. almost two years ago, and that discussions with the federation and its president, Liz Shuler, accelerated early last year.
In a statement, the two groups said the partnership would help them push for changes to local, state and federal rules that made it easier for workers to join unions, and help them support “multiunion, multisector” campaigns to organize workers.
The story is largely just public labor speak, which means it tells as little as possible. The real impact here, or potential impact, is the internal direction of the AFL-CIO, providing a huge barrier to unions playing footsie with Trump to push the federation that way, putting more money toward organizing efforts, and bringing the union that best knows how to organize the 21st century workforce into the fold.