From Ballotpedia
Service Employees International Union (
SEIU) is a labor union representing 1.9 million workers in about 100 occupations in the United States and Canada. The main divisions are health care (around 50% of the union's membership), including hospital, home care and nursing home workers, public services (government employees), and property services (including janitors and security officers).
SEIU is based in Washington, D.C., and is structured into seven internal departments: Communications, Education, Human Rights, International Affairs, Organization, Political, and Research.
History
The SEIU was founded in 1921 in Chicago; its first members were janitors, elevator operators, and window washers. Membership increased significantly with a strike in New York City's Garment District in 1934. Formerly known as the Building Service Employees' International Union, it absorbed the International Jewelry Workers Union in 1980 and later the Drug, Hospital, and Health Care Employees Union (Local 1199), Health & Human Services Workers.
In 1995, SEIU President John Sweeney was elected president of the AFL-CIO, the labor federation that serves as an umbrella organization for unions. After Sweeney's departure, former social worker Andrew Stern was elected president of SEIU. In the first ten years of Stern's administration, the union's membership grew rapidly, making SEIU the largest union in the AFL-CIO by 2000.
Election involvement
Secretary of State Project
SEIU is a core member of the Secretary of State Project. The purpose of the project, according to founder Becky Bond, is to elect Democrats to positions as Secretaries of State because "Any serious commitment to wrestling control of the country from the Republican Party must include removing their political operatives from deciding who can vote and whose votes will count.”[1]
Coakley/Brown campaign
- U.S. Senate special election, Massachusetts, 2010
In the last week of the January 2010 contest between Scott P. Brown and Martha Coakley in Massachusetts to fill the seat in the United States Senate made vacant by the death of Ted Kennedy, At around the same time, SEIU took out a television ad buy worth "$685,000, one of the largest of the election" on behalf of Coakley.[2]
Jeff Denham recall
- See also: Jeff Denham recall (2008)
The SEIU spent $450,000 in 2008 in a vain attempt to recall California State Senator Jeff Denham, a Republican they sought to punish because he did not vote for their preferred version of the California state budget that year.[3]
Petition blocking lawsuit
- See also: Petition blocking
On October 30, 2007, Ralph Nader named SEIU as a co-defendant in Nader v. DNC. In the ultimately unsuccessful lawsuit, 2004 Reform Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader accused the Democratic National Committee of "groundless and abusive litigation" to bankrupt Ralph Nader's campaign and force him off the ballot in 18 states.[4]
Ballot measure activism
SEIU affiliates are significant donors to political committees that both oppose and support ballot measures in states throughout the country.
2010
2009
2008
- See also: 2008 ballot measures
2007
- See also: 2007 ballot measures
2006
- See also: 2006 ballot measures
2005
- See also: 2005 ballot measures
2004
- See also: 2004 ballot measures
2002
- See also: 2002 ballot measures
2000
- See also: 2000 ballot measures
1998
- See also: 1998 ballot measures
| Measure
| Subject
| SEIU position
| SEIU donations
| Result
|
| Proposition 223 (California)
| Limit on how much a school district can spend on administrative costs
|
| $100,880
|
|
External links
References
- ↑ Discover the Networks - Secretary of State Project (SOSP)
- ↑ Boston Globe "Union plans major ad buy for Coakley" 12 Jan. 2010
- ↑ Hank Shaw's blog, Denham Recall: Labor adds another $450k, April 30, 2008
- ↑ "Nader sues, claims Democrats sabotaged his 2004 campaign", October 31, 2007
Parts of the original version of this article were taken from Wikipedia's article on the Service Employees International Union, under the GDFL license, when Wikipedia still used the GDFL license.