Service Employees International Union

Service Employees International Union
Basic facts
Location:	Washington, D.C.
Type:	501(c)(5)
Top official:	Mary Kay Henry
Year founded:	1921
Website:	Official website

Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is a 501(c)(5) labor union representing over 2 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).

In November 2015, the SEIU officially endorsed Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

One of the SEIU's primary initiatives in 2015 and 2016 has been raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour.

The SEIU makes an average of $25 million-worth of political contributions during campaign election years.

Mission

According to the SEIU website, the union's mission is as follows:

“

We are the Service Employees International Union, an organization of 2-million members united by the belief in the dignity and worth of workers and the services they provide and dedicated to improving the lives of workers and their families and creating a more just and humane society.

”

Background

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 Healthcare 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.

SEIU is based in Washington, D.C., and is structured into seven internal departments: Communications, Education, Human Rights, International Affairs, Organization, Political and Research.

Work

Member services

The SEIU is a union representing over 2 million workers in the U.S. It provides benefits to its members, which are paid for through dues and the union's investments. The services provided by the SEIU to its members include the following:

• Advocacy for pension benefits, wages, health care, workplace safety and health, and equality in the workplace.
• Providing education opportunities through education programs.
• Financial services, such as insurance, retail discounts, travel discounts, and banking and investing.
• Member-specific groups that provide common ground for members to advocate for specific issues; such groups include the African American Caucus, the Asian American Caucus, the Lavender Caucus (LGBTQ), and the Retiree Council.

Initiatives

According the SEIU, as of 2016, the union had nine initiatives; some of these initiatives, the union has had for many years, while others are part of the SEIU's newer $15 minimum wage campaign. The campaigns include the following:

• Faculty Forward: "Full and part-time college faculty are coming together to address the crisis in higher education by increasing investment in educators, ensuring affordable, accessible higher education for students and holding for-profit higher education accountable for dismal student outcomes."
• Raising California Together: "Raising California Together is a coalition of child care providers, parents and allies united to ensure working families have access to quality, affordable child care and early learning opportunities."
• Child Care Fight for $15: "People who care for children are coming together in a national movement to get paid fairly so more kids get quality care."
• iAmerica: "iAmerica is a source of empowerment for American immigrant families of all walks of life, providing the tools and support to be informed, inspire change and impact America’s future."
• Raise America: Justice for Janitors: "For 30 years, janitors and their allies have fought for higher wages and standards, becoming one of the most successful underpaid worker movements in recent history. Janitors and working families are joining together nationwide to fight for $15."
• Home Care Fight for $15: "The demand for home care is exploding but the system doesn’t work for anyone. Home care workers and home care consumers are coming together to fight for a living wage of $15 an hour, the right to form a union without retaliation, and a home care system that works for everyone."
• Airport Workers United: "At airports serving more than 393 million passengers per year, underpaid airport workers are coming together to win $15 and union rights while making travel healthier and safer for all."
• Retirement Security: "The economic crisis has put a secure retirement at risk for everyone. we're working together to help deliver retirement security to more people."
• Stand for Security: "Thousands of security officers across the country are uniting to raise industry standards in order to create good jobs and make our communities safer."

Political activity

Endorsements

See also: Hillary Clinton presidential campaign, 2016 and Presidential election, 2016

On November 17, 2015, the SEIU officially endorsed Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. SEIU President Mary Kay Henry stated that "Hillary Clinton has proven she will fight, deliver and win for working families. SEIU members and working families across America are part of a growing movement to build a better future for their families, and Hillary Clinton will support and stand with them." The endorsement means that Clinton has the support, according to Politico, of 9.5 million union members. Clinton responded by stating that she would "stand with SEIU and fight alongside them—to defend workers’ right to organize and unions’ right to bargain collectively, to raise incomes for working people and the middle class, and to ensure that hardworking Americans can retire with dignity and security."

On March 31, 2016, Bill Clinton spoke to members of the SEIU in New York, ahead of that states April 19 primary. The former president had spent the week talking to unions throughout the city to help Hillary Clinton's campaign in the state.

On October 12, 2016, Politico reported that the SEIU had intensified its efforts to encourage voters to vote for Clinton through the union's largest independent expenditure campaign. The SEIU teamed up with Color of Change and NextGen Climate in the campaign and set the spending level at $35 million to target African American, Latino, and Asian and Pacific Islander voters. Efforts in September included 8,400 canvassers and in October almost 3,500 went door-to-door, while the groups anticipated nearly 1,000 canvassers in Pennsylvania, Florida, and New Hampshire in mid-October. The groups have set a goal "to make three stops at over one million doors in Pennsylvania, Colorado, Florida, Michigan, and Virginia," according to Politico.

Targeted candidates

See also: United States House of Representatives elections, 2014

SEIU launched an ad campaign on July 15, 2014, targeting four Republican incumbents in the U.S. House over their chamber’s inaction on immigration reform in 2014. The ad campaign targeted Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) and Mike Coffman (Colorado) (R-Colo.) of Colorado, David Valadao (R-Calif.) of California and Joe Heck (R-Nev.) of Nevada with a series of Spanish-language television ads, which ran for two weeks. The ad buy was in the mid-six figures.

Contributions

The following table is a breakdown of SEIU political contributions for the 2012 and 2014 election cycles:

SEIU Contributions breakdown
Year	Candidate spending	Leadership PACs	Parties	527 groups	Satellite spending (e.g. Super PACs)	Total
2012	$1,829,853	$100,000	$163,172	$9,785,271	$13,370,453	$25,248,749
2014	$1,598,412	$110,000	$145,246	$19,458,803	$2,779,447	$24,091,908

Candidates

The following are the top ten contributions given to candidates by SEIU in the 2012 and 2014 election cycles:

Top 10 largest SEIU candidate contributions in 2012
Candidate	Party	State	Office	Total	Desired Result
Barack Obama		N/A	President	$62,366
Ron Barber		Ariz.	House	$30,250
Suzanne Bonamici		Ore.	House	$20,500
Christopher Donovan		Conn.	House	$19,219
Chris Murphy		Conn.	House	$15,750
Heidi Heitkamp		N.D.	Senate	$15,000
Tammy Baldwin		Wis.	House	$14,250
Janice Hahn		Calif.	House	$12,500
Charles Rangel		N.Y.	House	$12,500
Hakeem Jeffries		N.Y.	House	$12,250

Top 10 largest SEIU candidate contributions in 2014
Candidate	Party	State	Office	Total	Result
Dan Maffei		N.Y.	House	$15,250
Cory Booker		N.J.	Senate	$15,000
Tom Udall		N.M	Senate	$15,000
Henry Waxman		Calif.	House	$15,000	Did not seek reelection
Mark Udall		Colo.	Senate	$13,350
Robin Kelly		Ill.	House	$12,500
Domenic Recchia		N.Y.	House	$10,812
Mark Begich		Alaska	Senate	$10,750
Mark Pryor		Ark.	Senate	$10,500
Brad Schneider		Ill.	House	$10,500

Notable contributions

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, SEIU took out a television ad buy worth "$685,000, one of the "largest of the election" on behalf of Coakley.

Jeff Denham recall

See also: Jeff Denham recall (2008)

The SEIU spent $450,000 in 2008 in an unsuccessful attempt to recall then California State Senator Jeff Denham (R), a Republican who did not vote for its preferred version of the California state budget that year.

California legislature

See also: SEIU California State Council

The SEIU California State Council, an SEIU affiliate, was one of the top five donors of over 40 of the 50 Democratic members of the California State Assembly in the elections of 2008, in most cases giving the maximum legally-allowable donation of $14,400.

Ballot measure activity

SEIU affiliates are significant donors to political committees that both oppose and support ballot measures in states throughout the country.

• SEIU California State Council, the SEIU affiliate in California. The SEIU California State Council is also a major donor to Democratic candidates running for seats in the California State Legislature.
• SEIU 775, the SEIU affiliate in Washington.

2010

See also: 2010 ballot measures

Measure	Subject	SEIU position	SEIU donations	Result
Legalization of Marijuana (California)				d
Congressional Redistricting (Florida)			$225,000	a
Legislative Redistricting (Florida)			$225,000	a

2009

See also: 2009 ballot measures

Measure	Subject	SEIU position	SEIU donations	Result
Proposition 1A (California)	$16 billion tax increase, spending caps		$1.3 million	d
Question 4 (Maine)	Tax relief proposal		$100,000	d
Initiative 1033 (Washington)	Property tax limits		$297,500	d

2008

See also: 2008 ballot measures

Measure	Subject	SEIU position	SEIU donations	Result
Proposition 98 (California)	Protect homes from government seizure		$900,000	d
Proposition 93 (California)	Softening of Term limits		$100,000	d
Amendment 47 (Colorado)	Right to work		$2.45 million	d
Proposition B (Missouri)	Healthcare unions for home workers		$936,000	a
Measures 58, 58 (Oregon)	English immersion, state income tax deductions		$1.2 million	d
Initiative 1029 (Washington)	Training for health care workers		$955,000	a

2007

See also: 2007 ballot measures

Measure	Subject	SEIU position	SEIU donations	Result
Measure 50 (Oregon)	Cigarette tax hike		$142,460	d
Initiative 960 (Washington)	Limits on taxes			a

2006

See also: 2006 ballot measures

Measure	Subject	SEIU position	SEIU donations	Result
Proposition 202 (Arizona)	Minimum wage increase		$615,976	a
Proposition 82 (California)	Free half-day of pre-school for 4-year-olds		$1.5 million	d
Amendment 42 (Colorado)	Minimum wage increase		$21,375	a
Amendment 43 (Colorado)	Definition of marriage		$150,000	a
Proposition B (Missouri)	Minimum wage increase		$210,000	a
Measures 41 and 48 (Oregon)	Income tax deductions, spending cap		$516,632	d
Measure 45 (Oregon)	Term limits		$120,167	d
Measure 46 (Oregon)	Campaign finance		$145,167	a

2005

See also: 2005 ballot measures

Measure	Subject	SEIU position	SEIU donations	Result
State Spending Act, Referendum C (Colorado)	Temporary suspension of the Taxpayer Bill of Rights		$130,000	a

2004

See also: 2004 ballot measures

Measure	Subject	SEIU position	SEIU donations	Result
Prop 200 (Arizona)	Proof of citizenship for voting/benefits		$660,000	a
Prop 56 (California)	Reduce vote threshold needed for state legislature to raise taxes		$9 million	d
Prop 72 (California)	Healthcare		$4 million	d
Amendment 5 (Florida)	Minimum wage increase		$125,000	a
Measure 36 (Oregon)	No same-sex marriage		$10,962	a

2002

See also: 2002 ballot measures

Measure	Subject	SEIU position	SEIU donations	Result
Proposition 42 (California)	Funding for transportation		$950,000	a

2000

See also: 2000 ballot measures

Measure	Subject	SEIU position	SEIU donations	Result
Proposition 38 (California)	School vouchers		$200,000	d

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	d

Leadership

Below is the list of the SEIU leadership:

• Mary Kay Henry, President
• Mike Fishman, Secretary and Treasurer
• Gerry Hudson, Executive Vice President, Government Affairs
• Eileen Kirlin, Executive Vice President, Public Services Division
• Valarie Long, International Executive Vice President, Property Services Division
• Rocio Saenz, International Executive Vice President

Finances

The following is a breakdown of the SEIU's revenue from membership dues, total revenue and expenses for the 2011-2014 fiscal years, as reported to the IRS.

Membership dues, total revenue and expenses for the SEIU, 2011-2014
Tax Year	Membership dues	Total annual revenue	Expenses
2014	$262,596,932	$280,911,171	$268,653,068
2013	$289,287,744	$299,195,705	$282,510,507
2012	$296,877,091	$307,310,607	$317,869,822
2011	$295,218,541	$313,328,684	$281,833,023

Noteworthy events

Budget cuts

On December 27, 2016, The Hill reported that the SEIU announced an overall 30 percent budget cut for the union. The first cuts took place in January 2017 and eliminated 10 percent of their spending. Mary Kay Henry, the SEIU president, in a memo stated "the far right will control all three branches of the federal government, we will face serious threats to the ability of working people to join together in unions." She added that the organization needed to "focus our resources and energy on the fights that position us to retake power in 2018, 2020 and beyond." By January 1, 2018, according to the union, it would have cut out the full 30 percent from their budget.

Texas SEIU bankruptcy

On December 6, 2016, the Houston Chronicle reported that the Texas branch of the SEIU had filed filed for bankruptcy. The bankruptcy, in part, was a result of a lawsuit filed against the union nine years ago by Professional Janitorial Service. The company claimed that the union employed an "aggressive organizing campaign [that] went too far and maligned the commercial cleaning company's reputation" by charging that the company had "violated wage, overtime and other labor laws." The jury, who decided the case in September 2016, sided with Professional Janitorial Service. The company was awarded $5.3 million. However, the union's failure to pay increased the award, due to interest, to $7.8 million. Brent Southwell, CEO of Professional Janitorial Service, wrote that "The SEIU won't escape its fate after attacking my company. We will keep this process going for as long as the SEIU wants, first by making them reveal their secrets and then by making the union's Washington, D.C., office pay for its sins." The attorney for Professional Janitorial Service, John Zavitsanos, suggested that the Texas SEIU filed for bankruptcy protection because the company was moving forward to make the "debt an obligation of the international union, rather than just the local."

The SEIU Texas released a statement stating the following:

“

This filing ensures that our union will remain open for business, representing members at the bargaining table and maintaining the vital role the union plays in helping working Houstonians have a voice at work, protecting them from unfair employers, and building a better future for their families.

”

$15 minimum wage

In 2012, SEIU initiated the Fight for $15, an initiative to raise the federal $7.25 minimum wage to $15. The movement has influenced voters in New York, Seattle, and Los Angeles. On March 28, 2016, California Governor Jerry Brown announced that he was seeking to bring the state's minimum wage to $15 by 2021. According to Bloomberg, SEIU President Mary Kay Henry "is gambling that the Fight for $15 will help save her union." Henry argues that "increasing standards for the worst-paid workers is bolstering her members’ efforts to win bigger raises. SEIU leaders also believe pressure on fast-food corporations will eventually yield a deal that covers millions of workers, improves their lives, and includes a funding mechanism for the campaign to continue—even if the result doesn’t look like a traditional union." Critics have noted that the union's fight for $15 is more likely compensating for significant losses in membership—between 2010 and 2014, the union lost 23,000 members—which SEIU supporters describe as an "outmoded way of thinking about labor;" in contrast they say they are looking to new models, such as New York's Freelancer's Union, in which the union funds itself by taking a commission on health insurance and other services, rather than collective bargaining.

In an effort to step up the union's Fight for $15 movement, the SEIU sponsored 340 protests throughout cities across the U.S. on November 29, 2016. Airport workers in Boston's and Chicago's airports stopped work. Fast food restaurant employees reportedly went on strike as well, accroding to The Guardian. Some protesters were arrested in Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles and the Boston metro area as well as in New York. Two hundred protesters were said to be at Zuccotti Park, where Occupy Wall Street protest had taken place.

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.

Opposition

Airbnb talks

In 2015, the SEIU had begun negotiations with Airbnb regarding housekeeping for Airbnb customers' homes. The negotiations involved a proposal, wherein Airbnb would promote union housekeepers to its customers. The talks were criticized from sectors within the SEIU, especially hotel workers from the Unite Here union, a SEIU affiliate. After some negotiation, the SEIU dropped talks with Airbnb and decided to support Unite Here. The SEIU stated in a press release that they and Unite Here "met and have agreed to find a common approach to protect and expand the stock of affordable housing in all communities across the country and to protect and preserve standards for workers in residential and hotel cleaning while also growing opportunities for these cleaners to improve their lives."

Unite Here's main criticism of the talks was that any agreement made between the SEIU and Airbnb would have indicated support, on the part of SEIU, of Airbnb's purported "illegally turn[ing] their [Airbnb customers] homes into hotels, which removes permanent housing from the market and exacerbates affordable housing shortages in cities." In 2015, the SEIU and Unite Here both supported Proposition F in San Francisco. The proposition was defeated, but had it passed, it would have severally restricted Airbnb's activity.

Media

The following is a selection of media released by the SEIU; other videos can be found on the SEIU YouTube channel.

Recent news

The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms Service Employees International Union. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.

Service Employees International Union - Google News

See also

• SEIU Local 503 (Oregon)
• AFL-CIO
• Hillary Clinton

External links

• SEIU International
• SEIU on Facebook
• SEIU on Twitter