"Stop Union Busting"—Unionized SEIU Staffers authorize a strike against the SEIU
SEIU's union staffers marched on SEIU management's offices, chanting “No Contract, No Peace!”
Union members of the Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU) Local 2 employed by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) at its Washington, DC headquarters announced on Twitter on Tuesday that they have authorized a strike against their employer, the SEIU.
“SEIU International Pres. Mary Kay Henry uses delay tactics and corporate tricks to bust our union!”
BREAKING: unionized staff at @SEIU have authorized a STRIKE to win pay that keeps up with the cost of living because @MaryKayHenry and @aprildverrett continue to utilize corporate tricks and delay tactics instead of bargaining with us in good faith. #UnionsForAll starts at home!
This isn’t the first time the relationship between SEIU and its unionized staffers has been acrimonious.
In 2019, the OPEIU-represented workers at SEIU accused the mega union of “union busting” as well.
During that dispute, the staffers walked off their jobs and hung a large banner on the side of SEIU’s headquarters building—which appears to be the same banner used in Tuesday’s social media posts.
In the 2019 dispute, SEIU staffers “alleged that SEIU has systematically shrunk the bargaining unit the union represents by more than 50% over the last decade,” reported the Washington Times at the time.
The union staffers claimed the SEIU “dismissed some workers and falsely classified senior staffers as managers ineligible to collectively bargain,” the Times reported, and that the “SEIU has even outsourced office work in order to undermine their bargaining unit.”
Although the 2019 dispute between the SEIU and its staffers was eventually resolved with a new contract, that contract is up to be renewed.
In Tuesday’s series of tweets, the union staffers demanded “the same respect, protection and pay that [SEIU President Mary Kay Henry] @MaryKayHenry preaches.”
As we applaud @REIuniondurham who just WALKED OUT and won a tentative agreement, we’ve voted to authorize a STRIKE so we can do the same. Unionized staff at @SEIU are demanding the same respect, protection and pay that @MaryKayHenry preaches when she says we need #UnionsForAll
In another tweet, the union called on SEIU President Mary Kay Henry and SEIU Secretary-Treasurer April Verrett, “who claim to be progressive, to live their values.”
In yet another tweet, the SEIU staffers claim that “SEIU International Pres. Mary Kay Henry uses delay tactics and corporate tricks to bust our union!”
At one point on Tuesday, it appears that union staffers marched on SEIU management's offices, chanting “No Contract, No Peace!” and claimed that management “chose to lock their doors.”
Although alluded to in the tweets earlier on Tuesday, according to a tweet late Tuesday evening, the SEIU staffers’s chief demand appears to be for “pay that keeps up with the cost of living.”
Although 95 percent of the unionized staff reportedly authorized a strike, that does not necessarily mean that a strike will occur. Rather, a strike authorization vote by union members gives union officials the membership’s authority to call a strike if needed.