SEIU Secretary-Treasurer's Office
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1 Building Bridges: the Challenge of Organized
BUILDING BRIDGES: THE CHALLENGE OF ORGANIZED LABOR IN COMMUNITIES OF COLOR Robin D. G. Kelley New York University [email protected] What roles can labor unions play in transforming our inner cities and promo ting policies that might improve the overall condition of working people of color? What happens when union organizers extend their reach beyond the workplace to the needs of working-class communities? What has been the historical role of unions in the larger struggles of people of color, particularly black workers? These are crucial questions in an age when production has become less pivotal to working-class life. Increasingly, we've witnessed the export of whole production processes as corporations moved outside the country in order to take advantage of cheaper labor, relatively lower taxes, and a deregulated, frequently antiunion environment. And the labor force itself has changed. The old images of the American workingclass as white men residing in sooty industrial suburbs and smokestack districts are increasingly rare. The new service-based economy has produced a working class increasingly concentrated in the healthcare professions, educational institutions, office building maintenance, food processing, food services and various retail establishments. 1 In the world of manufacturing, sweatshops are coming back, particularly in the garment industry and electronics assembling plants, and homework is growing. These unions are also more likely to be brown and female than they have been in the past. While white male membership dropped from 55.8% in 1986 to 49.7% in 1995, women now make up 37 percent of organized labor's membership -- a higher percentage than at any time in the U.S. -
One Industry, One Union, One Contract: How Justice for Janitors Organized
ONE INDUSTRY, ONE UNION, ONE CONTRACT: HOW JUSTICE FOR JANITORS ORGANIZED THE INVISIBLE CHRISTINA SPRINGER UCLA DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY Under the Direction of PROFESSOR TOBIAS HIGBIE 2 ABSTRACT The neo-liberal economic reforms of the 1980s changed the distribution of power in the Los Angeles union landscape. Unions were in an age of decline as immigration increased, leading to severe exploitation of the janitorial work force. The Justice for Janitors movement revitalized the presence of the Service Workers International Union (SEIU) in Los Angeles, restoring power and leverage to workers in the building services industry. The movement developed new and innovative strategies to level the playing field between building owners, cleaning contractors, and individual laborers. Justice for Janitors also succeeded in educating and mobilizing the undocumented workforce, a feat thought to be impossible by many. This essay provides a narrative review of the Justice for Janitors movement in Century City from 1990- 1991, based on recovered archival data, and provides an extensive analysis of the factors that led to violent police action against peaceful protestors on June 15th, 1990. KEYWORDS SEIU, union decline, building services, immigration, undocumented labor. 3 INTRODUCTION1 The City of Angels was booming in the 1980s. Population growth skyrocketed, and Los Angeles overtook Chicago as the second largest city in the United States2. New wealth poured into the thriving economy as domestic and foreign investors alike purchased property and centered their businesses in Los Angeles office parks that glittered with California sunshine. Thousands of bankers, lawyers, and businessmen made comfortable salaries in the city during the day, then returned to cushy lives in the suburbs where they basked in the luxury of the entertainment capital of the world. -
7 Justice for Janitors Goes Dutch
7 Justice for Janitors goes Dutch Precarious labour and trade union response in the cleaning industry (1988-2012): a transnational history* Abstract Precarious labour has been on the rise globally since the 1970s and 1980s. Changing labour relations in the cleaning industry are an example of these developments. From the 1970s onwards, outsourcing changed the position of industrial cleaners fundamentally: subcontracting companies were able to reduce labour costs by recruiting mainly women and immigrants with a weak position in the labour market. For trade unions, it was hard to find a way to counteract this tendency and to organize these workers until the Justice for Janitors (J4J) campaigns, set up by the us-based Service Employees International Union (seiu) from the late 1980s, showed that an adequate trade union response was possible. From the mid-2000s, the seiu launched a strategy to form international coalitions outside the United States. It met a favourable response in several countries. In the Netherlands, a campaign modelled on the J4J repertoire proved extraor- dinarily successful. In this chapter, transnational trade unionism in the cleaning industry based on the J4J model will be analysed with a special focus on the Dutch case. How were local labour markets and trade union actions related to the transnational connections apparent in the rise of multi-national cleaning companies, the immigrant workforce, and the role of the seiu in promoting international cooperation between unions? Keywords: outsourcing, precarious work, precariat, cleaners, janitors, organizing, transnationalism, regulatory unionism, industrial relations, The Netherlands * Reprinted from Ad Knotter, ‘Justice for Janitors Goes Dutch. Precarious Labour and Trade Union Response in the Cleaning Industry (1988-2012): A Transnational History’, International Review for Social History 62(1) (2017), 1-35. -
Andy Stern - Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia Andy Stern from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia
6/7/13 Andy Stern - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Andy Stern From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Andrew L. "Andy" Stern (born November 22, 1950), is the former president[7][8] of the 2.2 million-member Service Andy Stern Employees International Union (SEIU), the fastest-growing union in the Americas. SEIU is the second largest union in the United States and Canada after the National Education Association.[9][10] Stern was elected in 1996 to succeed John Sweeney. He is currently a Senior Fellow at Columbia University.[11] Stern is intent upon influencing federal legislation that helps revitalize the labor movement through universal health care, expanding union ranks via the Employee Free Choice Act,[12] stronger regulations on business, profit sharing for employees, higher taxes, and efforts consistent with the improvement of the lives of Born Andrew L. Stern [citation needed] workers. November 22, 1950 West Orange, New Jersey For his talent at recruiting new members, Stern has been described as the "most important labor boss in America".[13] Nationality United States Stern is unapologetic about targeting private equity firms, Education B.A., 1971 shaming business leaders, and competing to build SEIU's Alma mater University of Pennsylvania membership: “We like to say: We use the power of persuasion first. If it doesn't work, we try the persuasion of Title International President, SEIU [14] power”. The share of workers belonging to a union in Term 1996–2010 2008 showed the largest annual growth rate since the first Predecessor Richard Cordtz report in 1983.[15] Growth in SEIU in 2008—88,926 members[16]--accounted for nearly 21 percent of the national Successor Mary Kay Henry union membership growth. -
Economic Restructuring, Immigration and the New Labor Movement: Latina/O Janitors in Los Angeles
The Center for Comparative Immigration Studies CCIS University of California, San Diego Economic Restructuring, Immigration and the New Labor Movement: Latina/o Janitors in Los Angeles By Cynthia Cranford University of Southern California Working Paper 9 May 2000 1 Comments are welcome. Please do not cite without the consent of the author. Economic Restructuring, Immigration and the New Labor Movement: Latina/o Janitors in Los Angeles Cynthia Cranford Introduction The move toward a service-based economy has forced the American labor movement to change. The growing low-wage service sector is characterized by “flexible’ production resulting in contract, temporary, part-time or other casualized work. Labor law drafted in the pre-war era is ineffective protection for these new, casualized service-sector jobs; and labor protections were eroded in the Reagan decade. Restructuring has been achieved through processes of racialization as recently arrived immigrant women and men were recruited to the downgraded jobs. At the same time their work is made invisible through a gendered, anti-immigrant discourse that constructs them as economic burdens. In response to these structural changes, many unions have returned away from the bureaucratized, business unionism of the post-war era and have begun to organize the Latino and Asian immigrant women and men concentrated in these sectors. These unions have returned to a ‘community unionism,’ using direct-action organizing tactics successful in earlier periods of unionization. Like in previous historical moments when restructuring and immigration collided, immigrant women are active participants in this ‘new’ labor movement. In this paper I examine whether these processes affect relations of gender and race, with a case study of the Justice for Janitors (J4J) organizing campaign of the Service Employees International Union’s (SEIU) in Los Angeles. -
Presidential Documents
Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Monday, April 29, 1996 Volume 32ÐNumber 17 Pages 693±733 1 VerDate 28-OCT-97 08:06 Jan 08, 1998 Jkt 010199 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 1249 Sfmt 1249 W:\DISC\P17AP4.000 p17ap4 Contents Addresses and Remarks Executive Orders See also Bill Signings Order of Succession of Officers To Act as Lebanon agreementÐ725 Secretary of DefenseÐ721 Legislative agendaÐ723 Maryland, Earth Day in Great FallsÐ704 Interviews With the News Media National Teacher of the Year award Exchanges with reporters ceremonyÐ707 Briefing RoomÐ723, 725 Radio addressÐ695 Oval OfficeÐ712 Service Employees International Union St. Petersburg, RussiaÐ693 conventionÐ714 News conference with President Yeltsin of Bill Signings Russia in Moscow, April 21 (No. 120)Ð696 Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 Joint Statements RemarksÐ717 Russia-U.S. Highly Enriched Uranium StatementÐ719 AgreementÐ703 Omnibus Consolidated Rescissions and Appropriations Act of 1996, statementÐ726 Meetings With Foreign Leaders 13th continuing resolution, statementÐ722 Lebanon, President HarawiÐ712 Communications to Congress Russia, President YeltsinÐ693 Colombian drug traffickers, message Proclamations reportingÐ710 Jewish Heritage WeekÐ693 Environmental management, messageÐ729 National Crime Victims' Rights WeekÐ694 Savings Association Insurance Fund legislation, letterÐ723 Statements by the President Communications to Federal Agencies See Bill Signings Environmental management, Supplementary Materials memorandumsÐ729, 730 Public-private partnerships for protection of Acts approved by the PresidentÐ733 national parks, memorandumÐ705 Checklist of White House press releasesÐ732 Transportation planning to address impacts of Digest of other White House transportation on national parks, announcementsÐ731 memorandumÐ706 Nominations submitted to the SenateÐ732 Editor's Note: The President was in Philadelphia, PA, on April 26, the closing date of this issue. -
1 Unionising the Low Paid in London: the Justice for Cleaners Campaign: a Case Study Professor Jane Holgate Professor of Work An
Unionising the low paid in London: the Justice for Cleaners campaign: a case study Professor Jane Holgate Professor of Work and Employment Relations Centre for Employment Relations, Innovation and Change, University of Leeds Business School, University of Leeds, LS2 9HT [email protected] Written in February 2009 as a research contribution for the book Mobilizing against Inequality: Unions, Immigrant Workers, and the Crisis of Capitalism, Lee Adler, Maite Tapia and Lowell Turner (eds.), Ithaca: ILR Press, 2014. 1 Unionising the low paid in London: the Justice for Cleaners campaign: a case study Data presented here has been collected over a number of years since 2001 from interviews with organisers and members in the East London Communities Organisation (Telco) and their parent organisation, London Citizens, and from attendance at assemblies, meetings, demonstrations and training sessions. Interviews have also been held with trade union officials and organisers in London. Many of the interviews have been anonymised in order to encourage participants to speak openly and without restraint. Summary This case study looks at organising low paid cleaners in London – the vast majority of whom are migrant workers. It begins with a historical overview of union organising of cleaners in London and then moves on to look more specifically at a few linked campaigns. The first is the organising of migrant cleaners led by London Citizens, a broad-based community coalition affiliated to the Industrial Areas Foundation. This group began the London Living Wage campaign and then this was taken up by Unite the union, the UK’s largest private sector union, which has been organising cleaners across the city of London since 2004. -
Unions and Low-Wage Immigrant Workers
Revised 04 /05 /048/3101 Unions and Low -Wage Immigrant Workers: Lessons from the Justice for Janitors Campaign in Los Angeles, 1990- 2002 * Christopher L. Erickson 1 Catherine L. Fisk 2 Ruth Milkman 3 Daniel J.B. Mitchell 4 Kent Wong 5 * A different version of this paper of this paper is forthcoming in the British Journal of Industrial Relations (2002). This version of the paper is a work in progress and should not be cited or attributed without permission of one of the authors. 1 Anderson Graduate School of Management, UCLA 2 Loyola Law School, Los Angeles. Visiting Professor, UCLA Law School (spring 2002). Visiting Professor, Duke University School of Law (fall 2002). 3 Department of Sociology, UCLA 4 Ander son Graduate School of Management and School of Public Policy and Social Research, UCLA 5 Center for Labor Education and Research, Institute of Industrial Relations, UCLA 1 Unions and Low -Wage Immigrant Workers: Lessons from the Justice for Janitors Campaign in Los Angeles, 1990-2002 What is the future of unionization in the low-wage American workplace? It has become cliché to observe that union density in the private sector to a near -historic low of nine perc ent. The usual suspects blamed for the decline (besides apathetic unions) include increased use of subcontracted labor and the growing percentage of the low-wage workforce who are difficult -to - organize immigrants in insecure service sector jobs. In explaining why subcontracted labor and immigrants are so hard to organize, unions and scholars frequently point to outmoded and allegedly repressive labor law. -
An Encyclopedia
Linga B/950635 AN ENCYCLOPEDIA Volume One David J. Leonard and Carmen R. Lugo-Lugo, editors SHARPE REFERENCE an imprint qfSd.E. Sharpe, Inc. Contents Topic Finder ix Blowouts 73 Contributors xv Bolivians 74 Acknowledgments xix Boricua 76 Preface xxi Boxing 77 Bracero Program 78 Volume 1 Brazilians 80 Essays Brothers to the Rescue 82 History: 1492-1900 3 Brown Berets 83 History: 1900-1965 11 History: 1965-Present 19 Carnalismo 87 Castellanos, Rosario 88 A-Z Entries Castillo, Ana 89 Acculturation and Assimilation 31 Castro, Fidel 90 Acosta, Oscar 34 Central American Resource Center 93 Acuna, Rodolfo 35 Chavez, Cesar 95 Afro-Latinos 36 Chavez Ravine 98 Afro-Mexicans 38 Chicago 99 AIDS/HIV 39 Chicanisma 101 Alamo, Battle of the 43 Chicanismo 103 Albizu Campos, Pedro 46 Chicano/a 106 Algarin, Miguel 47 Chicano Art 107 Alvarez, Julia 48 Chicano Movement 109 American GI Forum 50 Chicano Studies Ill Anaya, Rudolfo Alfonso 52 Chileans 113 Anzaldiia, Gloria 53 Cholos 115 Arenas, Reinaldo 54 Cinco de Mayo 116 Argentines 55 Circular Migration 119 ASPIRA 57 Cisneros, Henry 121 Aztlan 58 Cisneros, Sandra 123 Clemente, Roberto 124 Baca, Judith F. 61 Cofer, Judith Ortiz 125 Balseros 62 Colombians 127 Baseball 63 Communist Party 128 Basketball 66 Community Service Organization 130 Bay of Pigs Invasion 68 Congressional Hispanic Caucus 131 Bear Flag Revolt 69 Conquest of the Americas 132 Bilingualism 70 Consumerism 135 Blair House Attack 72 Corona, Bert 137 Corridos 139 Gonzalez, Elian 209 Costa Ricans 140 Gonzalez, Henry Barbosa 210 Coyotes 141 Gonzalez, Jose-Luis 212 Cruz, Celia 143 Graffiti 213 Crystal City, Texas 144 Grape Strikes and Boycotts 215 Cuban Adjustment Acts (1966, 1996) 145 "Greaser Act" (1855) 218 Cuban American National Foundation 146 Gringo 219 Cuban Refugee Center 148 Grito, El 220 Cuban Refugee Program 149 Guagua Aerea 221 Cubans 150 Guatemalans 222 Culture Clash 152 Guevara, Ernesto "Che" 224 Gutierrez, Jose Angel 226 De La Hoya, Oscar 155 Del Rio Independent School District v. -
Metropolitan Detroit AFL-CIO Council: Tom Turner Records
Metropolitan Detroit AFL-CIO Council: Tom Turner Collection Papers, 1920-1984 (Predominantly, 1968-1984) 124 linear feet 1 oversize folder Accession #53 DALNET # OCLC # Tom Turner served as president of the Metropolitan Detroit AFL-CIO Council from 1969, when the Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb County AFL-CIO Councils merged, until 1986. Prior to his election as president, Turner worked in the United Steelworkers of America Local 1299 as a steward in the Checking Department. He worked his way through the administrative ranks with the USWA and was appointed to the staff of District 29 in 1964. The following year Turner went to work for the Wayne County AFL-CIO as the administrative assistant to President Al Barbour. In 1967 he won election to the organization's vice presidency. The Wayne County AFL-CIO Council's Executive Board elected him president in 1968. The Executive Board of the Metro Detroit Council approved his election overwhelmingly at the merger convention in 1969. Turner was active in the civil rights movement, serving as president of the Detroit NAACP from 1968 until 1970. He sat on the national board of the A. Philip Randolph Institute, and on several committees of New Detroit, Inc. He also served on the board of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and on the National Council for Health Planning and Development. Other organizations in which he has been involved include the United Foundation's Labor Participation Committee, the Metro Detroit Convention and Visitors Bureau, the Trade Union Leadership Council, the Detroit Economic Growth Corporation, and the Oakland-Livingston Human Services Agency. -
Detroit the MICHIGAN LABOR LEGACY PROJECT, INC
LABOR’S LEGACY A landmark for Detroit THE MICHIGAN LABOR LEGACY PROJECT, INC. Gerald Bantom, President Donald Boggs, Secretary-Treasurer Ken Terry, Trustee David Elsila and David Ivers, Coordinators David Hecker, Fund Raising Committee Chair CREATORS OF “TRANSCENDING”: DAVID BARR AND SERGIO DE GIUSTI WITH SPECIAL THANKS FOR THEIR WORK ON THE LABOR LEGACY PROJECT TO Mike Kerwin, UAW Local 174 Lisa Canada, Metro Detroit AFL-CIO Richard Berlin Steven P. Bieda Sheryl Singal Al Carnes James V. Settles Jr. Alberta Asmar Mary Ellen Riordan Patrick Devlin Marilyn Wheaton, director, Detroit Dept. of Cultural Affairs The Michigan Council for the Arts and Cultural Affairs City of Detroit Mayor’s Office; City Council; Planning, Recreation, and Civic Center Depts. And to our jury, which chose the winning design from 55 entries: Dr. Graham Beal, director, Detroit Institute of Arts; Camille Billops, co-director, Hatch-Billops Collection, New York; Bill Black, director, legislative and community affairs, Teamsters Joint Council; Dr. Melba Boyd, director, Dept. of Africana Studies, Wayne State University; Paul Krell, director, UAW Public Relations Dept. ARCHITECTURAL CONSULTANT AND PROJECT COORDINATOR Merz & Associates, LLC Charles Merz, AIA Tony Maceratini Ron Alpern SITE CONTRACTORS Turner Construction: Steve Berlage, vice-president and general manager; Ron Dawson, project executive; special thanks to Charlie Hornacek and Sean Hollister Aristeo Construction: James E. Like, vice-president, William Litz, project director Barton Malow: Douglas L. Maibach, -
Cleaning up the Service Sector: the Justice for Janitors Campaigns In
Cleaning Up the Service Sector: The Justice for Janitors Campaigns in Washington, D.C. and Atlanta, GA By: Alyssa Russell Honors Thesis Submitted to the Department of History, Georgetown University Thesis Advisor: Joseph A. McCartin Honors Program Chairs: Professor Amy Leonard and Professor Katherine Benton Cohen 8 May 2017 Russell 1 Table of Contents Acknowledgments 2 Introduction 4 Introduction 4 Background on Early U.S. Labor Organizing and Law 7 History of the SEIU 12 Background on Janitorial Industry 15 History of the Justice for Janitors Campaign 17 Chapter 1: Atlanta Divided Against Itself Will Not Win 21 Setting the Scene 22 Confrontation from the Beginning 23 Support in Both Familiar and Unsuspected Places 25 Court Battles Persist 29 A Movement United 30 Officials Begin to Sweat in ‘Hotlanta’ 31 1988 Democratic National Convention, A Moment of Missed Opportunity 33 Back to Court and Last Campaign Efforts 36 Last Efforts 40 Chapter 2: “D.C.’s Having Carr Trouble” and the Janitors Know How to Fix It 43 Washington, D.C. Background 44 Purposefully Inclusive 45 Oliver Carr: The Target of the D.C. Campaign 48 Local Government On Their Side: Mostly Favorable Rulings for Justice for Janitors 49 The Precipice of the D.C. Campaign 51 Victory! (Finally) 54 Chapter 3: Why Atlanta Fell Short and D.C. Eventually Succeeded 56 The Activists 56 Atlanta Racial Demographics and History 57 D.C. Racial Demographics and History 58 The Local Government 62 Atlanta’s Mayor and Congressional Representative 63 D.C.’s Mayor and Congressional Representative 65 The Corporate 68 The Corporate Structure 68 The Corporate Targets 69 A Time Stamp on Atlanta, Was it Defeated Before it Began? 71 Conclusion 74 Bibliography 80 Primary Sources 80 Archival Sources 80 Other Primary Sources 80 Secondary Sources 87 Appendix 91 Atlanta Justice for Janitors Timeline 91 Russell 2 Acknowledgments I am incredibly honored to write this thesis about the Justice for Janitors campaigns in Atlanta and D.C.