Talk:Service Employees International Union

Puerto Rico

The sentence about Rivera working with Puerto Rico's governor to organize teachers is basically contradicted by the article it references. Rivera worked with the governor to break an already existing union in Puerto Rico. 141.140.6.181 (talk) 20:46, 14 April 2008 (UTC)

Category

I started Category:Service Employees International Union, and put a few local unions into it. I'd like to move this page to the same cat. If no one objects I'll move it in a few days. (Or feel free.) Bookandcoffee 18:39, 22 April 2006 (UTC)

Done.--Bookandcoffee 19:40, 7 May 2006 (UTC)

Stand for Security

Is anyone capable of writing an NPOV article on the SEIU's latest efforts under the "Stand For Security" organization? I'm afraid that I'd be POV on the subject. Pyrogen 21:59, 26 June 2006 (UTC)

Ordering Locals List

Any suggestions on how to make sense of the list? Some ideas: by primary jurisdiction (as many locals represent workers in multiple jurisdictions), geographically, by date chartered (would be hard to research, complicated by mergers), or numerically (entirely arbitrary). - -Fcendejas 01:58, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

My opinion is that although arbitrary, I would find a numerical order the easiest to use to find a specific local. Also, as you mentioned, any other order has inherent complications because of overlap. --Syndicalista 02:30, 8 April 2007 (UTC)

1199

I just fixed the separate references to Drug, Hospital, and Health Care Employees Union and Local 1199 as they refer to the same thing. Right now the entry is under Drug, Hospital, and Health Care Employees Union. I am going to move the entry to Local 1199 as that is the name by which everyone refers to the union. Nspeelman 23:49, 23 August 2006 (UTC)

The Lusty Lady

By no means is this intended as a slight to the sex workers of the world... but does it strike anyone else as odd that one shop should have more content than the mergers of entire national unions? I am going to create a "Trivia" section and move the Lusty Lady bit down there. Nspeelman 23:49, 23 August 2006 (UTC)

527-group cat

Maybe this is just picky, but aren't all unions 501(c)5's, not 527s? Wouldn't it would be more correct to note that SEIU (and other unions) have affiliated 527s', e.g. COPE, but are not classified as such? Fcendejas 04:35, 8 October 2006 (UTC)

I agree. SEIU is NOT a 527. It is a 501 (c)5. It should not be categorized as one. Nspeelman 00:15, 10 October 2006 (UTC)

Advertisement

The article, as currently written, lacks references, citations, footnotes, or other information to support the claims. It seems to lack a neutral tone, such as the reference to the AFL-CIO's refusal to accept the Change to Win proposals. It speaks about gains in certain states, without providing a source for the claims. Although some cleanup may fix the problem, I think that the article's current wording lacks objectivity and at times reads like an advertisement for SEIU activities. Deseavers 05:56, 3 January 2007 (UTC)

I agree that the article needs work, including critisism and the addition of references. It's unfortunate that one of the largest unions in North America has nothing more than an intro and small history section. However, I removed the {{Advert}} tag, as it is clearly not an advert, nor does it read like one.--Bookandcoffee 20:18, 3 January 2007 (UTC)

I don't think it's "clearly" not an advertisement, but I'll defer. But citations are needed, and I suggested some areas where the claims, while possibly true, need sources.Deseavers 05:20, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

It does not read like an advertisement to me at all. Agreed that more cites would be good, though. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 204.130.0.8 (talk) 18:50, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

POV-check nomination

I'd like to hear others' thoughts on the NPOV of this article, including a fair way to sort the list of locals. -- 66.159.216.215 05:13, 11 February 2007 (UTC)

Seems ok to me as is. Anybody mind me getting rid of the neutrality box at the top? Thereisnowhy 21:44, 22 May 2007 (UTC)

I took the tag off.--Bookandcoffee 05:29, 2 August 2007 (UTC)

Update for SEIU NV

I do not know how, but can someone update SEIU Local 1107's web address to:

www.seiunv.org

Thanks —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 216.241.56.58 (talk) 21:42, 5 March 2007 (UTC).

Edits

In the sentence referencing "Purple Ocean", I removed "- the first organization of its kind.". The AFL-CIO created Working America in 2003-- it never amounted to anything, but it was first. And other unions like the IWW have allowed at-large members for many years, as have coalitions like Jobs with Justice. Even before the IWW and the old AFL existed, the Knights of Labor long ago started as an organization mostly of at-large members (or at least membership wasn't necessarily organized around a particular workplace or employer). Then there was De Leon's organization after the Knights. And there were similar organizations around even before the Knights. I know SEIU people like to think the history of the labor movement started with them or only the historical figures the leadership chooses to acknowledge, but come on now.

Also, regarding the Lusty Lady, I changed "successful union drive" to read "union drive to result in a collective bargaining agreement". Saying it was the only successful union drive makes two assumptions, at least one of which is inaccurate or at least thoroughly subjective, and the other unlikely in my opinion.

1. It presumes the only "successful" union drive is one in which a majority of bargaining unit members authorize a union as their exclusive bargaining representative then achieve a first contract. If that's the only measure of success, then you'd have to dismiss most of the history of union activism in America prior to 1936 as nothing but abject failure, as well as dismiss the victories won by minority unions in the U.S. today and most of the rest of the world where exclusive bargaining representation is not the norm and collective bargaining agreements may or may not be concluded despite a constant presence of union activity.

2. It assumes there has been no history of minority union activity in strip clubs that have won any gains for the dancers. Considering how long strip clubs have been around and the long history of minority union activity in this country, that's a HUGE assumption to make.

--Nicky Scarfo 19:57, 30 March 2007 (UTC)

Organizing in the south

I did some research to check on the statement regarding renewed organizing efforts/successes in the four southern states mentioned, because someone had flagged that statement as needing a citation. I added some details for two of the four states mentioned, and I'll try to do the other two when I have additional time to contribute. But I certainly won't mind if anyone else wants to take a stab at it. --Syndicalista 02:30, 8 April 2007 (UTC)

SEIU Local 503, OPEU Adult Foster Care Home organizing

"This is the first time adult foster care providers were able to form a union in the United States.[citation needed]"

Since you do not allow "original research," I can cite an indirect confirmation for this statement -- "[Les] Smith adds, 'In 35 years of practice in labor relations, I have never heard of a situation where a group of employers have been pulled together to become "employees" and find a union to bargain on their behalf.'" (http://oregontaxresearch.com/fosterhome.htm), where Smith is a (management) labor attorney hired by opponents of organizing adult foster care providers. While he and I disagree on the appropriateness of organizing adult foster care providers, we agree that it has not happened before, at least in the US.

Because this is the first successful union organizing campaign for adult foster care providers -- and perhaps the first attempt, but failed attempts are harder to research -- and has only recently occurred (in fact, some aspects of the organizing are still ongoing), there are few references to it, and none placing it in a broader context of long-term care organizing. In the case of the similar homecare organizing, it took several years before "neutral" studies began appearing.

Were it not a violation of the Wiki rules against original research, I would offer myself as a source. I was (am still) the lead organizer on this campaign, myself did initial research looking for other similar campaigns, had follow-up research done by one of our staff researchers and by SEIU International's legal staff (looking for legal precedents for this), and none of us could find any previous example of adult foster care providers being organized. But none of the research we did was -- or is ever likely to be -- published. We did find that there was organizing of adult foster home caregivers (ie, the employees of providers) in Michigan, but that is significantly different from organizing the providers.

BTW, the second such campaign is in the state of Washington, where it is now certain that there will be an adult foster care providers union, although it has not yet been determined which of two labor entities (AFSCME/WFSE or an independent union) will represent them. Expect to see more of these provider unions emerge across the US in the next few years.

Bill Kelsey, SEIU Local 503, OPEU kelseyb@opeuseiu.org 64.122.196.98 21:04, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for trying. If you can ever get quoted in say, the Statesman Journal or The Oregonian, that would be ideal. I suppose in a few years as this movement catches on, the news stories will say that Oregon was the first. Anyway, I just looked to try to find something to back up this statement. (which I don't doubt is true, but it should be cited) I couldn't find anything, but I did find this piece from 2003 that might be used to flesh out info about the earlier campaigns. http://www.paraprofessional.org/publications/Victories_for_home_health_care_workers.pdf Katr67 22:11, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

11/13/07 - Citations added from 11/11/07 Statesman Journal article re: this is first adult foster care union in US; SEIU 503 is now largest union in Oregon; organizing of commercial and relative adult foster care providers. 64.122.196.98 20:01, 13 November 2007 (UTC)