SEIU Annual Report
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Change<br />
That<br />
Andrew L. Stern<br />
International President<br />
Anna Burger<br />
International Secretary-Treasurer<br />
Works<br />
Mitch Ackerman<br />
Executive Vice President<br />
Mary Kay Henry<br />
Executive Vice President<br />
Gerry Hudson<br />
Executive Vice President<br />
Eliseo Medina<br />
Executive Vice President<br />
Bruce Raynor<br />
Executive Vice President<br />
<strong>SEIU</strong> <strong>Annual</strong> <strong>Report</strong><br />
Dave Regan<br />
Executive Vice President<br />
Tom Woodruff<br />
Executive Vice President<br />
Service Employees International Union, ® CTW, CLC<br />
1800 Massachusetts Avenue, NW • Washington, DC 20036<br />
seiu.org<br />
20
Change<br />
That Works<br />
By <strong>SEIU</strong> President Andy Stern<br />
Change isn’t easy—especially when you’re rowing<br />
into the fearsome economic and political winds that<br />
blew across the United States in 2009.<br />
Yet 2009 was also a year of unprecedented<br />
opportunity—and we seized it. Despite tremendous outside<br />
pressure to simply say “this is not the right time,” <strong>SEIU</strong><br />
members stood tall for working families and pushed forward.<br />
Nov. 4, 2008, we celebrated the election of a new president—a<br />
young African American who promised to govern on behalf of<br />
the middle class. Both Obama and his running mate Joe Biden<br />
had symbolically begun their partnership with our union by<br />
walking a day in the shoes of <strong>SEIU</strong> workers.<br />
Jan. 20, 2009, we joined with millions around the world to<br />
watch the American Dream come true, as Barack Obama,<br />
raised by a single mom and married to a Chicago public<br />
worker, took his oath of office. In place of the greed and fear<br />
that had marked the previous eight years, he offered us hope.<br />
Knowing it would take hope and a lot of hard work to win<br />
healthcare reform, free and fair union elections, good jobs<br />
and retirement security for America’s working families, we<br />
sent hundreds of new organizers into the field to help turn our<br />
dreams into reality.<br />
But even as these historic moments were unfolding, Wall<br />
Street and corporate interests were robbing the bank. The<br />
country was on the verge of a complete economic meltdown<br />
and Congress quickly got caught up in politics as usual.<br />
cover - <strong>SEIU</strong> Staff<br />
p02 - Nathan Armes<br />
p03 - Nathan Armes<br />
p04 - Nathan Armes<br />
p05 - Aaron Donovan<br />
p06 - Robert Durell<br />
p07 - David Sachs<br />
p08 - <strong>SEIU</strong> Staff<br />
p09 - Ricardo Figueroa<br />
p10 - Nadia Afghani/LAANE<br />
p11 - David Bacon<br />
Photo Credits<br />
p12 - Wynne Hartviksen<br />
p13 - Karen Klipowicz<br />
p14 - <strong>SEIU</strong> Staff<br />
p15 - Slobodan Dimitrov<br />
p16 - Lloyd Wolf<br />
p17 - iStockphoto<br />
p18 - David Sachs<br />
p19 - David Sachs<br />
To find out more about these and other <strong>SEIU</strong> photos,<br />
visit http://photos.seiu.org or e-mail photos@seiu.org.<br />
2<br />
19
Worst of all, American workers were the ones paying the<br />
price. Home foreclosures, plant shutdowns, healthcare cuts,<br />
nightmarish state budget problems and service reductions<br />
were the news of the day.<br />
But in the face of these terrible gale winds, <strong>SEIU</strong> members<br />
did the only thing we know how to do: we pushed ahead.<br />
And at year’s end we had made real progress toward our<br />
goals:<br />
• We are closer then ever before to comprehensive<br />
healthcare reform.<br />
• We rallied behind the economic stimulus plan and won<br />
hundreds of millions of dollars to ward off deep cuts to<br />
state and local budgets.<br />
• We united tens of thousands of new members into <strong>SEIU</strong><br />
and fought at the bargaining table to save pensions and<br />
jobs, and keep critical services from being cut.<br />
• We made sure that workers’ voices were heard in<br />
statehouses, in the halls of Congress and in our<br />
communities. The appointment of several <strong>SEIU</strong> staff to<br />
influential positions means that workers’ voices are being<br />
heard inside the Obama administration as well.<br />
In short, 2009 was the most difficult and wrenching time<br />
American workers have faced in decades. But because<br />
we stayed true to <strong>SEIU</strong>’s mission, we can look back at our<br />
work and be proud—even as we prepare to take on new<br />
challenges in 2010.<br />
18 3
Justice<br />
for All<br />
New<br />
Media<br />
The Justice for All platform we adopted in 2008 was the thread<br />
running through all our work in 2009. We made major strides<br />
toward our commitment to building a progressive, pro-worker<br />
political majority and to building our strength by uniting at<br />
least a half a million more workers before 2012.<br />
• New, all-volunteer member canvassing teams began<br />
reaching out to thousands of unorganized workers in pilot<br />
organizing programs in Illinois, Massachusetts, Oregon,<br />
Texas, Arizona and other states.<br />
• Sodexo workers launched a nationwide campaign to<br />
improve wage and job standards, signing petitions in<br />
support of uniting 25,000 Sodexo workers into <strong>SEIU</strong> for a<br />
voice on the job.<br />
• More than 40,000 new healthcare, property services and<br />
public services workers united with us in 2009.<br />
• More than 100,000 Workers United members affiliated with<br />
<strong>SEIU</strong>.<br />
• Tens of thousands of members and activists turned out<br />
at <strong>SEIU</strong>-led rallies and town hall meetings for healthcare<br />
reform and passage of the Employee Free Choice Act.<br />
We also spearheaded a yearlong taxpayer crusade for<br />
economic reform to protect working families.<br />
The <strong>SEIU</strong> New Media program got into full swing in 2009,<br />
growing out of the Justice for All mandate to create a<br />
communications system that gives workers the ability to make<br />
their concerns heard throughout society.<br />
Using social-networking tools such as Twitter, Facebook, the<br />
<strong>SEIU</strong> Blog and text-messaging, the New Media program gives<br />
members and activists the ability to use their cell phones and<br />
computers to get news and alerts from the field, post videos<br />
and reach out for help in their workplace, organizing and<br />
political campaigns.<br />
The newly designed <strong>SEIU</strong> Web page drew almost 2 million<br />
visitors in 2009 and has helped the union build an e-mail list of<br />
activists that is 500,000-strong and growing.<br />
In 2010, the New Media program will continue to develop<br />
new tools to connect workers with workers and improve the<br />
content-management and advocacy tools available to local<br />
unions.<br />
If you’re not yet connected to <strong>SEIU</strong> Mobile, connect now:<br />
Text <strong>SEIU</strong> to 787753 (PURPLE) to receive the latest updates.<br />
4<br />
17
<strong>SEIU</strong> Initiative<br />
on Ethics and<br />
Standards<br />
Building a<br />
Progressive<br />
Majority<br />
After recommendations from <strong>SEIU</strong>’s Commission on Ethics and<br />
Standards and a comment period for all local unions, the <strong>SEIU</strong><br />
International Executive Board approved a new set of policies on<br />
ethics and standards in June.<br />
The policies aim for increased financial accountability and<br />
transparency; mandatory ethics training; and integration of<br />
ethics into every aspect of the life of the union. The provisions<br />
of the ethics code address, among other things, conflicts of<br />
interest concerning gifts, payments, benefit plans and related<br />
organizations.<br />
The code applies to the International union, local unions and<br />
affiliates. Since the adoption of the policies, <strong>SEIU</strong> has taken<br />
steps to bolster financial accountability and provide ethics<br />
training and ensure compliance with the code. <strong>SEIU</strong> also<br />
has begun informal initiatives to strengthen ethical culture<br />
throughout the union.<br />
In 14 states with elected officials who are major policymakers,<br />
<strong>SEIU</strong>’s national Change That Works scored victories early<br />
in the year with passage of the Economic Recovery Act and<br />
expansion of the Children’s Health Insurance Program.<br />
During the congressional recess in August, the campaign<br />
turned out more than 21,000 pro-healthcare reform activists to<br />
major town hall rallies and events.<br />
In September, Change That Works became an independent,<br />
nonprofit organization active in 12 states—Arkansas,<br />
Colorado, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, Montana,<br />
Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Tennessee and<br />
Virginia.<br />
2009 electoral successes included:<br />
• Congressional victories by John Garamendi and Judy Chu<br />
of California and Bill Owens of New York;<br />
• Mayoral victories that included those of Annise Parker in<br />
Houston, R.T. Rybak in Minneapolis, Chris Coleman in<br />
St. Paul, Tom Menino in Boston, Dana Redd in Camden,<br />
N.J., Anthony Foxx in Charlotte, N.C., Stephanie Miner in<br />
Syracuse, N.Y., and Andre Quintero in El Monte, Calif.;<br />
• Election of pro-worker city council candidates in Seattle,<br />
Houston, Minneapolis, Atlanta, Boston, and the Bronx and<br />
Manhattan, N.Y.;<br />
• In Maine and Washington, <strong>SEIU</strong> public services members<br />
helped lead successful campaigns to defeat “TABOR”<br />
ballot initiatives. The so-called “taxpayer bill of rights”<br />
proposals would have crippled funding levels for public<br />
services. The margin of defeat in both states showed<br />
that voters clearly understood the need for critical public<br />
services.<br />
16<br />
5
<strong>SEIU</strong><br />
Healthcare<br />
The year 2009 was a year of progress on two fundamental<br />
goals for <strong>SEIU</strong> Healthcare members: winning affordable,<br />
guaranteed healthcare for every American and building a<br />
stronger national union for healthcare workers.<br />
• Standing up for quality, affordable healthcare. In<br />
our local communities and in Washington, D.C., <strong>SEIU</strong><br />
Healthcare members took on the corporate special<br />
interests that tried to block healthcare reform.<br />
In memory of a brother who died after he couldn’t get access<br />
to affordable cardiac care, <strong>SEIU</strong> Healthcare Pennsylvania<br />
member Georgeanne Koehler delivered nearly<br />
a thousand postcards she collected to urge Congress to<br />
pass reform.<br />
Loretta Johnson, an <strong>SEIU</strong> member and home care worker from<br />
Virginia, spoke at the press conference when Sen. Harry Reid<br />
(Nev.) introduced the historic healthcare bill, speaking about<br />
her and her husband’s struggle to get affordable healthcare<br />
coverage.<br />
Linda Bock, a registered nurse and member of <strong>SEIU</strong> 1199UHE<br />
in Maryland, participated in an online town hall on reform<br />
convened by President Obama.<br />
Thousands of <strong>SEIU</strong> Healthcare members signed scrub tops<br />
through a campaign with the Partnership for Quality Care that<br />
were delivered to members of Congress and thousands more<br />
made phone calls or sent e-mails to their representatives to<br />
urge them to take action.<br />
• Breakthrough in Massachusetts. Hospital workers in<br />
Massachusetts started the year by winning a historic<br />
agreement with Caritas Christi Healthcare—a Catholicsponsored<br />
hospital system—to hold free and fair elections<br />
to organize a union.<br />
By the end of 2009, more than 3,000 Caritas Christi<br />
workers had voted to join <strong>SEIU</strong> 1199UHE and approve<br />
contracts that raised pay and provided access to training and<br />
opportunity programs.<br />
Member<br />
Strength<br />
The Member Strength Program in 2009 focused on<br />
three main areas:<br />
Shifting the union’s essential but noncore functions to the<br />
Member Action Service Center.<br />
• <strong>SEIU</strong> launched its state-of-the-art Member Action Service<br />
Center in Redford, Mich. This comprehensive shared<br />
service operation offers locals strong dues processing,<br />
accounting and financial services, a fully integrated<br />
member information system, and a responsive Member<br />
Action Center (MAC). Local 615 joined the center in 2009.<br />
Additional locals will join in 2010.<br />
To allow local unions to focus on <strong>SEIU</strong>’s Justice for All<br />
goals, including developing 10 percent of our members as<br />
leaders and having half of our members active in the union<br />
by 2012.<br />
• Based on the recommendations of <strong>SEIU</strong>’s Local Strength<br />
Committee, the Member Strength Program works with<br />
locals to maximize their ability to unite more workers, build<br />
a pro-worker political majority, and increase opportunities<br />
for members to win at work.<br />
By locals transitioning to new relationships with members,<br />
with assistance from Member Strength and Institute<br />
for Change, resulting in greater member leadership in<br />
organizing, politics and bargaining.<br />
Making the case for change to staff and members that building<br />
deeper member engagement and expanding our pool of<br />
member leaders is vital to winning Justice for All.<br />
Reorganizing field and field supervisors’ work so organizers<br />
engage members on a wider and deeper level, and learn<br />
to identify, recruit and develop member leaders to assume<br />
greater responsibility around organizing, bargaining and<br />
politics.<br />
Encouraging new ideas through the Innovation Leaders Group<br />
(ILG), a collaborative learning community where local Member<br />
Strength directors and staff can design, execute, track and<br />
evaluate member strength experiments. Exciting projects<br />
include Local 1000’s project to conduct 13,500 individual<br />
member relationship-building meetings, and 32BJ’s activitybased<br />
point system for tracking and rewarding steward<br />
engagement. Such experiments help locals match members to<br />
roles and identify potential leaders who can mobilize others.<br />
Retraining leadership teams, executive boards, organizing<br />
staff, and Member Strength directors for the work of the<br />
new union.<br />
Measuring member engagement to establish a system<br />
to track, measure and assess member engagement and<br />
leadership levels—essential for measuring member strength<br />
progress over time, engaging additional members and<br />
identifying and developing potential member leaders.<br />
6<br />
15
Global Strength<br />
and Partnerships<br />
Through the establishment of the Change to Win Organizing<br />
Center in Amsterdam, <strong>SEIU</strong> and Change to Win worked with<br />
major European unions—in the Netherlands, Germany, the<br />
United Kingdom and other nations—to help them develop their<br />
organizing and campaign capacity in healthcare, retail and<br />
property services.<br />
In 2009, our global team also:<br />
• Opened an <strong>SEIU</strong> office in Mexico City. Nearly a quartermillion<br />
of <strong>SEIU</strong>’s members are from Mexico; sending nearly<br />
$200 million to Mexico each year. We began working with<br />
independent unions, NGOs and civil society organizations<br />
to lay the groundwork for a campaign to raise standards<br />
for janitors in Mexico City.<br />
• Helped implement the 2008 global agreement between<br />
security giant G4S, the second-largest employer in the<br />
world (and the parent company of U.S.-based Wackenhut),<br />
and workers in India, South Africa, Mozambique and<br />
Malawi. In India, 150,000 G4S employees engaged in<br />
national bargaining for the first time. In Malawi, 13,000<br />
workers received a 20 percent pay increase after the<br />
successful conclusion of the case against G4S.<br />
14<br />
• Worked with French and British unions in support of<br />
Sodexo and other multiservices workers. Organizers from<br />
a number of <strong>SEIU</strong> local unions are working with the British<br />
union UNISON to help launch its first campaign in the<br />
contract catering industry.<br />
• Participated in the signing of a memorandum to facilitate<br />
exchanges, share strategies and expand cooperation<br />
between Change to Win and the All-China Federation of<br />
Trade Unions, which represents 100 million workers.<br />
• Brought together 30 organizations to advocate for<br />
enforcement of the Organization for Economic Cooperation<br />
and Development (OECD) Guidelines for Multinationals.<br />
The guidelines establish rules of conduct in the areas of<br />
labor and human rights and the environment but have<br />
been almost completely ignored by the U.S. government.<br />
• Continued to work with global union federations, including<br />
hosting the 2009 annual meeting of UNI Property Services.<br />
• A new voice for quality home care in the “Show Me<br />
State.” Home care workers in Missouri voted to form<br />
a new union for the 13,000 personal care attendants in<br />
the state. Anti-worker special interests have tied up their<br />
victory in a legal dispute, but workers are determined to<br />
win a better future for the people in their care.<br />
• Las Vegas Addus home care workers unite. In<br />
February, <strong>SEIU</strong> members at Addus HealthCare renewed<br />
our national agreement with the company, paving the<br />
way for improving jobs for caregivers and giving Addus<br />
personal care attendants in Las Vegas the freedom to<br />
unite with <strong>SEIU</strong> Healthcare.<br />
• Re-engaging members and improving jobs in<br />
California. The unity of the 150,000 members of UHW-<br />
West helped them secure contracts that nearly double the<br />
national average, despite California’s troubled economy.<br />
They settled contracts at 68 facilities, with an average<br />
wage increase of 4.3 percent—far exceeding the 2.3<br />
percent average first-year wage increase. Home care<br />
workers from UHW, ULTCW and Local 521 united to fight<br />
back against massive cutbacks to home care services,<br />
protecting some of California’s most vulnerable residents.<br />
• Making gains for healthcare workers in Canada. In<br />
Ontario, 3,500 Red Cross home care workers who are<br />
members of <strong>SEIU</strong> Local 1 Canada won a major victory<br />
when the first provincewide strike in Canadian history<br />
helped introduce paid travel time. In Quebec, members of<br />
Local 298 helped unite 350 new paramedics with <strong>SEIU</strong>.<br />
This led to the formation of a new local union, <strong>SEIU</strong> Local<br />
592, representing paramedics.<br />
7
Public<br />
Services<br />
In the face of massive budget deficits at all levels of<br />
government, <strong>SEIU</strong>’s 1 million public services members worked<br />
together in new and creative ways to protect much-needed<br />
community services, starting with a successful effort early in<br />
2009 to win hundreds of millions in federal stimulus funds that<br />
staved off deep cuts to state and local budgets.<br />
Uniting for quality Public Services<br />
• More than 10,500 public services workers nationwide<br />
united with <strong>SEIU</strong> in 2009. Division support for workers<br />
who deliver public services in the South/Southwest region<br />
added more than 5,500 mostly public workers into our<br />
union, despite difficult budget challenges. In Gilbert,<br />
Ariz., the nation’s seventh most conservative city, a meetand-confer<br />
agreement covering Gilbert city workers was<br />
implemented in July.<br />
• Other important victories included a vote by 2,000<br />
engineers and other professionals employed by the city of<br />
Los Angeles to join with <strong>SEIU</strong> Local 721 and campaigns<br />
by 275 human services workers (Local 509), 600 workers<br />
8<br />
at ARC of Ulster County (Local 200United) and 500 county<br />
workers in Fairfax County, Va., (Local 5).<br />
• On a smaller scale, workers in public units nationwide<br />
continued to join <strong>SEIU</strong> at a steady pace, especially in<br />
states where card-check agreements gave workers a free<br />
and fair choice. More than 300 court employees joined<br />
Local 1984, 200 city workers united with Local 888 and<br />
a steady stream of workers in smaller public units joined<br />
Local 73. In Illinois, an innovative approach to child care<br />
organizing led to card-check/neutrality agreements that<br />
cover 385 private sector center workers.<br />
Winning for children,<br />
families and child care providers<br />
• <strong>SEIU</strong> child care workers in Washington, Oregon, Maryland<br />
and Illinois won new contracts covering a total of more<br />
than 100,000 workers. Their success at the bargaining<br />
table improved working conditions for providers and<br />
helped to keep child care affordable for parents.<br />
• Directors at for-profit and nonprofit child care centers<br />
<strong>SEIU</strong> members helped lead a national movement to protest<br />
the bad behavior and reckless practices of Wall Street and<br />
to demand reforms that will protect workers from the next<br />
economic crisis.<br />
We helped form Americans for Financial Reform, a coalition of<br />
more than 200 community, labor and civil rights organizations<br />
and played a leading role in organizing a campaign to demand<br />
bank accountability throughout the year:<br />
• In April, nearly 100,000 taxpayers took action through<br />
an <strong>SEIU</strong>-sponsored campaign to demand the ouster of<br />
Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis. Lewis subsequently<br />
resigned as chairman of the board and then retired from<br />
his CEO post. <strong>SEIU</strong> continued to demand the bank put<br />
homeowners, workers and America’s well-being ahead<br />
of bonuses, excessive executive compensation and<br />
predatory banking practices.<br />
• In October, <strong>SEIU</strong> helped organize a “Show Down in<br />
Chicago.” Five thousand taxpayers from 20 states<br />
converged on an American Bankers Association meeting<br />
to demand bankers stop fighting reforms that would<br />
protect working families.<br />
Banking/<br />
The Economy<br />
• <strong>SEIU</strong> members joined with hundreds of workers, clergy<br />
members and community leaders in a November protest<br />
at the Washington, D.C., headquarters of Goldman<br />
Sachs. They called on the bank’s executives to forgo their<br />
anticipated $23 billion in bonuses and use the money<br />
to help families facing foreclosure and small businesses<br />
struggling to provide jobs. <strong>SEIU</strong> members participated in<br />
similar protests in Seattle and San Francisco in December.<br />
• “The Trillion Dollar Bank Job,” detailed the state of the<br />
economy one year after the Lehman Brothers collapse.<br />
Widely circulated among progressive organizations, the<br />
<strong>SEIU</strong> report showed that, despite getting more than $4<br />
trillion from taxpayers, banks were refusing to modify<br />
mortgages, workers still were losing jobs and the country<br />
was awash in personal bankruptcies.<br />
• <strong>SEIU</strong> injected the voice of bank workers into the national<br />
debate. Along with Congressman Keith Ellison of<br />
Minnesota and representatives of consumer groups, we<br />
joined with bank workers who spoke about the pressures<br />
they were under to push risky financial products.<br />
13
Workers<br />
United<br />
In March, more than 100,000 workers voted to form Workers<br />
United to conduct strong and aggressive organizing<br />
campaigns for new workers. At the founding convention, the<br />
general executive board unanimously voted to affiliate with<br />
<strong>SEIU</strong> to bring added strength to Workers United to negotiate<br />
better contracts, protect members on the job and promote<br />
workers’ rights.<br />
In just eight months, Workers United:<br />
• Helped 29,000 Disney World employees in Orlando, Fla.,<br />
win much-needed raises—pouring between $15 million<br />
and $20 million into the local economy—and helped<br />
laundry worker members win a record-breaking class<br />
action suit against Cintas, an industrial launderer, for<br />
violations of a living wage ordinance in Los Angeles.<br />
• Ratified a new contract, following a 40-day strike at Bemis<br />
Manufacturing in Terre Haute, Ind., that both stopped the<br />
company’s attempt to form a pool of temporary workers<br />
and resolved workers’ privacy concerns about the<br />
proposed controversial Health Risk Assessment Testing.<br />
• Kept 1,000 good union jobs in the United States by<br />
successfully beating back an attempt by Wells Fargo—a<br />
recipient of $25 million in federal TARP funding—to<br />
liquidate U.S.-based clothing manufacturer Hartmarx.<br />
• Collaborated with private investors and government<br />
officials to bring a new manufacturer to New Bedford,<br />
Mass., and put laid-off workers back to work after the<br />
Eagle Manufacturing plant closed.<br />
nationwide formed a new alliance, the Alliance for Quality<br />
Child Care, to help unite child care workers into <strong>SEIU</strong> to<br />
make similar improvements.<br />
Leading on innovations in Public Services<br />
Public services members worked together to come up with<br />
new and creative ways to improve public services. Local<br />
unions engaging in innovation projects included <strong>SEIU</strong> locals<br />
5AZ, 73, 99, 500, 503, 721, 925, 1000, 1021, 1948 and 4053.<br />
In Oregon, where understaffing was threatening the quality<br />
of child welfare services, Local 503 members, leaders and<br />
staff worked on a team to transform the work process of the<br />
Oregon Department of Human Services. Their work is helping<br />
to fix staffing levels and create new work efficiencies. In New<br />
York, Local 4053/PEF (Public Employees Federation) members<br />
launched a “Go Public!” project to save the state millions of<br />
dollars by using state employees instead of consultants.<br />
Marysville, Wash., saving $5,000 on its 2009 utility bill and<br />
keeping the equivalent of six school buses of trash out of<br />
landfills. Styrofoam trays used in the school cafeteria were<br />
replaced with a recycling/composting program. The program<br />
will be expanded and is a model of President Obama’s call for<br />
“making government cool again.”<br />
Fighting for an economy that works in Puerto Rico<br />
Local 1996 SPT-<strong>SEIU</strong> members in Puerto Rico helped lead an<br />
islandwide movement to prevent Governor Fortuno’s plan to<br />
lay off more than 10 percent of Puerto Rico’s public workforce.<br />
We won a crucial victory late in the year when a court granted<br />
a petition to stop the termination of 6,000 <strong>SEIU</strong> members who<br />
provide vital education and healthcare services. But the battle<br />
was not over and our members in Puerto Rico continued to<br />
work against these devastating layoffs.<br />
Greening the schools<br />
12<br />
An idea growing out of an <strong>SEIU</strong>-sponsored contest for<br />
improving public services resulted in the school district in<br />
9
Property<br />
Services<br />
With the nation’s economy in crisis and families struggling<br />
to keep afloat, <strong>SEIU</strong>’s 250,000 property services members<br />
worked harder than ever to fight for good-paying, stable jobs<br />
that can help workers move into the middle class.<br />
Uniting more workers<br />
More than 6,000 new security officers united with <strong>SEIU</strong> in<br />
2009, with 32,000 security officers nationwide now joined<br />
together in the union.<br />
• 2,000 Securitas officers at Kaiser Permanente facilities<br />
won a three-year contract with wage increases, improved<br />
healthcare, and paid sick days and holidays after a threeyear<br />
campaign supported by <strong>SEIU</strong> 24/7 and SOULA<br />
2006 in California, which are part of <strong>SEIU</strong> United Service<br />
Workers West. An additional 450 Securitas officers<br />
working at Yankee Stadium united with <strong>SEIU</strong> Local 32BJ.<br />
• 1,100 Allied Barton and 1,820 FJC Security Services of<br />
Long Island officers who provide security for the city of<br />
New York, including the Staten Island ferry terminals, won<br />
pay raises of up to 26 percent over three years and firsttime-ever<br />
health insurance after uniting with <strong>SEIU</strong> Local<br />
32BJ.<br />
10<br />
• Seeking livable wages, health insurance, training and<br />
better working conditions, about 1,000 security officers<br />
who provide security for Los Angeles County united with<br />
<strong>SEIU</strong> SOULA, winning their recognition campaign in<br />
October.<br />
• Local 2 Canada had a very busy year completing a merger<br />
with Local 902 in Nova Scotia, leading to some rapid<br />
growth with multisector workers in that province. The<br />
local also successfully expanded the Justice for Janitors<br />
campaigns beyond Toronto with wins in the Ottawa and<br />
Vancouver markets.<br />
Improving workers’ lives<br />
• Local 32BJ janitors in Wilmington and New Castle<br />
County, Del., won a historic areawide contract with wage<br />
increases, health insurance, paid vacation and other<br />
benefits. Nearly 800 office cleaners will see their wages<br />
rise to $9.25 by the end of the two-year contract and for<br />
the first time full-time workers will receive employer-paid<br />
health benefits.<br />
• 2009 saw many advances for California airport workers.<br />
Workers at San Jose, San Francisco and Los Angeles<br />
international airports all worked to maximize their<br />
political power and passed living wage ordinances and<br />
amendments to raise standards for all workers<br />
at their airports. At LAX, some 2,500 workers—most<br />
of whom organized with <strong>SEIU</strong> in the last two<br />
years—went from having no healthcare at all to fully<br />
employer-paid healthcare.<br />
Multiservices workers<br />
In 2009, Service Workers United, our national union of<br />
multiservices workers, helped 2,000 food service, laundry and<br />
janitorial workers unite for a voice on the job, with campaigns<br />
under way reaching out to an additional 1,000 workers<br />
employed by the three giant companies of Aramark, Sodexo<br />
and Compass.<br />
In December, <strong>SEIU</strong> kicked off a major campaign to reach<br />
out to more than 30,000 food service, janitorial and laundry<br />
workers employed by Sodexo, where workers make as little as<br />
$8.27 an hour and often cannot afford the health insurance the<br />
company offers.<br />
Eighty members of Service Workers United traveled to<br />
Washington, D.C., for a lobby day, urging Congress to<br />
increase federal reimbursements for meals provided for lowincome<br />
students and to improve worker standards in the<br />
Child Nutrition Act. It was the first time front-line school food<br />
services workers had voiced their concerns in person on<br />
Capitol Hill. Although these workers’ mission is to fight poverty<br />
and hunger some of them are paid as low as $6.55 an hour<br />
with no benefits.<br />
2010 and beyond<br />
<strong>SEIU</strong>’s campaign to raise wages and standards for security<br />
workers will reach out in 2010 to the more than 10,000<br />
unorganized workers employed by Andrews International. It’s<br />
one of the largest and fastest-growing security companies in<br />
the United States, with the ability to provide good jobs and<br />
healthcare benefits for its workers—yet it is driving a race to<br />
the bottom with poverty-level wages and a long history of legal<br />
violations, penalties and disregard for the law.<br />
Janitorial members have set their sights on major contract<br />
negotiations coming in 2011 and 2012. They have established<br />
a national bargaining workgroup with the goal of using the<br />
strength of the entire national union to win improvements and<br />
more standardization across the agreements.<br />
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