SEIU Rejoins AFL-CIO After Splitting Off 20 Years Ago | EUROtoday

One of the biggest and strongest U.S. unions is rejoining the AFL-CIO, giving the nation’s main labor federation a lift because it prepares for one more Donald Trump presidency.

The 2 million-member Service Employees International Union introduced Wednesday that it had determined to re-affiliate with the federation after a virtually 20-year absence. The SEIU will instantly develop into the most important union throughout the AFL-CIO.

Liz Shuler, the federation’s president, known as it “a BFD.”

“You know that we always say ‘stronger together,’ right?” Shuler advised HuffPost. “This is an incredible time for us to be amassing our power, uniting and building our muscle together and really showing the power of solidarity. Because we want to make sure that workers continue to have their voices heard as we are about to enter into this new administration.”

The reunion comes at a important second for the U.S. labor motion.

Union membership has been declining for many years and now hovers close to a historic low of simply 6% within the personal sector. And that pattern is unlikely to enhance: The incoming Trump administration will most likely search to reverse the labor-friendly reforms underneath President Joe Biden, whereas a Republican-controlled Congress gained’t make it any simpler for employees to kind unions.

SEIU President April Verrett stated discussions to rejoin the federation lengthy preceded Trump’s November victory, however that the election end result helped reaffirm the rationale behind the transfer.

“It’s that much more important to come together, to organize workers, to build real power, because that’s our best offense in this moment,” Verrett stated.

The AFL-CIO isn’t a union itself — it’s an alliance of 61 unions representing roughly 15 million employees. It lends assist to member unions’ campaigns and advocates for organized labor in Washington as a significant Democratic ally. It is funded by per-capita taxes that unions pay primarily based on their membership numbers.

The SEIU could possibly be extremely influential throughout the federation as a consequence of its dimension. It has grown into the second-largest union within the U.S. after a long time of organizing employees in well being care, youngster care, custodial work and different service fields. It’s identified for its revolutionary labor campaigns — just like the Fight for $15 motion in quick meals, which helped spur minimum-wage raises in cities and states across the nation — in addition to its progressive politics.

The reaffiliation means the AFL-CIO can extra straight pitch in on SEIU campaigns, together with a high-profile one at Starbucks. That effort is led by Workers United, an SEIU affiliate, and has led to greater than 500 unionized shops nationwide on the espresso chain, making it one of the intently watched organizing pushes in a long time.

The reunion may additionally assist mend outdated rifts throughout the labor motion.

The SEIU was a part of an unsightly cut up from the AFL-CIO in 2005, when it joined the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the United Food and Commercial Workers and others in forming a rival federation.

The breakaway faction stated the AFL-CIO was focusing an excessive amount of on politics and never doing sufficient to prepare new employees. The AFL-CIO’s then-president, John Sweeney, himself a former SEIU chief, known as the defection a “grievous insult” to the idea of solidarity.

Those unions that left the AFL-CIO have since come again into the fold, excluding the Teamsters, which stay unaffiliated.

The SEIU’s return was years within the making, in accordance with Shuler and Verrett.

Shuler stated she wished to “form a new relationship” with the union after she took the helm on the federation in 2021, changing the late Richard Trumka. Verrett stated she and her predecessor at SEIU, Mary Kay Henry, obtained a inexperienced gentle from their board to enter formal talks about rejoining the AFL-CIO in 2023.

“It was a natural evolution out of many years of conversations,” Shuler stated. “We think this is going to be a big game-changer for our movement and for working people broadly.”