Union strength lies within the membership

An anti-union ruling by the US Supreme Court on the status of home care workers has led to much reflection on the future of public service unions. Former SEIU organiser Jane McAlevey argues that US unions must ‘rebuild from the inside out’, drawing on the massively untapped resource of the union membership base and fostering a ‘high participation’ model in bargaining and organising work:
http://www.thenation.com/article/180478/after-harris-v-quinn-state-our-unions#mcalevey

50 years on from the March on Washington for Jobs & Freedom

The SEIU has produced a video to mark the 50th anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington - best known for the "I Have a Dream" speech delivered by Martin Luther King Jr - which highlights the ongoing fight for social justice in the USA:
http://www.seiu.org/2013/08/the-march-on-washington-for-jobs-freedom-realizing.php

SEIU hails Obama victory

SEIU President Mary Kay Henry has hailed the re-election of Barack Obama as a 'victory for working people, whose voices were heard despite some of the most coordinated and insidious obstacles to their participation in our democracy in history. When the right wing flooded our electoral process with obscene amounts of money, working people mobilized to energise voters around a better vision for America. When extremist state legislators tried to suppress the votes of broad swathes of Americans, working people responded by standing up for their constitutional right to cast their votes.' Over 100,000 SEIU members took part in canvassing for Obama - making a decisive intervention in swing states behind a union agenda of 'creating good jobs now, requiring the rich and corporations to pay their fair share, to invest in healthcare, education and other vital services and by creating a pathway to citizenship for immigrants'
http://www.seiu.org/2012/11/tonight-is-a-victory-for-working-people-everywhere.php

How To Organise Non Union Workers, A Lesson From Historic Strike in Texas

The Texas Observer and SEIU report on a tremendous success for Janitors in Houston, Texas, a State where the legal and free market environment is amongst the toughest even in the USA.
http://www.texasobserver.org/authors/christomlinson/item/18633-why-the-houston-janitor-strike-was-historic

SEIU – a united force for change

This week the 2.1m strong Service Employees International Union (SEIU) held its 2012 Convention in Denver. In a Tour de Force speech, the first SEIU woman leader Mary Kay Henry addresses convention delegates on the challenges facing the US labour movement in the critical year ahead:
http://www.seiu.org/2012/05/mary-kay-henry-addresses-2012-convention.php

Why US unions back ‘Occupy Wall St’

Mary Kay Henry, leader of the 2.1m strong SEIU, the largest trade union in the USA, explains in the Wall Street Journal why unions are supporting the nationwide protests for economic and social justice – ‘the anger of the American people has been brewing for quite some time, and now that it's boiled over there's no bottling it up. The importance of Occupy Wall Street can't be measured by any set of demands. What's more important to understand are the values that unite the protesters and their authentic understanding of what has gone wrong in our economy. We can begin to right the wrongs of our economy and respond to the growing demands of the American people by putting our country back to work and by holding Wall Street and big corporations accountable for the damage they've inflicted on us all’
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203476804576615200938120050.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Americans Ask, "Where Are The Jobs?"

On US 2011 Labor Day the SEIU reports that a ‘shockingly large majority of Congress Representatives are actively choosing not to listen to constituents who are bearing the brunt of the worst US economy since the Great Depression’:  http://www.seiu.org/2011/09/americans-demand-good-jobs-this-labor-day.php

We either go up together or go down together - Rena Wong SEIU

Rena Wong, an Organising Director with the US union SEIU (Service Employees International Union), spelt out for delegates at the UNISON Health Conference the global realities of attacks on unions. Rena brought solidarity from our sister union and described the scale of the attacks on public sector trade unions in Wisconsin, Ohio and New Hampshire.

One Nation Working Together - report‏

Report from a UNISONActive reader in Washington DC: Union members, students, peace and environmental activists, and advocates for immigrant rights travelled from across the country yesterday to gather for a mass demonstration at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC. The extremely diverse crowd was pulled together by speakers on the platform calling for Americans to stand together as "One Nation" -- against the right-wing extremism of personalities like Fox News' Glenn Beck and the Tea Partiers, as well as demanding the Obama Administration to bring about "The Change I Voted For."

"We March for Hope, Not Hate!" says AFL-CIO‏

Addressing nearly 200,000 ‘one nation working together’ marchers assembled in Washington DC yesterday, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said, “America is here today. America is One Nation and we signify that nation. Behind the voices of fear and hatred that have risen to dominate out national conversation are the forces of greed, the moneyed powers that put us in the economic mess we’re in today. And we’ve got a lot of work to do to repair the damage that greed did to our country.” http://blog.aflcio.org/2010/10/02/america-is-one-nation-and-we-signify-that-nation/

Historic march in Washington DC today - For Jobs, Justice and Education for All‏

In the USA the One Nation Working Together movement, which is aiming to build on the gains of the Obama election in 2008, will today hold a mass national march and rally in Washington DC as well as rallies in other cities, to push back the right wing Tea Party Movement and mobilise support for is demands ahead of elections in November.

Hasta la Vista Pension - Terminator goes after California pension cash‏

US public sector union SEIU slams the Governor of California's proposal to "borrow" $2billion from state employees' pension fund to help balance the state's books.