Putting an end, they hope, to conflict in southern California and potential battles elsewhere, AFSCME and the SEIU signed a two-year, "no-raiding" pact, the two unions announced. The agreement also commits the two organizations to joint organizing campaigns.
The agreement, signed Sept. 19, is significant because it marks contact between AFSCME, now the largest union in the AFL-CIO, and the Service Employees, which is slightly larger but which led the withdrawal of four big unions from the federation in late July and after.
Those four -- SEIU, UFCW, the Teamsters and UNITE HERE -- and other unions meet Sept. 27 in St. Louis for the first-ever convention of their ?Change to Win? coalition. It also includes the Laborers and the Farm Workers, which are still in the federation, and the Carpenters, who withdrew in 2001. When they left, the Change to Win leaders, including SEIU President Andrew Stern, pledged not to raid AFL-CIO unions.
That wasn't necessarily the case in southern California. According to blogs on the "Change to Win" website, AFSCME said SEIU was poaching on groups of workers. The pact may also head off a conflict in Pennsylvania. But it came too late to avoid a confrontation in Illinois, which the AFL-CIO decided in favor of SEIU, last February. SEIU then won a home health-care workers' election there.
"Neither union will attempt to raid, decertify or otherwise interfere with existing representation rights," the unions said. They set up "a joint committee to address issues of union density and jurisdiction," and created joint 'Unity Locals' of child care providers in California and Pennsylvania.
And California home care providers not now covered by either AFSCME or SEIU contracts will be represented by the new California United Homecare Workers Union, AFSCME/SEIU. "The partnership will help roughly 25,000 caregivers who provide vital in‑home services to California?s seniors and people with disabilities win fair contracts that include a livable wage and health care," the two unions said.
In Pennsylvania, SEIU and AFSCME will work together on joint organizing drives, "to unite home‑based family child care providers" and "to improve benefits and stability in the child care profession." There, also, the home-based providers would become members of a new joint statewide union.
The pact does not merge the two unions' present locals in California. SEIU Local 434B, with 20,000 home care and nursing home workers, and UDW/AFSCME, with 60,000, "will work in partnership while maintaining their autonomy," the statement said.
This article was written by Press Associates, Inc., news service. Used by permission.
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Putting an end, they hope, to conflict in southern California and potential battles elsewhere, AFSCME and the SEIU signed a two-year, “no-raiding” pact, the two unions announced. The agreement also commits the two organizations to joint organizing campaigns.
The agreement, signed Sept. 19, is significant because it marks contact between AFSCME, now the largest union in the AFL-CIO, and the Service Employees, which is slightly larger but which led the withdrawal of four big unions from the federation in late July and after.
Those four — SEIU, UFCW, the Teamsters and UNITE HERE — and other unions meet Sept. 27 in St. Louis for the first-ever convention of their ?Change to Win? coalition. It also includes the Laborers and the Farm Workers, which are still in the federation, and the Carpenters, who withdrew in 2001. When they left, the Change to Win leaders, including SEIU President Andrew Stern, pledged not to raid AFL-CIO unions.
That wasn’t necessarily the case in southern California. According to blogs on the “Change to Win” website, AFSCME said SEIU was poaching on groups of workers. The pact may also head off a conflict in Pennsylvania. But it came too late to avoid a confrontation in Illinois, which the AFL-CIO decided in favor of SEIU, last February. SEIU then won a home health-care workers’ election there.
“Neither union will attempt to raid, decertify or otherwise interfere with existing representation rights,” the unions said. They set up “a joint committee to address issues of union density and jurisdiction,” and created joint ‘Unity Locals’ of child care providers in California and Pennsylvania.
And California home care providers not now covered by either AFSCME or SEIU contracts will be represented by the new California United Homecare Workers Union, AFSCME/SEIU. “The partnership will help roughly 25,000 caregivers who provide vital in‑home services to California?s seniors and people with disabilities win fair contracts that include a livable wage and health care,” the two unions said.
In Pennsylvania, SEIU and AFSCME will work together on joint organizing drives, “to unite home‑based family child care providers” and “to improve benefits and stability in the child care profession.” There, also, the home-based providers would become members of a new joint statewide union.
The pact does not merge the two unions’ present locals in California. SEIU Local 434B, with 20,000 home care and nursing home workers, and UDW/AFSCME, with 60,000, “will work in partnership while maintaining their autonomy,” the statement said.
This article was written by Press Associates, Inc., news service. Used by permission.