A Guide to the Service Employees International Union SEIU

Key Information: SEIU

Full Name: Service Employees International Union.
Acronym: SEIU
Formation: Founded on April 23, 1921, in Chicago, Illinois.
Type of Organization: A major, progressive labor union representing workers in the service, healthcare, and public sectors.
Representation: SEIU’s membership is organized into three core sectors: Healthcare (hospital, home care, and nursing home workers), Public Services (local and state government employees), and Property Services (janitors, security officers, and airport workers).
Membership: It represents nearly 2 million members in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico.
Core Mission: To improve the lives of working people and their families and to create a more just and humane society, with a strong focus on social, racial, and economic justice.
Founding History: Started as the Building Service Employees International Union (BSEIU), a small union of Chicago-area janitors, elevator operators, and window washers.
First President: William Quesse.
Current Leadership:
- International President: Mary Kay Henry
- Secretary-Treasurer: April Verrett
Primary Activities: The union is renowned for its large-scale, innovative, and community-based organizing campaigns, its powerful political mobilization, and its leadership in progressive social movements.
Headquarters: Washington, D.C.

An Introduction to the Service Employees International Union (SEIU)

An Introduction to the Service Employees International Union (SEIU)
The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is a union of nearly 2 million workers who stand together for a more humane and just society. One of the largest and fastest-growing unions in North America, SEIU represents an incredibly diverse group of vital frontline workers including nurses, home care workers, janitors, security officers, and public employees. They are the ones who operate our hospitals, clean our offices, protect our airports, and provide our public services.

SEIU is a labor leader in the progressive movement of the labor movement, with its dedication to the policy that all work is dignified and all workers deserve a voice. The union is known for its bold, high-visibility organizing drives that have given voice to workers often seen as “unorganizable.” With a deep commitment to social, racial, and economic justice, SEIU’s fight goes beyond the workplace to the community at large, seeking to raise the standards and improve life for all working families. This article looks at SEIU’s historic campaigns, its outside-the-box strategies, its influence on the service economy, and its vision for a fairer future.

Key Achievements and Landmark Campaigns of the SEIU

Justice for Janitors: A Movement is Born
During the 1980s and 90s, SEIU began its historic Justice for Janitors campaign. Janitor work in big cities was a low-unionized, low-paid job with high turnover at that time. Instead of traditional organizing, SEIU utilized a combination of community pressure, corporate pressure, and non-violent civil disobedience to win the victory. The 1990 Los Angeles strike during which Century City cops beat up on police janitors on strike garnered national attention and massive public support, ultimately compelling the cleaning contractors to negotiate. This campaign resulted in union recognition and effectively doubled the wages of tens of thousands of janitors and is a textbook case of modern labor organizing.

The Fight for $15 and a Union
In 2012, a group of fast-food workers in New York City, organized by SEIU, struck to demand a $15 minimum wage and the right to unionize. This modest action sparked a global movement. The Fight for $15 has completely transformed the national conversation about wages, with several dozen states and cities having raised their minimum wage, injecting billions of dollars into the pockets of low-wage workers. Even though the struggle to organize the fast-food industry continues, the campaign’s success in raising wages is one of the largest labor milestones of the 21st century.

Organizing Home Care Workers
SEIU’s greatest achievement perhaps was unionizing hundreds of thousands of home care workers across the country. This all-female, and minority-dominated, industry was heretofore isolated, low-wage, and invisible. By constant political and legislative pressure, SEIU achieved the right of these workers to organize and bargain as a collective, making home care a safer, professional job and this critical workforce more empowered.

The SEIU's Impact on Healthcare and the Service Economy

A Healthcare Giant
SEIU is the largest healthcare union in North America. They represent members employed in all areas of the healthcare system, from registered nurses and doctors in large hospitals to technicians, nursing home caregivers, and home care aides. This gives the union a hugely influential and powerful voice in healthcare policy. SEIU was at the forefront of passing the Affordable Care Act (ACA) into law and now is fighting for safe staffing in hospitals and nursing homes as well as patient- and worker-friendly policies.

Raising the Floor for Service Workers
SEIU’s core work is the service economy—the biggest and fastest-growing sector of the current economy. Through its victories and organizing of strong contracts among janitors, security officers, airport employees, and food workers, SEIU has shown that low-wage jobs don’t have to be dead-end work. SEIU campaigns have a ripple effect, setting new wage and benefit benchmarks that raise the entire service industry.

How to Join or Support the SEIU

Sectoral and Geographic Organizing
SEIU is typically organized in large, urban local unions that cover workers in a specific geographic area and in the union’s foundation industries. The union strategy is to pursue “sectoral organizing”—organizing all workers in a specific industry in an urban area or region (all hospital workers or all janitors) so that they have maximum bargaining power and cannot be undercut by employers attempting to compete by driving wages down.

Becoming a Member
SEIU members from its core industries can contact a local SEIU office or the international union organizing department to get help in building a union in their workplace. SEIU has a large pool of organizers and resources available to support workers through the process.

Supporting as an Ally
SEIU campaigns are based on a solid foundation of community support. Supporters can help the union by joining picket lines and rallies, supporting pro-worker candidates, and engaging in campaigns like the Fight for $15. The union often joins forces with community, faith, and student organizations to build powerful coalitions for social and economic justice.

Why the SEIU is Beneficial for Service Workers and Students

A Voice for the Voiceless
To millions of working Americans, SEIU is a clear, collective voice to battle for respect, a just wage, and a healthy workplace. The union speaks out for workers who are too often silenced and empowers them with the strength to stand up to some of the world’s biggest and most powerful corporations.

A Champion for Student Activists
SEIU is prominently represented on college campuses, representing growing numbers of adjunct faculty members, grad student workers, and other college staff who are fighting for higher pay and job protection. The union’s focus on racial, immigrant, and economic justice resonates deeply with student activists, and SEIU regularly backs and organizes student-led campaigns on campus and in the community.

The SEIU's Founding: From Janitors to a Social Justice Powerhouse

Humble Beginnings in Chicago
SEIU was formed on April 23, 1921, as the Building Service Employees International Union (BSEIU). Its initial membership was a group of janitors, elevator operators, and window washers in Chicago who rallied to seek better conditions. In its early decades, it was a small, relatively humble union that committed itself to organizing property service workers in a handful of major cities.

A Commitment to Organizing
The union’s modern, active character truly began to take shape in the second half of the 20th century under the guidance of leaders like John Sweeney. The union tactically decided to spend a tremendous percentage of its budget and resources organizing new members, particularly low-paid workers, women, and immigrants who had been woefully under-represented by the traditional labor movement. This commitment to “organizing the unorganizable” fueled its explosive growth and transformed it into the social justice colossus it is today.

Core Activities and Organizing Strategies of the SEIU
The ‘Organizing Model’
SEIU is the ideal example of the “organizing model” of unionism. SEIU believes that its strength comes from constant growth, rather than a “servicing model” where a lot of effort goes into servicing existing members. It invests heavily in strategic, high-impact campaigns to organize thousands of new workers into the union.

Core Activities and Organizing Strategies of the SEIU

SEIU strategy extends well beyond the individual workplace. The union is renowned for its use of high-tech “corporate campaigns” that put public, political, and financial pressure on an entire company brand and network to get it to the negotiating table. Its campaigns are also community-based, building broad coalitions with religious leaders, politicians, and local activists in order to build huge public support for its fights.

Strong Political Mobilization
SEIU has one of the largest and most effective political programs in the labor movement. The union mobilizes its members to be a forceful ground force behind supported candidates, and is a leading voice on lobbying progressive policies in everything from healthcare and immigration to the minimum wage.

Core Objective / Strategy	Description
Large-Scale Organizing	Prioritizes dedicating massive resources to ambitious, multi-year campaigns aimed at organizing entire industries or geographic regions.
Political Mobilization	Operates one of the most effective political programs in the U.S., mobilizing its members as a powerful ground force in elections.
Community Partnerships	Builds deep, lasting coalitions with community, faith, and social justice organizations to create broad public support for its campaigns.
Corporate Campaigns	Uses sophisticated research and public pressure tactics to leverage a target company’s brand, finances, and network to win organizing fights.
Member Leadership Development	Invests heavily in training and empowering rank-and-file members to be leaders in their workplaces and communities.
Social Justice Advocacy	Integrates its union work with broader fights for racial, immigrant, and environmental justice, viewing them as interconnected.

Conclusion: The Future of the SEIU

The Service Employees International Union has grown from an infinitesimal Chicago janitors’ union to a movement power of social and economic justice across North America. Its ambitious and innovative campaigns benefited not only its members but also transformed the national debate on work, wages, and inequality.

SEIU’s future is focused on the biggest issues facing working people today. The union is actively seeking new means to structure gig economy workers, continuing in its efforts to raise all low-wage workers’ wages, and building a large, multi-racial movement to demand a more equitable society. In an economy that is quickly becoming characterized by low-wage service jobs, SEIU’s purpose of uniting all workers to fight for respect and dignity is more urgent and necessary than ever.