Posts tagged SEIU
Newsom signs bill giving 800,000 Uber and Lyft drivers in California the right to unionize
October 7, 2025 // California is the second state where Uber and Lyft drivers can unionize as independent contractors. Massachusetts voters passed a ballot referendum in November allowing unionization, while drivers in Illinois and Minnesota are pushing for similar rights.
SEIU Local 87 Tied to Anti-ICE Riots Hired Sex Offender to Top Role
September 23, 2025 // The SEIU labor union’s San Francisco chapter hired a convicted sex offender to a top position after she served jail time for child sexual abuse at a California high school with four underage boys. The House Education and Workforce Committee just sent a letter Monday to SEIU Local 87, a San Francisco labor union which hired Noelia Linares, the convicted sex offender, as a business agent.
Walberg Presses Union Chapter on Hiring of Child Molester
September 23, 2025 // Education and Workforce Committee Chairman Tim Walberg (R-MI) sent a letter to the president of Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 87, Olga Miranda, demanding information on its hiring practices after reports that the chapter employed convicted child molester Noelia Linares. SEIU’s website highlights that it is the second largest union of public service employees with more than 1 million local and state government workers, public school employees, bus drivers, and child care providers. This letter comes after the SEIU national office failed to provide an adequate response to a June letter demanding answers regarding both local and national procedures and policies for the union’s hiring of registered sex offenders. Instead, SEIU’s response left it to SEIU locals to defend their own actions.
California unions are pouring more money than ever into CalPERS elections. Here’s why
September 23, 2025 // The money is coming from a mix of mostly private sector construction and trade unions that have been urging the $584 billion pension fund to favor union shops in its real estate and construction investments.
Loyola Marymount abruptly rescinds recognition of faculty union, claiming religious exemption
September 21, 2025 // A 1979 Supreme Court decision regarding the Catholic Bishop of Chicago ruled that the NLRB should not seek to regulate religious institutions, arguing that problems with religious freedom protections enshrined in the 1st Amendment can arise when a government office tries to determine if certain activities are religious or not. In the decades since, rulings by federal courts and the NLRB have focused on creating a standard to deem whether a school is a religious institution, and whether the labor board can assert itself when it comes to employees who are not involved with its religious mission. Recent rulings have further curtailed the NLRB’s reach.
How California reached the unthinkable: A union deal with tech giants
September 15, 2025 // In roughly six weeks, three California Democrats, a labor head and two ride-hailing leaders managed to pull off what would have been unthinkable just one year prior: striking a deal between labor unions and their longtime foes, tech giants Uber and Lyft. California lawmakers announced the agreement in late August, paving a path for ride-hailing drivers to unionize as labor wanted, in exchange for the state drastically reducing expensive insurance coverage mandates protested by the companies. It earned rare public support from Gov. Gavin Newsom and received final approval from state lawmakers this week.
California Uber and Lyft drivers closer to being able to unionize after crucial vote
September 12, 2025 // Uber called the deal a “compromise,” but a spokesperson would not answer CalMatters’ question about whether the company commits to bargaining in good faith if the drivers vote to form a union. Lyft also expressed support for the deal, but a spokesperson for the company would not comment on the unionization bill. There’s even more political intrigue surrounding the unionization bill: A new lawsuit filed by Rivas’s former press secretary, Cynthia Moreno, alleges Rivas made a deal with the Service Employees International Union over the unionization bill in exchange for its support for the state Democrats’ redistricting effort that will go before voters in November.
Op-ed: Can Zohran Make NYC a Union Town Again?
September 9, 2025 // The new mayor could host big online unionization trainings with the Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee, as Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio Cortez have already done. If this led even a small fraction of Zohran’s 60,000-plus volunteers and over 6 million social media followers to start organizing their own workplaces—or to take a strategic job to unionize it—this could potentially generate thousands of new unionization campaigns. And were Mamdani to act upon our proposal to launch a broad Movement for an Affordable New York (MANY), then the pool of new potential workplace organizers would grow significantly.
Opinion: It’s time to put American workers ahead of big labor
September 3, 2025 // in 2024 alone, the Department of Labor documented 177 enforcement actions against unions for fraud, embezzlement, wire fraud, and falsified records. Congressional investigations have targeted a dozen unions for similar abuses, highlighting a pattern of self-dealing that diverts funds from pensions, training programs, and strike support. When union officials embezzle or racketeer, it’s the everyday worker who pays the price through diminished benefits and tarnished reputations. Perhaps most troubling is the growing chasm between union leaders’ policy stances and the actual views of their members. Union bosses, often ensconced in Washington or state capitals, pour millions into liberal causes and Democratic campaigns, even as their grassroots base leans increasingly conservative or independent. In the 2024 election, while top labor officials doubled down on Democratic endorsements and criticized Republican outreach, many union households shifted toward Donald Trump.
Kamala Harris pro-union X post inspires major Labor Day backlash
September 2, 2025 // An X post from former Vice President Kamala Harris on this Labor Day has generated hundreds of mostly critical comments. “When unions are strong, our communities and our country are strong. Every person in our nation has benefited from the labor movement. This Labor Day, we celebrate the workers and unions who have fought for fair wages, safe workplaces, and sick leave for all of us,” posted Harris. One commenter posted in response, “The Dems talking point for today is…UNIONS. Today is literally for the worker but in true form, democrats make it about the evil system.”