Posts tagged SEIU
Op-ed:Will Swaim: California schools turn to child sacrifice
August 7, 2026 // This was no accident. Sacrificing their younger union members in order to boost the pay of the older members is a key part of the union playbook – and the predictable outcome of state law commonly known as “LIFO,” or “last in, first out.” It’s buried in California Education Code section 44955, a single phrase that lays out the order of layoffs in any financial crisis: “employees shall be terminated in the inverse of the order in which they were employed.” Many younger teachers say they did not know about LIFO. “We’re pretty shocked,” said a two-year Los Angeles teacher who spoke on condition of anonymity. She said the general feeling among young teachers is “betrayal.” “We supported the bargaining team throughout this process – stood out in the rain to protest and rallied online support for the new contract,” she said. “No one, not even once, told me this could happen.”
Dues and don’ts: Large union, SEIU, targets Target
August 6, 2026 // Target employees are not SEIU union members. So targeting Target is not about members’ wages or working conditions. I hope SEIU realizes that damaging a company that employs more than 400,000 employees could harm those employees and prospective ones.
SSM Health appealing certification of union vote at St. Mary’s Hospital in Madison
August 6, 2026 // National Labor Relations Board staff certified the union election late last month after nurses voted 511-63 to unionize with the Service Employees International Union of Wisconsin. SSM Health filed objections to the election with the NLRB, but the labor board overruled the objections in their “entirety” because SSM provided “insufficient” proof.
Op-ed: Faster Labor Contracts Act is bad for workers, good for union bosses
August 6, 2026 // Under current law, when workers vote to form a union, the employer and union negotiate a first contract through free collective bargaining. The FLCA inserts unrealistic Washington timelines and bureaucracy into this process. The bill passed the House after seven Republicans signed a discharge petition to bypass the Speaker and committee review to force a floor vote, all with no committee hearing, no CBO score, and no expert testimony. The bill is now before the Senate.
Op-ed: Dues & Don’ts: Unions are political — and union money is again driving opposition to initiatives
August 4, 2026 // Public unions do more than bargain over wages and working conditions. They endorse candidates and ballot measures, produce voter guides, use direct mail and other member communications to urge workers and their families who and what to support. They get into all sorts of campaign fights using treasuries built with members’ wages. The current election season displays this clearly. The Washington Education Association (WEA) opposes all three statewide measures slated for the November ballot: Initiative IL26-001, concerning parental rights in public schools, Initiative IL26-638, concerning participation in athletics at K-12 schools, and IP26-645, the initiative to repeal an income tax passed by Democratic state legislators earlier this year. (Unlike candidate contributions, which come from voluntary WEA-Political Action Committee donations, member dues may be used for ballot-initiative campaigns without separately obtaining each member’s approval for that particular campaign.)
UC Doctors Seek to Unionize 10,000 Colleagues in Massive Campaign
July 28, 2026 // About $24 billion, nearly 40% of the university’s total revenue last year, came from its six academic health centers, serving 2.5 million Californians. UC is the state’s second largest employer. Labor experts said it’s unlikely that university executives would welcome a new large doctors’ union. If the UC Doctors United organizing campaign is successful, it could inspire doctors elsewhere to seek a collective voice on the job, according to John Logan, director of labor and employment studies at San Francisco State University. “People who run the university undoubtedly will not want 10,000 doctors at the UC system to unionize and to have to bargain collectively over things that they can unilaterally decide at the moment,” Logan said.
CTU and SEIU back different candidates for school board president, widening rift between staff unions
July 28, 2026 // The SEIU and the CTU used to work together to protest budget cuts, school closings and other actions that affected workers. SEIU was one of the biggest backers of CTU organizer turned mayoral candidate Brandon Johnson, and its related PACs contributed more than $4.6 million to his campaign. But a rift formed after the CTU attempted to get some of SEIU’s members reclassified so they would be under CTU. SEIU officials accused the CTU of raiding its members.
Op-ed: You can’t legislate member loyalty
July 23, 2026 // Oregon State House Bill 3789, which last year made it illegal to “impersonate” a union, created new restrictions and legal risks to communicating with union-represented workers. The Freedom Foundation maintains that the law was designed to suppress effective outreach and has challenged it on constitutional grounds.
Billionaire tax backers burn big money on retreats, out-of-state political efforts and breathing ‘coach’
July 22, 2026 // The Post’s review of federal records found that officials for Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West burned millions on an out-of-state political effort as well as dues on travel, conferences and beachfront retreats — all while paying nearly $235,000 to a “clarity coach” who appeared in a series of low-budget mindfulness videos on Instagram.
LAUSD deadline looms to make painful cuts after county says board actions ‘erode confidence’
July 20, 2026 // The county rejected the plan, saying it lacked specificity and necessitates “an elevated level of fiscal oversight.” Among a list of eight acute budget issues, the July 2 letter faulted the L.A. Unified Board of Education for: Approving costly labor contracts exemplifying “mismanagement of the collective bargaining process.” A failure to carry out earlier approved budget cuts that “erodes confidence.” Raiding funds from a health benefits trust against “its own staff’s fiscal advice.” As a result of these and other district actions, Duardo said, L.A. Unified faces a cash shortfall of $231 million by November 2027, increasing to a $3.5-billion deficit by June 30, 2029.