More Than 114,000 Workers United in SEIU in 2007 to Improve Their Lives and the Services They Deliver

WASHINGTON, DC-Seeking to improve their lives and the wide range of services they provide in their communities, 114,158 workers voted to unite in the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) in 2007. SEIU's growth last year accounted for nearly 25 percent of the total union growth across the country, solidifying SEIU's role as America's fastest-growing union.

The 2007 increases continue the union's record-setting growth in the last decade since President Andy Stern and a new leadership team took office in 1996. Since then, SEIU has grown by more than one million members, increasing the union's membership to nearly 2 million overall.

For me, the union has meant a lot more than doubling my salary in five years, vacation time, or access to health care for the first time in my life,"said Craig Jones, who along with 1,200 of his fellow janitors in Cincinnati won a landmark contract victory in July. "I learned to respect myself for the work I do. I learned how to get other people to respect me for the contributions I make as a service worker in America."

"These victories for working communities demonstrate how unions are still the best path to economic prosperity and the most effective anti-poverty program for workers in the U.S.,"said SEIU president Andy Stern. "Whether you are a security officer in Los Angeles, a home care worker in Massachusetts, or a child care worker in Pennsylvania, having the freedom to form a union can transform a job into a career with a future."Just this week, the 4,000 security officers in Los Angeles who voted to join SEIU in May announced a tentative contract agreement that raises total compensation a record 40 percent.

Large-scale victories for workers in new locations and nontraditional workforces contributed to SEIU's record growth in 2007. In New England's largest-ever union election, 22,000 home care workers chose to unite in SEIU in November. In April, 5,000 public employees in Pima County, Arizona, came together in SEIU. And nearly 12,000 child care providers in Maine, Pennsylvania, and Maryland voted to join the union in the second half of the year.

"Vote by vote, voice by voice, we are reshaping the long term care industry to better serve our seniors, people with disabilities, and the hard workers who deliver these essential services,"said Queenie Turner, a home care worker in Worcester, Mass.

"We're all thrilled," said Michael Johnson, a Los Angeles security officer on the union's bargaining committee. "Finally I can take care of my family like a man, and do for them how I've always dreamed, just to give them opportunities that I never had."

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) annual union membership report, released today, shows that the share of workers belonging to a union rose in 2007 for the first time in a quarter century. Growth in SEIU accounted for nearly 25 percent of the national growth."

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