The union representing office workers for the Service Employees International Union filed an unfair practices complaint against the larger union Thursday with the National Labor Relations Board.
Office and Professional Employees International Union Local 2 said the Service Employees International Union was refusing to bargain in good faith and claimed it had sought to “destroy” the union by misclassifying its members.
Members of the union voted to authorize a strike in March but held off in favor of attempting to continue contact negotiations. However, last week its members voted to reject a “last, best and final offer” by the Service Employees International Union, claiming it tried to force them to accept too many concessions.
“At a time when SEIU is courting presidential candidates to make it easier for workers to join unions, SEIU management is behaving more like the irresponsible employers it calls out on a daily basis than the progressive labor union it portrays itself to be,” said Omar Martinez, an SEIU communications staffer and Local 2 bargaining committee member. “By attacking its own unionized staff, SEIU is losing its moral authority to call out bad actors like McDonald’s for being low-road employers and is sending the wrong message to workers that are looking to join a union in order to improve their workplaces.”
Martinez claimed that Service Employees International Union had systematically sought to shrink the bargaining unit the union represents, causing the number of workers to decline from 78 to 55 over the past two years.
“One of the biggest factors that has lead to this erosion of union membership within our staff union are the misclassification of managers and the use of outside consultants. We filed a grievance where we identified 48 managers that are currently misclassified, as they don’t meet the criteria of managers,” Martinez told the Washington Examiner.
The union alleged that Service Employees International Union senior staff is now 70% managers who are not eligible to organize and the larger union had spent about $45 million combined to outsource office work over the previous two years.
Service Employees International Union spokesman Sahar Wali said it offered a deal that would have improved wages and given protection from layoffs for existing workers, among other benefits.
“We absolutely respect OPEIU Local 2’s right to reject this contract and to take collective action, including striking. We are a union that is also an employer who must serve as responsible stewards of our members’ resources and maintain their ability to fight for a better life through their union. Our members need us to continue the important work we do on their behalf by moving forward and that is exactly what we are prepared to do,” he said.
Service Employees International Union is one of the largest and most active unions in the country, with 1.9 million members nationwide and $343 million in revenue in 2018 alone, according to Labor Department filings. It has been at the forefront of most union social justice movements in recent years. It has been the main funder of the “Fight for $15” minimum wage movement.
In October, 150 members of OPEIU Local 2 and their supporters protested in front of the D.C. headquarters of the AFL-CIO, claiming it was trying to force an unfair contract on their members, who represent janitors and other office employees at the headquarters.
