The Service Employees International Union, one of the nation’s largest labor unions and a major player in Democratic politics, endorsed Hillary Clinton for president on Tuesday.
“Hillary Clinton has proven she will fight, deliver and win for working families,” said SEIU International President Mary Kay Henry. “SEIU members and working families across America are part of a growing movement to build a better future for their families, and Hillary Clinton will support and stand with them.”
“Thank, you, SEIU,” Clinton tweeted in response.
The endorsement is a major boost for Clinton, who has been in a pitched battle with rival Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., for the backing of organized labor, a key Democratic constituency. SEIU’s endorsement signals that she has largely put to rest concerns labor leaders had regarding her stances on trade and other labor issues.
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The SEIU represents workers ranging from service-sector workers to nurses to government employees. In the 2014 election cycle, it spent $23.6 million exclusively favoring Democratic candidates.
The union promised “hundreds of thousands of face-to-face and door-to-door contacts, millions of phone calls, robust digital engagement and other activities to get out the vote” on Clinton’s behalf.
In making the endorsement, SEIU cited Clinton’s support for the movement to raise the federal minimum wage to $15, stating, “She has spoken out in support of the Fight for $15 movement.”
However, Clinton has rejected raising the federal minimum wage to that level, proposing instead an increase to $12. She has argued that there is no reliable way to predict what the effect would be at $15 because no nation has raised the rate that high.
“If we went to $15 there are no international comparisons. That is why I support a $12 national federal minimum wage. That is what the Democrats in the Senate have put forward as a proposal,” Clinton said during a candidate debate Saturday. She added that cities and states should be allowed to experiment with wages higher than the federal level.
Labor for Bernie, a nonprofit group allied with Sanders, slammed SEIU for the endorsement, pointing to Clinton’s wage stance. “@SEIU’s exec board endorses HRC – they think their members prefer $12/hr over @BernieSanders’s $15/hr + #singlepayer! #FeelTheBern,” the group tweeted.
Clinton has won the endorsements of several other major unions, including the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the National Education Association and the American Teachers Federation.
Sanders has won the endorsements of some notable unions, such as National Nurses United and the American Postal Workers Union, but none as large as the ones Clinton has reeled in.
Clinton has had a rocky relationship with labor, which partly fueled Sanders’ rise in the polls. During a private June interview with the executive council of the AFL-CIO, the nation’s largest labor federation, to discuss a presidential endorsement, she refused to declare a position on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a major proposed trade deal negotiated by the White House that labor leaders oppose. Clinton had been involved in the deal’s negotiations. Sanders was already on record opposing the deal. The AFL-CIO subsequently announced it was postponing any endorsement for the foreseeable future.
She has worked hard to mend fences with labor leaders since then, coming out against the trade deal last month.
Tuesday’s announcement noted that Clinton promised in August to boost the union’s efforts to organize home care providers. The union has allied Democratic governors to unionize caregivers that receive state subsidies by declaring that they are public sector employees and the states can therefore enter into union contracts on their behalf.
SEIU, which split from the AFL-CIO in 2005, was one of then-Sen. Barack Obama’s earliest supporters in the 2008 election.
