home | on the job | helpful articles

SEIU Membership Reaches 1.5 Million

2001 Second-Best Organizing Year Ever for Largest and Fastest-Growing Union in AFL-CIO

Nearly 80,000 new workers united with SEIU in 2001, propelling the union's membership past the 1.5 million mark. New members include hospital employees, home care workers, building service workers, and probation and parole officers.

New members of SEIU in 2001 include the following:

• 10,000 employees at Catholic Healthcare West hospitals in California who joined together to protect patient care;
  
• 11,700 home care workers in Oregon who want to work together for better services for their clients;
  
• Nearly 10,000 building service workers who united for living wages and health benefits for their families; and
• 1,400 probation and parole officers in Missouri who organized to improve staffing so they can better manage their case loads.

“Health care employees, janitors, security guards, and public service employees are essential in our 21st Century economy, but that doesn’t make their jobs, their families, and their communities secure,” said SEIU President Andrew L. Stern. “In today’s uncertain economic times, workers are uniting in SEIU to help create a better future for themselves, their children, and the people they serve.”

SEIU’s 2001 organizing record is second only to 1999, when 74,000 home care workers in California won the largest union organizing victory since the 1930s when they joined SEIU.

In addition to newly-organized workers, SEIU gained more than 10,000 members through affiliations with Puerto Rico’s General Workers’ Union (UGT) and the Connecticut State Employees Association (CSEA).