SEIU Member Activists For Reform Today - Mergers of SEIU Locals

Mergers of SEIU Locals

SMART members question the recent policy of merging smaller union locals into single locals with up to and over 100,000 members. Large memberships give locals power-in-numbers in contract negotiations and may eliminate the inefficiency of multiple small locals representing workers in the same industry. Nevertheless, union reformers contend that mega-locals can lead to “out-of-touch leadership” that—in the context of a larger bureaucracy—becomes “unresponsive” to members’ concerns.

Union reformers have also criticized the nature of some SEIU mergers. They contend that some locals were merged without members’ consent through a top-down, undemocratic process. While hearings and membership votes are held to approve mergers, SEIU’s limited publicity of merger plans often results in low voter turnout. Mergers can also be implemented to limit local autonomy and dissent by absorbing dissident locals into larger ones where their voice can be drowned out. For example, SMART members contend that current plans to restructure how SEIU represents its hospital and long term care workers in California is a thinly veiled attempt to quell dissent from dissident Oakland-based local, United Healthcare West (UHW).