WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - The Service Employees International Union (SEIU), representing two million service and care workers in the United States, has reunited with the AFL-CIO, a group comprising 60 affiliated labor unions.
This will bring the total membership of the nation's largest labor federation to nearly 15 million.
The unions will formally announce the affiliation at a round-table discussion with workers in Austin, Texas, at 2:30 ET on Thursday, in advance of the AFL-CIO's Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Civil and Human Rights Conference.
'At a critical moment when everything is on the line for the nation's working people, the labor movement is uniting to challenge the status quo and build a movement of workers who will fight-on the job, in the streets, at the ballot box, in our communities-for higher pay, expanded benefits and new rules that empower them to join together in unions and organize across industries,' the AFL-CIO and SEIU said in a joint statement.
'Workers know it's better in a union, and together we are stronger in our organizing and bargaining fights because there is power in unity,' said AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler.
'SEIU members are ready to unleash a new era of worker power, as millions of service and care workers unite with workers at the AFL-CIO to build our unions in every industry and every ZIP code,' said SEIU International President April Verrett.
Trade unions have made significant gains over the past year, including electric bus manufacturing workers at Blue Bird winning a union contract in Georgia, drivers for ride-sharing services winning the right to join a union in Massachusetts, and workers across Missouri winning a $15 an hour minimum wage and guaranteed paid sick leave.
Today, more than 60 million workers say they would join a union if they could, but only 1 in 10 workers has a union, according to AFL-CIO. Meanwhile, support for unions is at record highs as polling shows 7 in 10 Americans approve of unions, including 9 in 10 young people.
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