When a Union Busts a Union

California’s SEIU Local 2015 faced a strike by its own employees

By Michael Saltsman and Charlyce Bozzello.

"The Service Employees International Union likes to say that “union busting is disgusting”—but that same union is allegedly union-busting in its negotiations with its own staff.

SEIU Local 2015, one of the union’s largest chapters in California, represents more than 400,000 healthcare workers. The local has been in a contract battle with its staff, represented by Chapter 15 of the Pacific Northwest Staff Union since 2021. The staff is mainly concerned about wage scales and healthcare costs.

After making little progress in negotiations, 95% of the staff voted to authorize a strike this past October. Apparently that threat wasn’t enough, and the staff went on strike on Nov. 1, marching in picket lines in Los Angeles and Sacramento. The strike ended on Sunday, with a public statement that declared a “culture of toxicity” at Local 2015.

According to Local 2015 organizer Alex Sanchez, SEIU management tried to intimidate workers on the picket line, becoming antagonistic. Far from showing union solidarity with its unionized staff, the SEIU apparently took union-busting a bit too literally. The SEIU’s human-resources manager had a hit-and-run charge filed against her after she was seen driving her pickup truck into Mr. Sanchez on the picket line. According to Mr. Sanchez, other vehicles driven by SEIU management have “aggressively crept” through the throng of picketers. 

There also are allegations that SEIU managers recorded the protest, a potential violation under the National Labor Relations Act. An email from SEIU management to staff was seen as an attempt to get workers to become scabs, crossing the picket line. The union also listed several job postings on UnionJobs.com, which was interpreted by the striking staff as an attempt to replace them.

According to PNWSU, this union staff strike is one of the largest in history, spreading down California from Oakland to San Bernardino.

But it’s not the first time the SEIU has faced criticism from its own staff. In 2019 staff at the union’s Washington headquarters accused the SEIU of union-busting behavior. According to staffers, the SEIU had been outsourcing union jobs, eliminating work for staff members and misclassifying employees. Staff even hung a banner outside the union headquarters that said “Stop Union Busting.” Staff members represented by Office and Professional Employees International Union Local 2 begged union managers to “practice what they preach.”

Apparently, the lesson didn’t sink in. SEIU management claims it is “committed to bargaining in good faith” and listening to workers’ concerns. But the union has been quick to call out private companies, including the coffee giant Starbucks, that participate in similar back-and-forth negotiations. Union-friendly baristas regularly take to Twitter to criticize Starbucks management for milder tactics than those the union’s own management has engaged in.

Labor unions are employers too. And they don’t mind flipping the script when it’s their own staff at the bargaining table."