A statement from Doug Collier, president of SEIU Local 205: On Jan. 19, a majority of Metro Council members voted in favor of the Music City Center, which is expected to cost close to a billion dollars. This is bad for Metro employees and taxpayers in general for many reasons, including...
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Jeff Berntsen of SEIU congratulates Carol Berz on her victory.
SEIU's slate of pro-worker candidates won big in Tuesday's city council elections, in no small part thanks to a major coordinated union campaign to change Chattanooga. Of the five candidates that Local 205 endorsed, four of them won their races and one is headed to a runoff election.
Some 140 Nashville Electric Service (“N.E.S.”) union members swarmed Metro Council to voice their concerns about the possibility of the company’s budget being subjected to heavy scrutiny by Metro Council, which would have jeopardized union contracts and benefits.
Edna J. Jones, a member of SEIU and employee of Metro Public Works, was handily re-elected to the Benefit Board. Thanks to the efforts of SEIU members across the city, Edna received 59% of the vote in a four-person race, leading to a resounding victory for workers.
Thanks to political action by your Union, a loan extension for General Hospital was approved by an overwhelming majority of the Metro Council at their meeting on Feb. 19.
As part of their new "Building A Union, Bridging A Nation" initiative, SEIU Local 221 in San Diego, California officially "adopted" Local 205 as a "sister union". To solidify the new partnership, Local 221 sent six activists to help our local in the Sept. 11 runoff elections in Nashville.
SEIU took on one of its last political initiatives of the year by urging the Metro Council to pass a resolution in support of the Employee Free Choice Act, also known as “EFCA”. The council resolution, 2007-76, is intended to send a signal to Davidson County’s state and federal lawmakers that workers have the right to organize and to be free from employer intimidation.
An SEIU-backed bill passed the Metro Council on its third and final reading thanks to the hard work of union activists and retired Metro employees.
EFCA Resolution Passes Metro Council!