Purple Power: The History and Global Impact of SEIU

Luís LM Aguiar · Joseph A. McCartin

Jan 2023 · University of Illinois Press

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256

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Chartered in 1921, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is a worldwide organization that represents more than two million workers in occupations from healthcare and government service to custodians and taxi drivers. Women form more than half the membership while people in minority groups make up approximately forty percent.

Luís LM Aguiar and Joseph A. McCartin edit essays on one of contemporary labor’s bedrock organizations. The contributors explore key episodes, themes, and features in the union’s recent history and evaluate SEIU as a union with global aspirations and impact. The first section traces the SEIU’s growth in the last and current centuries. The second section offers in-depth studies of key campaigns in the United States, including the Justice for Janitors and Fight for $15 movements. The third section focuses on the SEIU’s work representing low-wage workers in Canada, Australia, Europe, and Brazil. An interview with Justice for Janitors architect Stephen Lerner rounds out the volume.

Contributors: Luís LM Aguiar, Adrienne E. Eaton, Janice Fine, Euan Gibb, Laurence Hamel-Roy, Tashlin Lakhani, Joseph A. McCartin, Yanick Noiseux, Benjamin L. Peterson, Allison Porter, Alyssa May Kuchinski, Maite Tapia, Veronica Terriquez, and Kyoung-Hee Yu

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About the author

Luís LM Aguiar is associate professor of sociology in the Irving K. Barber Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the University of British Columbia. He is coeditor of The Dirty Work of Neoliberalism: Cleaners in the Global Economy. Joseph A. McCartin is a professor of history and executive director of the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor at Georgetown University. He is the author of Collision Course: Ronald Reagan, the Air Traffic Controllers, and the Strike that Changed America.

Luís LM Aguiar is associate professor of sociology in the Irving K. Barber Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the University of British Columbia. He is coeditor of The Dirty Work of Neoliberalism: Cleaners in the Global Economy. Joseph A. McCartin is a professor of history and executive direc...

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