EditorLabor giant has eye on millions in dues money and 2016 elections.
Nearly six years after the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) designed plans to unionize the fast-food industry—and three years after its first “strike”—the SEIU is planning its largest strike to date on Tuesday.
According to USA Today, the union-backed group Fight for $15 is planning to stage protests “at restaurants in 270 cities” and is also using the effort to help “sway the 2016 presidential election.”
For the labor behemoth, which has invested an estimated $80 million so far, the potential rewards for unionizing the industry may mean tens of millions per month in union dues.
Unions survive on the payment of union dues. The SEIU’s minimum union dues (for workers making between $5,000 and $16,000 per year) are $27 per month.
If the SEIU’s efforts pay off and the union succeeds in unionizing even one third (1,217,723) of the nation’s fast-food workers, the SEIU stands to rake in up to $34,336,521 per month.
That’s $412,038,252 every year in dues alone–or over $1.2 billion over the course of a three-year contract.
While SEIU-led groups have scored some victories in certain municipalities and states by having won increases in the minimum wage—the SEIU is pushing duelling ballot initiatives to raise California’s minimum wage—none of these efforts (and victories) have translated into new union dues so far.
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