Why is SEIU Designated as Our Official Union?
SEIU has been negotiating the Bargaining of Wages and Benefits for California State Worker’s since 1999, and became the Exclusive Representative of California’s state workers in December of 2003 based upon their promises to provide better representation than the current union. Since that time, California state workers have come to believe that SEIU has not fulfilled their promises.
Why Are California Workers Dissatisfied with SEIU?
Unfortunately for its members, despite SEIU’s initial promises, this organization has demonstrated a pattern of:
- Charging excessively High Dues in order to support a variety of political causes and ideological campaigns, frequently outside the state of California
- Failing to effectively Engage California’s Governor and the Legislature, during the ongoing California budget crisis (State workers account for <2% of the budget, while the Executive, Judicial, and Legislature, account for 3x that amount)
- Failing to exercise initiative in challenging the legal basis of the Governor’s controversial furlough program
- Failing to address Public Misconceptions of California State workers, and our impact on the overall state budget, facilitating future cuts to our wages, and benefits
- Failing to adequately Represent individual members of the union who are faced with adverse job actions, harassment by management or workplace discrimination
- Failing to provide adequate Service: SEIU members pay higher dues for lower quality of service provided by overworked volunteers compared to other California state workers represented by Professionals in competing unions
- Failing to aggressively Bargain for member benefits and wages and working conditions overall (net loss of >11% over the past 10 years)
The Bottom Line:
California state workers are paying high monthly dues, for unresponsive and ineffective representation.
See the Comparison Chart of Performance to Cost Ratio of other
Unions and SEIU.
Read what others that have Decertified SEIU have to say…
We deserve a union that we can respect, a union that puts the California state employee first. A Union that will aggressively Represent us and Bargain for a better Future. CPPEA is that Union.
How Is SEIU Funded?
The union gets funded by taking a portion of the monthly salary earned by state workers they represent (members, and non-members, alike). If the union isn’t doing its job, we have the right to choose a better union.
What Is The Process to Choose a Better Union?
That process is known as “Decertification”
- Workers gather signatures on a petition calling for an election to decertify SEIU as their Exclusive Representative
- Workers receive ballots and vote to decertify the current union SEIU
- Workers elect a different union on that same ballot
Why Are Workers Calling For Decertification At This Time?
Currently California workers have a window of opportunity for a decertification petition to reject SEIU, and choose a union that will use the dues we pay more responsibly, and provide better representation during these challenging times.
The reason for the “window period” is that the number of days prior to the expiration of the existing MOU allows time for an election and then additional time to negotiate a new agreement with the State of California.
Will We Lose Our Workplace Protections During the Decertification Process?
No. Your rights are guaranteed during this process, regardless of your union affiliation, and our protections and guarantees do not depend on continued SEIU representation.
The employer (State of California) is not permitted to change employment conditions, regardless of whether the existing MOU is expired or not.
For all practical purposes, the new union (if there is one) can enforce the existing MOU, negotiate a successor MOU, and enforce its terms as well.
Please visit our Guarantees page for complete details.