In its post, Fast Company states [emphasis added]:
Unions no longer have the power they once did—and Mary Kay Henry, international president of the 2 million–member Service Employees International Union (SEIU), knows it. “We can’t just be about our members,” she says. “We have to think about all working people.” She got a chance to do just that when nonunion fast-food workers went on strike in New York in 2012. SEIU leaders joined them, and together they’ve built their cause into a national movement, fighting for fast-food workers’ right to organize and a $15-an-hour minimum wage. Henry’s work on the “Fight for $15″—co-ordinating protesters and raising funds—has contributed to policy changes like Seattle’s new $15 minimum wage, and a $10.10 minimum wage called for by President Obama in his State of the Union address. “No one should work for a living and have to get by in poverty,” she says.
Whether Fast Company’s playing loose with the facts on the SEIU’s campaign to unionize the fast-food industry is deliberate or not is unknown.
However, one thing is certain: The SEIU did not just “come along” (as is inferred by the above) when non-union fast-food workers decided to strike in 2012. The SEIU’s campaign had been in the works since 2009.
SEIU Fast Food Organizing Plan – 2009 by LaborUnionReport.com
