Just got word from the Service Employees International Union that the custodial staff at the Carnegie Science Center has officially, and unanimously, voted to unionize.

This is no great surprise: All 10 of the custodial staff signed union cards late last year. The only surprise is that it took so long to ratify that decision. As I first reported here, despite the early unanimous show of support, the Science Center forced the staff to hold an election, which wasn’t held until today. (The P-G later followed up with a story here.) 

So congratulations to the SEIU and to its newest members, who will now begin negotiating a contract. And congratulations to the Science Center, I guess, for going another couple months without having to pay its custodians health benefits or a decent salary. 

This article appears in Apr 16-22, 2009.

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One reply on “SEIU sweeps up in Science Center unionization vote”

  1. I know that there are many here who blame the unions for destroying America, but one thing I would like to point out is that the union presents ordinary, or extraordinary, working people with the rare opportunity to experience a political role in their daily life. While some surely sour on this experience, it is, nonetheless, an important life enriching experience for many who, otherwise, would trudge on through the hand-to-mouth existence of wage labor without having any notion of a political life in this, the greatest democracy ever known to humanity.

    And no, Greek historians, those were not better times.

    😉

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