Fight for $15 organizers demand employee status from SEIU

• Recognition would allow them benefits of US labor union
• Collective intends to make request during convention for low-wage workers

Jana Kasperkevic in Richmond, Virginia
Friday 12 August 2016 18.14 BST

As hundreds of low-wage workers gather in Richmond, Virginia, this weekend for a union-backed convention on the minimum wage, the organizers behind the campaign are fighting their own battle for union recognition.

During the Fight for $15 Convention, workers and organizers hope to collectively call on the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) to recognize organizers behind the campaign as employees and allow them to join its workers’ union.

Labor unions such as the SEIU have been the driving force behind the Fight for $15 movement – providing it with resources and funding – in the hopes that when the fast-food workers get their higher minimum wage and decide to unionize, they will join their unions. In 2014, the SEIU spent as much as $24m to fund eight workers organizations that make up the Fight for $15 movement.

[font size=1]-snip-[/font]

Considering their close ties to the SEIU, the Fight for $15 organizers want it to recognize them as employees. This would allow them to join the Union for Union Representatives (UUR). In May, the International Business Times reported that more than dozen organizers signed cards wanting to join the UUR and that as many as 100 organizers should be covered.

[font size=1]-snip-[/font]