Tribune – news, features and comment from Britain's left-wing magazine

by René Lavanchy

Unison has been warned by the United States’ biggest catering union over entering into a major project with another American union to recruit and organise catering staff, raising the threat of workers being “locked into substandard agreements”.

The Service Employees International Union has entered into partnership with Unison to advise on organising within the “big three” food service multinational firms Compass, Sodexho and Aramark, who employ more than 121,000 people in Britain and Ireland.

But John Wilhelm, president of Unite Here, has written to Unison general secretary Dave Prentis warning him that a partnership project between his union and the SEIU to recruit and organise the same three companies in the US was a “dismal failure”.

The letter reflects a bitter dispute between the SEIU and Unite Here, which has accused its former partner of “raiding” other union’s members.

Mr Wilhelm wrote: “Unite Here has no quarrel with the objective to aid and assist unions who want to organize workers employed by Compass, Sodexo and Aramark.”

But he said that the Unite Here-SEIU project, which launched in 2004 and for which the SEIU demanded the creation of a new joint union, Service Workers United, had gone sour. “Nearly five years later, our partnership with SEIU can only be described as a dismal failure in terms of membership growth.” Just over 6,000 members had been recruited at the end of last year, he said.

He added: “The Big 3 companies were allowed to determine sites the unions could organise – making it impossible to build significant union density in any particular city or region.

“Boilerplate contracts locked workers into substandard agreements – and created situations where workers organised under the SWU agreement, earning low wages with minimal benefits, are working side-by-side with other union members who had won significantly higher contractual standards.” Mr Wilhelm also warned Mr Prentis that Unite Here expected to be consulted on any international agreement with the firms.

Around 1,000 SWU members have reportedly joined a “Reform SWU” group protesting at their poor pay agreements and lack of union representation.

Mr Prentis replied to the letter last week, saying: “The project is designed to develop strategies to overcome the organising problems we face and develop sustainable union organisation”. If successful, it would be extended to 17 other “organising priority” companies, he said. He declined to comment on the accusations against the SEIU and referred Mr Wilhelm to the TUC.

Unison national executive member Jon Rogers said: “I think this is something that needs to be discussed by Unison’s NEC. I don’t think Dave Prentis does justice to the concerns expressed to us.” Unison head office declined to comment.