Major service workers union joins forces with AFL-CIO as second Trump term looms

WASHINGTON — Nearly 20 years after parting ways, two major unions announced that they’re reuniting just days before President-elect Donald Trump takes office again.

The Service Employees International Union said Wednesday it is re-joining the AFL-CIO, a group comprised of 60 affiliated labor unions. With the addition of SEIU, its membership will expand to 15 million workers.

The move comes less than two weeks before the beginning of a second Trump administration, which is expected to take a decidedly different view toward labor unions compared with the Biden administration. The leaders of the AFL-CIO and SEIU, however, said the decision to unite was not political.

"The notion that this is political couldn't be further from the truth in terms of the election results," said AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler in an interview with NBC News.

At the same time, the union leaders said they are prepared to defend workers as Trump enters office. Both unions had endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 race, arguing that Trump’s agenda would be “devastating“ and “anti-worker.”

“We do not have rose colored glasses on about the threats that could be coming our way,” said SEIU International President April Verrett in an interview with NBC News.

Shuler said the unions will tap into their organizing power to respond to threats with a “really robust defense,” while also going on the offensive.

“We are the probably only institution in the country that has an infrastructure in every city, in every state, in every workplace, that is a mobilizing machine,” she said. “And as they say, outside power builds inside power.”

About 2 million SEIU members work in hospitals, schools, law enforcement and other settings. The AFL-CIO’s affiliated unions include the American Federation of Government Employees, the American Federation of Teachers and the UAW. Union members are employed across the country at a variety of large companies including General Motors, Disney and the United States Postal Service.

Shuler and Verrett said that conversations about joining forces had been ongoing for years.

“This is a key moment, of course, it’s a strong signal, but it’s something that’s been building and something we think is going to really be for the long term,” Shuler said, noting that she has been working with the SEIU to increase collaboration since starting her presidency in 2021.

Verrett said that the SEIU board gave permission in June 2023 for the union to have more formal conversations with the AFL-CIO about joining the affiliation.

The announcement brings SEIU into “part of the broader federation in decision making about priorities,” said Ken Jacobs, a senior policy adviser at the UC Berkeley Labor Center. He referred to the first Trump administration as being “extremely hostile to labor.”

“I think this is also a pretty clear reflection of recognition of how important labor unity is going to be in this next four years, when we have a Trump administration that we can expect to be hostile to the interests of working people,” Jacobs said.

A spokesperson for Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday night.

Trump allies Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, the co-heads of the new nongovernmental Department of Government Efficiency, have proposed large-scale employment changes for government workers in the upcoming Trump administration, prompting backlash from unions. The president-elect has criticized the United Auto Workers union, and numerous unions endorsed Harris in the 2024 race.

Still, Trump's efforts to win over union workers proved effective in getting one major union, the Teamsters, to decline to endorse a presidential candidate after years of supporting Democrats.