Staffers accuse SEIU Local 1199 of union-busting

One staffer fired just before union vote

Staff at one of the state's largest and most powerful unions say that local leadership has been attempting to stifle their push to unionize by distributing anti-union mailers urging staff to vote no and by firing one of the staffers on the union’s organizing committee.

Staffers at Local 1199 of the Service Employees International Union filed to unionize with the Washington-Baltimore News Guild, a subsidiary of the Communications Workers of America, in April. The SEIU local declined to voluntarily recognize the union and, in recent weeks, the more than 250 clerical, secretarial and administrative workers in the proposed bargaining unit say they’ve been facing intimidation and union busting from leadership in Local 1199.