Union organizers have obtained what they say is majority support in one of the biggest unionization drives in the South in decades, collecting the signatures of thousands of Houston janitors.
In an era when unions typically face frustration and failure in attracting workers in the private sector, the Service Employees International Union is bringing in about 5,000 janitors from several companies at once.
With workforce experts saying that organized labor faces a slow death unless it can figure out how to unionize private-sector workers in big bunches, labor leaders are looking to the Houston campaign as a possible model.
The service employees, which led a breakaway of four unions from the AFL-CIO last summer after accusing the federation of not doing enough to organize workers, has used several unusual tactics in Houston, among them lining up the strong support of religious leaders, pension funds and the mayor of Houston, Bill White, a Democrat. Making the effort even more unusual has been the union’s success in a state that has long been hostile to labor.
Julius Getman, a labor law professor at the University of Texas, predicted the Houston effort would embolden other unions to take their chances in the South.