The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) passed a resolution at their international convention on June 22 supporting marriage equality, becoming the first union in the nation to do so. The move follows the adoption of similar resolutions by several of their local unions around the country. SEIU has also gone on record against the Federal Marriage Amendment (FMA), as has the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), the Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU) and the Communications Workers of America (CWA).

“So you’ve got four unions against the FMA and one union that came out for full marriage equality. It’s huge,” said Brian Polejes, a senior field representative for SEIU Local 535 and chair of the San Diego area chapter of Pride At Work, who was a delegate at last month’s SEIU convention.

Pride At Work is the GLBT constituency group of the AFL-CIO (American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations), which is the federation of America’s unions that represents 13 million people in 61 different unions. SEIU is the AFL-CIO’s largest and fastest growing union, representing 1.7 million members and 120,000 retirees throughout Canada, the United States and Puerto Rico. SEIU is also the second largest public employee union next to AFSCME.

“So you’ve got the two largest unions in North America opposing the Federal Marriage Amendment and the largest union supporting marriage equality,” Polejes explained. “Marriage is a labor issue. With marriage, there are over 1,000 rights that come with that, and many of those are economic.”

The SEIU resolution, introduced by their international executive board, states: “This contention affirms SEIU’s commitment to equal rights for all our members regardless of sexual orientation. SEIU will make it a collective bargaining and legislative goal to ensure that all members enjoy equal rights and benefits. SEIU will support the right of same sex couples to access the full and equal rights, responsibilities and commitments of civil marriage and oppose laws in constitutional amendments that deny that right. SEIU will resist any attempt by anti-worker forces to use this issue in elections this year or beyond to divide working people in order to elect candidates with proven track records of favoring corporate special interests at the expense of working families.”

CWA has its own internal GLBT caucus, called CWA People Organizing for Worker’s Equal Rights (POWER), an informal network made up of members, retirees and employees of CWA. CWA POWER works closely with the national organization of Pride At Work on issue advocacy.

“CWA believes this highly divisive and politically-motivated measure is the wrong approach to the evolving debate over same-sex marriage in America,” CWA’s resolution, faxed to all 100 senators on July 1, reads. “… For the first time in history, the Constitution is being used as a tool of exclusion. It is so far-reaching that it would not only prohibit states from granting equal marriage rights to same-sex couples, but also may deprive them and their families of fundamental protections such as hospital visitation, inheritance rights, and health care benefits, whether conveyed through marriage or other legally recognized relationships. Such a proposal will do nothing to ‘protect marriage’ but will harm real children and real families. … We urge you to publicly oppose this amendment.”

CWA POWER also issued a resolution last August calling on all elected representatives to resist enacting any constitutional barriers to GLBT equal rights, that was adopted without dissent by CWA.

According to T Santora, a CWA legislative representative and chair of CWA POWER, every contract CWA holds includes protections and benefits for GLBT members, and the union itself has a long history of GLBT inclusion. At this year’s CWA convention, taking place Aug. 29-30 in Anaheim, CWA POWER will introduce resolutions in support of marriage equality and trans-inclusion.

“It would be misleading to suggest that everything is perfect or that there isn’t much work to be done,” Santora added. “Although CWA is one of the more progressive unions on the issue of LGBT equality, we continue to struggle with institutional homophobia and sexism in corporate board rooms as well as within the union itself. We are way ahead of the general public in terms of support for the LGBT community, but many of our national leaders still must be pushed and pulled along by activist union members.”

Santora said CWA POWER and Pride At Work have so far been unsuccessful in convincing the AFL-CIO to take a public stance on the FMA. “Pride At Work has its work cut out for itself there,” he said. “It took a huge effort to get the AFL-CIO to stop funding the Boy Scouts of America after they adopted their anti-gay, anti-atheist policies. Something that should have been a no-brainer for Labor took months to accomplish.”

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