SEIU scores big win in Miami

MIAMI, May 2 (UPI) -- The Service Employees International Union scored a major win against a big U.S. janitorial service that eliminates secret ballots in union organizing.

For months the SEIU has fought Unicco over unionizing workers at the University of Miami in a way, known as card check, that reveals each worker's preference. Unicco wanted a secret ballot conducted by the National Labor Relations Board.

But SEIU effectively used hunger strikes and celebrity appearances to force Unicco to back down, partly by creating continual bad press for the university. The union's sole concession to Monday's night agreement was agreeing that it must get a 60-percent majority instead of a 51-percent majority.

SEIU's executive vice president, Eliseo Medina, said he was "ecstatic" and hailed University of Miami President Donna Shalala's work in the background as making a "big difference."

Advocates who had fought to preserve workers' confidentiality rights in unionizing votes were disappointed.

"Now that the secret ballot is off the table, abuses that come from the peer-to-peer intimidation to sign cards are in play," said Richard Berman, head of the Center for Union Facts.