The Fight for $15 campaign, a movement that advocates for a $15-an-hour minimum wage, will soon vote to join the Service Employees International Union.
The SEIU has been a major supporter of Fight for $15, contributing $20 million to activist and front groups responsible for organizing protests as well as public relations campaigns. The $20 million represents only a portion of the more than $100 million used for non-membership services, $48 million of which went to political activities.
Labor watchdogs have said they are not surprised the Fight for $15 is being brought into the fold. Michael Saltsman, research director at the free-market Employment Policies Institute, said that the union needs to "justify its investment" given the large amount of worker dues put into financing the front groups' activities.
"With more than $70 million spent on the Fight for $15, the SEIU is in desperate need of new dues-paying members to help justify its investment," he said. "SEIU leadership are keenly aware that their huge investment only makes sense if it gets them more unionized workplaces and more dues-paying members. So far it looks like the strategy hasn’t worked."
AR Squared, a non-profit research organization, said the vote only proves that the movement is "solely a big labor power grab."
"Fight for $15 campaign is a creation of Big Labor, which has bankrolled it for years to increase the power and influence of labor bosses at the expense of American workers and our nation’s economy," spokesman Jeremy Adler said in a release.
The Worker Center Watch, a labor watchdog group, has accused Fight for $15 of being a front through which the SEIU can unionize workers, despite current labor laws prohibiting such actions. It alleges that Fight for $15 protests are the product of SEIU machinations with astroturfed protestors, not the result of an actual grassroots movement.
Buzzfeed reported that Fight for $15 leaders met with the president of the SEIU, Mary Kay Henry, at a labor convention in Detroit on Saturday, and will organize a vote shortly after they return home.
Fight for $15 and SEIU representatives did not respond to requests for comment.