SEIU United Service Workers West (SEIU-USWW)

It is affiliated with the AFL-CIO, the California Labor Federation, and the Strategic Organizing Center (formerly known as Change to Win). ³

SEIU-USWW president David Huerta is also the president of the SEIU California State Council. In 2025, Huerta received national attention after he was arrested for allegedly impeding federal officers during an immigration raid in Los Angeles. ⁴

History

United Service Workers West grew out of the Service Employees International Union’s decision in 1997 to move members of the Justice for Janitors organizing campaign from their original home in Los Angeles-based Local 399 to Local 1877, which to that point had been the local union for Bay Area janitorial workers. ⁵

The SEIU undertook the move after struggles for control between the militant Justice for Janitors members of Local 399 and the local union’s health care industry-focused leaders became so public and dysfunctional that a dozen Justice for Janitors-affiliated members undertook an August 1995 hunger strike in front of the local’s headquarters. ⁶ The national SEIU responded by removing Local 399’s leadership from power and placing the local under control of an appointed trustee in September 1995. ⁷

By 1997, all Justice for Janitors members had been moved from Local 399 to Local 1877. ⁵  Local 399 retained its traditional health care workers, and in 2004, it merged with SEIU Local 250 to become SEIU United Healthcare Workers West. ⁸

In 2010, the SEIU created United Service Workers West with statewide organizing responsibility for service workers in California’s airport, entertainment, janitorial, racetrack, residential, retail, security, and stadium or arena industries. ⁹ Local 1877 continues to operate as part of USWW in its traditional role of organizing janitors in the Bay Area. ¹⁰

Leadership

David Huerta has been president of SEIU-USWW since 2014. ⁴ The son of a member of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, he began his career as an organizer for the Service Employees International Union’s Justice for Janitors campaign. ⁴

In 2022, Huerta was also elected president of the SEIU California State Council. ⁴

The Los Angeles Business Journal regularly includes Huerta in its annual “LA500” list of the most influential leaders in Los Angeles. ¹¹

In 2014, Huerta was honored by the Obama administration as a “Champion of Change” for “promoting citizenship in the workplace.” ^{12 4}

In June 2025, Huerta was the subject of a high-profile arrest for impeding federal officers during an immigration raid in Los Angeles. ¹³

Labor Activism

For more information on SEIU-USWW’s janitorial organizing campaigns, visit Justice for Janitors

SEIU United Service Workers West regularly uses a combination of collective bargaining and political activism to force employers to pay artificially high “living wages” to service workers. SEIU-USWW led the “Olympic Wage” campaign to lobby the Los Angeles City Council to pass a $30/hour minimum wage for hotel and airport workers in the city, tied to the city’s hosting of the Olympic Games in 2028. ¹⁴ The ordinance is opposed by local business interests, including hotel owners who have projected as much as 40 percent increases in payroll. ^{15 16} In August 2025, Politico reporter Emily Schultheis described the fight over the Olympic Wage as “a spiraling grudge match,” leading her to ask, “Is anyone in charge of Los Angeles?” ¹⁷

In 2018, SEIU-USWW campaigned against the Walt Disney Company on behalf of its members employed at the Disneyland and Disney’s California Adventure theme parks by pushing a successful ballot initiative in Anaheim, Calif. requiring companies that receive subsidies from the city, including Disneyland and the Los Angeles Angels baseball team, to pay $18/hour minimum wages by 2022, with an annual cost-of-living adjustment after that date. ¹⁸ The union’s campaign for the ordinance included protests at Disneyland’s main gate. ¹⁹

Political Activism

SEIU United Service Workers West is politically active in support of Democratic Party candidates and policies that align with its left-of-center priorities. In its 2024 annual report to the U.S. Department of Labor, SEIU-USWW reported spending $1,110,915 on political activities and lobbying. ²

The union opposes Trump administration policies, especially on labor and immigration topics. Before the 2024 election, SEIU-USWW was involved in the “Latinos Against Project 2025” project to use portions of the center-right Heritage Foundation-organized Project 2025 policy proposals to mobilize Latino voters against Donald Trump. ²⁰

In April 2025, SEIU-USWW president David Huerta criticized the Trump administration’s efforts to downsize federal agencies and claimed they were “just a precursor to what he’s trying to do to the rest of the labor movement, and that’s dismantling.” ²¹

SEIU-USWW opposed the California Two-Thirds Legislative Vote and Voter Approval for New or Increased Taxes Initiative of 2024, otherwise known as the Taxpayer Protection and Government Accountability Act, a proposed statewide ballot measure. ^{22 23} The initiative would have required the California state government to pass new taxes with a two-thirds supermajority and receive voter approval, and for local government tax increases to be approved by a two-thirds vote of the electorate. ²²

The initiative was not placed on the ballot after the California Supreme Court ruled that it would have unconstitutionally amended the state constitution. SEIU-USWW referred to the initiative as the “Taxpayer Deception Act” and claimed it was an effort “to undermine our entire democratic system.” ²³

Political Action Committee

SEIU-USWW operates a political action committee, the Service Employees International Union United Service Workers West Independent Expenditure Committee for People-Powered Politics. ²⁴

In 2022, the PAC contributed $100,000 to support then-U.S. Rep. Karen Bass’s (D-CA) successful campaign to become mayor of Los Angeles. ²⁴