UNITE HERE (Labor Union)

UNITE HERE represents workers throughout the U.S. and Canada. The Union counts roughly 300,000 active members, predominantly in the hotel, food service, laundry, warehouse, and casino gaming industries. It was formed in 2004 by the merger of Union of Needletrades, Industrial, and Textile Employees (UNITE) and Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union (HERE). This merger reflected the respective unions situation, with UNITE relatively well funded but loosing membership and HERE with a growing membership but poor finances. Disagreements on strategy as well as management style caused a split in 2009, with most of the member originally in the realm of UNITE to form an affiliate of the SEIU union. In September of that year, UNITE HERE announced that it would re-affiliate with the AFL-CIO which the union had left in 2005.