When Unions Organize Workers and Capitalists: Union Growth, the Trigger Mechanism and Service Employees International Union's Justice for Janitors.

This article examines the growth of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 32BJ during a period of overall labor decline, focusing on its innovative use of the "trigger" tactic within its Justice for Janitors campaigns. The trigger mechanism involves securing commitments from a majority of employers in a defined labor market to simultaneously accept unionization terms, thereby addressing competitive pressures that typically discourage individual firms from unionizing. By binding employers together, the tactic reduces opposition to unions and facilitates whole-market organizing, leading to significant wage and benefit improvements for workers, particularly janitors and security officers in various East Coast markets. The article highlights the New Jersey janitors’ campaign as a key example, where the trigger helped raise union density from under 10% to around 75%, substantially improving wages and healthcare access. While the trigger is credited as a crucial but under-researched component of SEIU 32BJ’s organizing success, its broader adoption by other unions remains limited, possibly due to industry structure and union power dynamics.