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Overwhelming majority of Vermont state employees vote to affiliate with SEIU

But measure falls short because two-thirds vote was needed

In the largest turnout ever in a Vermont State Employees' Association (VSEA) ballot, 2,531 members voted 1,653 to 878 to affiliate with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). But despite this huge majority, the margin fell short by just 17 votes of the two-thirds "super-majority" needed under VSEA's Bylaws to put an affiliation with a national union into effect.

The VSEA's Elections, Rules, and Nominating Committee (ERN) committee first counted the ballots on August 20. The tally then was 1,331 to 772; just 56 votes shy of the number needed for affiliation. However, around 400 valid ballots, misplaced by the U.S. post office, were discovered on August 21. The ERN was reconvened that afternoon at the VSEA offices to count the additional ballots.

After counting the new ballots, it brought the total to 1,649 to 877 or within .7 percent of the number needed to approve an affiliation with SEIU. Because of the extremely close total, a full recount was ordered.

The final recount of all ballots took place on Monday, August 27. While five more ballots were eventually counted, the new results did not change the outcome.

VSEA members have campaigned for the affiliation during the past three months in hopes of gaining added strength to work for reliable public services in the state. Union members coordinated hundreds of worksite informational meetings about building a stronger union, hand-distributed surveys to more than 1,700 participants and later distributed a report to the membership with the survey results. Several state employees also participated in a radio ad about how state workers provide quality public services.

Through worksite meetings and member-to-member distribution of information, pro-affiliation VSEA activists engaged their co-workers about the affiliation vote. The campaign was very similar to how SEIU has helped public employees in other areas of the country to build strong organizations with a high level of membership involvement.