SEIU is making itself heard on Beacon Hill

Legislation to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour could be in the works in Massachusetts soon. Scott Olson/Getty Images/File 2017

The Service Employees International Union sure is flexing its muscle on Beacon Hill.

The SEIU’s Raise Up Massachusetts campaign vexed many business groups this week.

First, union leaders helped pack a State House hearing room for legislation that would require employers to offer paid family and medical leave. Then, the Legislature gave the green light to the SEIU-backed so-called “millionaires’ tax.”

And there’s a third measure percolating: legislation to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour.

Barring a successful court challenge, the tax proposal heads to voters in November 2018.

Harris Gruman, executive director of the SEIU’s state council, says he expects Raise Up campaign organizers will probably gather signatures in case they need to put the other two measures in front of voters next year, too. It’s an effective insurance policy if lawmakers don’t act in time.

It’s possible the SEIU, with more than 100,000 Massachusetts members, could have three ballot campaigns at once. Gruman says this points to the growing income disparity in this state — an issue many SEIU members understand on a personal level.

The Raise Up campaign raised nearly $650,000 in the past two years, primarily from the SEIU and the Massachusetts Teachers Association. (The MTA also provided significant in-kind services.) Gruman says many other community and faith groups are involved, even if they don’t donate the same amount of money and staff time. He says he considers it the ultimate grass-roots effort: Union members decide which policy fights to pick and help pay for the campaign from their dues.

Those members also give the SEIU political clout. There’s strength in numbers, after all. How much? We’ll soon find out.