FROM THE DESK OF YOUR CHIEF ELECTED OFFICER

I am honored and proud to serve as the first rank and file Chief Elected Officer of our Union, and I am excited about the work ahead. I am eager to share with you an update on the past 100 days of accomplishment.

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Chronological List of Executive Board Motions & Recommendations

Here are updates on actions taken by our new Executive Board as well as the Budget and Finance Committee.

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1021 NewsWire

News from the weekly 1021 NewsWire. Subscribe by visiting http://1021.seiu.org/page/s/newswire or clicking the Subscribe ad on the left side of this page.

Cooking things up in San Lorenzo schools

Some things never change from childhood: summer vacation still goes by too fast. But when the children of the San Lorenzo Unified School District go back to school this week, they’ll be eating better thanks to a new, 10,000-square-foot kitchen that’s been built to cook for the district’s 16 schools.

Maria at SLUSD

The kitchen -- in a reconstructed warehouse at the SLUSD administrative offices -- opened in May, replacing a smaller space in the building next to it. Altogether, the kitchen will prepare about 6,000 meals a day, four times the number from last year. Meals -- made fresh each morning -- will enhance the district’s current efforts to meet National School Lunch guidelines for nutritionally balanced meals.

“It’s a better place because it’s much bigger. There’s more open space, more storage space, more freezers, more of everything,” said Maria Martins (pictured), a Food Service Worker and SEIU 1021 member who’s been with the district for 18 years.

At a reception to inaugurate the new kitchen this week, food service workers all said how much they liked their new environs with its state-of-the-art technology, such as the fruit washing machine (they used to wash apples individually by hand in the sink) and the super-speedy tray wrapper.

Despite the excitement, however, all is not kosher in the new kitchen, and we don’t mean the food. “We still get treated the same,” said one food service worker.

Posted By: Randy Lyman on 8/28/2010 3:57:00 PM

comments (0) Chapter Events , Schools

The many faces (actually just two) of Meg Whitman

[For more political news and election coverage, visit our political action blog, the Live Wire.]

We have to admit that the annual state budget impasse -- now in its second month -- has one bright side in that the snail's pace of progress not only gives slow readers like us time to keep up with it, but lets us catch up on all the great cable TV series we don't have time for while Sacramento is in session.

For instance, we just finished Season 3 of "Dexter," offbeat story of a serial killer who works for the police by day and chops up the "deserving" by night. [Caution: Season 5 spoiler alert for link!] Normally, the story of a mass murderer with a government job would make us think of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, except that:

a) Dexter, unlike Arnold, is sympathetic and principled, living by a code that forbids killing the innocent; and
b) Michael C. Hall is a way better actor than Arnold ever was (at least before he got into office).

Right now we're watching Season 1 of "Rome," and we can't help but think how the scheming, duplicitous Atia (Polly Walker, pictured) reminds us of Meg Whitman. Both selectively say opposite things to opposing camps, depending on which script most advances their personal power grab. That's not new in political races, of course; the difference is that Whitman is being called out all over the media -- and by critics both right and left -- for flip-flopping her positions on immigration and the environment since the June primaries.

Posted By: Randy Lyman on 8/6/2010 8:28:00 PM

comments (1) 2010 Elections , Environment , Immigration , Jerry Brown , Meg Whitman , TV

Closing Thoughts: Getting by with a little help from our friends

It's a convention in Las Vegas, so naturally we've been sucking down as much free food and drink as we can get, and after three full days of it, it's coming to an end. But we've been sucking down information too, in the form of panels, keynotes, speeches and trainings. It's our first time here. We learned a lot, and we'll be bringing it home to Local 1021.

Netroots Nation stands at the intersection of progressive politics and social media, and if there's one lesson (actually, there's many) that we leave here with, it's that labor unions are not on the sidelines, but very much at the center of it. Among the union sponsors of the conference are SEIU, the AFL-CIO, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW).

Let me be blunt. As SEIU 1021 members, we've become all-too-wearily accustomed to hearing people talk trash about our union on all sides; it's easy, too easy perhaps, to become demoralized about who we are and what we do and why/how we do it; too easy to believe that the trash is the "real" SEIU and our accomplishments are illusory at best, or ephemeral, to be spoken of only in the past tense.

But let me step out from behind my mask as editor of the 1021 NewsWire and ask you something personal — and you only need to answer yourself, not me: Who do you get your self-image from? Do you listen to your enemies and opponents and believe that their harsh, unkind words are the "real" you? Or do you listen to your friends, the people who really know you?

Posted By: Randy Lyman on 7/24/2010 7:45:00 PM

comments (1) Live Event Coverage

Speaker Pelosi speaks (4)

The first woman Speaker of the House offers words of experience and encouragement to women who want to make a difference take a stronger role in government and the men who support them:

Women: "My advice: Know your power. ... I stood on the shoulders of many to reach the position of Speaker, and I know many young woman will be standing on mine."

Men: "Thank you for doing your patriotic duty."

Posted By: Randy Lyman on 7/24/2010 1:07:00 PM

comments (0) 2010 Elections , Live Event Coverage , US Congress

Speaker Pelosi speaks (3)

We need comprehensive, not piecemeal, immigration reform.

We also need comprehensive, fully inclusive hate crimes legislation. The target keeps moving as awareness grows of discrimination against different groups of people. For that reason, passage of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) is a priority. "We have to end don’t-ask-don’t-tell."

Employment Non-Discrimination Act
http://www.hrc.org/issues/workplace/enda.asp

* * *

The Social Security system turns 75 next month, and Pelosi says she's opposed to raising retirement age. Balancing the budget and reforming Social Security are “apples and oranges. If we want to have a conversation about keeping SS solvent, that is an appropriate conversation. To change SS in order to balance the budget -- they aren’t the same thing. Reforming SS can have a positive effect on the budget., but Social Security needs to do what it's supposed to do: provide security."

* * *

"By the end of 2010, more jobs will have been created under the Obama Administration than in eight years under the Bush Administration."

Posted By: Randy Lyman on 7/24/2010 12:32:00 PM

comments (0) Live Event Coverage , US Congress

Older Posts

Health Insurance Reform: The Facts, Questions and Answers

For more than a decade we marched, we voted, we raised our voices in support of quality, affordable healthcare for all, and against big insurance companies and special interests. Now, thanks to the power of our voices on behalf of working women and men everywhere, it has become a reality. Our nation has taken a major step forward in improving the quality and affordability of health care for all Americans, of all ages, and all incomes—but especially America’s middle class.

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