1021 Members Make News
SEIU 1021 members have been making front-page news in their communities
"If you don't like the news, go out and make some of your own."
Bay Area radio newscaster Scoop Nisker
What do Chico, Calaveras, Marin, Napa, Solano, and Sonoma have in common?
Our
members there have all been making front-page news in their communities
with colorful public job actions that turned the tide at their
bargaining tables.
PHOTO: A rally in neighboring Napa County featured a live donkey to illustrate the stubbornness of the Board of Supes. In Marin County, members passed out “Marin County UN-Fair” balloons at their county fair. Calaveras County Water District workers made the cover of the Calaveras Enterprise after they threatened to strike in early October.
More Fun with 1021
Two chapters are still at it: Solono County talks are stalled and City of Chico workers are still struggling for recognition of Local 1021 as their union. But since July, members in the Calaveras Water District, the City of Napa, and Marin, Napa, and Sonoma counties all settled right after local publicity forced embarrassed managers to back down at the table.
In each area, these were the first such job actions that people had seen in decades, if ever.
Most
recently, Solano County employees marked the passing of their contract
with a Halloween Day funeral rally in front of the county admin
building. Four "grim reapers" carried a casket around the square with
more than 100 mourners stepping along behind to a New Orleans jazz
funeral rendition of "Down By the Riverside." The demonstration so
spooked county management that Director of Human Resources Don Turko
actually blamed the SEIU 1021 merger for the problem with reaching a TA.
BANNER PHOTO: City of Napa employees got a page-one photo in the
July 4 Napa Valley Register. Solano County members made front-page news
when they marked their contract’s October 31 expiration with a New
Orleans-style jazz funeral in front of the County Administration
building.
More of the Story
Watch videos of the Chico, Sonoma, and Solano actions on the new
SEIU 1021 YouTube site
Find out who’s settled in
Table TalkCalaveras Enterprise covers the Water District rallyRead an early report on the Sonoma Superior Court situationRead the Vacaville Reporter’s coverage of the Solano rally (archived)