Report from the 1021 Convention

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Listen to Bill Fletcher's keynote address with introduction by 3rd Vice President Larry Bradshaw. (21 mins)

The local’s Executive Board took it all in, and with delegates at pre-Convention meetings, distilled and refined it into a comprehensive document laying out a platform with four major planks:

1) Organize ourselves to fight for good union jobs and services

2) Win public support for that fight

3) Fix our broken economy

4) Grow stronger through organizing

From hitting the gavel to hitting the gravel

SEIU 1021 President Roxanne Sanchez opened the Convention by laying out the challenge facing the union — an economy broken by Wall Street greed and the resulting attacks on workers’ living standards. This is what the proposed Two-Year Plan is meant to deal with, she said, urging delegates to take on the task.

“Let history say of us, ‘Union workers did not create the great recession, but we led the fight that ended it!’” she said.

The plan was read aloud and delegates discussed and debated it, lining up at the microphones to have their say. Touching nearly every issue, strategy and hot button a union faces, the plan gave them ample room to voice their particular concerns, complaints and criticisms. Yet even as some expressed apprehension, the more that members stood up to add their support, the greater that support became.

After each section’s reading, President Sanchez and other members of the Executive Board responded to questions, ideas and suggestions about what could be done immediately, what needed to be looked into. A recurring theme — that these are pretty words, but how will their implementation be guaranteed? — was answered with a recurring consensus: Members and officers must hold each other accountable.

Before their eyes the plan of lofty principles and strategic goals was becoming a living document, each contribution by members on the floor adding flesh to its bare bones, animating it with their collective wisdom and passion, with an understanding of the urgency of this moment in history, a rising feeling of “Yes, we can, yes, we must.”

When it became time to vote on the plan (each section was voted on separately) the feeling of unity in the room was as undeniable as the final vote. All four sections passed nearly unanimously, with a handful of abstentions and even fewer “no” votes.

Drafted and approved by members, the SEIU 1021 Two-Year Plan is a strong statement that gives our local a clear direction for the future. At the same time, it is not a finished edifice, but rather a framework to be filled in by members’ input and involvement.

Many speakers reminded the convention that it’s one thing to dream big dreams but another to make them happen. Approving the Two-Year Plan was the easy part; the real challenge will be to put it into action.

As delegates left the convention Sunday, you could see it in their faces — they were ready to do what it takes to meet that challenge, stronger together as Local 1021.

Inspiring speakers

During the Convention delegates were treated to several inspiring speakers, starting with Eric Cobb, Executive Director of the Building Trades Council in Madison, Wisconsin during the uprising last year. With his call and response refrain of “Who’s got the power? We got the power?” peppered throughout his presentation, Cobb exhorted the delegates to demand better wages, health care, education and a fair economy, a better quality of life.

After reviewing various political and corporate attacks on workers, he quoted one of his heroes in history, Popeye. “That’s alls I can stands and I can’t stands no more.”

“It’s time for the working class to stand up,” Cobb added.

Labor author, scholar and activist Bill Fletcher gave the keynote address, emphasizing the need at this point in history for a different kind of unionism that he called “social justice unionism.”

“By this we mean that the objectives of unionism must break the narrow boundaries of collective bargaining for specific bargaining units,” Fletcher said. “It means that organized labor needs to be leading the broad fight for single-payer healthcare.  It means that organized labor must be engaged in the fight against foreclosures.  It means that organized labor must be engaged in the fight against voter suppression in our elections.  It means that organized labor must be engaged in building strategic alliances with friends in community-based movements and organizations with the objective of winning power in our cities and counties.”

SEIU International President Mary Kay Henry visited the Convention on its second day. She acknowledged Local 1021 as one of the most powerful public sector unions in the country, setting the highest standards for public workers. Echoing the message of the Occupy movement, she pledged SEIU will make income inequality the number one issue of the upcoming November election campaign and reintroduce the notion that unions are the way to solve it.

“We want the rich and the corporations to pay their fair share,” she said.

Workshops

The Convention was designed for delegates to do more than just listen, talk and vote — they were there to teach and learn from each other too. Delegates could select from 15 workshops offered in three sessions to help them become more effective leaders in their chapters. They embraced the opportunity.

Among the best attended was one on being an effective shop steward. Others included topics as diverse as fighting for pensions, electing your boss, bargaining and Contract Action Teams, building community alliance, the Fight for a Fair Economy, taxing the rich, organizing, lessons of Wisconsin and using the Local’s new communications network.