SEIU 1021 launches local-wide “Fight for a Fair Economy” campaign

Published on August 12th 2011

SEIU 1021 member Cynthia Landry (Alameda Co.) reports back on "following the money" at our Fight for a Fair Economy training in Oakland.

For years, the city of Stockton has had one of the highest foreclosure and unemployment rates in the nation. In June 2011 alone, one in 210 housing units received a foreclosure filing. With unemployment expected to stay flat in most of the nation this year, in Stockton it’s expected to rise from 17.2 to 18.1 percent. Six months ago, California took eight of the top 20 spots on Forbes’ annual America’s Most Miserable Cities list, “with Stockton ranking first for the second time in three years.”

If anything, last week’s debt ceiling deal has only made matters worse for Stockton and all of California. In an odd way, the bad deal has actually united the nation: Both Wall Street and Main Street agree it sucks. Congress and the White House let everyone down for (fill in your petty, partisan, ideological and/or pathological reason of choice).

As usual, SEIU 1021 members aren’t taking things lying down. Let the “fight for a fair economy” begin ...

“When banks don’t pay their fees, homes become blighted, which lowers property values, which increases crime and lowers the amount of money coming into the cities and counties, and on and on,” said Donna Shane, SEIU 1021 member and a San Joaquin County worker in Stockton. “We need to hold the bad actors accountable.”

Introducing the SEIU 1021 “Fight for a Fair Economy” campaign

Holding the bad actors accountable is one goal of the local’s “Fight for a Fair Economy” campaign. Last month, Shane joined about 200 of our members and community friends at the local’s offices in Stockton, Santa Rosa, Oakland and San Francisco for workshops organized to launch the campaign, start setting goals, and begin local-wide, member-engaged planning.

In Santa Rosa, members and staff shared stories of how they and their families and friends were being hurt by the economic crisis and ongoing recession. Among the hardest hit were families with children, who had lost jobs, homes, or seen their dreams of attending college crushed.

At all four workshops, members learned about the underpinnings of our broken economy: the growing gap in wealth, corporations that avoid paying their fair share of taxes, the attempts to pit desperate workers against each other by shifting the blame to public employees and immigrants, and much more.

Acting locally

Members also shared what individual bargaining units are doing already. In San Joaquin County, members got the State Treasurer’s attention when they turned the media spotlight on county management’s wasteful spending and pension abuses. In Sonoma County, SEIU 1021 is leading a community effort to research undervalued commercial properties that have changed hands through mergers or acquisitions but are not paying their share of property taxes.

Whatever the local conditions, common themes and ideas emerged at all the workshops, such as:

The desire to take action in the communities where we live and work, where we can make our impact felt;
The need to work with allied organizations and get out and talk to our communities;
Exposing waste and mismanagement like in Sonoma and San Joaquin;
Fighting against foreclosures;
Working with both youth and retirees;
Making use of social media and networking as part of a comprehensive communications plan;
Providing education and training;
Taking actions like “Tax the Super Rich” picnics in their front yards;
Creating fair tax laws and holding Wall Street accountable;
Educating the general public about the importance of the public services we provide.

What next?

See Act! Here! Now! below for a long list of ways you can join the Fight for a Fair Economy campaign in the next two weeks. The August 20 strategy session is a direct follow-up to the four regional workshops. The August 24 research training can help you get started on a tax research project in your area right away.

This is just the beginning of our local’s own “Fight for a Fair Economy” campaign. Stay in the loop and get news, alerts and more on The Live Wire — our website’s “political action central.”

More Information:

Robert Reich’s The Truth About the Economy in 135 Seconds

California Pension Truth Squad

Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE)