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Santa Clara University adjuncts and lecturers win their union election in resounding victory!
Welcome to SEIU 1021!
In 2017, adjunct faculty and lecturers at Santa Clara University began organizing to form a union. On June 21, 2022, votes from their union election were counted — and they won big, with over 72% of the votes cast for the union in an election with impressive turnout.
The fight for worker power is the fight for LGBTQIA+ justice
The high-profile worker-organizing campaigns at Amazon, Starbucks, and most recently Apple signal a resurgence of the labor movement. Across the country, workers are rising up to fight back against unsafe workplace conditions, unfair labor practices, and a system that values profit over the health and wellbeing of its people. The reinvigorated movement is driven particularly by younger people, who are also carrying the torch of the fight for justice for LGBTQIA+ people.
Napa County workers speak out on staffing crisis at board of supervisors meeting
The County currently has a 20% vacancy rate that is decimating service delivery and fueling burnout
Dozens of Napa County workers gathered at the administration building this morning to speak out at the Napa County Board of Supervisors meeting about how understaffing in critical departments is hurting residents. Workers called on the county elected officials to commit to filling the hundreds of vacancies that are already budgeted for while using the county’s budget surplus to expand public services and invest in good-paying, permanent, county jobs that serve our residents.
With the June primary behind us, we look toward the general election in November and plan to support pro-worker candidates
The work of best representing our members takes place on a number of levels. There are contract negotiations, grievances, and sometimes even strikes. We have legal battles and fights to protect our rights in the courts. We organize new members into the union to protect the standards we set in bargaining and raise the bar for everyone. And then there is politics and the work we do at election time.
STRIKE: Fast-food workers statewide fight to win FAST Recovery Act
On Thursday, June 9, 2022, Fast-food workers across California served up an order or worker rights. From San Diego to Los Angeles and Oakland to Sacramento, fast-food workers walked off the job and into the streets. Their demand? Have California state senators pass Assembly Bill 257 – the Fast Food Accountability and Standards Recovery Act or FAST Recovery Act, and have Governor Gavin Newsom sign it into law.
Hundreds of Union Members Will Rally for Contra Costa County Services
Join us on Tuesday, June 21 at noon!
Contra Costa County workers have dealt with an epidemic of understaffing for far too long. That’s why a huge union coalition of nine unions—representing more than 6,200 County workers—has rallied across the county’s worksites for weeks to call attention to the staffing crisis and force the Board of Supervisors to take action.
Mendocino County Workers Rally at Board of Supervisors Meeting to Demand Action on Staffing Crisis
Overworked child protective service workers are unable to follow up on reports of abuse and neglect in a timely manner. Public works employees are unable to keep up with important infrastructural work like filling potholes. Eligibility workers are too short-staffed to keep pace with the volume of applications for food stamps and other safety-net services desperately needed in a county with a poverty rate of over 14%. These are the costs to the residents of Mendocino County of the County’s staffing crisis.
Spotlight
June 7 Primary Volunteer Opportunities
Below are a list of volunteer opportunities across Northern California in the coming weeks. Please scroll left-to-right on the table to see volunteer opportunities for the full week.
How to set up an account for virtual phone banking
We are hosting an open Zoom room 6 days a week, staffed by the Political department. You may log on Sunday – Friday at 5 pm for training and support:
Clinic workers score big victory as SB 1014 clears state senate
The California state senate passed the bill to increase funding and workers' voice on the job after a successful lobby day SEIU 1021 members took part in
Last Monday, May 23, community clinic workers — including SEIU 1021 members, members of other locals, and unorganized workers from around the state — flooded Sacramento. They spoke with state lawmakers about the importance of community clinics, which care for one out of six Californians and provide both general and specialized care to vulnerable populations. They also shared how chronic underfunding, combined with the stresses of the pandemic, have led to burnout and short-staffing and have harmed patient care.
June 7, 2022 Endorsements
Let’s elect pro-labor candidates and pass measures that help our communities!
To protect our rights, improve our working conditions and quality of life, and better our communities, the candidates we elect and the ballot measures we pass–or reject–matter. That’s especially true when it comes to local and state races. The 2022 statewide and midterm elections are our opportunity to showcase worker power at the ballot box. We have made significant progress over the last two years. Now, we must build upon our advancements.
We know that the fight for economic, racial, environmental, and immigrant justice is one that we cannot sit out. That is why we, as a union, actively participate in the political process. Across Northern California, we will vote for our endorsed candidates and ballot measures and mobilize our communities to vote to achieve the kind of justice we deserve.
We organize good trouble on the streets, in our workplaces, and now at the ballot box.
We urge members to participate in phone banking, canvassing, and other outreach initiatives to help us elect candidates who will fight for us and pass measures that will benefit workers across Northern California.
Click the links below to see what candidates and measures SEIU 1021 members have endorsed for the June 7, 2022 election, and see our upcoming volunteer opportunities here:
The election is on! Mullissa Willette, the First Vice President of SEIU Local 521, is the choice for public-sector workers.
This year, workers whose retirement benefits are governed by the California Public Employees’ Retirement System will have an opportunity to vote for a new member of the Board of Administration. This is a crucial election, as Board members are responsible for setting employer contribution rates, determining investment asset allocations, providing actuarial valuations, and much more.
Congratulations to our union’s newest Executive Board members!
A hostile, anti-labor president, a cadre of millionaires and billionaires attacking workers across the country, Janus v. AFSCME, wildfires blazing up and down California, the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, a continuing onslaught of police brutality and white supremacy, an insurrection to overthrow a democratic vote at the U.S. capital, the last Executive Board of SEIU Local 1021 saw a world turn upside down. Yet, through it all, our union survived.
Momentum grows as Starbucks workers across the US get organized
Image courtesy of SB Workers United on Twitter.
In recent months, momentum has been growing among workers at Starbucks locations across the country who are fired up and fighting for a union to have a stronger voice at work.
As a Public Sector Worker, You May be Eligible for Student Loan Forgiveness!
Under a new policy from the Department of Education, if you work fulltime in the public sector (for a city, county, or other governmental organization or a non-profit that provides a designated public service, including early childhood education and public health), you may be eligible to have your federal student loans canceled. However, you must take action soon: the new policy states that you must apply before October 31, 2022.
