Imagine this: it’s contract negotiation time and you and your fellow coworkers are faced with a disrespectful negotiator who is trying to bust the Union. This disrespectful negotiator is proposing that anyone who works less than 32 hours a week should not be qualified to be a Union member. You’re facing this disrespect and union busting amidst the backdrop of the beginning of a worldwide pandemic. Everything feels uncertain: both at work and in the world.

Tensions are high: management allows themselves to work from home, while they direct all frontline staff to report to work in person. Your coworkers are repeatedly contracting COVID-19. And despite all these challenges – maybe because of those challenges – you and your coworkers make the decision to stand together and organize a picket for the first time in your union chapter’s history. You bring community members into your fight – allied parents and allied clients. And ultimately, you win a strong contract, including 19% pay increases, added salary steps, paid emergency leave, and reductions in employee healthcare contributions.

This was exactly what SEIU 1021 members – including preschool teachers, life guards, personal trainers, administrative staff, and housekeeping staff – at Jewish Community Center of the Bernard Osher Marin persevered through to win their last contract.

“I remember coming into work every day tense. We didn’t know what was going to happen,” said Vern Doreth, an SEIU 1021 shop steward at the Center. “But we stood united across classifications and departments. We organized a picket and got the community on our side. Despite a disrespectful negotiator who was trying to bust our Union, we were able to win a 19% pay increase. That’s the power of the Union.” 

It goes to show that the power of the Union is in its members. In particular, when SEIU 1021 members stand united, we win big.