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On August 26, SEIU 1021 President Joseph Bryant, Presidential Candidate Pete Buttigieg and community supporters stood with hundreds of Uber and Lyft drivers caravanning to draw attention to their lack of worker protections.  The caravan stopped in front of Uber headquarters in San Francisco to a protest low wages and highlight their demand for a union. The caravan of gig workers started in Los Angeles on August 24 and was headed to Sacramento to lobby elected officials on AB 5 –the gig worker protection act– on August 27.

On August 13, Mendocino County members approved their agreement with the county that includes a 9% base wage increase over three years and additional equity wage adjustments for a majority of SEIU 1021 represented positions.  Public services have suffered as the County’s workforce investments have lagged behind comparable employers.  The deal was approved by the Board of Supervisors on August 20.

On Aug. 22, hundreds of public health advocates, elected officials, and healthcare workers rallied to support patients with mental illness from getting evicted from the Adult Residential Facility (ARF) at San Francisco General Hospital.  The SF Department of Public Health (DPH) is displacing severely mentally ill residents that are permanently housed at the ARF to make way for a Homeless Navigation Center with temporary shelter beds.

#OneNation, a coalition of unions and community groups, is organizing actions across the nation next Tuesday to protest the president’s racist ‘public charge’ rule, which cleared a procedural hurdle last week. The administration’s policy targets immigrants by dramatically expanding what is considered welfare to harm 26 million Americans, keeping them from accessing healthcare, food and housing assistance.  The impacts could also be felt across our members’ industries and employers from community clinics to counties. 

Today the Solano County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a contract with county workers united in SEIU 1021. The latest contract resulted from two weeks of expedited bargaining, wherein the county workers were able to gain improvements in compensation, healthcare, and additional training for workers so that they may be able to provide better quality public services to Solano residents.

In March of this year the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) directed the City of San Francisco take over the long-embattled SF Housing Authority. HUD instructed the agency to develop a plan to relinquish all of the agency’s operations and programs. The Housing Choice Voucher Program and the Long-Term Lease Program were the last 2 remaining programs administered by 90 members of SEIU 1021.  

Members at the agency received layoff notices, and days later they went into action to fight for a fair separation agreement.

On July 23, the Emeryville City Council voted 5-0 to abandon an amendment to the minimum wage ordinance that would have lowered wages for hundreds of workers. In 2015 at the urging of Local 1021 and a coalition of labor and community groups, Emeryville’s City Council passed an annual minimum wage increase through July 2020.