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The recent murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbrey are painful reminders of why our union committed in 2016 to becoming an antiracist organization and tackling anti-Black racism. There can be no justice without racial justice.

As Oakland’s strength is being tested by the COVID-19 pandemic, Mayor Libby Schaaf has attacked city workers. First, she issued pre-emptive layoff notices to a thousand so-called “temporary, part-time” workers, many of whom have worked for Oakland for years. Then, she proposed weeks of furlough days and postponing wage increases. At the same time, she was busy appointing her cronies to high-paid positions in the City Administrator’s office.

A statement from SEIU 1021 President Joseph Bryant:
Brothers, Sisters and SEIU Family,

I sit down to write this with a heavy heart, a grieved soul and sheer anger running through my veins as I watch the video of George Floyd being murdered by the police. It is yet another of many disturbing illustrations of how unbridled structural racism in this country means that a Black person cannot jog, drive, stand in front of a store, play with toys or even bird watch without facing death or the threat of death.

As the impending economic impact the COVID-19 outbreak will have on our communities comes into focus, we have seen many employers already calling for cuts to services and staff. We know there are difficult times ahead, but many of our communities have not yet fully recovered from the last recession. Cutting services further and not safeguarding against privatization would be devastating for millions, including SEIU 1021 members.

In honor of Nurses week, the San Francisco Chronicle profiled seven SEIU 1021 members battling coronavirus on both sides of the Bay Area on May 6.

The work done by every SEIU 1021 member has kept our communities safer and healthier, and the media has noticed. Many of our stories are countless, and often undisclosed in the media, but now thanks to you–our stories are going around the world. 

Please share their stories published in San Francisco Chronicle with your co-workers and join the fight for #ProtectAllWorkers. 

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Since coronavirus became a global pandemic, our union’s attention has been focused on how to ensure the health, safety, and economic well-being of our members, families, and communities—including many of our members who, in the midst of this crisis, continue to provide crucial services in our communities. 

App-based drivers across California and the nation are struggling to work safely and make ends meet in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. That’s why on Monday, immediately following Uber’s virtual shareholders meeting, SEIU 1021 members joined SF Supervisor Rafael Mandelman and our union siblings from the SF Labor Council in supporting rideshare drivers with the We Drive Progress driver advocacy group during their caravan. 

For nearly an hour, over a hundred cars circled Uber’s HQ on Market Street, with drivers honking and chanting through their windows. 

The Governor of California signed a new executive order regarding Child Welfare Services. It will allow county child welfare agencies and probation departments to perform necessary functions using alternative processes other than face-to-face interactions. This includes allowance for a 60-day waiver to allow for flexibility in the emergency placement of foster youth and ensures that foster youth have access to critical programs and technology by verifying foster care status for foster youth and wards of the juvenile court whose cases are pending.

The California Department of Public Health has issued a waiver for certification renewals of Home Health Aides. Home health Aides do not need to renew their certification until the end of the declared emergency. 

This also applies to HHAs who have an expired certification, so that they can work if their certification expired within the last 2 years.