Search: Home Spotlight, 2021

In the nineteen-thirties and forties, it was the labor movement that brought the United States, and the world, out of the Great Depression. Only a decade ago, it was millions of working-class people that saved the U.S. and the world from the worst of the Great Recession.

Now, COVID-19 has revealed the structural inequalities about how our profit-first society runs. The pandemic has laid bare the injustice we see in race, class, gender, ethnicity, and more. It has also exposed the indifference to human suffering that is endemic to a system that favors the few over the many.

“Get in good trouble, necessary trouble, and help redeem the soul of America.”

–U.S. Representative John Lewis, Edmund Pettus Bridge, Selma, Alabama, March 1, 2020

Every three years, the leadership of SEIU 1021 organizes a convention where members gather, build community, and lay the foundation for our organizing in the years to come. You can learn more about this year’s convention at 1021convention.org.

In May of 2020, the country and most of the world were shocked as we witnessed the untimely loss of George Floyd’s life at the hands of the Minneapolis Police Department. As the pain and outrage of another state-sanctioned murder sparked movements and marches across the globe, Troyle Tognoli, the Mendocino County Chapter Vice President, was activated to call on her peers and organize her community to bring awareness and change through the Black Lives Matter movement.

McDonald’s workers outside of a San Francisco location donned in bright red t-shirts that read “Our labor is worth more” and “Respect Us, Protect Us, Pay Us.” while chanting and holding powerful signage.

Every three years, the leadership and staff at SEIU 1021 organize a member convention where we gather, build community, and lay the foundation for organizing in the years to come. This year, we’re going virtual with the same intention and goal to bring our members and leaders together for a day of celebration, acknowledgment, and organizing around economic, climate, and racial justice.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, SEIU 1021 members and member leaders have been leading the charge and advocating for standards and protections that frontline essential workers deserve as they keep our communities running. As a public-sector union, our members are some of the hardest-hit workers in the country; when announcements of vaccination availability began to come down the pipeline, members went to work monitoring and sharing information as far and wide as possible.

When COVID-19 hit the state of California, prompting a shelter-in-place order to go into effect last year, it led to numerous challenges for families and our communities, many of whom were laid off. As the state gradually gets back on its feet, a new piece of legislation, Senate Bill (SB) 93 will be implemented to help offset these challenges.