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SEIU 1021 Members Bring Holiday Cheer to Needy Families at This Year’s Toy Drive
Dec. 27, 2021: This year has been challenging for everyone. When SEIU 1021 members see community members having tough times, they know it’s time to roll up their sleeves and get to work, and that’s just what they did in 2021’s community toy drive.
“There’s Nowhere to Live Here”
SEIU 1021 Mendocino County chapters release report addressing Mendocino County’s housing crisis causes, offering recommendations
Dec. 20, 2021: “I can think of a half a dozen employees that the County has offered jobs to here on the coast, but they had to turn down the offer, because they couldn’t find anywhere to live,” reported one Mendocino County employee in a survey. “The average apartment rents for about $1200 to $1300 per month. The rental agency requires your income to be three times the rent. I make around $35 per hour, and I can’t even afford that. How is someone who makes minimum wage or is a single parent supposed to find a place to live?” laments another survey respondent.
Gig workers with We Drive Progress set up Support Hub at San Francisco ghost kitchen
In conjunction with app-based drivers across Los Angeles, Brussels, and cities across nine different countries, and amid an international swell of worker protests, workers with We Drive Progress (WDP) set up Support Hubs in San Francisco, including at a popular South of Market ghost kitchen. Ghost kitchens are food preparation and cooking facilities set up to prepare delivery-only meals that are often utilized by food-ordering and delivery apps, including Uber Eats, DoorDash, Postmates, Grubhub, Club Feast, and more.
City of Chico workers put City Council on notice that they’re ready to fight to improve working conditions
SEIU 1021 members at the City of Chico showed up with their
families in large numbers at the City of Chico council
hearing on Dec. 7th in a strong showing of union power and
solidarity.
In a huge victory, San Francisco’s public workers secure the right to strike
In 2009, the City amended the Charter to deliberately rig the collective bargaining system in the City’s favor by creating an arbitrary deadline to complete contract negotiations and a harsh penalty for the unions and their members that do not meet the deadline. These changes to the Charter also made it effectively impossible for workers to use the strongest tool available to us – the right to strike – to advocate for ourselves and the community we serve. As a result, the scales have been tipped in management’s favor for years each time we go to the table to bargain a new contract.
California College of the Arts Staff Vote by 97% to Authorize a Strike
CCA administration has spent the 2 years since they formed their union stalling, delaying, and violating federal labor law, and union members have had enough.
Dec. 13, 2021: In what would be the first strike at a private arts college since 2012–and the latest in a number of strikes in colleges and universities–California College of the Arts (CCA) staff voted by 97% this week to authorize their contract negotiating team to call a strike if administration does not put an immediate stop to violations of labor law and bargain in good faith.
Sonoma County Chapter President Jana Blunt Is Kicking A$$ for the Working Class
Now She’ll Have an Award That Says So.
Dec. 14, 2021:
Folks who know SEIU 1021 Sonoma County Chapter President Jana Blunt and are familiar with her work with the union agree: She is an amazing leader who gets s*%t done. Her fierce, persistent, and creative organizing and advocacy was crucial in successfully saving 45+ County workers’ jobs in less than a year and, most recently, winning hazard pay for all County employees for their work and sacrifice throughout the pandemic. And she is still fighting hard for an equitable countywide telework policy.
City of Richmond Part-Timers Win a Historic New Contract
City of Richmond part-time workers ratified their new Memorandum of Understanding unanimously last week. The new agreement brings the part-time contract into alignment with the fulltime agreement for the first time in years, and brings big wins to the group, including their first COLAs since 2015, a pro-rated signing bonus, a classification and compensation study, improved bilingual pay and shoe allowances, a simplified, strengthened grievance procedure, and new, stronger union rights.
City of Oakland Members Stick Together and Fight off an Attack on Their Rights
For years, the City of Oakland had a simple, common-sense approach to drug and alcohol use: if a worker was thought to be impaired at work or under the influence, they would be sent for testing. However, in recent years, some members of the City’s administration started to try to impose a new standard, with a long list of specific job classifications and reduced flexibility for departments. Worst of all, the testing under the new policy was a urine test that would show only the presence of cannabis in the worker’s system, not impairment.
California College of the Arts Staff Set to Hold Strike Vote 12/7 and 12/8
After 2 years of CCA administration slow-walking contract negotiations and violating labor law, staff still don't have a contract--and they're ready to take more drastic action.
Dec. 6, 2021: More than two years after forming their union with SEIU 1021, joining adjunct faculty in the California College of the Arts (CCA) chapter, staff at CCA still don’t have a first contract. And it’s certainly not for lack of effort on the part of the 1021 bargaining team, who have been making proposals addressing the critical needs identified in their bargaining survey since fall of 2019, including living wages based on the cost of living in the Bay Area; wage transparency with yearly increases; career ladders for advancement; and job security.
Help make the holidays bright for kids in need
SEIU 1021's annual toy drive is underway!
November 29, 2021: As you know, needy families in our community already go without basic essentials for their loved ones, especially during the holidays. SEIU 1021’s annual toy drive is back, and we are asking for your help to put smiles on these families’ faces.
Our goal is to collect new toys and/or gift cards to children ages infant to 12 years old. With your generous support, we will be able to help many of these families to have a joyous holiday.
Please let us know if you are able make toy donations or help gather gifts.
Across Northern California, SEIU 1021 members pass out turkey dinners to working families
Every year, SEIU 1021 members volunteer their time in the holiday
spirit of giving thanks and giving back to working families.
This year was no different, as members passed out turkey
dinners at 11 union halls across Northern California to SEIU
1021 members who needed or wanted them.
All around Northern California at various SEIU 1021 offices,
member leaders and staff joyfully and tirelessly served
Thanksgiving dinners to members via a car caravan dropoff
system.
With privatization looming, SF Housing Authority members band together to win a new agreement
November 15, 2021: Congratulations to SEIU 1021 members at the San Francisco Housing Authority on ratifying their new contract by an overwhelming majority after a difficult fight. These members work hard to deliver safe, decent housing and economic opportunity for San Francisco’s low-income households.
Gig workers score victory with $5.3 million+ DoorDash settlement
November 29, 2021: App-based workers scored a significant material victory last week when San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu, San Francisco Office of Labor Standards Enforcement (OLSE) Director Patrick Mulligan, and San Francisco Supervisor Aaron Peskin announced that the City secured an over $5.325 million settlement from DoorDash after an OLSE investigation into alleged violations of two San Francisco labor laws.
As Strikesgiving rolls on, Stationary Engineers continue their fight for a fair contract at Kaiser
November 29, 2021: Stationary Engineers Local 39, which represents about 700 structural and biomedical engineers at Kaiser facilities throughout Northern California, went on strike at midnight on Friday, September 17. The work of Local 39 members is essential to keeping our hospitals running. They repair and maintain critical medical equipment, as well as the hospital itself, including all the electrical, plumbing, refrigeration, and heating and air-conditioning systems across the medical centers.
Hayward Unified School District Staff, Educators, and Families Rally to Save Schools from Closure
Following a massive march, rally, and hours of public comment, the Board of Education voted to close only 2 of the 4 schools on the list.
November 22, 2021: The announcement last month that Hayward Unified School District (HUSD) management plans to address a budget shortfall by closing as many as eight schools came as a shock to HUSD staff, educators, students, and families — hundreds came out to last Thursday’s mobilization to urge the HUSD Board of Education to put the plan on hold until more has been done to look into creative ways to improve schools, use new funding for pre-K/TK and community schools to boost enrollment, gather and consider community input, and make a concrete plan to mitigate t
SEIU Local 1021 President Joseph Bryant’s Statement on the Acquittal of Kyle Rittenhouse
November 19, 2021: Oakland, California — Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 1021 President Joseph Bryant issued the following statement after jurors acquitted Kyle Rittenhouse of the murder of Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber. Rittenhouse shot and killed Rosenbaum and Huber, who were protesting the shooting of Jacob Blake by the Kenosha Police Department in Kenosha, Wisconsin:
STRIKE: Fast-food workers ask, “Which side are you on?”
November 15, 2021: Last week, over 600 fast-food workers across California walked off the job, striking because of health violations, workplace violence, and wage theft, demanding politicians answer the question, “Which side are you on?” If the answer is the workers, they will support the passage of AB 257, the FAST Recovery Act–anything less means supporting abusive fast-food corporations like McDonald’s, Burger King, and Jack in the Box.
SEIU 1021 members mobilize to fight Hayward School closures
November 15, 2021: Declining K-12 school enrollment is a problem statewide, especially in the Bay Area. Hayward Unified School District (HUSD) management plans to close several schools, blaming a combination of lower enrollment, expensive repairs needed to facilities, and a budget shortfall. They appear poised to close up to eight schools–a huge disruption to school cultures, social communities, and education programs after a year and a half of turmoil from the pandemic.
SEIU 1021 Members Fight for Union Jobs Across the Country
When anti-worker attacks come, union members know that the only way to fight them off is through solidarity. That’s why two SEIU 1021 members recently traveled to Wisconsin to help nurses at University of Wisconsin Health win their union back.