The 2021 SEIU 1021 Virtual Member Convention event committee has been working diligently behind the scenes to determine and select the convention platforms that chart the course of the union for the next 3 years.

“The convention platforms are how we communicate the work we are doing to our member leadership and how they can communicate back to us the work we should be doing.  Standing for something broader than our contracts is how we engage with the community of workers and families that we support as employees and that support us as workers.” said Amos Eaton, convention planning committee member, and SEIU 1021 Executive Board Treasurer. 

The convention platforms are more than just titles or headers. These platforms will determine where we focus our organizing efforts, what political movements we will support, and what stance we will take on social issues as a Union. 

We are excited to announce the 2021 SEIU 1021 Virtual Member Convention platforms are:

• Economic Justice
• Racial Justice
• Climate Justice
• Unions for All
• Reclaiming Our Democracy
• Member Unity and Power

“1021 has the membership to outweigh corporate interests if we come together and use it.  We want to be moving campaigns that reflect our values from minimum wage increases to safe staffing.  Our issues are broader than just the workplace contract.  Our members live and work in the communities we represent.” said Eaton when asked about SEIU 1021’s potential to impact legislation and shift dialogue around our platforms.

The convention platforms will be our marching orders and blueprint for organizing good trouble and proclaiming that our voices are loud, our unity is fearless and our time is now. When the convention takes place on September 25, 2021, your convention delegates will finalize our plans and strategy by casting their influential votes on each platform.

View each convention platform and a brief description below.

ECONOMIC JUSTICE

For more than a hundred years, the workers who provide services to the public have come together in SEIU to build our power and improve our lives. Whether we are fighting for members in the shop, at the bargaining table, in the halls of government, or in the streets, we are building power to improve the lives of our families and the people we serve in everything we do.

Our vision to win economic justice includes dismantling inequality at work and in our communities, improving workplace safety and rights, advocating for improved wages, fighting for stronger immigrant rights, creating community-labor partnerships, funding social programs that support working families, and fighting wealth inequality.

RACIAL JUSTICE

Where you come from or the color of your skin should not play a role in how long you live, what schools you can go to, or what jobs or positions are attainable. Sadly, racism is rooted in the fabric and structures of society that affects every walk of life. The truth is, our country was built on slave labor and the exploitation of Black people, and many of those exploitative systems still exist today. 

From criminal justice to access to healthcare and housing– racial discrimination is part of the equation and must be eradicated. Racism is being used as a tool to divide working folks against one another. We cannot achieve justice for all without addressing the historic, constant, and present racial injustice that oppresses Black, brown, API, and people of all other colors.

​​Until there is justice for communities of color, there can be no real justice for any of us.

CLIMATE JUSTICE

Around the world, across America, and right here at home in Northern California working people are threatened by the effects of pollution and climate change.

For decades, a chorus of the world’s most esteemed scientists has warned us that pollution and man-made climate change threaten the existence of humanity and may be irreversible unless we take bold action within the next 12 years. The effects of pollution and climate change fall disproportionately on working communities and communities of color.

Combatting the effects of climate change means taking on some of the world’s wealthiest corporations. The companies have spent lavishly to elect extremist politicians to gut environmental protections and rewrite the rules of our economy to enhance their own profits at the expense of working people and communities.

SEIU members are on the front lines of the climate crisis.  We are first responders, health care workers, public service workers, and property service workers.  As one of the largest unions in North America, SEIU is a key part of the only movement in America with the power, organization, and social conscience to secure justice in our society. We’re the last line of defense protecting American democracy against a cabal of ultra-rich political donors and big corporations who want to cut their own taxes and eliminate everything from the minimum wage to environmental, health, and safety regulations—all at our expense.

UNIONS FOR ALL

The opportunity to join a union – no matter where you work or the industry you are in – is the best way to raise wages, improve working conditions, create family-sustaining jobs, and begin to fix the rigged economy. It is no mistake that nonunion workers earn just 81 cents on the dollar compared to union members. If we are to level the playing field and create a society where everyone has a fair shot at a bright future, we must prioritize organizing the unorganized.

Our organizing work must also be connected to our campaigns for racial, immigrant, and climate justice, as well as our political work. By keeping workers divided and pitting us against one another along the lines of race, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, and more, corporations and billionaires have attempted to weaken us and block our efforts to create a more just world. We must partner with our allies to innovate and create new ways to gain a seat at the table for working people to bargain over wages, workers’ rights, and community benefits.

RECLAIMING OUR DEMOCRACY

In order for us all to thrive and succeed, we need to work together to roll back anti-worker legislation and regulations so that we’re able to raise workplace standards. We must also champion new laws that will strengthen our rights and protections at work. We need to fight for a robust investment in good, union jobs by growing public sector employment. We must not only restore public services to pre-recession levels but make up for the time we’ve lost by working with elected leaders to expand services even further. 

In order for our communities to be a place where working people can truly thrive, we need to invest not only in an equitable recovery from COVID-19, but in growing our public sector services to combat the effects of climate change and racial injustice, as well. As with everything we do, we must also view our political work through the lens of racial justice and environmental sustainability so that no one is left out of our vision for the just world we will leave behind for future generations.

MEMBER UNITY AND POWER

Working people are the glue which holds society together. We’re the fuel which allows our cities, counties, schools, courts, nonprofits, hospitals, and transportation systems to function. In order to win the just and fair society we all deserve to live in, working people must realize and properly yield our power to establish a balance with corporate interests.   

Unfortunately, over recent decades, corporate dominance has increased rapidly as the power of working families has declined. This trend has weakened our retirement security, made healthcare less affordable, increased wealth inequality, contributed to climate change, and sustained structural racism.   

It is more important than ever to turn this tide. Our organized efforts with Fight for $15, Black Lives Matter, and others show that when we organize “good trouble” we can make huge strides towards realizing a society that values the work of labor.