Time to #UniteFightWin Together!
Spring Surge: April 11 – May 6
Since April 11, SEIU 521 members and staff have been working side-by-side to build our power from the Central Valley to the coast. Our local is transforming and every member is needed! We are building our capacity and expanding our reach to lift up our communities through quality public services.
Take a short member survey which will help identify our common interests. YOU are the union – so take a few minutes and share what interests YOU so that we can continue to grow as an engaging and meaningful union!
The SEIU “Spring Surge” launches four weeks of active worker-to-worker conversations to beat back wealthy special interests’ attacks against working families. Our strategy involves increasing workers’ power at worksites, wining better contracts, and fighting for resources to strengthen our communities.
Now is the time to stand united.
There is no Union without YOU!
On the eve of the Surge kick-off, dozens of SEIU leaders met in Fresno on April 9, focused on uniting to create a future where we are actively directing resources, making decisions and advancing the communities we live in. We had excellent presentations from national and local leaders on understanding why we organize, how to have an organizing conversation, how to use mapping and charting to develop an organizing plan, and why now is the time to build our strength.
“I learned tools to educate, excite, and empower future union leaders,”said Yvette Carreon from Monterey County Mental Health.
Eliseo Medina (4th from left in photo above), former Secretary-Treasurer for SEIU International, presented and talked about his 50 years in the labor movement. He signed his first union card on Sep. 17, 1965, when he was making 70 cents an hour working in the fields of Delano, CA. He encouraged all of us to become “social justice pyromaniacs. We need to ignite a fire in the hearts and the minds” of our coworkers. “The politicians often have their finger held up to see which way the wind is blowing. We need to be the wind of change!”
Member-to-member organizing leader Darlynn Qualls said, “In my job as a counselor, we try to work ourselves out of a job. As member-to-member organizers, we’re also trying to work ourselves out of a job.”
There is a lot of work to do, so let’s get ready to #UniteFightWin for a stronger future!
Know someone at your worksite who isn’t getting emails or text messages? Help them sign up here: www.seiu521.org/text
