#seiu

Links via the General Strike US discord server, join here. Several people expressed in the Good Trouble Lives On thread that my post was the first they'd heard of it, so I thought I'd post upcoming nationwide days of action here. People are on the ground protesting every week or in some cases, every day against the fascists in the White House.

7/26 - Families First - On July 26, SEIU members across all 50 states are coming together for the Families First Day of Action—a nationwide call to protect care, education, and dignity for working families. We’re standing up against harmful budget cuts and policies that threaten our communities and the services we rely on.

7/30 - 60th Anniversary of Medicaid & Medicare - Fight for Life & the Future (NYC only) - MARCH & RALLY WITH US IN NYC TO: 1. Celebrate this 60th anniversary milestone of Medicaid & Medicare - our vital public healthcare programs that are a literal lifeline for millions of people. 2. Condemn attacks on Medicaid & Medicare by the current federal administration as they gut healthcare to divert our public money to ICE, concentration camps & more tax cuts for the rich. Condemn our private Medicaid healthcare data being handed over to ICE to terrorize families. And condemn the increasing privatization & commodification of our public programs through Medicare Advantage & managed care schemes.

8/2 - Rage Against the Regime - The big one organized by 50501. Put it on your calendars now, we need this to be twice as big as No Kings. And start promoting now! There are flyer templates at the link.

Michael Sainato at The Guardian:

Labor unions around the US are demanding the release of a labor leader arrested and injured during Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) raids on 6 June in Los Angeles. David Huerta, president of SEIU California and SEIU-USWW, was serving as a community observer during an Ice raid in Los Angeles, and was arrested by federal agents over allegations of interfering. He was initially hospitalized and released later on Friday for injuries sustained during the arrest. Videos circulating online show officers shoving Huerta to the ground during the arrest before handcuffing him. He is expected to make an initial court appearance on Monday afternoon. “What happened to me is not about me; this is about something much bigger. This is about how we as a community stand together and resist the injustice that’s happening,” Huerta said in a statement after his release from the hospital. “Hard-working people, and members of our family and our community, are being treated like criminals. We all collectively have to object to this madness because this is not justice. This is injustice. And we all have to stand on the right side of justice.”

He has remained in custody, as labor leaders around the US are calling for his release and an end to the immigration enforcement raids and use of the national guard to suppress protests in Los Angeles. California has sued the Trump administration over its decision to federalize the national guard. Huerta, well known among Democrats in California given his long record as a union leader in the state, received support from Governor Gavin Newsom and other Democratic officials across the US, including the House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries. “SEIU refuses to be silent in the face of these horrific attacks on working communities. Standing in solidarity as a movement of working people is not new to us,” said April Verrett, international president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). “SEIU protects the rights and dignity of hard-working people, and the safety of workers in the workplace. Imagine what it feels like for thousands of workers around the country to be attacked by masked men with weapons, or to bear witness to their co-workers getting dragged away, knowing their kids may not see them again. We demand David Huerta’s immediate release and an end to these abusive workplace raids.” The union is leading or participating in rallies in cities across the US on Monday calling for Huerta’s release, for the California national guard to stand down and an end to the Ice raids in Atlanta, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Denver, Harrisburg, New York City, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Portland, Oregon, Raleigh-Durham, Sacramento, San Francisco, Seattle, Washington DC and St Paul, Minnesota, as local unions in other cities continue to organize additional rallies and protests.

By Cheryl LaBash

In Washington, D.C., workers rallied across from the Justice Department on June 9 as part of national protests to end deportation raids and to free arrested California union leader David Huerta. 

Today's chanting was clearly a union thing, but didn't sound like the usual Starbucks picketers... I went outside to investigate, and sure enough, it was SEIU picketing for the janitors at Seattle University

Non-paywalled version here.

"Tens of thousands of workers at Kaiser Permanente hospitals and clinics across the country will soon vote on whether to authorize a strike, union officials announced Thursday.

The Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions, which includes a dozen local unions with members in seven states and the District of Columbia, said voting would begin Saturday [August 26] and extend into the middle of September. Any strike would start no earlier than Oct. 1.

More than 80,000 employees are represented by the coalition, which counts among its members a wide range of hospital and clinic workers including nursing assistants, phlebotomists, pharmacy technicians and housekeepers. The coalition said that it represents roughly 40% of the overall Kaiser Permanente workforce.

Union leaders said that if a strike moves forward, it would be the largest strike of healthcare workers in the history of the country. They faulted Kaiser for inadequate and unsafe staffing and said the healthcare giant had failed to bargain with them in good faith by refusing to provide them with crucial information during negotiations, among other unfair labor practices.

“Patient care is in crisis at Kaiser Permanente,” said Linda Bridges, president of one of the unions in the coalition, OPEIU Local 2in Silver Spring, Md. “Staffing was decimated during the pandemic and it has not gotten any better. The problem we’re dealing with is Kaiser is not hearing us.

“Kaiser can and must do better. ... They need to stop the unfair labor practices and address the healthcare staffing needs now.”

Regan, the SEIU-UHW president, said the coalition has proposed a $25 hourly minimum wage for its members across the Kaiser Permanente system, saying that “you cannot take care of a family in Los Angeles, San Diego, Denver, Washington, D.C., Seattle, Honolulu” on $19 to $21 an hour. He said Kaiser had recently proposed a much lower minimum — $21 an hour — in 2026."

-via Los Angeles Times, August 24, 2023

New Chapter of My True Name is already out!

X. The Wheel Of Fortune

What has come up, must come down...

Hotaru gave a single nod. “He’s possessed.” Her tone was flat. “Classic symptoms. Disconnection. Strategic permissiveness. Emotional flattening. He’s not fighting it. Whatever’s in him, he’s let it take the wheel. It’s obvious.”

Michiru was startled at her briskness. “Hotaru…”

Hotaru lifted her silky eyelashes at her, dark and calm. “What? I’m not rooting for that outcome. I’m just saying—it’s statistically on theme. Think of all the other villains that have attacked Earth. When has Mamoru not been possessed, or kidnapped, or brainwashed?”

Michiru’s lips twitched despite herself.