Open candidate town halls give opportunity to influence process

Local 1000 is joining with other SEIU locals to offer a series of "One Voice Town Hall" election meetings in cities up and down the state where candidates for public office make presentations and answer questions from our members.

The town halls are being held throughout February and March as part of an open endorsement process in which rank and file union members discuss the candidates and vote on recommendations to SEIU's California State Council.

"Interacting personally with candidates is crucial," said Sophia Perkins, a Department of Health Care Services employee who attended the first town hall on Jan. 18 in Sacramento. "It's important to see who will best represent state employees and our families."

New revenue needed to protect services, offering options for affected members

Gov. Jerry Brown's new budget proposal relies heavily on cuts and consolidations and highlights the need for new revenue to achieve efficient and effective public services.

"The new budget plan is further proof of what we have been saying for years: California cannot adequately serve middle class families unless we raise more revenue," said Local 1000 President Yvonne R. Walker. "Local 1000 has been calling for a more balanced approach to state government, one that seeks efficiencies and acknowledges the need for sacrifice in tough times while also developing new revenue to protect vital services."

"We'll continue to work with the governor to make this state more efficient, but without a stable source of new revenue we will continue cutting important programs in education, health care and public safety," Walker added. "We cannot continue to allow vital services such as education and public safety to be held hostage by the structural deficit."

Where the Iowa caucuses illuminated the dark essence of social conservatism, the New Hampshire primary was a journey into the dingy, cramped quarters of the right wing's economic policies.

The Republicans ritually denounced President Obama as hostile to capitalism, disdainful of individual enterprise and lacking in ideas for reviving the economy. All they had to offer were economic ideas that not only are inadequate for that purpose but were instrumental in creating the nation's current economic problems.

In a flailing effort to address the pain of the middle class, the Republicans repeated familiar charges that Mr. Obama advocates a redistribution of wealth. Gov. Rick Perry of Texas outright called him a socialist. Newt Gingrich tried to focus national anger about income inequality with a faux populist assault on Mitt Romney's participation in the frenzied world of leveraged buyouts.


Read entire article at NYTimes.com >>

SEIU Local 1000 and Blacks in Government (Bay Area Chapter) Present:

Future Leaders in America's Government (FLAG) Training for advisers and mentors.

The FLAG program is designed to successfully meet developmental needs of youth.

Training Topics:

• Overview of FLAG
• Mentoring
• Communicating effectively with Generations X and Y

You'll probably hear about it on the news very soon, but I want you to be the first to know.

Today, with great pride and a sense of purpose, the 2.1 million members of the Service Employees International Union have endorsed President Barack Obama for re-election.

President Obama is the only candidate for president who shares our vision of America as a land of opportunity for everyone. We need a leader willing to fight for the needs of the 99 percent and stand with hard working families to say that the world's wealthiest corporations must pay their fair share.

Ohio vote may discourage similar attack on California employees

By Yvonne R. Walker, President, SEIU Local 1000

I am proud to report that a team of Local 1000 members played a significant role in defeating a nationally funded attack on worker rights in Ohio, giving working families one of our biggest victories in recent years.

Ohio voters stood up and sent a powerful message to those who want to divide working families and keep the middle class down. This is a key victory over a nationwide campaign to destroy unions and stop working people from banding together for political power.

Let's talk about pensions for all workers

By Yvonne R. Walker, President

Gov. Jerry Brown's pension reform proposals provide Californians with another opportunity to have a substantive conversation about the direction of our state.

Do we want California to be a state where we fight for smaller and smaller retirement plans--or any plan at all--or do we want to ensure retirement security for all Californians?

Our pension system--just like those in the private sector and 401(k) plans--was hit hard when Wall Street greed crashed our economy in 2008.

By Jon Ortiz

Yvonne Walker, president of SEIU Local 1000, said in a telephone interview this morning that the union will continue to push for easier access to government outsourcing costs, despite Gov. Jerry Brown's veto of a labor-backed measure aimed at making those expenses more transparent.

Walker said she was disappointed that Brown vetoed Assembly Bill 172, which would have forced the state agencies and departments to post contracts of $5,000 or more on the Reporting Transparency in Government website.

The banks refuse to invest in the small businesses that drive job creation, and they kick us while we're down by foreclosing on millions of families.

By Mary Kay Henry, President, Service Employees International Union

Story originally appears in the Wall Street Journal >>

The images of row upon row of stoic airline pilots, fed-up students and thousands of Americans marching through downtown Manhattan have captivated the nation.

Seemingly overnight, the organic, scrappy protests in the financial center of the world have blossomed into a national movement from Chicago to Los Angeles, calling attention to the gross inequality in our society and the unwillingness of our politicians to correct this imbalance.

By David Siders

In a victory for Democrats and their labor union allies, Gov. Jerry Brown Friday signed a bill restricting initiatives and referendums next year to the November ballot, when the party's voter turnout is expected to be higher than in June.

The bill language, inserted into legislation at the last minute by legislative Democrats, could help labor unions defeat a pending measure to limit unions' ability to raise campaign funds from members.

The union dues measure was expected to qualify for the June ballot, when Republican turnout is expected to be proportionately higher than in November.

Read more at SacBee.com >>