Union Update, Local 1000’s weekly
newsletter, provides members with the latest union news including
organizing and enforcement victories, political activities, union
campaigns, member profiles and special events. Union
Update is distributed at worksites every Wednesday
and is also available for download on our website.
Republicans are proposing to repeal healthcare and gut Medicaid,
a scary proposition for Rita Lewis, a public health nurse and
member of our union.
When she was in nursing school, she relied on Medicaid to cover
the prenatal care and deliveries of her two children and worries
for the countless patients she’s cared for in her 25 years of
nursing, “I know firsthand that seniors, children, veterans, and
individuals with disabilities could not gain a foothold on a
healthy life without it.”
As a reflection of her unwavering commitment to gender
equality and economic justice, the California Commission on
the Status of Women and Girls (CCSWG) has appointed SEIU
Local 1000 Vice President for Organizing/Representation
Tamekia N. Robinson to the California Pay Equity Task Force.
Local 1000’s bargaining team goes to the table today and begins
the process of negotiating a new contract for the 95,000 state
workers we represent.
Among our priorities:
A pay raise
The health and safety of our workplaces
Better working conditions
Professional development
Across the state, thousands of Local 1000 members are showing
solidarity and standing up in support of our bargaining team,
purpling up and wearing ‘A Great Contract Begins with Me’
stickers.
Bargaining with the state is set to begin on April 13th.
Our bargaining team is preparing for negotiations,
supported by Local 1000’s Research, Field and Contract
Departments, to gather input from members, organize worksite
meetings and actions, set priorities, craft language and develop
strategies to put pressure on the state to take the union’s
demands seriously.
The team is made up of elected members from each of the nine
bargaining units Local 1000 represents.
Shirley Chisholm (November 30, 1924-January 1, 2005) was an early
education teacher from Brooklyn who, in 1968, became the first
Black woman elected to the United States Congress. She went on in
1972 to become the first major party candidate for President of
the United States and the first woman ever to run for the
Democratic Party’s presidential nomination.
Berta Cáceres (March 4, 1971-March 3, 2016) was a Honduran
environmental activist and leader of the indigenous
Lenca people there. She led a decade long
internationally-waged battle to stop a dam being built on
the Gualcarque River, a body of water which is sacred to the
Lenca.
Negotiations for our 2016 contract begin in April, and Local
1000’s 63-member bargaining team is in place and deep in
preparations, training and strategizing to bring the 95,000 state
workers we represent the best contract we’ve ever had.
The bargaining team represents the union at the negotiating table
and is made up of members from the nine bargaining units
represented by Local 1000. Issues that affect all represented
employees such as pay, benefits and retirement are negotiated at
the master table while each of the nine bargaining teams
negotiate unit specific issues.
Fannie Lou Hamer (October 6, 1917—March 14, 1977) grew up poor as
a sharecropper in Mississippi, but she went on to be one of the
most inspirational leaders of the Civil Rights Era whose fierce
activism on behalf of voting rights inspired generations of
activists.
All employees accumulate two Professional Development Days (PDD)
during each fiscal year (July 1 – June 30). Those days are
separate from any other provision afforded under the contract.
PDD days are to be used at the employee’s discretion and are
to be requested and approved in the same manner as vacation and
annual leave. For more information, see Article 13 of your
contract.
The Local 1000 contract expires on July 1, and the entire union
is mobilizing, gathering resources and building member power. We
begin negotiating with the state in April, so our 63-member
bargaining team is in place and deep in preparations, training
and strategizing to bring the 95,000 state workers we represent
the best contract we’ve ever had.
Frances Perkins, (April 10, 1880- May 14, 1965) became the first
woman in the nation to serve in a Presidential cabinet, being
named Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Secretary of Labor in 1933 and
serving until 1945. She was the principal architect of key New
Deal programs including Social Security, unemployment insurance,
laws regulating child labor, a federal minimum wage, and the
40-hour workweek.
Negotiations for our 2016 contract begin in April, and Local
1000’s 63-member bargaining team is in place and deep in
preparations, training and strategizing to bring the 95,000 state
workers we represent the best contract we’ve ever had.
The bargaining team represents the union at the negotiating table
and is made up of members from the nine bargaining units
represented by Local 1000. Issues that affect all represented
employees such as pay, benefits and retirement are negotiated at
the master table while each of the nine bargaining teams
negotiate unit-specific issues.
Local 1000 members, stewards and staff are working together daily
on matters of contract enforcement
Three Associate Environmental Planners at the Fresno office of
Caltrans came to Local 1000 for help because they were working
out of class. We forced the state to address the contract
violation, staff gathered documentation and filed grievance. The
grievance was denied at the first level, but Local 1000 kept the
pressure on to address the problem, elevating the grievance until
the state ultimately admitted the employees were indeed working
out of class and granted the
The month of February is a time when America can take a moment to recognize its strongest foundation—its diversity. The fact that everyone in Local 1000 is different and comes from a different background unifies us.
Our Local 1000 Purpose Statement makes it clear that we want to “… give our members—and all Californians—the opportunity to have a good life, live in sustainable communities and enjoy the fruits of social, economic and environmental justice,” just as these African-Americans showed leadership in California:
Local 1000 stewards are the building blocks of the collective
power of our union. Up and down the state, nearly 1,000 of our
members have stepped up to take a pledge to enforce our contract
and improve workplace conditions, while engaging their coworkers
to become active and support our Union’s pursuit of social and
economic justice.
In 2015, just over 150 new steward candidates successfully
completed our Leadership Apprentice Program for Stewards (LAPS)
program. In 2016, we want to triple the number of LAPS
graduates.
Teresa Hubbard joined the “1000 for Local 1000” challenge because
she is ready to make a stand for herself and her coworkers in her
workplace. By joining a Worksite Action Team (WAT), Hubbard and
other 1000 for Local 1000 member leaders are gathering strength
and creating a solid organizing structure that will put pressure
on the state to take our demands seriously as we bargain the 2016
contract—and beyond.
Barry Frazier has been a proud union member as both a county and
state employee in a career spanning more than 40 years.
Frazier attended a Local 1000 bargaining town hall, wanting to
know more about Gov. Brown’s proposal to have state employees
contribute 5% of their pay for the cost of medical retirement
benefits.
“Medical benefits are essential to retirement security,” said
Frazier. “As a county worker, our retiree medical benefits were
not guaranteed by contract. The Board of Supervisors constantly
whittled them away.”
Black History Month gives us an opportunity to remember the
accomplishments of ordinary people who recognized that
change doesn’t just happen but comes only when we are
willing to risk ourselves for justice. Ordinary people
exhibiting extraordinary bravery in the arena of civil
rights, economic and social justice.
A Bargaining Unit One member received a $25,000 lump-sum
settlement in arbitration after a grievance filed with the
support of Local 1000 members and staff was denied at every
level. The member, a Health Program Specialist I at the
California Department of Public Health (CDPH), was being denied
extra work assignments—Duty Officer Positions–that were
rightfully his due to seniority.
Bargaining for our new contract begins later this spring, and
already our represented employees are attending town halls up and
down the state to meet members of our bargaining team and to
share the issues most important to them.
In more than two dozen town halls scheduled up and down the
state, members are getting their questions answered about the
bargaining process and identifying their priorities. Among the
issues discussed: workplace conditions, job classifications,
upward mobility and pay increases.”
Bargaining Unit 20 LVNs working at Ironwood State Prison have
been assured of safer and healthier working conditions during
prison construction after filing a grievance and ultimately
winning a settlement during arbitration.
Former San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed and former San Diego
Councilmember Carl DeMaio, two failed politicians obsessed with
taking away public employee pensions, have withdrawn their 2016
antipension ballot measures.
Union representation made all the difference for an employee of
the California Department of Public Health in Sacramento whose
hostile supervisors had made her work environment
unbearable.
On Wednesday, January 13, over 200 people came to the Double Tree
Hotel in downtown Los Angeles to kick off the first of 26 town
halls Local 1000 is hosting.
The town halls are the centerpiece of a comprehensive
effort to learn the contract priorities of our members as we
prepare to bargain our 2016 contract.
Local 1000 represents nearly 8,000 IT workers at a variety of
state departments in classifications such as Information Systems
Technician and Associate Programmer Analyst. But because IT job
classifications in California state service have not been
reviewed in decades, they are out of date and out of step with
comparable jobs in the private sector, and with the local and
federal work force.
