SEIU Convention 2024 Resolution #102a
SEIU is uniting millions of working people to build the beautiful future we envision.
A future where society in Puerto Rico, Canada, and the United States is just and equitable, and where our economy, our democracy, and our environment is healthy because working people have a voice on the job and in their communities. A future where workers are valued and respected-no matter where we are from or the color of our skin – and where all families and communities can thrive. A future where everyone belongs, and where our solidarity across race and space creates shared prosperity for all – not just the wealthy elite.
Climate change, inhumane immigration systems, and rising authoritarianism threaten this vision for a Just Society. But our 100-year movement is ushering in a new era of worker power, uniting millions in collective action and rewriting the rules for those who’ve been written out.
OUR CHALLENGE
Corporate greed and structural racism are causing interconnected challenges working people now face. Working people confront a global economy that is more volatile, uncertain and complex than ever before. The challenges we face are global in scale and existential in nature.
The same corporate CEOs who pay poverty wages and strategically use racism to divide workers, are the same actors that pollute our land, air and water in an insatiable search for profit. When their actions destabilize economies, create massive inequality, and endanger the health of working people, they blame people of color, immigrants and the poor to divert attention away from their exploitation of workers.
These same multinational corporations bankroll authoritarian politicians around the globe who use racism and fear to weaken democracy. In exchange, they receive favorable policies that silence workers on the job and exempt them from investing in our communities. As authoritarianism rises around the globe – authoritarianism being a system of government where power is concentrated in the hands of one leader or a small number of elites whose decisions are made without regard for the will of the people – corporations are able to pad their profits. The strategy of division, destabilization and community divestment over an entire generation has created challenges impacting SEIU members in Puerto Rico, Canada and the U.S. It is in this way that corporate greed and structural racism create interlocking, existential crises including: climate change, global migration, and rising authoritarianism.
While immigration and environmental injustice, as well as rising authoritarianism harms all working people, Black and Brown people, women, and those from poor communities are
disproportionately displaced by wildfires, floods, drought, extreme heat, hurricanes, and rising sea levels. They are disproportionately targeted by schemes that silence communities, curtail their decision-making power, attack labor rights, privatize public services, and increase poverty. The result is often modern-day imperialism or the political and economic dominance of one nation by another.
Displaced Black and Brown workers are disproportionately criminalized and pushed into the shadows of the global economy when politicians weaponize immigration issues to get elected. They also face sharp anti-immigrant sentiments, are disproportionately targeted for hate crimes, and are most likely to experience attacks on civil liberties, protest and voting rights. And while they are most harmed by corporate greed, colonialism, imperialism, and structural racism, there is a cost to all people – to our entire planet.
It is clear that immigrant justice, climate justice, and the expansion of a multi-racial democracy are racial and economic justice fights that must be central to the work of our union. Addressing these challenges and building the future we all want will require that we unrig the rules of our economy by building worker power.
OUR OPPORTUNITY
As service and care workers, SEIU members in Puerto Rico, Canada and the U.S. are tasked with responding to these compounding crises, while simultaneously being the most impacted by these same challenges.
But, as those most impacted by these crises, SEIU members are also the best positioned to design and win the future we envision. As a diverse labor union, we are uniquely positioned to build worker power by fostering deep cross-racial solidarity and ensuring government and the economy of the future works for everyone, not just the wealthy elite. By connecting and centering our justice fights, we prepare our union for the volatile and complex future ahead and ensure working people shape the landscape on which we organize for dignity, respect, and safety.
OUR MISSION
Our mission is to build the worker power needed to win Unions for All and end poverty wages forever. To address these existential crises and ensure the economy of the future works for working people, we must rewrite the rules and ensure workers of every race and every place can organize across employers, industries, sectors, and geographies – not just worksite by worksite.
To create the beautiful future we envision we must center and connect climate justice, immigration justice, and our democracy fights in the work of our union. To disrupt the infrastructure of injustice that reproduces the current balance of power, we will:
- Win Worker Power. SEIU members are on the front lines of immigration, climate and our democracy fights. Connecting and centering our justice fights within SEIU’s power-building work and within the wider labor movement will strengthen these fights. By exposing interconnected exploitation, we can grow support for comprehensive, pro-worker policies that advance justice and address the challenges that will shape the future of work.
- Win Political Power: A functioning democracy and civil society is critical to winning the future for workers. Connecting and centering our justice fights will help us build political power by mobilizing a cross-racial, cross-movement coalition of working class voters, deeply invested in immigration, climate and racial justice, and protecting democracy. Electing leaders who will advance pro-worker policies will in turn support workers’ rights to organize, bolster our ability to win Unions for All, and support the voice of working people in and beyond the voting booth.
- Win the Future: SEIU will be an anti-racist union fighting to dismantle structural racism in all its forms. By connecting and centering our justice fights, we will transform SEIU into one that breaks down silos, unites workers from various issue fronts, and leverages the genius of our multi-generational, multi-racial membership to develop innovative solutions, dismantle systems of injustice, and win the future.
Be it therefore resolved:
- SEIU will adopt a new, intersectional approach to center and connect our fights on immigration justice, climate justice, and democracy in the work of our union. We will create and convene a new committee of members, leaders and staff in Puerto Rico, Canada and theU.S. to strengthen our shared analysis of these interconnected fights and explore cross-movement work. This body will develop strategies and integrate our learnings into our organizing efforts to build worker power and win Unions for All.
- SEIU will intentionally work to strengthen our relationships with allies, partners, foundations, and community groups to strengthen cross-movement solidarity, and identify opportunities and integrated strategies to advance our 10-year goal and justice fights.
- SEIU will intentionally foster transformative, cross-racial and cross-movement solidarity in a way that galvanizes us to “show up and throw down” for one another. We will spark joy, hope, and healing for our members as we unite across all lines, borders and countries, in recognition of our interconnected challenges and shared fates.