Every four years, delegates from local SEIU unions across the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico—workers from all industries—come together to set a course for SEIU. We pass resolutions, amend our International Union’s Constitution and Bylaws, and elect leaders.
These Convention Resolutions have historically led to groundbreaking and audacious campaigns, including the Fight for $15 and SEIU’s commitment to being an anti-racist organization.
This year, convention delegates approved bold resolutions that speak directly to the time we’re in. These resolutions emphasize our collective power as a “dynamic force for good” aiming to end poverty wages forever and ensure justice and equity for all.
Here are the resolutions delegates passed:
This Union Wins
- Sets a 10-year goal to unionize one million new SEIU members by 2034
- Establishes a set of values: Equity, Integrity, Solidarity, Justice, Respect, Inclusion, Hope
- SEIU 2015 laid out our own values a few years ago, and we consistently lift these up in our work together: Leadership, Compassion, Empowerment, Accountability, Transparency, and Excellence. We are excited that the International Union took our example, and we wholeheartedly add these IU values to our own.
- Lays out three core commitments—to win worker power, win political power, and win the future—and each of the other resolutions contributes to these three aims
- Makes it clear: we aren’t setting a low bar for small improvements, we want a future full of joy!
- It’s like we said in our SEIU 2015 Future of Care Resolution, we don’t just want a raise, we want thriving wages and benefits that actually support our families. We want to lead joyful lives. We want everyone in our communities to lead joyful lives.
Click here to read the full This Union Wins Resolution.
Win Political Power
- Commits to building a multi-national, cross-racial, working-class voting bloc to win unions for all, racial justice, immigrant justice, healthcare justice, and climate justice
- Sets a goal to reach 6 million voters in key battleground states leading up to the November election, and commits to making sure all registered voters have the freedom to vote easily regardless of the color of their skin or language they speak
- Sets a goal to activate a member force of more than 25,000 people and drive our COPE goal to 25% of members contributing an average of $10 per month so we can compete with the billionaires and greedy special interests trying to rig elections against us
Click here to read the full Win Political Power Resolution.
Win the Future
- Continues SEIU’s tradition of being forward thinking and future-ready—making sure we have the organizational culture, technology, structures, and resources we’ll need in the coming decades
- Commits to enhancing our ability to anticipate and adapt to change by investing in member and staff education on social and technological developments
- Prioritizes anti-racism, learning and innovation, developing a culture that attracts and is informed by a new generation of workers and a multi-racial, multi-generational staff
- Commits to building capacity to handle disruption with contingency planning, working with allies to prepare for extreme events, preparing to counter dis- and mis-information, and sharing experiments, learnings and successes
- Dovetails with our SEIU 2015 Member Connected and Leader Rich Union Resolution, which also calls on us to build future leaders, collaborate with allies, adopt technology and build a values-based culture
Click here to read the full Win the Future Resolution.
Resistance and Resilience
- Boldly addresses the crises stemming from corporate greed and structural racism. It unites SEIU members in the fight for justice, and building worker power is at its core.
- This echoes the commitments SEIU 2015 made earlier this year in our Racial Justice and Cross Racial Solidarity Resolution, which emphasizes our resolve to stay united against all attempts to divide and weaken us.
- Commits to exploring cross-movement work, flexing our political power, and mobilizing a cross-racial coalition committed to elect leaders who share our values and vision
- Includes three appendices that address in greater detail the triple threats we must fight together to win justice and unions for all:
- Immigration Justice: Even though immigrants are and have always been essential workers, the wealthy and powerful use race to divide us and to keep wealth in the hands of a few. We will consistently lift up the value of immigrants and demand a pathway to citizenship for 11 million American immigrants. We will tell their stories and show their incredible contributions. This resolution fits so well with SEIU 2015’s history of celebrating diversity. In our SEIU 2105 Racial Justice and Cross Racial Solidarity Resolution, we also see the long arc of racism in America and how it’s led to devaluing caregiving. In building cross racial solidarity, we fight arm in arm against the racist power structure that tries to keep us in the shadows.
- Climate and Environmental Justice: We know that billionaire corporations and their political allies have triggered a climate crisis. And we know that communities of color and immigrant communities are often hit hardest. In this appendix, SEIU commits to fight for an end to public subsidies for fossil fuel and a moratorium on new fossil fuel infrastructure, as well as respect for the sovereignty of Native American over their tribal lands. This appendix vows to deepen and grow SEIU members’ commitment to linking climate and environmental justice to our push for economic and racial justice. At SEIU 2015, our Future of Care Resolution lists climate restoration as a key goal in our justice agenda.
- Rising Authoritarianism and White Supremacy: Everyone is valuable, and we stand firmly united and against authoritarianism as it’s growing across the globe. We notice that authoritarians also attack workers’ right to organize. “We know that when we all do better, we all do better.” And that means across borders, ethnicities, identities, and industries. This framework commits to making sure this message gets out to everyone in the union. This fits in with our SEIU 2015 Member Connected and Leader Rich Union Resolution, which includes our commitment to broaden our outreach, including in our orientations and outreach to younger members.
Click here to read the full Resistance and Resilience Resolution.
United Across the Labor Movement to Win Worker Power
- Affirms that harnessing collective power through mass unionization is our one way forward to win a better future and a more just society for all
- Commits to a strategy that removes barriers to unionization for all working people, ensuring everyone is free to organize—not just one worksite at a time but across entire industries and regions
- Pledges to deepen collaboration with unions and other worker organizations to combat corporate union-busting and other barriers to unionization, transform the care sector, and expand worker power across the U.S., Canada, and Puerto Rico.
Click here to read the full Uniting Across the Labor Movement to Win Worker Power Resolution.
Resolution for Permanent Ceasefire, Humanitarian Aid, and Peace
- Commits to calling out injustice and standing up against racism, antisemitism, Islamophobia, bigotry, religious persecution, and hatred in all of its forms
- Commits to ensuring all who speak out for peace are able to do so freely; condemns violent attacks on peaceful protestors and the use of severe force against nonviolent demonstrators
- Calls for an immediate, permanent ceasefire and other measures including the delivery of humanitarian assistance to the people of Gaza and an end to taxpayer dollars being used to fund attacks against innocent civilians in Gaza.
Click here to read the full Resolution for Permanent Ceasefire, Humanitarian Aid, and Peace.