Dear SEIU6 Family,
I couldn’t be prouder of the work our movement has done to get out the vote in our communities. At SEIU6, our political team made phone calls, sent texts, knocked on doors, and created videos to make sure all our members knew what was at stake this election. Our efforts in Washington paid off. We’ve elected a solid pro-worker governor in Bob Ferguson, and we defeated Brian Heywood’s ballot initiatives 2109, 2117, and 2124, protecting our children’s school funding, our clean air and water, and our elder care. Let’s hear it for Washington union voters!
At the same time, many of us are grieving the results of the federal election. Rightly so. We saw a highly qualified, pro-worker candidate passed up for a failed businessman who has attacked unions, restricted women’s rights, and campaigned on a promise of mass deportation. We are heartbroken—but we are not broken. It’s ok to feel heavy right now, but the important part is what we do next.
Like any bad boss, Trump will try to divide workers. Don’t fall for it. Remember who we are as a union. We are SEIU6. We are 10,000 strong and we just won a peerless janitorial contract. If you walk into a break room on the night shift where so many of our members work, you’d hear some of our 30 different languages. We are old and young, Black, white, and brown, queer and straight, Muslim, Christian, and atheist—we are everybody. We are the working class. We are powerful because we unite across our diversity. We can—and will—scale up our power to meet the coming years.
Our relationships are important. Let’s look out for each other and remember that we have more in common with our coworkers than we ever will with billionaires. Trump will tend to the global rich. We will take care of us. We will stand by our immigrant members, our trans members, and everyone who might be feeling afraid or targeted right now. We will double down on our fight for a fair economy and better future for us all. And we will win.
In Solidarity,
Zenia Javalera