SEIU Convention 2024 Resolution #104
In this union, we are creating a multi-racial democracy where people of every race and age from every community have a full and equal voice at the ballot box; where everyone has the chance to join a union and share in the profits they create; and where all workers have what they need to provide for their families and live joyful, fulfilling lives in thriving communities.
But corporate union-busters and the politicians that support them are trying to stop us from making that vision a reality. They divide us based on what we look like or how much money we make, hoping we’ll turn on each other instead of uniting against those who get rich by stealing from us and our communities.
Let’s be clear: the same people keeping prices up and wages down are also attacking our freedom to vote and attempting to sabotage our elections so they can keep power in the hands of greedy corporations and billionaires. Voter purges, discriminatory practices and partisan gerrymandering are all designed to keep Black, brown, AAPI, and indigenous people from voting and we will do whatever it takes to stop them.
We will build a multi-national, cross-racial, working-class voting bloc to win Unions for All to expand worker power and grow our union.
We will go all out in 2024 and beyond to elect pro-worker candidates up and down the ballot who will lower prices, raise wages, and allow everyone to join a union.
We will ensure that all votes are counted and all eligible voters—no matter what language they speak or the color of their skin—have the freedom to vote without obstacles.
Workers will deliver a mandate to elected officials and candidates for Unions for All, racial justice, immigrant justice, LGBTQIA2S+ justice, disability justice, healthcare justice, and climate justice.
Workers know what’s at stake because we see it in our paychecks, our bills, and in the check-out
line. Working people know prices are too high and wages are too low, and we’re going to reject the politicians who help corporations rip us off. In upcoming elections, workers are going to vote for the candidates who’ve got our backs.
As the backbone of GOTV efforts, SEIU members and not-yet-union workers will reach every corner of our communities, declaring to friends, family, and neighbors: our vote is our power to create the future we want. Our vote is our power to build a just, equitable, and inclusive society.
Building power through politics – at the ballot box, in the halls of Congress and Parliament, through member activism, by holding candidates accountable – is key to achieving our union’s ten-year goal to unite a million workers into our union by winning groundbreaking organizing victories that raise standards across industries and opening the doors of our union to workers who have been written out and written off.
We must unite our political and organizing efforts because workers are voters and voters are workers. Integrating our campaigns is the best way to build power at work, in our communities, and in the voting booth. That is how we will build pro-union, pro-worker majorities at every level of government. That is how we will fight back against right-wing attacks on workers and our unions. And that is how we will set the stage to write new rules that center those who have been left out and win big breakthroughs that unleash the power of workers of all ages to win good union jobs across entire industries. When workers have an equal say in government and the workplace, we can upend corporate control over our lives and dismantle structural racism. Anything is possible.
Therefore, be it resolved, we will:
- Win political power in Puerto Rico, Canada, and the U.S. to pass legislation that grows our union, builds member strength, and wins for workers. Starting in 2024, we will drive a mandate for those elected to pass a transformational agenda to rewrite the rules to center the working people who have been excluded.
- Keep the pressure on over many election cycles; each election year will build upon the last to build real power for workers and win our vision of a just society.
- Build and mobilize a cross-racial, multi-generational, working-class voting bloc—including immigrants—that inspires infrequent voters to turn out in record numbers in the 2024 election in the U.S., in 2025 in Canada, and beyond to drive our goal of uniting millions of workers into our union to raise standards for all of us.
- Reach 6 million voters in 2024 in the U.S. with our biggest political program ever, focusing our efforts in key U.S. battleground states – MI, WI, NV, AZ, GA, NC, PA – plus Senate states MT and OH and key House districts in NY and CA. Activate a member force of more than 25,000 people – 1.5% member turnout from each Local – to move our Unions for All Agenda through our electoral work and lead our campaigns.
- We will mobilize 120,000 SEIU members across Canada ahead of and throughout the 2025 federal election. Our resolution commitments to environmental, worker, gender and women’s rights are at risk from a rising wave of right-wing politicians. From coast to coast, in both official languages and languages inclusive of Indigenous and new Canadian members, we will engage voters in swing ridings and be the defensive seawall against that wave to protect our progress for the public good and advance our pro-union economic agenda.
- In Puerto Rico we continue to strengthen the Movimiento Victoria Ciudadana, a new political alternative that gives voice to working people and ends the corrupt political duality to create a democracy that guarantees the right to self-determination.
- Push every candidate to adopt a Unions for All agenda and champion a race-class narrative that centers unions as essential to the solution.
- Protect democracy by ensuring that every Black, brown, AAPI, indigenous, white and working-class person has the freedom to vote easily and drive election protection across our countries so that all votes are counted.
- Create transformative two-way strategic partnerships that help create multi-racial and multi-generational coalitions to expand worker and political power in communities of color.
- Build a powerful voice for working people through our union’s political fund by supporting every local in achieving our COPE goal of 25% of members contributing an average of $10 per month – adding up to almost 500,000 COPE contributors unionwide.
Concluded,
In this union, united across race, we will overcome the greedy special interests who attempt to take away our power at the ballot box. We will make sure that all working people—Black, white, brown, indigenous and AAPI—have an equal voice in our democracies. In this union, we will create a future where everyone thrives, where we have peace of mind knowing that our children and grandchildren can enjoy the beautiful things in life.
We are part of the strong and growing movement of workers dreaming of a better life and winning by organizing, speaking out, and going on strike. From auto and UPS workers, to Hollywood actors and healthcare workers, to Starbucks, fast-food, and airport workers—together we are unstoppable.
We are planting the seeds for a transformation in our societies. We are grounded in hope and a deep belief that we will win.