Our union is our vehicle to fight for issues that are important to all of us and our families—things like healthcare, vital services for seniors, quality affordable child care, access to college and more.
TOGETHER WE RISE! |
As union members, we use our collective bargaining power with our employers to win improvements to our education system and our own living standards.
Sometimes, we have to take our fight for quality schools and better lives beyond our negotiations with our employers. The reality is that we sometimes have to look beyond our own pay, benefits and working conditions to ensure that we really win.
Sometimes, it’s a bigger fight against bigger challenges.
There are some members who ask “why does my union get so involved in politics?” As public school workers—with funding, policies and working conditions all determined by elected officials—our jobs are very much connected to politics.
For example, let’s say we’re able to protect our healthcare benefits in a round of negotiations with our employer. Everyone’s happy, right? We used our collective strength through our union to ensure a good job benefit. But what if decisions in Congress threaten our employer’s ability to afford that job benefit? If we don’t also get involved in the national debate about every American’s right to quality healthcare, our own job benefit is at risk.
It ends up that pretty much everything about our jobs is connected to politics.
Here’s another example: we just won a great California state budget without any cuts to its funding for education. But President Trump has proposed massive federal budget cuts that threaten Special Education, Early Education, School Transportation and school meals. So what good does it do to win at a local and state level if at the federal level we’re forced to take two steps back? The solution? We must use our collective voice to protest these cuts that affect our schools, the students we serve and the quality of our jobs.
One of President Trump’s main campaign promises was to bring back good jobs.
He figured out that Americans are disgusted with an economic and political system that’s rigged against us. We want good jobs, healthcare coverage, the opportunity for a better life for our families, long-term financial security and a real voice in the decisions that affect our work, our economy and our democracy. But, just like with our employer, the only way to improve things is to use our collective power to hold elected leaders accountable.
Today, unions are the voice of California’s working people. We fight—at all levels—for what’s best for all of us like quality public schools and good jobs in our communities. Because it’s only when working people stand together that we can take on our employers, corporate greed and elected leaders who refuse to look out for us.
Bigger fights we’re in right now:
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