FYI
seiu1021.org/story/november-2-join-oakland%E2%80%99s-%E2%80%9Cpeaceful-day-action%E2%80%9DOfficial Statement & Call to Action
Call to Action
The SEIU 1021 Executive Board calls on all members of SEIU 1021 to join a day-long “Peaceful Day of Action” in support of Occupy Oakland and against the banking industry and last week’s police brutality against the Occupy Oakland encampment.
To avoid misinterpretation: Occupy Oakland has called for a “general strike,” but SEIU 1021 is not asking any members to “go on strike” — that would be a violation of many SEIU 1021 contracts. Instead, we encourage members to use legitimate time off to stand in support of Occupy Oakland and join the day’s events at the “Peaceful Day of Action.”
City of Oakland Workers: The City has agreed that workers may use a day of comp time, vacation time, a floating holiday or leave without pay in order to participate.
Other SEIU 1021 Members: We encourage all members to work with their employers constructively to find a way to take the day off in order to participate.
The “Peaceful Day of Action” takes place at Frank Ogawa Plaza (in front of City Hall), 14th & Broadway, Oakland
9 am — Events begin
12 noon — SEIU March Against Foreclosures
4 pm — Public Sector Worker Action
For more information, download a flyer under “Current Downloads” to the right of this article.
SEIU 1021 Statement
The Occupy movement has the same vision and goals SEIU has been advocating for the last two years — that the Wall Street speculators and the major banks crashed our economy with their reckless greed and that ever since then, they have been trying to transfer the blame and the costs onto the other 99 percent by attacking workers’ pay, healthcare and pensions; by slashing what remains of the social safety net; by foreclosing on our homes and our opportunities for a better future; by ruining our neighborhoods, schools and cities; and by otherwise widening the income gap and transferring wealth from the bottom to the top.
Like public employees everywhere, SEIU 1021 members have been main targets of this transfer. Throughout northern California, and especially in Oakland, our wages, benefits and pensions have been cut to deal with the deficits created by their crisis.
“We are also part of the 99 percent,” said Dwight McElroy, president of the SEIU 1021 Oakland chapter. “Our jobs have been cut, our people unemployed, and our community has lost needed services in these hard times.”
This perspective is now rooted in people’s own experience. The Occupy movement has given wide public expression to this discontent, and is demanding change with new forms of dissent and community. SEIU 1021 is proud to join and endorse the movement, and will be bringing material support to its efforts.
Within our jurisdiction, SEIU 1021 members have taken part in local Occupy Wall Street actions in San Francisco, Sacramento, Oakland, Santa Rosa, Petaluma, Ukiah and elsewhere.
“The labor movement has always fought to keep free speech and the right to assemble as 24/7 Constitutional rights,” McElroy said. “We expect Mayor Quan and any mutual aid effort to respect that at Oscar Grant [Frank Ogawa] Plaza.”
SEIU 1021 stands in support of Occupy Oakland and the city and people of Oakland in our common fight for a fair economy and socially just society.
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