One Year Later – The 2022 Union Staff Strike at SEIU Local 2015

~Jeff Armstrong, PNWSU Professional Development Officer

10/31/2023 – Today marks one year since we walked off the job on strike against our Employer’s unfair labor practices. October 31, 2022 and the twelve days that followed forever changed our little Staff Union, our workplace, and SEIU. It proved to us all that union staff are willing to stand up and fight.

In a time when working people are rebelling against all that is going on around and against us, Unions should be the ones answering the call to fight. Instead, too many have been playing it safe, or worse, acting in concert with the other side. Union staff must say, “No more.” Labor either stands by our principles or we’ll give you a kick in the ass. In our workplace we must be ready to kick more ass. The recent UAW strikes have shown that is possible for rank-and-file workers, staff, and leadership to breathe new life into a decaying union and win real gains not only for their own members, but for all workers. The basis for such a transition was the willingness to fight and not compromise. To name the enemy, their tactics, and the struggle for what it is, a class war. The challenge that has been set to other unions is to do the same and we, as union staff, must play our role in this war.

There is unending love and solidarity in our heart for all those who stood together on our picket lines despite threats of termination, management trying to run us over, company-paid goons trying to intimidate us, rain/cold, and fear for what the next day would hold. The bonds we built amongst ourselves, our other PNWSU chapters, and with other staff unions have continued to grow stronger. In the past year, we have seen other union staff across the country standing up for themselves and rank-and-file members to ensure that union leadership does better. We at PNWSU remain here for the next fight.

Despite our strike and the gains we’ve made since, important issues remain a challenge in our workplace. Training and development that allows staff to build power in the workplaces we organize and enables a direct transfer of substantive knowledge to the workers we represent. Retention of the staff doing that work, so that there is continuity and growth. And importantly, ensuring that rank-and-file Local 2015 members from public sector homecare, employer-owned nursing homes, and private care agencies all have a decisive voice within their Union. Only through continued collective struggle can we ensure that these issues are seriously addressed by the leadership of this Local.

The task before us remains the same: we must all struggle to ensure that the Labor Movement lives up to our collective responsibility to fight and to win social and economic justice for ALL workers. Together we can make that a reality.