Respect Us. Protect Us. Pay Us. – July 13 Day of Action: Care is Essential 
Empezamos con un pequeño anuncio en Español por Maddie para todos los hispanohabalantes que eschuchen. Maddie también traduzca más durante el podcast.

Thank you to our amazing guests Kearni Warren, Lynn Weidner, Maddie Lopez-Vazquez, Erica Payne all from Pennsylvania, and LaNoral Thomas from SEIU’s National Staff.

Workers across the country will come together for a day of disruptive action on Tuesday, July 13, 2021 to declare Care is Essential. This day of action focuses specifically on Black, brown, and API womens’ work with a clear demand for Congress to enact the White House’s plan for a $400BN investment in care jobs and the women of color who lead the workforce. More broadly, calls to pass the American Jobs Plan and the clear intertwining of care with other priorities will create a clear, accessible narrative for the day. Home care workers and SEIU members will lead the way, joined by NDWA, the Fight for $15 and a Union, our racial, immigrant, and climate justice partners, other labor organizations, and community partners and allies.

In at least 15 cities across the country, we will plan 40 actions and  in-person events that are as large as possible given health guidelines, worker safety, and community engagement. The day will include online action led by workers, demanding action from Congress to pass, and the American Jobs Plan alongside the American Families Plan to ensure the health, safety, and economic well-being of every worker. Bringing together workers of all races to exercise their power together, we will put our racial and economic justice demands at the center of the conversation about the next steps to “build back better” and demonstrate the power of people organizing and joining together in unions.

PLEASE NOTE: We will continue to monitor public health and national and local guidelines 

as we put together actions, so that everyone can safely participate.

JULY 13: CARE IS ESSENTIAL 

On July 13, we will hold a day of action across the country with a number of large marches in DC, Los Angeles, Chicago, Detroit, and other cities, and block parties centering care workers and consumers, complemented by banner drops, and other (socially-distant as needed) disruptive actions, amplified with paid visual and digital events. These actions will call on Members of Congress to pass the American Jobs Plan with a full investment in care, centering the women who do this work. We will build out coordinated digital plans alongside national and local messaging and media support plans to lift up worker stories. We will build on the model of the Strike for Black Lives, building a day with an overarching banner of clear, strong demands that is also accessible to partners and community allies.

Ways to join the day include:

• Join or plan a large march that culminates in a block party.
• Join or plan block party/community day that brings together your organization’s workers with care workers and consumers, allies, and community members. Consider an afternoon that includes food and music, information tables on home care, immigration, climate, and other priorities, community services such as legal aid or barbering, a community art project about COVID and our recovery, and a speak out or story share to center care workers and consumers.
  • Help with voter registration and outreach as part of each event across the U.S.
• Socially-distant sit-ins, marches, car caravans or other tactics to occupy space in a prime location, including art installations, banner drops, billboard trucks,  street theater/puppets, musical performances, etc.
• National digital and earned media communications amplification, including a national video program aiming to lift worker voices across the country.

We can work with you to determine a role and level of participation that works best for your organization/membership, your local political and progressive organization relationships, and your core issues: sign on as a public partner; engage your members/networks to participate (rally, community event, marches, car caravans, digital storytelling); play as large a role as you want to develop and shape the activity and demands. For questions and more information, please contact LaNoral Thomas, lanoral.thomas@seiu.org or John Taylor, john.taylor@seiu.org.