2008 Convention in Puerto Rico
June 17, 2008
Dear SEIU Healthcare Sisters and Brothers:
Our 2008 Convention in Puerto Rico was an amazing culmination of months of debate, discussion and planning that produced an exciting new vision of what we will strive to achieve together over the next four years. The commitment, respect and enthusiasm of our 1,200 SEIU Healthcare delegates throughout the week was remarkable, and speaks volumes to the democratic strength and vibrancy of our union.
Keith Kelleher
President, SEIU Healthcare Illinois & Indiana
Our Local got the resources from the Union to organize 10,000 agency workers not organized before. We then found a unit of ‘personal assistants’ – 25,000 – but didn’t have resources as a small Local. We called on the International Union’s resources which allowed us to organize to bring our numbers up to 45,000 members—and then 50,000 child care providers. So now our local is 68,000 members! I rise in support of this because we have benefitted, you have, all of us have.
Just prior to the Convention opening, our SEIU Healthcare Assembly brought together the healthcare delegates who overwhelmingly approved—by more than 90 percent--our Strategic Unity Plan and Program to Win. These plans provide the new roadmap to our future, including:
Organizing more than 350,000 non-union nurses, doctors and healthcare workers over the next four years.
Electing Senator Barack Obama as our new President and driving the reform of our healthcare system within the first 100 days of his new administration.
Creating nationwide bargaining councils within our hospital and nursing home industries so that we may speak with a united voice to national employers.
Dedicating and integrating the resources needed to execute our vision for uniting with non-union caregivers.
Your local’s leadership and staff will soon be distributing a brief video capturing the highlights of the SEIU Healthcare Assembly.
Our Convention concluded with a commitment to enact all that our delegation resolved to accomplish for our union. We have already begun that work in earnest, and we look forward to working together as one national union to make our vision for the next four years a reality.
In Unity,
Dennis Rivera
"We've done all we've been asked to do—we've set aside our 20 percent. But even with all that, we're not big enough to do it by ourselves. We need your help—the resources, and the physical help in order to organize. From California to New York and Florida to Minnesota—we're calling on you to stand with us. Take a chance with us and you won't regret it!"
Dian Palmer, RN,
President, SEIU Healthcare Wisconsin