Let them inherit our courage, not our surrender

By Fabrizio Sasso
Executive Director, Sacramento CLC

As I read the paper this month and attend the many rallies, strikes and election events around Sacramento, I am struck by how much is on the line in this moment, and how well union members are meeting it.

In late October, thousands of state workers in SEIU Local 1000 walked off the job for the first time in their union’s 44-year history. That takes guts, and state workers showed they had that courage: Ninety-six percent of voting members authorized that strike.

These are the people who keep California running, who care for the vulnerable and perform countless acts of public service most of us never see. Nobody wanted to be on that picket line. They had bills to pay and families to feed. But they had been pushed to the point where staying silent meant accepting their own mistreatment, and there comes a moment when standing up matters more than staying comfortable.

That same rainy afternoon, hospitality workers with UNITE HERE Local 49 stood outside Old City Hall with Railyards neighbors demanding that an estimated $222 million in public money come with real benefits: affordable homes, living-wage jobs and a grocery store in a food desert. That ground is sacred to our movement. In 1894, Sacramento railroad workers stood with the striking Pullman workers, and two of them were killed after federal troops were sent in.

From the picket line to the Railyards, we are showing up and standing together, not just for our own wellbeing, but for our communities and for generations to come. This is the best of what the labor movement is about, and we are doing it in the toughest of times.

Nothing shows that better than this month’s front-page story about union nurses taking on the Department of Homeland Security. The California Nurses Association and National Nurses United, whose ranks include many immigrants and naturalized citizens, went to federal court to stop armed agents from knocking on doors to question Americans about their right to vote. A federal judge sided with the nurses and ordered DHS to stand down in nine states through Election Day, finding the operation likely amounted to illegal intimidation of people who help others vote.

Some of those nurses had stopped going to campaign events. One gave up plans to serve as a poll monitor. Others feared that a bad data match could bring agents to their door simply because they were born somewhere else. Instead of letting fear make their choices, they made a choice of their own: to fight back, for themselves and for every American voter. That is what courage looks like.

Their work is an inspiration to all of us, as President Trump and this administration continue to target immigrants for deportation and to campaign to deter votes. It’s scary stuff, and I won’t pretend otherwise.

But when we stand together and fight together, we take some of that fear away, because we know our union siblings have our back. Solidarity isn’t the absence of fear. It’s standing together through it. I am proud to see my union family living up to that ideal.

As union members, we have a unique duty in this moment. We know better than most that every right we enjoy was won by people who refused to accept what they were told was impossible. The weekend, the eight-hour workday and the right to bargain were never handed to us. The same collective power that wins a fair contract can protect a free and fair election.

So walk the line with your union siblings. Show up for your neighbors at City Hall. And vote like your livelihood and freedom depends on it, then help someone else do the same.

Someday, workers who haven’t even been born yet will inherit the consequences of what we do in moments like this one.

Let them inherit our courage, not our surrender.