[caption id="attachment_10661" align="alignnone" width="200"]BRENDA RODRIGUES[/caption]

The SEIU Local 888 Executive Board is supporting a new Racial Justice Task Force. An organizing committee made up of Local 888 leaders has established the initial goals of the task force to ensure it is representative of the union’s membership and various industry sectors.

The organizing committee said: “We cannot achieve economic justice until we have racial justice, and we know there is work to be done. The role of the new task force will be to identify racial justice issues and inequities within Local 888, respective chapters and workplaces, and to organize racial justice education and action work.”

The organizing committee is made up of Local 888 leaders Anita Christon, recording secretary; Brenda Rodrigues, outgoing president; Justin Lawler, trustee; and board members Shaylin Hogan, Damali Simmonds, LaToya Weaver and Susan Winning.

Members who are interested in the new task force may email RacialJustice@seiu888.org. A membership survey about the new task force is in the works as well.

The organizing committee said that, “in order to ensure a representative group, we may not be able to include everyone on the task force, but there is work to be done, and we will find something for everyone.”

“To lift your voices, we first need to hear from you,” the committee said, commenting on its planned survey. “We are very excited to bring this work to the forefront, and we ask you to join us. We have so much we can do, and we are ready to do it.” Send questions to RacialJustice@seiu888.org.

To quote from Amanda Gorman, who read her poem, “The Hill We Climb,” at the inauguration of President Biden: “We lift our gazes not to what stands between us, but what stands before us.”

For more on Local 888’s stands on racial justice see //www.seiu888.org/2020/07/16/union-urges-racial-justice-end-to-police-brutality/.