Local 888 has enthusiastically endorsed City Councilor Annissa Essaibi George and her campaign for mayor of Boston.
“When I think about the work of leading this city and leading it in partnership, I think not only about the people of Boston — but especially those who are doing the work on behalf of the people of Boston,” said Essaibi George at a mayoral forum organized by Local 888. As a former union member, Essaibi George said, she appreciates the values of unions as well as the labor movement.
More than 66 percent of the Local 888 members at the forum voted to endorse the city councilor.
Essaibi George taught in the Boston Public Schools from 2001 to 2014. She was elected as an at-large city councilor in 2015 and is currently the chair of the Committee on Education.
Local 888 President Tom McKeever, praised Essaibi George for being in the forefront of the city’s efforts to deal with the challenges of the opioid epidemic, homelessness and unmet mental health needs. Her efforts have included fighting for more safe collection sites for used needles and increased mental health and addiction services — including the addition of mental health clinicians at the Boston Police Department.
McKeever and other representatives from Local 888 joined Essaibi George this month for a press conference on her plan for addressing the problems of the Mass. and Cass area in Boston (For photo, see www.facebook.com/SEIULocal888/photos/a.593256854055682/4488144461233549/.)
In an endorsement letter, McKeever added that Essaibi George had made commitments to:
• end the staffing shortage in the BPD’s dispatch operation,
• support having annual cost-of-living increases in the city’s labor contracts,
• use some funding from U.S. President Biden’s American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 to “to properly compensate SEIU 888 members for their hard work during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
McKeever noted that Essaibi George has also been endorsed by the Massachusetts Nurses Association, Boston firefighters union Local 718, electrical workers Local 2222, Sheet Metal Workers Local 17 and Boston’s emergency medical services union, among others.
For more on Local 888’s campaign to clean up the Mass. and Cass area, near the Southampton Street Shelter, see www.seiu888.org/2021/10/19/union-decries-violence-unhealthy-conditions-around-boston-homeless-shelter/.