When workers stand together, as we do in 32BJ and throughout the SEIU, change happens. That’s what unionism is all about—uniting to make life better for workers and their families, uniting to move us all toward a more just society.

There is no such thing as justice for some. Justice for all is what we strive for as a nation, and as a union. And for workers, justice on the job is easy to measure—a living wage, health care and other benefits, equal and fair treatment. In a word, it’s about respect.

In 32BJ, our goal is to win respect for every property service worker. By standing together and exercising our collective strength, 50,000 commercial members recently won some of the strongest contracts in the property services industry. And thousands of security officers and janitors are winning the fight to join 32BJ.

The result: first contracts with guaranteed pay raises every year, health benefits and protections on the job. We have made a lot of progress together, but our work is far from done. “Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability,”Martin Luther King, Jr. reminded us. “But comes through continuous struggle.” At 32BJ, everything we do is about the struggle to improve standards in our industry. For us, the issue is respect for every property service worker. And the time for change is now.

June 2008