#SEIUDroptheCops makes demands

Following weeks of intensive internal organizing, research and analysis, the (Service Employees) #SEIUDropTheCops campaign — a rank-and-file-led initiative with SEIU members in locals from coast to coast and across different sectors of the economy — has released detailed demands to their International.  After wide-ranging discussions on solidarity, class, class character and the role of labor in the movement, #SEIUDropTheCops sets forth actionable demands, which when met will immediately empower the working class and the oppressed, especially in the U.S., but around the world. 

Demand 1: SEIU Drop the Cops

We demand SEIU drop cops from the union. We demand any job classification including law enforcement officers, jail and prison guards, probation officers, and armed security officers and their bargaining units, for example, in the International Brotherhood of Police Officers and the International Brotherhood of Corrections Officers, be expelled from SEIU.

Demand 2: SEIU Beyond Policing and Prisons

We demand an SEIU beyond policing and prisons. We demand SEIU divest from campaigns organizing law enforcement officers, jail and prison guards, probation officers, and armed security officers. We demand SEIU invest in union organizing campaigns to protect, empower and expand sectors where workers prevent violence or harm as their work, such as essential workers, educators, healthcare workers, social workers, and food service workers. We demand a strong, unionized movement to eliminate policing, both as an action against the community and as a profession providing employment opportunities, to enact transformational social change beyond policing and prisons

Demand 3: SEIU Labor Drop the Cops 

We demand labor drop the cops. We demand that SEIU fight to expel the International Brotherhood of Police Officers and other law enforcement officers, jail and prison guards, probation officers, and armed security officers bargaining units, such as the Fraternal Order of Police, Police Benevolent Association and International Union of Police Associations, from labor councils on which SEIU locals participate.

Demand 4: SEIU Drop Cop Candidates  

We demand SEIU drop cop candidates. We demand SEIU provide no support to any political candidate who accepts donations from law enforcement officers, jail and prison guards, probation officers, and armed security officers locals or who intends to act against defunding the police or the platform of the Movement for Black Lives while in office.

Demand 5: SEIU: For Black Lives

We demand an SEIU for Black Lives. We demand SEIU acknowledge in word and action the centrality of being in solidarity with Black workers and communities to the labor movement. We demand SEIU adopt the Movement for Black Lives platform as an organizing goal and concretely enact the platform through its labor and political organizing.

For updates on the campaign, go to the Facebook page at tinyurl.com/y64qhglm/.