Two years into a global pandemic that has devastated communities of color, killed more than 900,000 people in our country, and deeply divided people, SEIU members have emerged as essential worker heroes who have kept our country going. We are the people who are protecting our children and families, keeping our air and water clean, maintaining our parks and natural resources, keeping our libraries running, caring for and educating our children and so many other services essential to making our communities safe and healthy. We do this work because we care about our communities–as parents, as neighbors and community leaders.

Across the country, states have cut funding for public services, eliminating good jobs across the country and denying more and more people the essential services they need. This has hit Black and brown communities especially hard, cutting services to communities that had already been starved of basic services for decades. It also decimated many of the best public service jobs in Black and brown communities, leaving communities unprepared in the face of COVID-19.

This crisis did not happen by accident. Although we live in one of the richest countries on the planet, you wouldn’t know it by listening to certain politicians and CEOs. We have the resources to provide good schools, affordable housing, and safe communities for everyone. But instead corporations and the politicians they bankroll have spent many decades pushing for policies that enrich themselves by refusing to pay what they owe and shifting the burden for investing in essential services to working people. At the same time, these same corporations continue to drive down wages, using race and fear to divide us and making it harder for working people to live with dignity and advocate for ourselves. Lack of regulation has allowed corporations to harm low-income and communities of color, for example polluters and pollution are often disproportionately located in communities of color.

It’s never been more urgent to join together in our union and demand an economy that works for everyone. Corporations and wealthy politicians may have the money, but we have the power of people. That’s why essential workers are raising our voices to call for sweeping federal government action to invest in good union jobs, schools, healthcare and all the essential services our neighborhoods need to be safe and healthy.

By going on the offense and organizing in our communities, we will push elected leaders to deliver the fundamental changes we need to build a multiracial democracy where people who work for a living could count on supporting their families and we’d have confidence that our communities can face and rebound from any challenge.