VIDEO MESSAGE FROM SENATOR KAMALA HARRIS TO US: “You are showing the courage that comes from true leadership”

U.S. Senator Kamala Harris just recorded this video message to us — watch Kamala give us SEIU-UHW members a big shout-out and lay out what she’s doing in D.C. to fight for our safety and childcare needs. 

WE NEED PPE: Take Action Right Now

We’re living the PPE crisis every day in our facilities — and we refuse to wait any longer for the equipment we need to protect ourselves and save lives. Take 30 seconds right now to tell Congress and the Trump administration to get us PPE immediately.

SURGE RESOURCES

Our NEW SURGE CHECKLIST is a crucial weapon in our COVID-19 fight. Let’s all use it to confront the surge.

NEW TESTING CENTERS are opening up — including in Fremont, San Francisco, and Oakland — and healthcare workers are often given priority.

FROM THE FRONTLINES

Check out this inspiring story from our fellow SEIU-UHW member Hillary Distefano (right) about how she and her coworkers are leaping into action to save lives . . . 

“Prior epidemics have taught us something crucial: in order to cut down on disease transmission, we need to be able to test a lot of people and get the results quickly.

That fact has made our COVID-19 testing situation so alarming: we couldn’t test enough people and the results were taking too long to get back.

At Kaiser Berkeley Lab, we saw how critical the situation was and realized the need for more and faster testing. So we SEIU-UHW members quickly partnered with union members in the Engineers and Scientists of CA (Local 20) and with Kaiser to streamline the process and get our testing to the absolute maximum levels and speed. 

Before, we had to send tests to outside labs that were totally inundated, so the results were taking up to seven days. But we figured out a way to get the test results done in our own lab instead — and now we’re turning tests around within 24 hours. 

We’re also on the verge of massively increasing the number of tests we can do. Currently we do about 1,200 COVID-19 tests a day. But right now we’re building a new lab space, adding worker shifts, and installing more testing machines — so within two weeks we’ll go from doing 1,200 tests each day to 10,000. 

To me, this is what being a healthcare worker is all about. Like you, my coworkers and I refuse to back down from this crisis. Like you, we’re all rising to the challenge because we know it’s on us to save lives. Like you, we’re healthcare workers — and this is what we do.” 

Hillary Distefano, Senior Lab Assistant, Kaiser Berkeley Lab