SEIU 1021 members, including President Theresa Rutherford and Vice President of Organizing Brandon Dawkins, were among dozens of community members and union workers who came out to Portsmouth Square in Chinatown in San Francisco last Wednesday, September 24. 

They were there alongside Board of Supervisors President and SEIU 1021 endorsed mayoral candidate Aaron Peskin, Mayor London Breed, and other elected leaders and candidates to show support for Prop B.

Prop B is a commonsense bond measure that will provide much-needed funding to improve and upgrade San Francisco’s public health facilities, including San Francisco General Hospital, Laguna Honda Hospital, and Chinatown Public Health Center, among others.

“All 11 members of the Board of Supervisors worked hand in hand with Mayor Breed, her department heads, and her team, and the controller and the city economist to craft Proposition B in so many ways that made so much sense,” said Peskin at the rally. ”Yes, the Chinatown Health Center, yes, City Clinic, yes, expanding psych emergency services. And we did that by working together and putting politics aside. Now it’s time for the voters of San Francisco to salute that good work with a 2/3 vote. We crafted this in a way that does not raise anybody’s taxes.”

“Prop B, Vibrant Healthy San Francisco, must be passed. We don’t have a choice,” said SEIU 1021 President Theresa Rutherford at the rally. ”This is about my family, your family, our elderly. This is about when someone has an emergency on the bridge, an accident, they get immediate care, good care, and can go into continued care at Laguna Honda.

“Long before covid, SEIU 1021 healthcare workers were there for vulnerable patients in our community, often despite a lack of adequate staffing and other dangerous working conditions. Many of our healthcare workers still find themselves working in these conditions. The investment of this bond will ensure we have the modern, safe facilities we need to continue our lifesaving work.

“Prop B is not just about infrastructure. It’s about giving healthcare workers the tools we need to protect our patients, healthcare workers, and our entire city.

“We’re proud of our work recently at Laguna Honda, of its full recertification. We have an opportunity to invest in the infrastructure of the hospital and ensure it can continue serving its patients for generations to come. We need to make sure SF General Hospital, a trauma one center, is as resilient as possible in the event of a disaster like an earthquake or another pandemic so that our staff can be full prepared to protect our city.

“These are not just feel-good measures but critical investments in the resilience and preparedness of our entire city and everyone who lives, works, or visits here. Please join myself, my fellow labor groups, 1021, in doing everything you can to pass Prop B.”

Watch the livestream of the rally on SEIU 1021’s Instagram here.

Find the rest of our endorsements (being updated as new ones come in) on our website here.