1199SEIU retirees and leaders were among the 10,000 activists who marched and rallied February 11 in Raleigh, N.C., for jobs, education, voting rights and other justice and equality issues.

The long struggle to free Jon-Adrian Velázquez, the wrongfully imprisoned son of 1199SEIU retiree Maria Velazquez, was given a major boost on February 12.

In 2010, the 1199SEIU Executive Council voted unanimously to endorse then-State Senator Eric Schneiderman in a highly competitive campaign to become New York’s Attorney General. At the time, President George Gresham said of Schneiderman, “His commitment to working families and social justice are what makes him the strongest candidate in this race and we will work incredibly hard across the state to get him elected.”

The federal Department of Labor is proposing to revise the Fair Labor Standard Act to include most home health workers.

Nursing home caregivers, students and street theater performers conducted a satirical manhunt outside of NYU Law School for school Trustee and “corporate outlaw” Daniel Straus on January 30. “Sheriff 99%” joined NYU students and caregivers in calling on Daniel Straus to stop robbing workers of their rights. One Percent “outlaw” Straus runs Care One and HealthBridge nursing home companies, which have violated federal labor law and locked caregivers out of their jobs.

Late last year, our billionaire mayor, Michael Bloomberg, summoned the press to City Hall to announce that life expectancy in New York is now more than two years above the national average.

Aida Garcia, who went from an outpatient registrar at NYC’s Roosevelt Hospital to help build 1199’s 70,000 member-strong Homecare Division as its Executive Vice President, was cheered and honored by an outpouring of love from co-workers, colleagues, family and friends at a retirement party at the union’s midtown Manhattan conference center on January 26.

Unions help working families fulfill their dreams in many different ways. At SEIU, this includes yearly college scholarship opportunities.

A spirited January 18 rally and press conference on the steps of New York’s City Hall demonstrated broad support and enthusiasm for the passage of a newly-amended Paid Sick Time bill. The bill introduced by Council Member Gale A. Brewer of Manhattan, and supported by a veto-proof majority of Council members, would ensure that 1.5 million New Yorkers presently without access to paid sick days would be able to take time off when they or their family members are ill.

Remember that American Dream that was spoon-fed to you growing up? Well it should be renamed ‘the Canadian Dream’ or ‘the European Dream.’ According to this January 4^thNY Times article, “Harder for Americans to Rise From Lower Rungs,” our peers in Western Europe and Canada enjoy a lot more economic mobility than we do. And people are catching onto the fact that this American Dream is a fantasy for everyone but the 1%.