- Demanding Real Reform; March 5 2010 -
UDW Joins the March for
California’s Future

TAKING IT TO THE STREETS…

Photo by Steve Yeater

Members of UDW, other California labor unions, and a host of civil rights, religious and community organizations conducted one of the largest mobilizations in our state’s history this spring.

Beginning in early March in Bakersfield, the “march for California’s future” wound through the Central Valley all the way to Sacramento, where a massive rally was held in late April at the State Capitol. The march was designed to focus public attention on the need to reform our state’s broken budget process and to ensure that education, health care, fire and police protection and other vital public services are adequately funded.

Since UDW has one of the largest memberships in the Central Valley of any union in the state, we were a key organization in the march. UDW members and others participated in activities including media and public outreach, organizing, and voter registration in the communities through which the march traveled.

March by the Numbers…

• 79 total busloads and 15,000 California Dreamers join six core marchers in Sacramento
• 50 total TV stories (Fox, Univision, NBC, ABC, CBS); 30-plus news articles; dozens of radio
• 21,447 total Fight4CAFuture.com page views
• 8,440 total Facebook visits; 1,635 total Facebook Fans; 1,185 total Facebook Wall Posts & Comments
• 2,087 total Dream Cards submitted to Sacramento
• 654 total Data Collection Cards
• 124 total organizations recruited to March for California’s Future coalition

As the 260 mile protest march from Bakersfield to Sacramento kicked off Saturday, UDW members are playing a key role.

Creating a river of green in the crowd; UDW is making it clear that homecare is essential to the future of California and part of our shared vision for compassionate, essential, and economically sound public services.

Doug Moore, Executive Director of UDW Homecare Providers Union addressed the crowd in Bakersfield and also in Los Angeles:

“To those politicians in Sacramento who like the status quo and who resist change, we have a message: “The status quo is over.  You either deliver on your promises and meet the needs of your constituents, or we will put YOU in the unemployment line so you can see how the other half lives!”