Convention Wrap-Up: A New Vision and Challenge for UNAC/UHCP

November 2014

It was an exciting few days for delegates who attended UNAC/UHCP’s 36th convention at LA Live, in downtown Los Angeles, October 5-8.

A mystery greeted delegates in the form of lapel pins in their convention packets sporting a cryptic slogan: Forty in Ten. The convention officially opened on Monday, October 6 with the pledge of allegiance conducted by the Junior ROTC from Franklin High School, an invocation by Rabbi Jonathan Klein of Clergy & Laity United for Economic Justice (CLUE-LA) and a welcome from Maria Elena Durazo, leader of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor.

The solution to the mystery became clear during UNAC/UHCP President Ken Deitz’s message to the delegation. Ken issued a challenge: to double the size of our union in the next ten years. So Forty in Ten is a goal to organize the same number of members in the next ten years as we did in the first forty years of UNAC/UHCP’s history.

The goal was outlined in a Vision Statement previously adopted by the Executive Council:

Through innovation and change, we will double the size of our Union in the next ten years through an actively engaged membership who organize the unorganized; fight to win the best contracts that allow world class servicing; and pass legislation that improves our ability to deliver high quality patient care and to promote social justice
and the labor movement.