Update from our Executive Director, Jon Riley!

Siblings, we want to thank everyone who took the time to respond to our poll on whether to hold our Delegates meeting this Wednesday evening. We received overwhelming responses from our delegates with a vast majority who were willing to hold the meeting as planned. However, everyone agreed that we need to err on the side of caution moving forward. 

We have been on several calls this week with State and Federal Leaders including the Governor’s office, who are working hard to address the widespread impacts to all segments of our society, including our members health and safety, working conditions and mechanisms to address interruption of employment and maintaining benefits through these extraordinary times. 

So, with the situation escalating exponentially and everyone falling in line with the recommended County, State and Federal protocols to attempt to isolate the virus such as cancellation of sporting events and school closures, we want to lead by example and will be cancelling all of our meetings until the end of March. This means that in addition to our Delegates meeting, our JumpStart Vallejo and Community Benefits Coalition meetings will also be cancelled.

The only way we can hope to contain this pandemic is by coordinated community action and voluntary participation and we will continue to see local governments declaring emergencies as the impacts continue to grow and benefits become available by State and Federal agencies. We will keep you as up to date as possible and urge you to become familiar with your affiliate’s protocols.

As for the Spring Salute Awards Reception, we will continue to proceed with the planning for the event but will make a final decision on whether to postpone it the first week in April, when State and County officials will revisit large meeting protocols and we will take measures to ensure we do not incur any charges for postponing. But there will be an event so we will continue to accept sponsorships, ads and ticket sales.

We are meeting Monday to set up ZOOM, a teleconferencing service, which we will use for this Wednesday’s meeting. We are also looking into options with the AFL-CIO to allow for virtual meeting exemptions that will allow us to continue to do the official business of the council online. We will be letting our delegates know the procedures for accessing the virtual meeting and how to sign in ASAP.

I have included some links to information that you and your members may find helpful as the impacts from this unprecedented public health crisis continue to grow.

Be Safe. And Wash Your Hands!