How we fight for racial justice

Sent to full membership via email on June 7, 2020

Thank you to each and every one of you who has shown up this week (in-person and from home) for Black Lives Matter.

We saw incredible showings of people at Friday’s Show of Support, hosted by NURF, and over 10,000 healthcare workers and allies showed up for the Doctors for Justice Rally yesterday morning.

If you haven’t already, please review the Doctors for Justice demands.

Many of us are showing up to protest after working long shifts, bringing our children out with us, making phone calls to elected officials, and having conversations about how we need to change the culture and institution of medicine.

If you have ideas for actions residents can take on an individual or system-wide level, let us know. We will support you.

NEXT STEPS

As a labor union, racial justice intersects with everything we do. The language we use in our contract, the benefits we fight for that ensure that residency at UW isn’t only accessible to those from the most privileged backgrounds, and how we fight against racism and discrimination in our workplace and community.

We also feel strongly that being a leader means speaking out against the way that our city and university continue to uphold systems of oppression.

In the last week, as an organization we endorsed:

We also encourage our members of color to sign the BIPOC Petition to remove the Seattle Police Officers Guild (police union) from MLK Labor

You can sign the above actions as an individual as well.
Decriminalize UW – individual
Defund SPD – individual
A large portion of city (and university funding) goes towards policing our communities. Seattle budgeted $409 million on police this year, a quarter of the city’s general fund budget. As healthcare workers, we know that funding should be going towards health and education services in our community instead.

Units at our hospitals are being consolidated or closed entirely, and our state ranks one of the worst in the country for mental health care. Thousands of healthcare employees at UW and across this city have been furloughed during a pandemic. This is unacceptable.

Remember, we all are UWHA – so if you see actions we can participate in, or demands you want us to advocate for – reach out and let us know how we can help amplify! You can do this by emailing us, posting in the UWHA slack, or tagging us on social media.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Learn more about where you’re living:

Educational Resources:

Donate to local Black led, Seattle-based organizations