Checking in with SEIU Locals around the country...see what members have been up to in California, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Massachusetts, Florida, Tennessee and Connecticut.

• SEIU Local 521 home care workers held a candlelight vigil December 8th to shed light on proposed Santa Clara County cuts that would impact elderly and disabled residents.
  
  

• A new report from Florida International University's Research Institute on Social and Economic Policy (RISEUP) captures a comprehensive look at how SEIU Healthcare Florida's achievements have impacted the lives of its 16,000 members.
• Attorney General Martha Coakley, a long-time proponent for workers' rights, won the SEIU Massachusetts State Council's endorsement in October--and the Democratic primary on Tuesday night.
• SEIU Local 1000 has saved members' jobs at the Yountville Veterans Home by putting a stop to the California Department of Veteran's Affairs' (CDVA) plans to outsource laboratory and radiology services.
• Workers United/SEIU-endorsed candidate Kasim Reed won the Atlanta mayor's race by 714 votes, a recount of the Dec. 1 runoff.
• SEIU Healthcare PA members bedecked as Santa Claus and holiday elves caroled a clear message of reform to insurer HealthAmerica today, singing healthcare-themed Christmas carols and delivering a stocking full of coal to CEO Allen Wise. While over 1.4 million Pennsylvanians are uninsured, Wise has received $24.5 million in compensation from parent company Coventry in the last five years.

  

• Seeking to protect high standards of care, SEIU UHW hospital workers at Sutter Delta Medical Center will go on a one-day strike on December 16.
• Florida SEIU members announced their endorsement of State Sen. Ted Deutch for the 2010 special election for the District 19 Congressional seat vacated by Robert Wexler.
• This Saturday in Nashville, former head of corporate communications at CIGNA Wendell Potter will be talking with Change That Works Tennessee about the unfair practices of the industry he once worked for.
• CSEA/SEIU members are speaking out against the short-sighted practice of incarcerating troubled girls in adults-only prisons. The state has not had a juvenile facility for girls since 2003--creating a crisis for troubled youth and SEIU members helping to rehabilitate them.