We started the year on a high note: The Inauguration of President Barack Obama, for whom we worked day and night to elect. As December 2009 came to a close, the year ended on a high note for our union as well--actually, several high notes:

• Cintas pays $6 million in the largest-ever settlement of a living wage ordinance violation.
• The Pittsburgh City Council unanimously passes a prevailing wage law for thousands of city service workers. And of course,
• the U.S. Senate passes meaningful healthcare reform.

As we usher in 2010, we took a closer look back at the legislation, people, stories and campaigns that made an impact on our members and all working people in 2009.

Check out our timeline of the year's highlights for working families and SEIU members:

January 7: SEIU launches our Change that Works campaign--a multi-state campaign with targeted field, new media, communications and lobbying on key worker issues, including health care reform and the Employee Free Choice Act.

January 28: The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) releases its annual union membership report, showing that the share of workers belonging to a union rose in 2008, the largest growth rate on record since the data was first collected in 1983. Growth in SEIU--88,926 members--accounted for nearly 21 percent of the national growth.

January 29: Obama signs the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, strengthening the rights of women and all workers to pursue justice for wage discrimination on the basis of sex, race, color, religion, national origin, age or disability.

January 30: Obama signs four executive orders to help working families, including the creation of the Middle Class Working Families Task Force.

February 4: Obama signs SCHIP, ensuring that over 11 million lower income children, many of whose parents have lost their employer-provided health care coverage through layoffs and cutbacks, will be able to receive doctor check-ups, dentist visits, and preventive care.

February 4: Hundreds of activists from the nation's unions and other progressive organizations join workers on Capitol Hill to deliver 1.5 million signatures in support of the Employee Free Choice Act to members of Congress.

February 6: Secretary-Treasurer Anna Burger is named to the President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board, giving working families across the country a voice as we grow our economy.

February 10: SEIU home care workers at Addus HealthCare renew their national agreement with the company, paving the way for improve jobs for caregivers and giving Addus personal care attendants in Las Vegas the freedom to unite with SEIU Healthcare.

February 17: After more than nine months of hard-fought negotiations during dismal economic times, California's largest employee union, SEIU Local 1000, reaches a tentative agreement with the state on a new contract covering 95,000 state workers.

February 17: President Obama signs the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, including approximately $400 billion in various forms of aid to state and local government programs.

February 24: Hilda Solis, daughter of two immigrant workers and union members who met in a citizenship class, becomes President Obama's Secretary of Labor. More on SEIU's effort to get Solis nominated and confirmed here.

March 9: Hundreds of workers join with labor, religious and community leaders to protest major corporate industry associations--including the Chamber of Commerce & Bank of America--that lobby to advance the interests of big business over those of small businesses and working families.

SEIU's #2 watched YouTube video of all time shed lights on the opposition's hysterical claims against the Employee Free Choice Act legislation.

March 10: Congress introduces the Employee Free Choice Act. Five things you should know about the legislation, from SEIU President Andy Stern.

March 19: More than 10,000 taxpayers in 35 states across the country demonstrate outside at the offices of AIG, Bank of America, Citigroup, and other major banks as part of our Take Back the Economy day of action protesting corporate greed and bank bailouts.

March 23: SEIU and Workers United announce affiliation, working together to achieve their mutual goal of bringing dignity and security to members and workers in the garment, textile, laundry, distribution, property services and hospitality industries.

April 4: 1199SEIU wins largest union victory in Boston-Area hospital in two decades. More than 800 healthcare workers at St. Elizabeth's Medical Center, the largest medical center in the Caritas Christi Health Care chain, vote to unite together with thousands of healthcare workers in 1199SEIU.

April 14: SEIU leads historic launch of shared immigration framework from Change to Win and AFL-CIO labor unions.

April 28: Following actions in nearly 100 cities against Bank of America and the collection of more than 90,000 taxpayer proxy cards, SEIU protests outside of the bank's annual shareholder meeting in Charlotte, NC calling for the firing of CEO Ken Lewis.

April 29: As a result of a grassroots and online-driven organized campaign from union members and thousands of supportive activists, Ken Lewis is ousted as chairman of Bank of America following the April 2009 annual BofA shareholders meeting.

June 25: Thousands of SEIU members from across the country join HCAN activists in DC to rally for meaningful healthcare reform on Capitol Hill.

June 30: Nearly 4,000 jobs are saved with court approval of the sale of Chicago-based Hartmarx Corporation to the British firm Emerisque. Earlier in the year, workers voted to occupy their factory to prevent Wells Fargo Bank from liquidating the menswear manufacturing company.

July 2: In what is to become the first in a series of successful SEIU online campaigns to stop the deportation of high-achieving immigrant students, SEIU and thousands of grassroots activists save DREAM student Walter Lara from deportation to Argentina, a country he barely knows.

July 22: In Missouri, 13,000 home care attendants in the state's consumer directed home care program vote to join the Missouri Home Care Union, a statewide union of home care attendants.

July 24: The Federal minimum wage increases from $6.55 per hour to $7.25 per hour, the final of three increases to take effect under legislation enacted by the Democratic Congress.

July 24: Two-thousand SEIU security officers who guard Kaiser Permanente hospitals nationwide achieve the first-ever national contract for private security officers. Security officers with SEIU United Service Workers West reached a tentative three-year agreement with major, private security company Securitas on a contract that would includes family healthcare and higher wages for the 2,000 officers that are stationed at Kaiser Permanente facilities in California and across the nation.

August 6: Sonia Sotomayor becomes the first Latina justice to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court.

August Recess: Working with its allies, Change That Works turns out 21,877 pro-health care reform activists to recess events across the country, including:

• 1,400 activists at 28 town hall meetings across Colorado;
• 825 attendees for a health care rally in Fargo, North Dakota;
• 630 local activists at a rally for healthcare reform in Lincoln, Nebraska;
• 500 Tennessee volunteers participating in two rallies on the same day;and
• 1,045 Mainers at 59 healthcare reform events.

More coverage (and photos) of the more than 100 events in 16 states that took place during Congressional recess here and here.

August 30: 40-Day Strike Ends for Bemis Workers with New Contract. Workers on strike since July 21st at Bemis Inc. in Terre Haute, Indiana agreed to a new contract which will shelve the company's plans to utilize temporary workers while giving seasonal employees working for more than 5 months the right to join a bargaining unit.

August 31: The Department of Labor officially withdraws a Bush-era proposal that would have dramatically weakened future workplace health and safety regulations and slowed their enactment.

Watch Dick Cheney try to defend the Bush record.

September 14: SEIU launches a multi-channel "I am not a pre-existing condition" campaign using blogging, online petitions, Facebook, video, Twitter and flyering on the Hill to raise awareness and urge members of Congress to demand gender equity in healthcare reform.

September 30: Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis announces he will be be stepping down from the bank, effective Jan. 1, 2010.

October 9: Over 2,000 City of L.A. engineers and architects vote to affiliate with Local 721.

October 13: Hundreds of SEIU members--some traveling by bus from as far as the Twin Cities--join thousands for a rally at on Capitol Hill to push for comprehensive immigration reform.

October 15: Over 150,000 Puerto Rican workers, faith leaders, students and citizens unite in Hato Rey for a national strike to protest the government's planned layoffs of thousands of state workers.

October 15: After SEIU calls on pay czar Kenneth Feinberg to halt any bonuses for outgoing Bank of America chief Ken Lewis, Feinberg does us one better, demanding that Lewis repay the more than $1 million in salary he earned in 2009.

October 25-27: SEIU and allies bring together 5,000 taxpayers from 20 states for a "Showdown in Chicago" outside the American Bankers Association meeting. (Recap the three day protest via live updates from our blog here).

November 18: Putting the heat on Democratic Senators who threatened to vote against cloture on healthcare reform legislation, SEIU launches an online "Adopt-a-State" campaign to reach out to constituents of Senators who may not support cloture. (Postscript: They all supported it!)

December 2: Anna Burger unveils SEIU and Change to Win's comprehensive jobs creation plan, calling for an ambitious and multi-faceted jobs plan for the 21st century to immediately start putting paychecks back into the hands of America's workers.

December 18: 1199SEIU celebrates its 50th anniversary as a healthcare union--growing from a 5,000-member drugstore union to where it stands today, as the largest local union in the world with more than 350,000 members.

December 22: Topping off a successful campaign by Workers United, UFCW and SEIU Local 32BJ, the Pittsburgh City Council unanimously votes to pass a bill that guarantees prevailing wages for thousands of city service workers.

December 22: Cintas agrees to pay more than $6 million to settle a class-action lawsuit brought by some 500 laundry workers at three Cintas facilities--the largest monetary settlement ever paid for alleged violations of a living wage ordinance.

December 24: The Senate passes the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, putting America one step closer to meaningful healthcare reform.

This video looks at some of the successful organizing campaigns of SEIU Locals around the country over the past 12 months:

For more on what SEIU campaigns accomplished in 2009, check out the Top 10 SEIU Blog Stories of 2009 .