Last year, I had the opportunity to meet with Angelita, Oraka, Yudelka and Nick. These four brave individuals all work as direct care professionals supporting children and adults living with autism and other developmental disabilities at the May Institute in Massachusetts.

They shared with me that many of their co-workers lacked access to adequate benefits and pay and had no real voice on the job despite their hard work and dedication to their clients. They decided to join together to build a union in their workplace to stand up for good jobs and better working conditions, but their efforts were met with an unprecedented intimidation campaign that included threats to fire pro-union workers. They were illegally forced to not talk about organizing a union at work.

This blog post originally appeared at the Huffington Post, January 22, 2013.

As President Obama begins his second term, one thing is abundantly clear: he will aggressively seek Congress' approval of commonsense immigration reform. The country's economy will benefit from it and so will workers.

Those of us pushing for immigration reform are under no illusion that the process will be easy. We face legislative opposition from immigration restrictionists who remain steadfast against reform.

As a nurse, I work in the trenches. Here's an example of what that means: I know a woman who gave up her medicine so she could use that money instead to pay for her husband's cancer treatment. Then, she had a stroke and the couple lost their healthcare, and now she's in a county-run assisted living home and he's without his job.

I don't like those stories. I want everyone to be well.

That's why I think it's very important that Congress doesn't make any cuts to Medicaid, Medicare or Social Security.

While the Affordable Care Act, or ACA, is a great start, there's still not enough healthcare to go around. From my 77-year-old father to my 23-year-old daughter to the rehabilitating patients under my care, they all rely on vital health programs like Medicare and Medicaid -- and, now, new ACA programs.

The budget debate isn't just facts and figures -- it's about peoples' lives. My dad would struggle if Medicare became a voucher system. My daughter is 23 and just starting out in life. I don't know what she'd do if she wasn't covered under my plan thanks to ACA. She'd probably be uninsured.

A ground-breaking bipartisan poll released today shows that the public overwhelming supports commonsense immigration reform that includes a path to earned citizenship for current undocumented immigrants and strong accountability measures. The poll demonstrates that public sentiment in favor of commonsense immigration reform sentiment is true across party lines, as well as race and ethnicity.

The national survey of 1,003 registered voters showed the majority of voters wanting a long-term fix for our broken immigration system that includes a path to full citizenship for immigrants here without papers. The poll was sponsored by Service Employees International Union (SEIU), America's Voice Education Fund, and National Immigration Forum.

As President Barack Obama is sworn in for his second term on Monday, we should take a moment to celebrate the work we did to get to here, but also consider how our country must come together and achieve a common vision for our future.

Any conversation about achieving this vision should include the passage of commonsense immigration reform. On Election Day, we were clear about the direction we want this country to go. We sided with a platform that calls for good jobs and an economy that works for all, insists everybody pay their fair share, and calls for passing commonsense, accountable immigration reform.

Click here to pledge yourself to the fight.

Immigration reform is one leg of the stool for creating more good jobs. It would level the playing field for all workers by ensuring that unscrupulous employers cannot continue to take advantage of undocumented laborers, thereby raising the wage floor for all workers.

Immigration reform strikes at the heart of what's most important to the 2.1 million members of SEIU. It's about our shared value that if you work hard, and you play by the rules, then you deserve opportunity. It's about fixing our broken system and growing our economy in a way that benefits all of us. And while extreme, right-wing Republicans waste time obsessing over a costly border fence and attempting to politically capitalize on xenophobia, the majority of Americans have decided that a commonsense plan is the right approach. Overwhelmingly, Americans believe that reform must include earned legalization with a clear pathway to citizenship.

More than 50 years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said this:

"We must guard against being fooled by false slogans, such as 'right-to-work.' It is a law to rob us of our civil rights and job rights... Wherever these laws have been passed, wages are lower, job opportunities are fewer, and there are no civil rights."

Even then, Dr. King and other advocates for civil rights and workers' rights understood the connection between strong unions and long-term social and economic justice for America's working people.

Carmen Morales Mayoral is a social services case manager and SEIU Local 503 member from Beaverton, Oregon. She knows that some seniors could end up homeless or hospitalized if automatic sequester cuts kick in on March 1.

This is Carmen's story:

Tell your Member of Congress to stop the cuts and protect seniors. Call 866-426-2631 to make your voice heard.

What do the DREAM Act, the Employee Free Choice Act and DISCLOSE campaign finance reform bills have in common? All three pieces of legislation passed the House of Representatives and gained majority support in the Senate. But they didn't become law because of the "silent" filibuster.

The filibuster used to be an important tool that gave the minority a real voice in the Senate. Now Senators regularly hold "silent" filibusters to kill important legislation without ever having to explain why. There is legislation in Congress to replace the silent filibuster with the "talking" filibuster, to ensure that Senators who oppose a bill have to speak on the Senate floor to explain their objections.

How can our government get the job done on comprehensive immigration reform, holding Wall Street accountable and creating jobs if their own legislative rules don't work?

"Business as usual" isn't going to cut it anymore. Meaningful reform can make the filibuster a legitimate tool again, not a stumbling block to progress. But our elected leaders have got stand up and fight for that reform.

I am a mother, educator and a student that has faith in the Head Start programs and the benefits children and working-class families receive from that program. I have been working in the Palm Beach County School District as a paraprofessional for five years. I was only able to give those years of service because of the Head Start program that my three boys attend and attended.

When we first moved to Florida, my oldest son was in a day care and we were paying $740 per month besides paying for his food and other miscellaneous needs. Considering the ever-rising cost of living, working in the school district means we are severely underpaid. Paying for my son's day care was so costly I was being forced to choose between quitting my job or my son receiving day care. Quitting my job would have forced me to rely on public assistance programs like food stamps and Section 8.

It was such a relief to find out about the services provided by the Head Start program. Not only did my son get quality education, but also two meals and two snacks a day. The hours of operation were much better considering I was working and in college. It helped me to keep my job and I was able to attend my evening classes.

Head Start was a godsend. The staff was so helpful, passionate and caring -- just true educators. They go above and beyond for these children. I was able to rest assured that my child would be in safe hands and would benefit from an academic-based program, not just being supervised for eight hours. They take the children to libraries and teach them how to search for books and check them out. They teach them the computer skills to equip them on technology. They use interactive learning programs that are so fun and challenging that my son would come home and want to continue learning on the websites. Many children would never have that experience if it were not for programs like Head Start.

2012 was a big year for SEIU. Our work last year started a groundswell of activism that continues in 2013 on immigration, the economy, workers' rights, and healthcare advocacy. Check out our Storify post below to see what we did last year so you know where we're going!