Amadi Kelley

Before SEIU: minimum wage, no health benefits.
2008 Master Contract: $14.45/hr, full Kaiser health care coverage, access to family health care, career ladder allowing for moves to higher paying posts, paid sick days, paid bereavement leave.

Amadi Kelley works two jobs to make ends meet but poverty level wages and lack of access to quality affordable healthcare makes it difficult to get ahead.

Every week Amadi works 64 hours to afford the fresh foods and lean meats that his body needs to keep his diabetes in check. Amadi’s new union contract provides him with full Kaiser health care coverage. Were it not for this new contract Amadi would be alone in dealing with his diabetes as his previous employer provided health plan, CIGNA, only covered minor illnesses and off-the-job accidents like the flu or a broken arm. To make matters worse, CIGNA was accepted by few health practitioners.

Amadi would like to spend more time with his son, who is living with family in Sacramento, but to do this he must take time off of work and incur the costs of driving roundtrip to Sacramento. For now his income mandates that he is only able to see his son every other weekend as every trip sets him back $300.

Amadi hopes to continue to grow the power that has brought him and fellow officers to where they are today – with health care coverage, access to family health care and paid sick days, so that he and other officers may continue their struggle to rise out of poverty, improve the lives of their children and improve their communities.