Union Community Alliance Improving the Quality of Life for Workers

The San Mateo County Union Community Alliance (SMCUCA) is a non-profit, 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for all workers and their families in San Mateo County. The San Mateo County Central Labor Council and Building Trades Council created SMCUCA in 2003. Since 2007, SMCUCA has engaged in four core areas of work:

1) Access to health care. In the upcoming fiscal year, SMCUCA will continue its work on expanding health care access for those in San Mateo County under 400 percent of the Federal Poverty Level. Our advocacy work will identify the needs of low-income families and provide education about the Affordable Care Act through Covered CA.

2) Regional planning initiatives such as land use, transportation and economic development plans. SMCUCA recently participated in a walking tour of South San Francisco to provide feedback and identify opportunities to the City on the downtown Station Area Plan. SMCUCA is working to ncorporate labor and job standards into the planning process.

3) Improving the workforce development sector. SMCUCA is pleased to announce they have recently been awarded funding to work on a pre-apprenticeship training program with Working Partnerships USA. The pre-apprenticeship course will be offered at the College of San Mateo with more details to follow in the upcoming months. The pre-apprenticeship course will follow the Multi-craft curriculum from the National Building Trades.

SMCUCA (along with other members of a consulting team) are finalizing an Economic Prosperity Strategy (EPS) for the Bay Area. This work is being done for Metropolitan Transportation Commission under a HUD grant. The EPS outlines a range of strategies to move people into middle wage jobs and improve the quality of low wage jobs around the region. We’ll do a big announcement when it’s finished later this summer.

4) Worker Relief Assistance. Each year SMCUCA, as a non profit organization, is our tax-deductible fundraising vehicle for the Union Food Distribution and Union Hardship Fund. We are proud to serve the community in cooperation with our AFL-CIO Community Services Program and United Way of the Bay Area.

SMCUCA has a small but talented and highly skilled staff that has had remarkable successes in advancing its policy work and building strong collaborations with community partners and local policy makers around working people’s issues. We look forward to keeping everyone up to date with our recent activity and accomplishments. Be sure to look for our future announcements about opportunities to get involved with our organization. Any questions or comments can be submitted to Marie Chang at chang_marie@yahoo.com