Hello 509 members. My name is Greg Zeltt, and I’m a proud member of SEIU 509’s Private Sector Human Services Chapter. I work as an outpatient clinician at North Suffolk Community Services in Chelsea and Boston supporting clients who are receiving services from DDS and DMH.

I’m here to tell you that I‘m running for the position of our Private Sector Human Services Chapter President this year- running alongside the United We Win slate led by President Dave Foley, Treasurer Griselda Tomaino, and Recording Secretary Samantha Clark.

Since becoming a member of our Private Sector Chapter, I have been fiercely dedicated to giving our chapter a clear and powerful voice in our Local and in our Commonwealth. Now I’m running for chapter president in order to make this voice clearer and more powerful than it ever has been before. Our chapter is made up of workers from all over the world serving some of the most vulnerable people in our society. We should have a voice that reflects the strength and diversity of our membership and the importance of the work that we do. 

At a time when care work is under attack by Trump and his billionaire class cronies, it’s essential that we band together to defend both our rights and those of the clients we serve. 

If elected as Private Sector Chapter President, I’ll work tirelessly to create a unified Private Sector that has power within our workplaces, Local, and communities. YOU, the members of our Private Sector will elect our next chapter president. I hope I can count on your vote for both myself and for the rest of the United We Win slate. 

My name is Jim Badger-Aguilar. I work at the Massachusetts Commission for the Blind, where I serve as vice president of the MCB/MCDHH Chapter Board and on our union’s Joint Executive Board. I am running for president of the MCB/MCDHH Chapter as part of the United We Win slate. My mother immigrated from Honduras to Boston, where she met my father. I grew up bilingual in Spanish and English in a bicultural family. Many of my relatives came from Honduras and Guatemala, fleeing not only poverty but brutal U.S.-backed dictatorships. We lost family members to that violence. Coming of age during the worst of the fascist dictatorships in Central America, and participating in the solidarity movement of that time, I learned from experience that the working class—and especially the labor movement—are the only force that can consistently lead the fight against war, inequality, exploitation, and oppression.

Blind since birth, I also saw how disability discrimination is part of the same unjust system. With unemployment among the disabled at nearly 80%, I knew change required collective action. I have been active in the labor movement since the early 1990s—as a steward at the Boston Public Health Commission, at North Suffolk Mental Health, and since 2019, as a chapter board member at MCB/MCDHH.

At MCB, agency leadership continually reduced staffing even as caseloads grew, threatening the agency’s independence and future. By organizing together, we won real change, including the removal and replacement of a commissioner. During the past three years, under the leadership of our president, Dave Foley, our union has opened up bargaining and participation to our members in a way it never had before. As a result, state workers have won 19% raises. Now, as we face attacks from both state and federal administrations, this fight becomes even more urgent. We stand at a crossroads—with tremendous opportunities to build power, but also serious threats to our future. I stand for member participation, united action, and solidarity not just as ideals, but as the only means of building real power.

UNITED WE WIN!