Durkee, Kyle – State APD: Candidate for Director

I am running for the SEIU 503 Board of Directors because I believe our union must be more than a contract-negotiating organization. It must be a democratic institution where working people build collective power.

I have served as a Homecare Council Director for Marion County District 3, a union steward, and a member of the Member Representation Committee, Young Unionist Committee, General Council Planning Committee, and Lavender Caucus. I have also been elected as a Bargaining Delegate. Through these roles, I have seen that the strength of our union does not come from any one leader or office, but from the organized power of its members.

Working people create the wealth of our society, yet too often we are expected to accept decisions made without meaningful participation. Our union should be different. It should be a place where members actively shape decisions, develop leadership skills, and build collective capacity alongside one another. The role of leadership is not to speak for members, but to strengthen the ability of members to speak and act for themselves.

One of the greatest challenges facing SEIU 503 is ensuring that we continue building a deeply organized membership capable of defending its own interests in the face of employer and political opposition. Every gain working people have won, from wages to workplace protections to healthcare, has come through collective struggle and solidarity, not concession.

If elected, I will focus on strengthening rank-and-file democracy within our union by expanding steward and member leadership development, improving transparency in decision-making, and creating more direct opportunities for members to shape union priorities and strategy. Members should not experience their union as something done to them. They should experience it as something they actively build and lead.

Outside of my elected roles, I remain active in labor and community organizing focused on workers’ rights, LGBTQ+ equality, and economic justice. These experiences have reinforced my belief that lasting change comes from organized working people acting collectively in their own interests.

Our task is to build a union where power flows upward from the membership rather than downward from leadership. When workers are organized, informed, and acting together, they are capable of winning not only better contracts, but dignity and justice for the entire working class.

Solidarity does not begin with leadership. Solidarity begins when members have power.