Senator Nikil Saval

Congratulations to IBEW Local 614 on winning a contract that provides members with respect, dignity, and the wages and benefits they need to care for themselves and their families. 🔥

These workers are who we turn to when the power goes out—answering our calls night and day, repairing lines in extreme heat and cold, ensuring our City’s grid is up and running, and keeping all of us safe. This takes knowledge, skill, and bravery. For years, PECO profited off their workers’ labor while offering them next to nothing in return. This contract begins to right this longstanding wrong.

Solidarity with the workers who fought for their rights and won. Your efforts are an inspiration.

In mournful celebration, we remember the legacy and life of Shirley Kitchen. As the second Black woman elected to the Pennsylvania Senate, she opened pathways for other Black elected officials and people of color.

She leaves behind a legacy as a fighter and trailblazer. Throughout her career, from social work to the state Senate, she always put people at the center of the issues she took on. She never wavered from a commitment to the dignity of all people and for their needs to be fully met.

Among Democrats in the State Senate, her name and example are frequently invoked when the fight for food assistance and poverty relief come to the forefront. I thought of her often during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic when I first took office and again now as food insecurity worsens for thousands of families in Philadelphia and across PA in this time of rising costs for energy, housing, and groceries, coupled with sharply curtailed benefits.

I think of her too when we demand more to promote public transportation, restorative justice and liberation, and the full suffrage for all people. Her example stays with me.

I’m honored to have known her, and we all owe so much to her for the path she helped carve out in the fight for a better world.

My heart is with her and all who loved her. May she rest in power.

On Friday, July 3rd, my offices will be closed in observance of Independence Day. We look forward to serving you when we return on Monday, July 6th!