Our Life & Times

A Journal of 1199SEIU

Our Life And Times

November/December 2008

We Welcome

A NEW ERA Nikita Walters, 12, traveled with his mother and sister from New York City on Election Day to help get out the vote in Philadelphia.

Contents 3 4 5 8 9 10 11 12 14 15

50 YEARS ON THE FRONT LINES How 1199 became a healthcare union.

PRESIDENT’S COLUMN The dawn of a new era.

WE MADE A DIFFERENCE 3,000 members and staff were deployed on Election Day. BATTLE BEGINS IN EACH DISTRICT New York State governor proposes Medicaid cuts.

NJ CONTRACT AND BUDGET BATTLE LOOMS Publicly financed funding hangs in the balance.

MD-D.C. MEMBERS DEFEND WORKPLACES AND COMMUNITIES Region helps save troubled hospital.

MASSACHUSETTS PCAs APPROVE CONTRACT Victory bolsters hospital organizing drive.

THE WORK WE DO Rite Aid members serve communities.

UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE TOPS AGENDA 1199SEIU works on various levels.

AROUND THE UNION ‘08 has been a year of major victories.

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Member Political Organizer Joyce Dukes, a central sterile supply tech at Johns Hopkins Medical Center in Baltimore.

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Our Life And Times, November/December 2008, Vol. 26, No. 6 Published by 1199SEIU, United Healthcare Workers East 310 West 43rd St. New York, NY 10036 Telephone (212) 582-1890 www.1199seiu.org PR E S I DE NT: George Gresham S E C R E TA RY T R E A S U R E R :

Maria Castaneda EXEC UTIVE VIC E PR E S I DE NTS:

Norma Amsterdam Yvonne Armstrong Angela Doyle Mike Fadel Aida Garcia Patrick Gaspard George Kennedy Steve Kramer Patrick Lindsay Joyce Neil John Reid Bruce Richard Mike Rifkin Milly Silva Neva Shillingford Estela Vasquez E D I TO R : J.J. Johnson S TA F F W R I T E R : Patricia Kenney P H OTO G RA P H E R :

Jim Tynan P H OTO G RA P H Y A S S I S TA N T :

Belinda Gallegos A RT D I R E CT I O N & maiarelli studio C OV E R P H OTO : Belinda Gallegos

DE S IG N:

Our Life And Times is published 6 times a year by 1199SEIU, 310 West 43rd St., New York, NY 10036.

Subscriptions $15 per year.

Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY and additional mailing offices.

ISSN 1090-3089.

USPS 000-392.

Postmaster: Send address changes to Our Life And Times, 310 West 43rd St., New York, NY 10036.

On the cover: Nikita Walters is the son of Agnes Johnson, a CNA at Hebrew Home in the Bronx, N.Y.

November/December • Our Life And Times

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50th Anniversary

1199ers march in New York City Labor Day parade in late 1960’s.

On Our Website

50 YEARS: ON THE FRONT LINES OF CARE AND STRUGGLE Editor’s Note: This is the first of a series of features that will appear on our website, www.1199seiu.org, and in this magazine marking the 50th anniversary of 1199SEIU becoming a healthcare workers’ union.

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ifty years ago, fulltime workers at Montefiore Hospital in the Bronx, N.Y., averaged around $34 a week, often qualified for welfare, had no say about speed-ups or management harassment, and had to be ready to drop everything to do weekend repairs on supervisors’ homes.

They were the forgotten workers, typically black and Hispanic women ignored by politicians, healthcare officials and nearly all unions.

All that started to change on Dec. 30, 1958. That was the date when Montefiore’s 900 service and maintenance workers became the first hospital workers ever to choose 1199. The 628-31 vote opened the floodgates for an historic organizing campaign that within a decade saw 1199’s membership increase six fold, unionized hospital wages triple, and 1199 established as the country’s leading healthcare union.

Today, as the union celebrates its half century in the hospitals, themes emerge from that early struggle that many see as central to our current challenges in healthcare funding, new organizing and

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November/December • Our Life And Times

winning passage of crucial legislation such as the Employee Free Choice Act and decent health care for all.

Those themes include blackwhite-Hispanic unity, widespread member participation, rank-and-file leadership, political alliances and education of the public on vital health care reform issues.

The Montefiore election came 36 hours before a strike deadline brought on by the hospital’s refusal to grant workers a representation election. Management agreement to the election was brokered by thenMayor Robert F. Wagner, Jr. and New York City Central Labor Council Pres. Harry Van Arsdale. Public support for what became known as the hospital workers’ crusade was encouraged by newspapers such as the Amsterdam News, El Diario, the New York Post and the New York Times and by public figures such as former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt and Sen. Herbert Lehman.

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he Montefiore organizing campaign, under the direction of 1199’s founder, Pres.

Leon Davis, was led by Elliott Godoff, Marshall Dubin, and 1199’s first black officer, Theodore Mitchell. It had two secret weapons. One was the union’s 6,000 existing members, mostly white, Jewish drugstore workers who in large numbers joined “crack-of-dawn brigades” to leaflet and picket at Montefiore’s Gun Hill Rd. entrance. The other secret

weapon was the Montefiore workers themselves.

Workplace leaders in the fight for 1199 included Jamaican-born pantryman Harold Harris, a dedicated employee who had lived in the hospital and led a campaign for a five-day week; engineering’s Al Kosloski, who got his union principles from his Pennsylvania coal mining father; and Thelma Bowles, an African American practical nurse who resented the gulf between PNs and then-allwhite RNs. Members like these visited every Montefiore department to get signed union cards and commitments for further participation. They spoke of respect and dignity. They were in on all important decisions.

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ontefiore members got their first union contract in March 1959, a month before 3,500 workers at seven other New York City hospitals began a 46-day strike that made 1199 truly the hospital union for all New York City.

That strike and its ultimate success is another chapter in a long story.

It’s a story that continues today, with an historic and hope-inspiring Presidential election behind us and a severe economic crisis, a crucial budget and legislative battles immediately ahead.

And it’s a story of unity and solidarity with lessons that go back to December 1958 at Montefiore Hospital in the Bronx.

The 1958 Montefiore victory is another chapter in a long story.

It’s a story that continues today, with an historic and hope-inspiring Presidential election behind us in a severe economic crisis, and with a crucial budget and legislative battles immediately ahead.

THE PRESIDENT’S COLUMN George Gresham

The Dawn of a New Era We’ll continue to rise to the new challenges.

In years to come, most Americans will be able to tell their friends exactly where they were and what they were doing on the evening of Nov. 4, 2008, when they learned that Barack Obama was elected to be the 44th President of the United States.

It was one of those rare, magic and unforgettable moments— as is this entire period we are living through. There has never been a time like this in our lifetime. This is the beginning of a new era, and future students of American history will most likely talk of the periods Before Obama and After Obama.

This year, more new voters registered, more young voters registered, more African-American and Latino voters registered, more people contributed hard-earned dollars, more people attended election rallies and, in the end, more people came out to vote for Barack Obama—some waiting in line for several hours to cast their ballots—than had ever done so before.

1199ers in particular have reasons to be proud. Thousands of our member activists and staff took time off—many for months at a time—to work in the battleground states that determined the election. On Election Day, tens of thousands of our members pulled out all stops to get out the vote.

No union did more. We helped to make this campaign into a movement. And President-elect Obama knows this well. He has honored us by asking our own Executive Vice President for Political Action, Patrick Gaspard, to become his White House political director. Patrick’s contributions to the Obama victory, all done behind-the-scenes and quietly (as is typical of his modesty), were huge and decisive.

At the Republican National Convention in September, the delegates laughed as the candidates poked fun at the idea of a “community organizer.” Three months later, the last laugh belongs to us— and to two of the most brilliant, talented and skillful community organizers of our time, Barack Obama and Patrick Gaspard.

The election is over, but the struggle remains. The Obama administration inherits two wars, the worst economic crisis in several generations, a broken healthcare system, a planet threatened by climate change, a country in desperate need of safe sources of abundant energy, and much more.

This is a huge challenge also for us in 1199. We have to be about the business of building a positive movement that will allow President-elect Obama to bring about “the changes that we need”—especially affordable, quality healthcare for all; and the right of workers to choose a union free of employer intimidation— despite what is certain to be a well-funded rightwing opposition.

And we face big challenges at our workplaces and in our communities. The steep economic decline has created an environment in which some of our employers feel emboldened to test us. For example, in western New York, the Kaleida network, our largest employer in the upstate region, refuses to negotiate a contract that provides retirement security for the workers, even though management admits that our pension proposals would save money.

The financial crisis has also allowed important political figures to propose shortsighted devastating cuts in the healthcare budgets that allow our patients to get quality care. We cannot allow our state budgets to be balanced on the backs of our patients and hard-working caregivers, especially while wealthy individuals, banks and corporations continue to suction off hundreds of billions of our tax dollars.

So as we come to year’s end, we have great reasons for pride and joy. But we also need to prepare for big challenges in 2009.

On behalf of your entire Executive Council, we wish you and your loved ones a happy, healthy, safe and peaceful holiday season and a happy new year.

Letters SAME-SEX COUPLES POLICY n a letter in the SeptemberOctober issue of Our Life And Times, member Frances Adams of Columbia University Libraries pointed out that our National Benefit Fund requires same-sex couples who have domestic partnership certificates to provide additional proof of partnership when applying for health benefits, but does not require additional proof from a couple with a marriage certificate.

Years ago, before domestic partnerships or same-sex marriages were “on the books,” the National Benefit Fund was at the forefront of providing health benefits to members’ same-sex life partners.

As formal legal documentation was not available, the Fund came up with procedures to require substitute proof of relationship.

However, as public policy has caught up with Fund policy and same-sex relationships can now be legally recognized in many areas, the Fund’s procedural requirements lagged behind by oversight.

We have now revised our procedures and where a certificate of domestic partnership, civil union or marriage is available to a samesex couple, no other proof of relationship will be necessary.

We thank the member for bringing this to our attention.

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MITRA BEHROOZI Executive Director, 1199SEIU Benefit and Pension Funds

SUPPORT FOR GOV. PALIN was amazed at your support of Barack Obama and your views on Sarah Palin. Sarah Palin will not set women back. She is a wonderful example of how women can combine work and motherhood gracefully. Hillary Clinton was not criticized for being such a woman. She was lauded for her involvement in the federal government, and she was the mother of a young teen.

Kim Thompson-Werekoh’s comment that “McCain thought [women] don’t think about our lives and our children’s lives. That we only vote with one mind” does not make sense. I think John McCain was reaching out to those who care about themselves and their children by appointing Sarah Palin. Her children range widely in age, so she can connect with mothers of all ages and are in a variety of situations. She has a son in Iraq, a pregnant daughter and an infant with Down’s Syndrome. Her life is like many of ours—including trying to balance work and family.

And frankly, her job has a great deal more social and political pres-

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sure than does yours or mine. Ms. Palin always manages to look professional and well dressed. We can strive to do the same—even if we wear scrubs to work.

Ms. Palin’s support of her unmarried, pregnant daughter’s right to choose to keep her baby does not suggest a view of “pregnant teens who could end up in back room butchers.” I think we need to understand that our personal right to choose does not address the critical element of the statement. We need to teach our daughters to choose before they become sexually active. The choice is whether or not to have unprotected sex, not whether to accept the consequences of having unprotected sex. We should empower ourselves by planning ahead to make wise decisions that affect our own lives and those of potentially unwanted children.

Overall, your vague generalities about the shortcomings of Pres. Bush, Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin do not carry any weight.

KAREN W. CLARK Crouse Hospital, Syracuse, N.Y.

MY COUNTRY AND MYSELF too, am one of those African Americans who months ago never thought that I’d live to see this day. I began to believe earlier this year and I didn’t hesitate to volunteer in July to go to Wisconsin to help mobilize the vote for Barack Obama.

I worked in Florida in 2004 to help get out the vote for John Kerry. 2008 was different. Though four years older, I felt more energized. The hours were long, but the day seemed shorter. I got a rush talking to voters about Barack Obama. I truly felt that I and the other canvassers I worked with were on a mission.

It was not always easy. I, born and raised in New York City, spent more than three months in Wisconsin, knocking on doors in remote rural areas, walking through cornfields. I spoke to people who were not used to talking to African Americans and weren’t interested in talking to Democrats.

I’m proud of what I and the other canvassers and retirees did.

We helped to explain the issues and opportunities to voters. And we worked to turn our nation in a new progressive direction. But I’m also proud of what I did for myself. My work as member political activist has helped me grow and learn from fellow canvassers and voters.

I’m grateful to 1199SEIU for giving me that opportunity.

Yes we can.

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MIRIAM BROWN Retired Members Division, NYC

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ELECTION ‘08

1199ers helped to tip the election scale in key states.

Milwaukee

Denver

Philadelphia

‘THE PEOPLE WE HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR’ 5

November/December • Our Life And Times

“We are the people we have been waiting for,” became an often-used slogan during Sen. Barack Obama’s historic voyage to the presidency.

“Change doesn’t come from Washington,” Obama often noted. “Change comes to Washington.

We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.

We are the change that we seek.”

And few organizations can take as much credit for making necessary change possible as can 1199SEIU. Beginning way back in February, hundreds of 1199SEIU members and staff campaigned for weeks in the Primary elections.

Starting in July, some 400 members and staff of 1199SEIU were deployed to some 18 battleground states. Together with members from other SEIU locals, canvassers knocked on over three million doors and completed over 16 million phone calls, while registering almost 250,000 voters.

Hundreds more 1199SEIU members took buses and vans to the swing states of New Hampshire, Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania on weekends throughout October. And on Election Day, our Union had over 3,000 staff and members working in the battleground states to get out the vote.

Photos and comments of some of our member canvassers appear on this and the following two pages.

Charlotte, N.C.

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Margie Rodriguez, a medical biller at Brooklyn’s Brookdale Hospital, worked in Colorado.

“Obama woke up the country. I’ve never seen anything like it. Seeing the young people working for him brought tears to my eyes. He inspired us because he’s from us. I feel that we have so much in common. I worked even though I had blisters on my feet. Nothing could stop me because my heart and soul were in it.”

Herbie Lamarre, a retiree from Good Samaritan Hospital in Rockland County, N.Y., worked in Colorado.

“We worked in Denver even after the polls closed because we didn’t want to leave any votes out there.”

Mark Hopson, a maintenance worker at Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, D.C., worked in Virginia.

“Working with the Weekend Warrior Campaign was a phenomenal experience that I will cherish for the rest of my life. For three weekends we dedicated men and woman from Local 1199SEIU worked extremely hard to get Mr. Obama, and it was well worth it!”

Barbara Holmes, a CNA at St. Cabrini NH in Dobbs Ferry, New York, worked in North Carolina.

“Canvassing was a new experience for me, but my family encouraged me to be a part of history. When I saw that Sen. Obama had won, I shouted, ‘Lord, thank you.’ Since I’ve returned to work my coworkers have been telling me to calm down.”

Denver

Roger Auguste, a service associate at the Weiler/Einstein Division of the Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, N.Y., worked in Cleveland, Ohio.

“I’ve never experienced anything so full of passion. It was all worth it. I still haven’t been able to let it all go. Sometimes I wake up telling my wife I’m tired and I don’t want to go canvass. We laid a lot of groundwork and now we have new purpose.”

June Bennett, a former CNA at Kingsbridge Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in the Bronx, N.Y., worked in Las Vegas. Kingsbridge workers won a six-month strike that ended last August. Their victory was bittersweet. One of the strike’s leaders, Audrey SmithCampbell, died in May of an asthma attack.

“My friend died because she didn’t have health care.

I know that Barack will address health care. Audrey was like a mother to me. She was like a mentor to me. Her dying because she didn’t have health coverage was so sad. I know that going out and working on this campaign will make a difference.”

Beverly Gordon-Wells, a home attendant with New York City’s All Metro Home Care Agency worked throughout New Hampshire with Toni Paniccia, a cook at the Guilderland Center in Guilderland, N.Y. “We were headquartered in Manchester, but we worked in all kinds of areas, from suburbs to places where they had only dirt roads, to areas on the border of Maine,” said Gordon-Wells.

“It wasn’t just about ‘I did it.’ This was a ‘we did it.’

It was the greatest feeling ever,” says Paniccia of Obama’s victory.

Isata Caldwell, CNA, JFK Hospital in Edison, N.J., worked in Pennsylvania.

“We all want change and that made it easy to volunteer myself in New Jersey and Pennsylvania and to recruit co-workers to campaign with me. I also brought my husband out. We all knew that we were taking part in history and changing the future.

I have two kids who just graduated from college and another who is in the service. I did this for them.”

Philadelphia

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Cleveland

Las Vegas

Las Vegas

“I worked even though I had blisters on my feet. Nothing could stop me because my heart and soul were in it.”

Las Vegas

Charlotte

— Margie Rodriguez

New Hampshire

Milwaukee Virginia

Charlotte

New Hampshire

THE TASKS AHEAD

“They Always Come After Health Care First” Big struggle ahead as governor seeks to cut billions from New York State’s healthcare budget.

With big cuts on the horizon, health care in New York State is facing what may be one of its toughest state budget battles.

1199SEIU members are fighting in these tough times for the fairness and shared sacrifice that will preserve health care in our communities.

“It’s just devastating,” says Gwendolyn Dennis, a retired medical records clerk from New York Presbyterian Hospital in New York City. “Clinton handed Bush a surplus and now Bush is leaving Obama with a mess.It’s a damn shame.”

New York State Governor David Paterson at a Nov. 12 press conference announced $5.2 billion in proposed budget cuts to take place over the next year and a half.

The latest round of proposed healthcare cuts would total $572 million. The state has consistently sought to balance its books by disproportionately chopping health care, instead of fair reductions across all sectors of the budget.

Gov. Paterson blamed New York’s budget shortfall—and the need for such deep cuts—on years of excessive spending combined with the global financial crisis, the loss of 160,000 private sector jobs, and a sharp drop in income and corporate tax revenues.

Yet, there is no call for an increase in the personal income tax for New York’s wealthiest or for access to the state’s rainy day funds. Neither are there proposals for fairer cuts to insurance companies or to reduce hospitals’ suffocating malpractice costs.

At a Nov. 11 delegate assembly at 1199SEIU headquarters in Manhattan, members’ excitement about Obama’s victory was tempered by the reality of the upcoming state budget fight.

“If we don’t get the money we need our hospitals won’t be able to run properly,” said delegate Zoila Sylvester, a special procedure tech at New York Presbyterian Hospital. “We have to get out there and put pressure on the governor. We may have to go to Albany. They always come after health care first.

How can we move forward as a society when they do that?”

On Nov. 18, the governor and members of the legislature held a special meeting to formulate cuts that would to help close a $1.5 billion budget gap for the current fiscal year and to get an early start on next year’s budget.

On the same day, three busloads of 1199SEIU members arrived in Albany from New York City to lobby against the cuts. They leafleted, joined a coalition demonstration supporting the increase of personal income taxes on the state’s wealthiest residents, and met with legislators to tell them how the drastic cuts would directly impact healthcare services in their districts. 1199SEIU Pres.

George Gresham is among the leaders in the battle against the cuts. He has been meeting with Gov. Paterson to help formulate a more even-handed solution.

“If these cuts go through, there’s going to be more unemployment and you’ll see more homelessness,” says Lucilda Pottinger, a home health aide with New York City’s All Metro Agency.

Pottinger was among the members who went to Albany. “There are a lot of people in my neighborhood who work in hospitals and nursing homes. If they cut the budget, those people may lose their jobs.

Homecare workers are already getting less hours.”

Members are continuing to mobilize to save healthcare funding. Planned are in-district lobby days with local legislators, phone banking, and institution visits with management to talk about ways of joining forces to protect health care and the devastating reality of the proposed drastic cuts. For more information they can also log onto the Health Care Education Project website, www.HEPNY.org.

Three busloads of 1199ers joined scores of other union members to lobby and rally in Albany Nov. 18 against planned cuts to New York’s healthcare budget.

Members of 1199SEIU’s New Jersey Region picketed Manhattanview Nursing Home in Union City in November demanding a fair contract and a living wage.

N.J. State Budget and Contract Battles Looming Publicly financed funding hangs in the balance.

In October, the members of SEIU Healthcare 1199NJ voted overwhelmingly to merge with 1199SEIU. With 7,000 nursing home and homecare workers, the former N.J. local became the New Jersey Region of 1199SEIU.

The merger will result in increased resources for fighting for healthcare funding and reform in Trenton and uniting non-union healthcare workers in all sectors of the industry throughout New Jersey. The merger should be especially helpful in bargaining with New Jersey employers who head institutions in other 1199SEIU regions.

With a state deficit that is projected to exceed $5 billion next year, nursing home workers are gearing up for what is expected to be a hard battle to sustain current Medicaid funding levels for nursing homes. The N.J. 1199SEIU Region is also exploring various accountability mechanisms to ensure workforce dollars are being spent appropriately.

Last year, more than 700 workers turned out to rally in Trenton, make phone calls and lobby legislators. This year the Region plans to double its efforts to make sure that long-term issues around nursing home staffing and retention are addressed. This becomes more urgent as N.J. moves to rebalance its long-term care program and increase funding for more home and community based programs.

Residents with higher acuity levels who need institutional care will continue to require a skilled and stable workforce to provide the quality care that seniors and people with disabilities deserve.

Moving into 2009, the N.J. Region will be ramping up pressure on employers who have refused to settle a fair contract

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November/December • Our Life And Times

with decent wages and benefits for their workers, including workers at Konig and Omni-operated facilities.

Earlier last month, nursing home caregivers picketed outside the Amboy Care, Teaneck and Manhattanview nursing homes to demand living wages and the preservation of affordable health benefits so they can afford to do the work they love. The workers have been without a contract for over five months.

“Caring for the sick and vulnerable is one of the most important jobs that we can do, but with the low wages and the threat to our benefits, it’s close to impossible to make ends meet for our own families,” said Manhattanview dietary aide Vida Harrison.

Earlier this year, the U.S. Department of Labor filed a lawsuit against Michael Konig for failure to pay overtime wages to workers at Manhattanview. In addition, Konig’s history in the nursing home industry has been marked by legal troubles and accusations of fraud in other states as well.

In 1997, the Massachusetts Attorney General accused Konig of putting patients in jeopardy and illegally pocketing an estimated $600,000 in Medicare payments from nursing homes that he owned in Massachusetts. According to the State Division of Medical Assistance deputy general counsel, the Medicaid program found significant amounts of money in Konig’s accounting reports not spent on patient care.

JAY MALLIN PHOTO

THE TASKS AHEAD

Danita Clarke, left, and Shirley Kenney are among the 200 homecare workers at Washington D.C.'s Nursing Enterprises who won 1199SEIU representation with a 98 percent vote in April.

At press time members were negotiating their first contract.

MD-D.C. Members Defend Workplaces and Communities Region helps save troubled hospital system

The Maryland-D.C. Region of 1199SEIU confronts problems that are bedeviling communities across the nation. Both Maryland and the District of Columbia face budget deficits and proposed cuts that would be devastating to members at their workplaces and in their communities.

And the Region is looking to the federal and local governments for assistance. MD-D.C. members with their areas safely in the Obama camp, traveled to neighboring Virginia during the election cycle to help deliver the Southern state.

One of the hundreds of canvassers was Carlton Scott, a Georgetown University locksmith and veteran delegate and political activist. “I believe in his vision for change,” said Scott. “I’m doing this because our country needs to change direction now, but I’m also doing it for the long term. I’m doing it for my grandchildren.”

Region members say that local problems also need solutions from the federal government in the form of universal health insurance, affordable housing, quality education and the right of workers to choose to unionize.

“My daughter is almost 16 and she’ll soon be ready to go to college,” says Tangelina Cavanaugh, one of 200 1199SEIU members of Nursing Enterprises homecare agency in Washington.

Cavanaugh and her co-workers voted 98 percent to join the Union in April, but at press time were still without a contract.

The Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), if passed in the next session of Congress, would force employers to negotiate a union contract within three month after the members vote to unionize.

“I’m a single mother. I have a nine-year-old son,” Cavanaugh says. “The cost of living keeps going up, but not my pay. What’s

worse, I have no benefits. I get no vacation, sick days or health insurance. That’s why we voted to join 1199SEIU.” Theresa Gatlin, another Nursing Enterprise home health aide, said she had to continue working after she injured herself, including sometimes taking care of more than one client. “I lost my client when she went into a nursing home, so I had to take clients no one else wanted,” Gatlin says.

“We desperately need a contract.”

Gatlin says she’s also opposed to the privatization of city services in D.C. She supports 1199SEIU efforts to fight the proposed privatization.

The Region continues to work with the legislature to continue funding for the growing 1199SEIU Training and Upgrading Fund.

And it is working with the governor, the legislature and Prince George’s County on the sale of the financially troubled Prince George’s hospital system.

At stake is healthcare delivery in the county and some 1,700 jobs of 1199SEIU members in the system.

“We’ve got a good facility and we’ve done a lot to upgrade it,” says Prince George’s radiology technician Bonita Colbert. She notes that the eight facilities in the system are located in a strategic location and provide the only fullservice cardiac program and trauma center in the region.

“It’s a caring facility,” Colbert says. “We just need a fresh start and we need to get residents to use it.”

November/December • Our Life And Times

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THE TASKS AHEAD

Massachusetts Organizing on Fast Track PCA contract spurs hospital drive.

In Massachusetts in 2009, 1199SEIU members are committed to organizing thousands of healthcare workers into 1199SEIU, winning further improvements in our contracts, and increasing our political strength to defend our jobs, patients, and communities in this difficult economic climate.

Workers from seven Boston-area hospitals rallied last October for union elections free of management intimidation.

Thousands of workers at the city's major institutions are seeking free and fair union elections.

Following in the footsteps of the 25,000 newly organized personal care attendants, nonunion healthcare workers in every healthcare sector across Massachusetts are organizing on an unprecedented scale.

Thousands of hospital workers in the major Boston hospitals are leading the next wave of organizing and are calling on their CEOs to agree to free and fair union elections. That means workers would be free to make up their own minds in a union election without facing intimidation or coercion from management.

Last month, the 25,000 personal care attendants who joined 1199SEIU in 2007 won their first-ever contract with historic wage increases, paid time off, and a commitment from the state to provide PCAs with health insurance. Negotiations begin in early 2009 to ensure that PCA health insurance is an affordable and high-quality benefit.

Meanwhile, many hospitals and nursing homes are facing serious budget challenges. Boston Medical Center and the healthcare facilities within the Cambridge Health Alliance are facing severe budget cuts that could dramatically impact the jobs of many Massachusetts members and of quality care at these vital safety net facilities.

The healthcare facilities in the Cape Cod Healthcare system are also facing funding challenges.

And most nursing homes are struggling with frozen reimbursement rates. A top priority in 2009 is to combat the threatened cuts and ensure our healthcare facilities have the funding they need to ensure quality care across the Commonwealth.

The 1199SEIU Training and Upgrading Fund will become available to many 1199SEIU members in Massachusetts for the first time in 2009, as a result of prior collective bargaining victories. In 2009, union members will be negotiating to expand this benefit into even more hospitals and long-term care facilities across the state.

Last year 200 members at North Adams Regional Hospital in the far northwest corner of the state were the first Massachusetts 1199ers to win the 1199SEIU Pension Fund. Most other members across the state have limited, if any, retirement security.

As 401K and 403B accounts continue to shrink, there is a new urgency to win real retirement security in upcoming contracts.

Massachusetts 1199SEIU members will continue to engage in political action, building on the excitement and momentum of the presidential campaign. In addition to the legislative agenda, a priority will be to work to ensure the reelection of Boston Mayor Tom Menino, a staunch supporter of the right of healthcare workers to organize.

THE WORK WE DO: RITE AID Working to help customers and members live healthier and happier lives.

Rite Aid store #4863 is located in Flushing, N.Y. There are 24 1199SEIU members who work at the store. They are among the 7,000 Rite Aid workers 1199SEIU represents. Rite Aid #4863 serves a busy and diverse neighborhood. The store’s 1199ers—mostly neighborhood residents who know their regular customers— provide professional service in the retail and pharmacy areas of the store as cashiers, stock clerks, pharmacy techs and pharmacists. They are among the shrinking number of drugstore workers in the U.S. with good, union jobs. “I urge members of the 1199SEIU family and consumers to ‘buy union’ by shopping at unionized pharmacies to preserve unionized drugstore jobs,” says 1199SEIU Pres. George Gresham. To find a Union pharmacy in your area log on to www.1199SEIU.org and click the Buy Union link on the main page.

Pharmacy intern Emmanuel Sitteri has to finish one more year of the five-year pharmacy program at St. John’s University.

He’s been working at the store for four years. “I used to be a biology major, then I switched,” says Sitteri. “I really thought I could help people. I help the customers at work now, and as a pharmacist, I can really do something for people. I work 24 hours over three days a week and I take 18 credits in school. I tend to work well under pressure, so that schedule suits me fine.”

Pharmacy technician Luz Vasquez has been at the store for six months. She is a cashier. She also helps customers with their prescriptions. “Many people come in, and they take a lot of different kinds of medications.

Sometimes they are nervous. I try to talk to them because I believe the overall point of my job is to help people feel better.”

Sharlene Pan has been a pharmacist with Rite Aid for 18 years. “Besides dealing with customers I also talk with doctors and nurses. I give clinical advice to the providers,” says Pan. “This neighborhood is very diverse. I speak a few dialects of Chinese so it’s very helpful. We also have Greek, Korean and Spanish-speaking pharmacists.”

November/December • Our Life And Times

12

THE WORK WE DO

“Basically I keep the store in good condition and I stock the shelves,” says stock clerk/cashier Jason Hoggard, who is also a student at LaGuardia Community College in Queens, N.Y. “The people I work with are great and everyone is friendly. We know each other on a personal level – even the managers – and we try to keep things as good as possible. Everyone here helps each other out.”

“In the mornings I cashier. I’m also in charge of the candy. I fix every shelf. I also help customers and I answer the phones. This is a really busy store,” says full-time cashier Hemant Shah, who has been at the store for two years.

Part-time associate Brian Tam is a full-time student at Queens College. He works 24 hours per week at Rite Aid. “When I come home from school, I try to finish as much homework as I can before I go to work, so I’m not wiped out at the end of the night,” says Tam. “But I love working here. Everyone is like family.

When I’m down everyone cheers me up. I also meet new people, plus I know all our usual customers from the neighborhood.”

“Everyone here knows their job. If we work together it’s going to be easier for all of us and better for our customers,” says full-time associate Hidayatullah Sayed.

“If we need assistance, we can all call on each other.”

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November/December • Our Life And Times

On Aug. 8 then-candidate Barack Obama experienced the reality of everyday working life by walking a day in the shoes of Oakland, Ca., homecare worker Pauline Beck. Another reality is that millions of U.S. workers have no health insurance.

President-elect Obama has vowed to make universal health care a priority.

UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE PUT ON FAST TRACK 1199ers work on various levels “In order to fix our economic crisis, and rebuild our middle class, we need to fix our healthcare system, too. ... It is clear that the time has come – right now – to solve this problem.” — President-elect Barack Obama Healthcare workers understand better than most the extent of the healthcare crisis in our nation.

“Health care was a major concern of voters I spoke to during the (election) campaign,” says 1199SEIU Executive Council member Dennese Wray, a CNA at Rebecca Rehab NH and a direct care counselor at Cerebral Palsy – both in the Bronx. Wray took a leave from both positions in July and worked for close to four months registering and mobilizing voters in Ohio.

She notes that she and other canvassers heard first hand from voters of varied economic categories who were deeply concerned about the cost and availability of health insurance.

“When we discussed McCain’s proposal for a $5,000 family insurance tax credit and that he wanted to tax employerprovided health insurance, people reacted negatively,” says Joshua Brown, a Manhattan North General Hospital OR tech who canvassed for three-and-a half months in Wisconsin.

While Wray, Brown and other 1199ers worked in battleground states across the country to

mobilize support for Sen. Obama and other worker-friendly candidates, some 1199ers also took to the road to build support among healthcare workers for universal healthcare insurance.

Most report major concern among workers about the need to solve the crisis.

1199SEIU and its national union, SEIU, also have been working tirelessly with a number of coalitions that are committed to a path to universal care.

Among those groups are Health Care for Americans Now, Better Health Care Together, Divided We Fall and the Partnership for Quality Care. SEIU Healthcare Pres. Dennis Rivera, former president of 1199SEIU, is a key leader in the universal healthcare campaign.

The hard work of the advocates appears to be paying off. Barely two weeks after the Obama victory, the president-elect tabbed ex-South Dakota senator Tom Daschle to be his health and human services secretary.

Daschle, a long-time advocate, is expected to shepherd healthcare reform legislation through the next Congress.

During the same week, Minnesota Sen. Max Baucus, a Democrat and chair of the Senate Finance Committee, released his universal healthcare plan. And fellow Democrat, Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy, chair of the Health, Education and Labor Committee and the Congressional leader on healthcare reform, returned to the Senate to focus on healthcare legislation after a six-month absence during which he underwent treatment for a brain tumor.

The senators are casting healthcare reform as a crucial component of any economic revival plan, an argument that Obama advanced frequently on the campaign trail. The financial

“I believe Obama’s position puts us on the right track.”

—NYU Hospital for Joint Diseases RN Joyce Lemmon

crisis, particularly as it affects auto companies, underscores the connections.

For example, the cost to produce an automobile in Windsor, Ontario – separated from Detroit by the Detroit River – is about $4,000 less than in the U.S. because Canadian workers, since they have national health insurance, don’t have to include healthcare costs in their labor contracts. The U.S. is the only industrialized nation without universal health insurance. That leaves some 46 million Americans without coverage.

Shortly after his Jan. 20 inauguration, President-elect Obama is expected to sign legislation – vetoed one year ago by Pres.

Bush – to extend coverage to the millions of children without health insurance. Universal healthcare legislation should follow soon after.

“We have to get a handle on the increasing cost of health care,” says NYU Hospital for Joint Diseases RN Joyce Lemmon. “I think Obama’s plan to make it more affordable and available puts him definitely on the right track.”

November/December • Our Life And Times

14

Around Our Union

GASPARD TAKES POST IN OBAMA ADMINISTRATION

HIGHLIGHTS FROM 2008 Even in difficult times 1199SEIU continues its growth As the national labor movement lost members and strength almost daily, 1199SEIU members in 2008 continued to make progress. They won on the strike line, at the bargaining table and at the ballot box. They helped win the passage of worker-friendly legislation and elect workerfriendly candidates – including President-elect Barack Obama.

Starting in late July, 400 member political organizers (MPOs) and staff from 1199SEIU fanned out across the country and decamped to 18 battleground states to help Barack Obama win his historic victory. Members from all Regions also volunteered as Weekend Warriors and headed out for the day to Cleveland, Philadelphia and Virginia. They mobilized for an unprecedented SEIU campaign in which members and volunteers knocked on over 3 million doors, made over 16 million phone calls and registered more than 250,000 new voters.

1199ers were also active on the homefront. 1199SEIU has at press time in November organized 4,317 workers in 2008. The 42 victories include 1,000 nursing home workers at nine facilities in the Absolut chain located in the Buffalo area. Units of RNs from Peninsula Hospital in Queens and from Southampton Hospital on Long Island who were previously represented by the New York State Nurses Association voted to join 1199SEIU. At Kingsbridge Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in the Bronx, N.Y, workers won a bitter six-month strike in August when a federal judge issued an injunction against the home’s owner, Helen Sieger. In spite of Sieger’s threats and intimidation, more

Patrick Gaspard, our own Executive Vice President for Politics and Legislation, has accepted President-elect Barack Obama’s job offer to serve as his director of the Office of Political Affairs. The political director spearheads relationships with other elected officials, labor unions and outside political groups.

Gaspard took a leave of absence from his 1199SEIU post during the spring to serve as national political director for Obama’s general election campaign. In November he was

named deputy director of personnel for the transition effort.

In 2006, Gaspard served as the acting political director for SEIU International during SEIU’s successful effort to help Democrats capture majorities in the House and Senate. And in 2004, he was the national field director for America Coming Together.

His relationship with 1199SEIU goes back to Rev. Jesse Jackson’s presidential campaign in 1988.

That campaign has been credited with helping to lay the ground for the successful 1989 campaign of

New York Mayor David Dinkins in which Gaspard also excelled.

1199SEIU Pres. George Gresham made the announcement about Gaspard’s new position at a meeting of the Union’s Executive Council on Nov. 21. Amid tears and hearty congratulations, Gresham and many Council members heaped praise on Gaspard for his countless contributions and brilliant vision.

“He is one of the nation’s most brilliant organizers and I’ll always think of him as a younger brother,” Gresham said.

than 200 Kingsbridge workers carried on the strike through subzero winter temperatures and scorching summer heat.

proposal in September to contract out services.

The Region also won several legislative victories during the last session of the Maryland legislature. Chief among them was a state and county agreement to provide funding and a mechanism to work toward a solution for the financially troubled Prince George’s hospitals.

The Region played a major role in the election of Donna Edwards in Maryland’s 4th Congressional District. Her victory made her the first African American woman from the state to serve in Congress. 1199SEIU’s endorsed Council of the District of Columbia candidates also won big in the recent election.

During the spring, the Region launched its inaugural Training and Upgrading Fund’s classes for Certified Nursing Assistants (CNA) and Geriatric Nursing Assistants (GNA).

ing and upgrading funding for long-term care workers; and ensuring surgical centers and community hospitals adhere to the same standards. RNs from across Massachusetts formed the first 1199SEIU Massachusetts Nurses’ Council. Scores of Massachusetts nursing home workers voted for 1199SEIU representation.

The Kingsbridge victory was followed by two major wins for home health aides. Some 2,400 home health aides settled their first contract in October after four years of hard struggle with their employer, Best Care Home Health. Best Care’s settlement came on the heels of a victory at Prestige Home Care on Sept. 21 when 900 home health aides won their first contract. Workers at both agencies had threatened to strike. The victories came after a huge rally at Madison Square Garden in early August and a march in lower Manhattan in early September where Union president George Gresham and numerous elected officials deplored home health aides’ treatment by their employers Also, in October, some 7,000 nursing home and long-term care workers represented by SEIU Healthcare New Jersey voted overwhelmingly to merge with 1199SEIU and become the New Jersey Region of 1199SEIU. The vote was held by mail and the ballots were counted on Sept. 30.

Milly Silva, who was president of the New Jersey local, will continue to lead the Region as Executive Vice President.

Massachusetts members were active during the 2007/2008 legislative session. 1199SEIU members helped win full funding in the final 2009 state budget for the state’s Medicaid/MassHealth programs and the health systems where 1199SEIU members are employed. Members’ efforts also helped pass bills expanding train-

And after a year of negotiations Personal Care Attendants (PCAs) in Massachusetts voted to approve their first ever collective bargaining agreement. The three-year contract, which was voted on by mail ballot and covers 25,000 PCAs, includes wage increases of $10.84 to $12.48 per hour, provides paid time off based on hours worked and requires the implementation of health insurance benefits for the PCAs in the second year of the contract. The PCAs organized in Nov. 2007 in the largest union election in New England history. Scores of PCAs and their 1199 brothers and sisters attended the announcement at the Veronica B. Smith Senior Center in Brighton, Mass. on Nov. 25. They were joined by seniors, people with disabilities and Massachusetts elected officials including Boston mayor Thomas Menino.

The MD-D.C. Region continued to grow with organizing victories, particularly among homecare workers. In an April 15 election, 98 percent of the 200 caregivers at Washington’s Nursing Enterprises, Inc. voted to be represented by 1199SEIU. The members later picketed the agency office to force management to the bargaining table.

Region members also have taken up the fight against the contracting out of D.C. services.

And workers at Sinai Hospital and Levindale Hebrew Geriatric Center in Baltimore beat back a April rally and Lobby Day at the Mass. State House in Boston for a fair contract for the state's PCAs.

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November/December • Our Life And Times

THE BACK PAGE Historic PCA Contract Strengthens Boston Organizing Efforts Massachusetts Personal Attendant (PCA) Candice Phipps with consumer Liz Casey in Brighton, Mass. at Nov. 25 announcement of PCAs historic, first-ever collective bargaining agreement. See page 11.