A JOURNAL OF 1199SEIU March/April 2012
Members Stand Up Against Downsizing 1199ers at Brooklyn safety-net hospitals are fighting to save health care and jobs in the borough.
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THE ECONOMY RETURNS TO CENTER STAGE The personal has become political. PRESIDENT’S COLUMN No one should sit out November’s election. BUILDING POWER IN FLORIDA Members are making change in the region. PROFILES IN COURAGE Michelle Joyce, Patricia Matthews and Maria Velazquez are examples of the indomitable human spirit. THE WORK WE DO United Medical Center in Washington, D.C. HOME ATTENDANTS FIGHT TO SAVE HEALTH COVERAGE Some 15,000 are at risk. GUEST COLUMNIST RICHARD WINSTEN Relief for our pension funds is possible. BOOK REVIEWS “My Song” by Harry Belafonte, a mystery series by Tim Sheard and “The Slow Walker” by Dan North. MEMBERS’ JOURNAL When Lemons Fall From the Sky, Make Mondongo! by Luz Gutierrez Gil. BROOKLYN’S SAFETY NET CRISIS Many say merger plan to save struggling hospitals will hurt the communities they serve. BREAD AND ROSES STRIKE CENTENNIAL Lawrence, MA celebrates 100th anniversary of historic strike.
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p.8 Our Life And Times, March/April 2012, Vol 30, No 2 Published by 1199SEIU, United Healthcare Workers East 310 West 43rd St. New York, NY 10036 Telephone (212) 582-1890 www.1199seiu.org
E DITOR : J.J. Johnson STAFF WRITE R : Patricia Kenney DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY:
Jim Tynan PHOTOG RAPH E R : Belinda Gallegos ART DI RECTION & DES IG N :
Maiarelli Studio PRES I DE NT :
COVE R PHOTOG RAPHY :
George Gresham
Jim Tynan
S EC RETARY TREASURE R :
Maria Castaneda EXEC UTIVE VIC E PRES I DE NTS :
Norma Amsterdam Yvonne Armstrong Lisa Brown Angela Doyle Aida Garcia George Kennedy Steve Kramer Patrick Lindsay Joyce Neil John Reid Bruce Richard Mike Rifkin Monica Russo Neva Shillingford Milly Silva Veronica Turner Laurie Vallone Estela Vazquez
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 1080-3089. USPS 000-392. Postmaster: Send address changes to Our Life And Times, 310 West 43rd St., New York, NY 10036.
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Kendall Hospital’s Ivianne Catamil
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EDITORIAL
ECONOMY RETURNS TO CENTER STAGE The social is related to the economic.
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lthough the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement has not commanded the media attention of last year, its contributions provide a valuable framework for all those working for progressive social change. Specifically, OWS last fall was able to shift the nation’s discussion from the “national deficit” to “income inequality.” The fight to address that inequality will continue to take place in our workplaces and communities and the success of that battle will be measured largely by the outcome of the Nov. 6 elections. Our ability to close the gap between us, the 99 percent, and them, the one percent, depends a great deal on our work between now and November. Those who represent the one percent would have us believe that this year’s elections are not about income inequality, but even the broader social issues are closely related to the economic disparities. For example, the vicious assaults on women and their right to make choices about their health cannot be separated from the right-wing campaign on public services and public workers. The attacks on teachers and their unions is an attack on funding for public education. Those who would deny women the right to choose also would deny workers the right to unionize and the poor and unemployed the right to safety nets.
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he same right-wingers who push legislation to deny ballot access to citizens are the same people who would deny the undocumented a path to citizenship or access to higher education. This election cycle, 1199SEIU will highlight economic justice in its campaigns to defeat the pro-corporate right-wingers and elect pro-worker candidates from the presidency to the local levels. We will mobilize in all districts in which we have member institutions. We also will send organizers and activists to assist our sisters and brothers in battleground states. But even more important than mobilizing for today, is organizing for tomorrow. We aim to build permanent structures wherever our organizing takes us. It’s not sufficient to elect candidates to office without
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building structures that can hold those candidates accountable as well as provide the support the candidates need to fulfill voters’ mandates.
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his issue of Our Life And Times begins to frame this election year’s issues. The President’s Column makes clear the stark differences between Pres. Obama and the Republican challengers. Lobbyist Richard Winsten explains how New Yorkers can hold Wall Street accountable for our pension fund losses. Articles about our homecare, hospital and nursing home members make the case for adequate healthcare funding and the need for workers and their unions to have a voice in healthcare policy. We also profile 1199SEIU women whose courage and perseverance demonstrate the ability to overcome odds and to triumph, especially with the help of loved ones and co-workers. And this issue spotlights our Union’s Florida district and its unprecedented organizing and contract victories. Florida is the only 1199SEIU district in a right-to-work (or anti-union) state. In such a state, workers in an organized facility do not have to join the Union. But in Florida, an increasing number
1199ers at last year’s May Day (International Workers’ Day) rally in New York City. 1199SEIU, Occupy Wall Street, labor and immigrant rights groups are sponsors of this year’s May 1 events. The theme is “a day without the 99%.” See you organizers to participate and for information.
Our ability to close the gap between us, the 99 percent, and them, the one percent, depends a great deal on our work between now and November. are signing union cards, because they see clearly the difference 1199SEIU makes in their lives, their communities and the state. The growth of our Union in Florida has helped us emerge as a new political force in the state. Our experience there demonstrates that with organization, solidarity and hard work, a better life and a better world are possible.
THE PRESIDENT’S COLUMN George Gresham
Our Future Is at Stake No one should sit out November’s elections. Dating back to May 2011, the Republican candidates for President have already staged 21 debates. It may seem like forever, but it has only been 11 months. Between debates, they’ve collectively made hundreds of speeches, given just as many interviews, and spent tens of millions of dollars on television and radio spots. It may not always have been pleasant to see, but it has definitely been an education. The differences between these candidates and President Obama in terms of what they promise for our country’s future could not be more stark. Leon Davis, the founding president of our union, used to say that in politics, we 1199ers do not have permanent allies, only permanent interests. This principle has been adhered to ever since. While it is true that we’ve more often supported Democratic candidates, we’ve also supported Republicans, third-party candidates and independents, depending on who we thought would best advance the interests of our members, our patients and our families. (And of course our Union members include members of both major parties, as well as many independents,) But in witnessing the national Republican primary campaigns, there is no question that our members—including our Republican members— will best be served by the re-election of President Obama. Conversely, the election of any of the Republican candidates in November would be a disaster for our members, our patients, our families and our Union. On healthcare, women’s health and reproductive rights, the Republican candidates have spent nearly a year outdoing one another promising to return healthcare and women’s rights back to the 18th century. They would all gut Medicare (and Social Security), thereby impoverishing millions of retirees and other seniors, and create a healthcare crisis of unprecedented proportions among an aging population. They would also decimate or altogether eliminate Medicaid, thus denying health care to our most vulnerable—our frail elderly, our poor and our children. Even the presumed frontrunner, Mitt Romney, who as Massachusetts governor helped enact a healthcare plan resembling in its essentials the Obama plan, has forcefully denounced any federal role in providing or regulating care for the American people. Please keep in mind that our institutions depend on Medicare and Medicaid to keep their doors open. And when it comes to women’s reproductive rights, the Republican hopefuls—all of whom denounce “big government” and “Washington’s interference in peoples’ lives”— each promise to take medical decisions out of the hands of women, their partners and their physicians, and legislate how they must treat contraception and conception. When Rush Limbaugh spent three days slandering a Georgetown University law student for testifying to a Congressional panel about contraception as a woman’s health issue—calling her a “slut” and a prostitute and demanding she make a pornographic film — neither Romney, Santorum, Gingrich nor Paul could find a way to express the appropriate revulsion, showing that hate has poisoned their moral center. On the economy, job creation, and labor unions, there is not a penny’s worth of difference among the Republican candidates. They all pledge to further eliminate taxes on the wealthy and corporations, and further shred the social safety net. In November 2010, Republicans won a number of governorships and legislatures. The first thing they did in Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio and elsewhere was to outlaw collective bargaining and pass anti-union legislation. You can be sure that this is priority number one for them if they take the White House in November. Sisters and Brothers: This is not speculation. This is what they promise. Too much is riding on this election—our jobs, our children and our elders, our retirement security, our health care, the rights that those who came before us fought for—to even think about sitting it out. This is where we make our stand and defend what is rightfully ours. We know we can count on you.
Letters ORGANIZE THE NEW SOUTH t always encourages me and gives me new energy when I get to spend time with my 1199 brothers and sisters. That happened on Feb. 11 when I was part of two busloads of 1199 retirees and friends who joined (1199SEIU) Pres. George Gresham and other leaders of our Union at a rally in Raleigh, North Carolina. That annual rally, called Historic Thousands on Jones Street, brings together civil rights, progressives and union activists to fight for the things that 1199 has always stood for — justice, equality and working and poor people’s rights. The thousands of folks who were at the rally are the same folks whose work can help Pres. Obama win the state in November. What I and my 1199 brothers and sisters saw on Feb. 11 was the forces of the New South. The New South believes in equality and diversity, and the right of people to choose their lifestyle. But we also realize that for the forces of the New South to win, we will have to defeat the forces of the Old South. By the Old South I mean those folks who are still blinded by their racism and backward notions about society and unions. That is where we 1199ers come in. My wife Josephine, a former nurse, and I have been able to retire and live a comfortable life because we were members of unions. We have pensions and healthcare coverage. Unions also taught us to unite with fellow workers and fight for our rights. That is what is missing in North Carolina, a so-called right to work state. Right to work laws make it much harder to organize unions. That means too many workers are fearful because they have no rights. They are afraid to speak up. What can change that is more concentration by unions on organizing North Carolina and the entire South. I’ve heard that we are making great strides in Florida. But 1199SEIU can’t do it alone. We need all of labor to unite with the civil rights organizations and folks who believe in economic justice to take up the fight. That’s how we’ll bring about a true New South. You can depend on us retirees to answer the call.
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body wants. The first thing I want is a job that is secure. I don’t want to worry about whether my agency is going to close or I’m going to be laid off. I want to be out of debt, so that I can begin to save. I want to get a pay raise. I’ve been told that 1199 home health aides are getting a raise in March. I’d love to have a decent home for my family. I want to have all the benefits that 1199ers in the Benefit Fund have. I want to be able to retire and get Social Security and Medicare. I hope that I can get training so that I can learn and improve myself. President Obama promised that healthcare workers would receive better treatment on the job. Some of us aides have to care for rough patients. I’m excited to be part of 1199SEIU because I know that I’m in a strong Union that cares about homecare workers. I know that our voices will be heard in our Union. I hope that being in 1199SEIU will get me all the things that I want. DESIREE D. ROLLINS People Care, New York City
THE POWER OF A CALL or the last months I have worked in the SEIU’s Communication Center, which is located in 1199SEIU’s Manhattan headquarters. A lot of people don’t know about what we do there. We have about 30 to 40 call agents working six days a week who are responsible for all kinds of communications with Union members and other groups. We talk with people about particular Union campaigns and political candidates, and we also do surveys. I see our work as a daily outreach for democracy because we encourage people to participate in government, become active and combat injustice. It’s beyond average promotion and/or advertising. Our call center agents talk to people across the nation and it’s a personal point of contact. I’m proud of the call agents and the work we do building the Union and the country. It may not seem like a lot, but in the long run, our work helps pull people out of poverty and gives them political clout because we encourage them to awaken, engage and participate in government. There is a lot of power in one call.
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CLIFTON BROADY, Retiree Rockingham, North Carolina
RENEE COLLYMORE Brooklyn, NY
A WORKER’S WISHES work hard, but I’m worried about my future. Lately, I’ve been hearing a lot of talk about people not being sure what is going to happen with home health aides and other homecare workers. I don’t think I want very much. I think I want what every-
Let’s Hear From You Our Life And Times welcomes your letters. Please email them to jamesj@1199.org or snail mail them to JJ Johnson, 1199SEIU OLAT, 330 West 42nd St., 7th floor, New York, NY 10036. Please include your telephone number and place of work. Letters may be edited for brevity and clarity.
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OUR UNION
A Growing Powerhouse in Florida Organizing and legislative victories show the growing influence of Florida’s 1199SEIU members. Florida’s sparse unionization reflects the reality of the nation, but things are changing in the once-decidedly-red state. 1199ers are breaking new ground with historic organizing efforts and new levels of worker involvement in political action. Members also are making preparations to help re-elect Barack Obama. The state will again play a crucial role in this year’s elections. “Things are really difficult for a lot of people in Florida right now. They’re clipping coupons. They’re buying cheaper food. They’re not buying fruit and meat or going places because gas is so expensive,” says Kendall Hospital unit secretary Ivianne Catamil, a delegate. “Health care is going down. I’m a Republican and I’m going to work for Obama. There is no one who can do better than him. He was handed a bad economy. We have to give him another term to turn things around.” The Florida region officially merged with 1199SEIU in 2010. Since then, it has come together in seven statewide delegate assemblies, grown by 10,000 workers, and formed an RN Council. They also launched a Republican member committee to be more effective at electing pro-worker candidates. “People automatically assume that you aren’t supposed to support workers or labor if you’re a Republican, or if you are, you’re not supposed to express it,” says Margarita Antelo, a scrub tech at St. Lucy’s Medical Center in Port St. Lucie. Antelo is a member of the Region’s Republican Advisory Committee. “I just want to affirm that being a Republican is about the core value of freedom. Workers are getting the shaft left and right and we have the right to say it.” Member-to-member communication plays a critical role in Florida’s work. “When people learn about what our Union has accomplished in the last 14 years here in Florida, they start wondering what else is possible,” says Brenda Young, an activities coordinator at University Health and Rehabilitation Center in Tampa. “With just a small number of us, we were able to pass legislation in Florida that improved conditions for nursing home residents and caregivers. We fought for early voting so working people could have more than one day to cast their vote.
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We helped decrease class sizes in Florida’s public schools. We did this because we were organized and we wanted to make a difference.” In Central Florida, Osceola Regional Medical Center delegate Ramon Quinones was among those instrumental in launching the county’s first annual Puerto Rican Festival. Puerto Ricans are the area’s fastest growing population, having more than doubled in number since the 2000 Census. “I started the festival because I saw how the community was growing so fast, but there was a lack of cultural awareness,” Quinones said. “A lot of Puerto Rican kids were growing up without knowing about their culture and customs. I want to help keep our traditions alive and pass our culture on to other communities. So, I brought the idea to a group that is now called the Puerto Rican Center of Central Florida and they agreed to work with me.” At University of Miami Hospital, a labor/management partnership has been recharged by joint projects aimed at solving issues and improving patient care delivery. RN Pat Diaz, a delegate at University Hospital in Tamrac, says with all of their strides
1199ers still have work to do. “The atmosphere feels different now. We’re in 19 [HCAaffiliated] hospitals. [Management] will back down, but we have to hold them accountable. They know they have to show some respect,” says Diaz. “But some workers still don’t understand their power.” Florida members were clearly feeling their power at a March 8 lobby day in Tallahassee when hundreds of workers flooded the capitol building rotunda and sang in unison “Whose Side Are You On?” to the tune of the classic spiritual “Victory Is Mine.” They challenged lawmakers to declare their allegiance to the state’s working people or to billionaires. “Florida has seen such big changes from when I first came here. People used to keep their distance and they put you in categories. You were automatically guilty and your children got beat up at school. We couldn’t identify ourselves as Haitian because we were persecuted,” said Micheline Louis-Charles, a CNA at Miami’s Fountainhead Care Center for 24 years who helped organize the institution. “Now we see we all have the same problems. We are learning from each other and we are one community.”
“When people learn about what our Union has accomplished in the last 14 years here in Florida, they start wondering what else is possible.” — Brenda Young, activities coordinator at Tampa’s University Health and Rehabilitation Center
At March 8 Lobby Day in Tallahassee, Florida region members met with lawmakers about dangerous staffing reductions in Florida nursing homes and flooded the capitol building rotunda singing “Whose Side Are You On?”
PROFILES IN COURAGE
A Leader by Example “I hope our book can help people living with a medical issue.”
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ichelle Joyce has much she feels she should share. “If you have something wonderful, you want to share it with others,” says Joyce, a physical therapist at Jordan Hospital in Plymouth, Mass. “Why wouldn’t you want to have new members have access to the wonderful benefits we enjoy as union members, such as competitive wages, affordable health care and our Training and Upgrading Fund (TUF).” To that end, Joyce has taken part in several campaigns to bring Massachusetts hospital workers into 1199SEIU. She also took part in the historic 2008 victory that brought some 25,000 Massachusetts personal care attendants into the Union. Joyce earned a DPT (Doctorate of Physical Therapy) in just 18 months while working at Jordan. Thanks to the TUF, which she calls a blessing, she was able to take classes every semester and had to pay just a small amount for tuition. “The TUF is a wonderful program that takes the financial barrier out of pursing an education,” she says, noting that she went back to school at Boston University nine years after earning her master’s degree in physical therapy. “In the coming years, efficiency and effectiveness are
going to be key components to success, and by using the available research to help guide my practice, I am confident that I can adjust to the new healthcare environment without compromising patient care,” she says. On top of helping to organize new workers into the Union and working as a physical therapist, Joyce also finds time to be a delegate at Jordan Hospital. “I have had many opportunities to meet some amazing people that I never would have met if I weren’t a delegate,” she says. Joyce has won the admiration of co-workers who praise her strength and character. She also champions the practice of joint labor-management projects to solve problems at the hospital. “I think we are strongest when we work together with the administration for the greater good of the hospital, its workers and its patients,” she says. “It’s hard to get people to shift from an adversarial view of the ‘other side,’ but hopefully I can help everyone see we can and should work together in these uncertain times that are coming in health care.” Joyce is a hero to those who know her for far more than her impressive union and education achievements. Last December, she shared another life-changing experience when she published,
“Our Breast Cancer Journey,” her account of living with breast cancer for eight months and how her husband, Corey, helped her through the diagnosis and treatment. (See the 1199SEIU web interview about the book at www.1199SEIU.org.) The book describes how a healthy 34-year-old woman woke up one New Year’s Eve and discovered a lump in her breast. “I was totally blindsided,” she says. “Luckily my husband was there for me the whole way and was able to pick me up when I fell to pieces.” She also says that being an employee at Jordan helped speed her treatment and recovery. “I hope our book can help people living with a medical issue, both as patients and spouse/partners, as well as those wonderful people who care for patients,” she says. But, she adds, “We hope our book also helps others gain a better perspective on where they are in life and how to keep pushing forward.” “I admire Michelle because she gets the big picture and she knows how to move the room,” says Kathy Moore, the 1199SEIU administrative organizer for Jordan Hospital and a friend of Joyce. “During negotiations, she knows how to get the team on point and move forward on union issues. Whether she’s writing a book, raising a family, or getting a doctorate, I just admire her.”
Michelle Joyce, a physical therapist at Jordan Hospital in Plymouth, MA, wrote a book about her struggle with breast cancer.
Clean, Sober & Grateful CNA Patricia Matthews turned her life around and helps other addicts do the same.
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atricia Matthews, a CNA at Forest Hills Nursing Home in Newark, lives a life today that looks very different than it did 14 years ago. “I was addicted to heroin and crack,” she says. “You name it, I did it. After my mother died I turned to the streets. Then I got hooked on methadone. I was on it for five years.”
Today she’s clean and sober, has a loving husband, a healthy relationship with her two daughters and her siblings and a strong religious faith. Before she got clean Matthews’ addiction was so bad that she gave up custody of her children to their father and served time in jail on drug charges. Even those things weren’t enough to get her clean, she says. “I was going to an outpatient program and I was
still getting high. The Department of Family Services told me I had to go to an inpatient program.” Matthews entered Victory Outreach Women’s Home Inpatient Treatment Program on Nov. 5, 1998 and has been clean and sober ever since. “That’s where I got saved,” she says. “I learned to build a relationship with Jesus. I’m living testimony that prayer works. When
you’re out on the street and living that lifestyle people give up on you. They think once a drug addict always a drug addict. That’s a lie. The life that God has given me today is unbelievable.” It’s almost impossible not to be inspired by Matthews. Over the last few years her family has faced financial challenges and her husband has struggled with serious cancer and multiple surgeries. Matthews is still brimming with gratitude for her life. “It’s tough and sometimes the flesh gets in our way but when you have a strong foundation and you allow God in, he will bring you through those moments,” she says. “There were times I didn’t know how I would get through the next day, but I knew God would get me through.”
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1199SEIU retiree Maria Velazquez (right) in 2005 photo with son, Jon Adrian, and Jon’s sons, Jon Adrian II (front left) and Jacob.
Retiree Leads Fight for Son’s Freedom “I’ll never stop knocking on doors.”
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aria Velazquez retired as an 1199SEIU organizer late last year, but she’s not about to stop organizing. Now, she’s committed to ending the more than 14-year ordeal of her only son, Jon-Adrian (JJ) Velazquez, who is serving a 25-year sentence for a murder that all available evidence indicates he did not commit. “Everything about this case screams innocence,” exclaimed JJ’s
Matthews also expresses her gratitude for her sobriety by working with other addicts. For a time she headed the Women’s Program at Victory Outreach. It’s where she met her husband, who led the men’s program. She participates in the church’s Twilight Treasures program, a night time outreach program to help addicts get off Newark’s streets. “I tell people my story,” she says. “I’m not ashamed of where I come from; if it wasn’t for my testimony, I wouldn’t be who I am today.”
CNA Patricia Matthews has been clean and sober for 14 years and has dedicated much of her life to helping other addicts find recovery.
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defense attorney Robert Gottlieb in a Feb. 12 episode of “Dateline,” the weekly NBC TV news magazine. The TV broadcast starkly documented the many holes in the case against the young Velazquez, including the recanting of the prosecution witnesses, the absence of any physical evidence against and numerous improper police procedures. The episode confirmed what Maria and JJ have argued for 14 years. At the time of the killing,
Maria and JJ, who was then 22, were so sure that the police had mistakenly charged JJ and that the situation would soon be cleared up, that Maria drove JJ to the police station to turn himself in. “That was the last time I saw him as a free man,” she says. In October 1999, JJ was found guilty of second-degree murder and sentenced to 25 years to life. Since, then Maria has worked tirelessly for the exoneration of her only child. “I never stopped knocking on doors,” she says. And because she is a skilled organizer, she always knew what to do when she found an open door. “I believe that I was born an organizer,” she says. “Even as a teenager in the Bronx I fought for social justice. In high school, I was a volunteer tutor for children with reading problems.” Because her parents were lowincome workers, Velazquez sought assistance in getting to college. She joined ASPIRA, a national Latino organization dedicated to helping high school students further their education. While in college, Velazquez spent her summers working as a community organizer. After graduating in the early 1970s she went to work at Manhattan’s Roosevelt Hospital and helped organize professional and technical workers into 1199. She was a delegate leader before joining the 1199 staff as an organizer in 1986. Her husband, who was a police
officer, passed away several years before her son’s arrest. JJ Velazquez was convicted of murdering a retired police officer. Some involved in the case speculate that authorities were eager for a swift conviction as an example to those who would dare shoot an officer. In addition to organizing for his freedom, Maria has steadfastly provided support to help JJ get through his confinement at Sing Sing Correctional Facility in Ossining, NY. She takes her two grandsons, now teenagers, to visit their father every weekend. The older son, Jon Adrian II, attends high school and lives with Maria. JJ likens his incarceration to “being buried alive,” but he’s not lost hope or direction. He’s a model prisoner, well on his way to a B.A. in behavioral science and has held leadership positions on the prison’s “Inmate Liaison Committee, Family Reunion Program and Youth Assistance Program.” Among the growing legion of JJ’s supporters is the actor Martin Sheen. Traffic on his website is brisk. Hundreds have now signed the online and printed petitions for his freedom. In March, during its annual International Women’s Month celebration, the 1199SEIU’s Women’s Committee named Maria one of its Audrey Smith Campbell leadership award recipients. The awards are given to outstanding 1199SEIU activists. As of this writing, the Manhattan district attorney’s office is weighing JJ’s appeal. Maria is confident, but she is not letting up. For information, log onto www.jonadrianvelazquez.org.
THE WORK WE DO
Washington, DC’s United Medical Center (UMC) sits way across the Anacostia River from Capitol Hill in Ward 8, a mostly Black, mostly working class and poor neighborhood. A lot of Ward 8 residents depend on UMC for their medical care. Many of them depend on Medicaid to pay for it. UMC has a long history of struggling to stay open. Things are better at the District-run hospital today, due in large part to the efforts of UMC workers, but it’s still in financial turmoil and is the subject of fierce debate among District politicians and policymakers.
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1. Irma Smith is a senior secretary in UMC’s physical therapy department. “I’m the first person a patient will see, so I have to make patients feel comfortable. We deal with people with a lot of major problems,” she says. “When the come in, they may come in angry, but I have to know it’s not me.” 2. “Hard sticks are a challenge because we have to find their veins,” says phlebotomist Juliette Davis-Ray who has been at UMC for 10 years. “When people have small veins or if they’re ex-IV drug users, veins can be hard to find. Some are cooperative, others get frustrated.” 3. Anesthesia technician Tom Tobias has been at UMC for 30 years. A delegate, Tobias started in the hospital’s environmental services department. Tobias has seen a lot at the institution. Many underestimate the place’s resilience. “We’ve been through four or five owners and three bankruptcies. The first bankruptcy affected the hospital very badly, and we didn’t even have supplies or the things we needed,” he says. “But the employees stuck together. We like working here, and we’re like a family.” 4. “I stock the whole ER. I make sure everything is there — whatever the doctors and nurses need,” says ER tech Gloria Garlington. “I check dates and make sure things are current and make sure nothing is past its expiration date. Today happens to be very quiet. Normally it’s very hectic around here. We have a very busy ER.” 5. LPN Alma Ames has been at UMC for 37 years. She works in the hospital’s outpatient clinic, which offers services to the community as well as to UMC employees. “We get verbally beat up a lot, but we provide the best care we can,” says Ames. “We provide quality care and show our patients that we care. We give 110%.” 6. “We’ve been through bankruptcy court, a shortage of employees and times where we’re doing two or three people’s jobs, but I love working here. I enjoy helping people and I live right across the street,” says phlebotomist Sonja Rice, who’s worked at UMC for 45 years.
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7. Radiology transporter David Lewis is a lifelong resident of southeast Washington. He’s worked at UMC for four years. “It hits me hard,” says Lewis of UMC’s financial difficulties. “I went to [Capitol Hill’s ] Wilson Building and lobbied. This is the only hospital east of the river and we have so many illnesses here — diabetes, heart disease. I think it made an impact on them hearing me and seeing my emotions. I think it made them take our situation more seriously.”
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1199SEIU homecare members lobbied March 13 in Albany for funding to preserve their healthcare benefits.
NY HOME ATTENDANTS FIGHT TO SAVE HEALTH COVERAGE “I have to keep healthy to do my job.”
Some 15,000 New York City home attendants who provide the vital care that allows vulnerable seniors to remain in their homes are in imminent danger of losing their own health coverage. The home attendants are victims of escalating healthcare costs, decreasing federal assistance to states and declining state revenue. Since 2000, 1199SEIU has pushed the state legislature and successive governors to stabilize the industry by providing family healthcare benefits to the attendants. Since then, elected officials have agreed to short-term fixes. The latest was a temporary Medicaid rate increase in the last fiscal year that allocated $50 million for the attendants’ health benefits. In spite of the increase and the adoption of other costsaving measures, the 1199SEIU National Benefit Fund (NBF) last year was forced to drop family coverage and impose a $5 per week co-premium. The temporary Medicaid increase was scheduled to expire on March 31. “I have to work seven days a week at two agencies and I can’t pay the proposed $100 a week co-premiums to keep my health benefits,” says Ramona Guzman, a home attendant at New York City’s FEGS Family Services in the Bronx. Guzman, the mother of two teen-age sons, was among the hundreds of attendants from throughout New York City who on March 13 traveled to Albany to appeal to state legislators. The members donned purple T-shirts with the number 99% emblazoned on the front over the 1199SEIU logo. “I have worked hard all my life and I help people,” says Teresa Teran, a Queens Family Home Care home attendant who also lobbied on March 13. “I need to be able to care for myself. If I have to pay more for my health benefits, it will be a slap in the face. I went to Albany to explain that to the people we elected to represent us.” Specifically, the attendants need $80 million — $40 million from the state — to
enable the NBF to continue providing benefits. Funding would provide benefits from March 31to a period just short of the implementation of national healthcare reform in 2014. Many of the attendants would be covered under the new law. Without the appropriation, attendants with less than 10 years seniority would be required to contribute $100 per week to maintain benefits. The Home Care Division estimates that 15,000 members would be forced to drop coverage. That would greatly endanger their health and that of their families. Because most attendants are women in their forties, fifties and sixties with grown children, they do not qualify for health coverage through Medicaid or Family Health Plus. And some 53 percent of the Union’s 30,000 attendants require maintenance medication.
“I have to work seven days a week at two agencies and I can’t pay the proposed $100 a week co-premiums to keep my health benefits.” — Ramona Guzman Home Attendant
The loss of the attendants also would endanger many of the city’s most vulnerable residents, who would lose assistance with daily activities such as bathing, dressing and preparing meals. “I came from Trinidad four years ago and have been working with my client for three and a half years,” says Lutchmin Boodram, a Bronx Alliance for Home Services attendant. “My client is bedridden and can’t care for herself. I have to do everything for her. I don’t know what she’ll do if I’m forced to stop working with her. I’m worried sick.” At the March 13 lobby day, attendants told legislators that they should not be forced to suffer for the sins of the 1% who are responsible for the 2008 collapse of the economy. “This is not my first time lobbying in Albany and I have also been to see my representative in Washington,” Martha Rosado of Brooklyn’s Beth Emeth Home Attendant Services said on lobby day. “I am wondering if the elected officials truly understand what we do and what our lives are like. I will keep telling them until they understand.”
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GUEST COLUMN
RICHARD WINSTEN
Relief for Our Pension Funds is Possible “Those who defrauded our pension funds are to blame.”
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bill recently introduced in Albany could help our pension funds to recover losses resulting from fraud. This bill deserves the support of union members who have suffered the harm done to our pension funds through securities violations. In 2007, securities fraud and greed brought the Second Great Depression to New York just as they did the First Depression in the 1930’s. Banks used our pension funds to gamble in a legalized casino for speculators, and they lost big, bringing down the whole economy. They were aided and abetted by securities credit- rating agencies that rated worthless junk as Triple AAA investments. Bernie Madoff became a household name associated with financial crime. But his crimes paled in dollar value and harm committed by the Too Big To Fail (TBTF) banks. We all know how the economy has suffered — double digit unemployment, the near collapse of the auto industry, mass foreclosures. In the Second Great Bank Depression, two major investment banks self destructed. Worse, that Depression led to the $13 trillion bailout of the financial industry, while leaving the same old banking and investment structures intact. Even the former Federal Reserve Bank Chair, Alan Greenspan, has admitted that a substantial cause of the financial crisis was “just plain fraud.” As trade unionists, our ability to achieve wage increases, health benefits, and retirement security depends heavily on the state of the economy and the investment performance of our employers. The fraud committed by TBTF banks that began in 2006 and which threw the economy into a tail spin from which it has not yet recovered, has made it harder for the union and our employers to meet the needs of middle-class workers. In New York State, public pension funds lost over $100 billion in asset value from 20062009; over 100,000 families lost homes in two years. And the recession has cost workers $58 billion in lost wages and is on track
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to result in $265 billion in lost wages through 2013. The SEIU 32BJ Pension Funds lost about 30% of asset value according to their legislative memorandum in support of the New York pension fund justice legislation. Our 1199 Pension Funds lost record amounts. The union and health care employers are not to blame — those who defrauded our pension funds are to blame. While our pension funds have had to take dramatic actions to deal with the effects of these losses, those who are primarily responsible for the damage are again enjoying good times, as if nothing happened. The fraudsters should be made to repay the pension funds from their bonuses and stock dividends. The stolen money has not evaporated — it is there in Wall Street pockets to be reclaimed. The securities industry reported record profits, and is once again distributing large bonuses. Just for those who work in New York City, bonuses at Wall Street securities firms in 2009 were $20.3 billion, up 17% from the year before.
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f this seems unfair, it is. Even more unfair is the fact that there is no legal remedy for much of the wrongdoing. The issue isn’t just that those with political influence and financial power have some advantages in our judicial system. They are routinely allowed to break the law with no legal repercussions whatsoever. Wall Street owns Washington through its huge political contributions. Legislation is necessary simply because the Federal securities laws and the NYS Martin Act do not provide justice for our pension funds. The Federal securities laws that used to provide that justice were enacted after the First Great Depression. In the 1980’s and 1990’s Washington politicians gutted these laws at the request of TBTF banks. The NYS Martin Act (1921) which gives the New York Attorney General power to sue to protect the people of New York from securities fraud shockingly does not give him general standing to represent the public funds and does not require him to represent and make restitution to private sector funds such as the
Richard Winsten
1199SEIU Funds. Fortunately, Albany, unlike Washington, D.C., has the power to rescue our pension funds. A bill introduced in Albany very simply remedies the flaws in the current New York State laws by allowing New York pension funds legal standing in court to use the NYS Martin Act to sue to recover losses from securities fraud. This bill doesn’t send any fraudster banker to jail though it certainly would be just for many of them to join the nonviolent drug offenders with whom our State state and Federal federal government have jammed our prisons all of these years. “Just
give us our damn money back” is all this bill really says. Among the bill’s supporters are 1199SEIU, NYS AFL-CIO, NYC Municipal Labor Committee, NYC Comptroller John Liu, NYS Comptroller, and The New York State Association of Counties. Please contact Governor Andrew Cuomo, Speaker Sheldon Silver and Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos to urge their support for A.6060-A Lancman et.al.,/S.4497 Libous et.al., of 2012. Attorney Richard Winsten is a lobbyist for 1199SEIU and other unions.
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OOKS
Harlem and the island of Jamaica, through his rise to become one of the world’s foremost artists and activists. The book, with some 32 photographs from Belafonte’s childhood to the present, is also striking in its candor and willingness to discuss Belafonte’s pains and demons. We learn of his being labeled in childhood as backward because of his dyslexia. We read of his abuse at the hands of his father and his longing for some display of affection from his mother. We share the pain of his betrayals. We cheer his conquering of his gambling addiction and his finding of his “soul mate” late in life. The work also raises the curtain on the entertainment industry and its compromises, back stabbings and crooked deals. We meet Belafonte’s friends and confidants, including Sidney Poitier, Marlon Brando, Frank Sinatra and Dorothy Dandridge.
My Song The excellent film biography of Harry Belafonte, “Sing Your Song,” whets the appetite of viewers for more about the artist and the period covered in the film. That appetite can be satisfied with, “My Song,” Belafonte’s gripping biography written with “Vanity Fair” magazine editor Michael Schnayerson (Alfred A. Knopf, 2011). The work chronicles Belafonte’s journey from poverty in
A Slow Walker and Keen Observer Dan North, former editor of 1199News and co-author of “Not for Bread Alone,” the memoir of the late 1199 leader Moe Foner, last year published “The Slow Walker” (Black Trumpet Press, 2011), a brilliant collection of contemplative essays about our natural environment. The 52 pieces, divided into four sections for each season of the year, deftly transport the reader to
Hospital Janitor is Super Sleuth If you’re a reader interested in seeing well-to-do hospital administrators get their comeuppance from lowly service workers, welcome to Tim Sheard’s Lenny Moss mysteries. In the tradition of Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple, Walter Mosley’s Easy Rawlins or 1970s TV’s Columbo, Sheard’s hero, Lenny Moss, is a hospital janitor who uses his organizing and analytical skills as a
Sheard is no stranger to the hospital environment. Before landing at his present RN position at Brooklyn’s Methodist Hospital, he worked at other healthcare institutions in New York and Philadelphia. It is in the fictional James Madison University Hospital in Philadelphia where we meet Moss, in “This Won’t Hurt a Bit,” Sheard’s first Moss mystery (Hard Ball Press, New York, 2001). In it, Lenny, who is described as somewhat unkempt with “a face that would win no beauty contest,” uncovers the killer after a laundry worker is charged with the murder of a resident. In “Some Cuts Never Heal” (2003), Moss, who is white, and his co-workers, mainly people of color, confront layoffs and resultant short staffing while solving the murder of a beautiful pharmaceutical rep. “A Race Against Death,” published in 2006, takes place during a raging heat wave, with poor air conditioning in the hospital and other hazardous conditions, including needle sticks. In it, Moss solves the murder of a young woman following a botched abortion. Sheard’s latest, published in 2010, is “Slim to None,” in which Moss and co-workers take on downsizing and union busting while finding the killer of a young nurse. As in all the Moss mysteries, “Slim to None” is fast-paced and funny and reflects an intimate knowledge of workers and procedures that only a hospital worker could have. If you like mysteries, you’ll love Lenny Moss.
“My Song” provides a history lesson in its descriptions of Belafonte’s associations with some of the era’s greatest figures – Eleanor Roosevelt, John and Robert Kennedy, Nelson Rockefeller, and, of course, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The final chapters bring us to the present with descriptions of Belafonte’s relationship to Nelson Mandela and now 1199SEIU as director of the Union’s Bread And Roses program. Through it all, we learn that wealth and fame can coexist with principled activism, that it’s not enough to open the doors, but one must make sure the doors don’t close behind you. “My Song” confirms that for real heroes, dignity is never for sale.
the rolling fields of North Central New Jersey and the parks and highlands of New York State’s Hudson Valley, where North spent the happiest moments of his childhood. The essays, which read like extended poems, capture the sights, sounds, smells and moods
shop steward to solve hospital murders.
of the woods. They tell us that only someone with an intimate knowledge of his environment and the skill to render it so movingly could take us to these settings, so physically near to our big cities, yet, for so many or us, worlds away. “Although I enjoy learning about different aspects of nature, I’m an expert at none,” North modestly writes in his introduction. On the contrary, his knowledge of botany, birds and other aspects of nature helps him connect the forest and countryside to our urban experiences. Readers get to share North’s joy of discovery and his excitement with what he terms “recognizing the moment,” the transforming instant that encapsulates the story he
wants to tell. One essay skillfully captures the tension between a spider and the fly it’s about to capture. Another explores random acts of kindness in which North writes, “Such acts of generosity in the woods support a sense of human solidarity most of us crave.” At bottom, “The Slow Walker” is a heartfelt plea for our environment. When they reach its end, readers will feel a deeper connection to our environment, and most likely will be eager to take a slow walk in the woods. Proceeds from the sale of “The Slow Walker” go to the Putnam Highlands Audubon Society Scholarship Fund. Those wishing to buy a book should contact North at dnorth1199@aol.com.
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MEMBERS’ JOURNAL
In the field, you realize that making the bed is the easiest part of the job.
LUBA LUKOVA ILLUSTRATION
When Lemons Fall From the Sky, Make Mondongo! The Life of a Home Health Aide By Luz Gutierrez Gil
Like all professions, a home health aide (HHA) earns her wings in the field, or as a Latina would say, “with our boots on.” I can testify to having received excellent training from my agency’s committed teachers. As an HHA, only half of the success is in the training. The other half of success comes from innate attitudes: patience (without it, this profession is not for you), tolerance in the disarming all kinds of prejudices, common sense, courage, and imagination. With this last quality, every day you can learn something new and enjoy your job. During our training, we suffered a lot learning how to make a bed. I had a couple of sleepless nights, with nightmares where I couldn’t make hospital corners. You soon realize that making the bed is easiest part of the job. On my first day I had to move my first client in a wheelchair. I knew how, but never before had I transported someone in a wheelchair. My God! How I suffered. I had to learn to negotiate curbs, puddles, steps and traffic, all while going for a walk on a hot day, bathed in sweat. My common sense
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helped me. That day I realized that the sidewalks of New York are far from perfect, something I had never noticed. Little by little you are confronted with the colossal responsibility of caring for a frail client. For the agency, you are the ears and eyes of the nurse. For your clients you are an advisor, psychologist, nurse, complaint office, friend, daughter, companion, housekeeper, international chef, confessor, and professional masseuse. This is the true test of the HHA’s professionalism; to know what do in each situation. The most interesting aspects of being a HHA are the cultural encounters and exchanges. My native language is Spanish, the same as most of my clients, but the names for the same things are varied and abundant. Each day of work I learn a new name. I say banana, and my client says guineo or plátano. A client told me she wanted a slice of lechosa; I found
out this means she wants papaya. Another client asked for raspao. I was confused, thinking she wanted ice cream for lunch, but what she was asking for was a soup. Once a Mexican client asked for menudo for lunch. I shook with fear because for me that word means the long and difficult preparation of filling the pork’s intestine to make sausages; but no, she wanted mondongo, or tripe soup or guata, as an Ecuadorian client calls this popular meal. My elderly clients also share the richness of the different expressions, or dichos in Spanish, of their cultures. Some are wise like “Old is the sun, yet every day it shines.” Some are ironic: “Longer than the hope of a poor person” or “Longer than a week without meat” or “Happiness in the home of the poor doesn’t last long.” Other dichos show dignity, like “No one can take away what we danced.” Some are religious: “No matter how great the evil, greater is the Lord to remove it.” The funniest are often vulgar, like one I heard condemning men committing violence against women. Even though HHAs have a lot responsibility, we grow every day from the generosity, wisdom and courageous lives of our clients. We also learn from their difficulties. And as I often say, in my Latin expression of a familiar idiom: “Si del cielo te caen limones, aprende a hacer limonada.” If lemons fall from the sky, learn to make lemonade. Luz Gutierrez Gil is a home health aide with New York City’s Partners In Care agency.
Members at Brookdale Hospital demonstrated last summer demanding new management and restoration of their health benefits. color and they’ve all been put on the chopping block by axe-wielding politicians. Union members reject the finding that their paychecks are among the main the reasons institutions are suffering. Research shows that the average healthcare salary in New York City is about $45,000 a year. “There is so much waste and mismanagement and poor communication,” says Lynn Jennings, a physician assistant at Brookdale. “They start laying us off, or we’re working short staffed, and they use our salaries as an excuse. It’s about how much we’re getting paid.” At Brookdale, workers have been locked in a heated battle with the Medisys health network, the hospital’s administrator, which allowed them to lose their 1199SEIU health benefits and then unilaterally implemented an expensive Blue Cross plan. Workers say Medisys drained Brookdale’s coffers and drove the venerable Brownsville institution to the brink of ruin. To help heal Brookdale, the MRT proposed the merger with Kingsbrook. Workers say the solution is not an arranged marriage, but a divorce from Medisys and a fresh start with new leadership. They held demonstrations and sit-ins demanding just that. “We want to build on the idea of how we can turn this hospital around,” says Jennings.
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“ THE PEOPLE OF BROOKLYN DESERVE A STABLE HEALTHCARE SYSTEM” Members worry about recommendations for Brooklyn’s safety net hospitals.
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rooklyn’s safety net hospitals are suffering. And there are those who would put them out of their misery rather than find a cure. Major changes have been recommended to streamline and merge five of them and officials say it would create a healthier and more efficient health system. Workers call some of the plans short-sighted and have spoken out at hearings, demonstrations and town hall meetings about the negative impact on communities and how the changes will leave vulnerable some of Brooklyn’s neediest residents. “I really believe it would not be beneficial for Brookdale or the people at our institution,” says Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center CNA and contract administrator Juliet Samuda, of a proposed merger. Kingsbrook serves the neighborhoods of Crown Heights, East New York and East Flatbush. “The needs here are totally different. We do a lot of long-term care. Brookdale is a trauma hospital. Our people come from this community and they get to trust us. They are like family to us.” Last year, New York State officials brought together the Medicaid Redesign Team (MRT) —
on which 1199SEIU was represented — to help recalibrate the state’s healthcare system. A Brooklyn workgroup of the MRT recommended mergers among Kingsbrook, Brooklyn, Wyckoff, Brookdale and Interfaith hospitals and the encouragement of for-profit investment in hospitals. The MRT determined that Brooklyn’s hospitals have too many beds, are improperly utilized by residents, and spend too much on labor costs and education. “In all honesty I think this is purely political. I worked here in the days when things were so bad we didn’t get paid for three or four weeks at a time. We never heard it being blamed on Medicare or Medicaid,” says Ancil Neil, a medical technologist with 44 years at Wyckoff Heights Medical Center. “Politicians want to point the finger at someone. No one talks about the involvement of the insurance industry.” The story isn’t new or unique. It’s being played out in communities around the country. It’s in Florida at Jackson Memorial. In Washington, D.C. at United Medical Center. In Brooklyn, at places like Wyckoff, Interfaith and Brookdale. They’re all struggling hospitals that serve lots of poor people, uninsured people and people of
heila Arthur-Smith, a patient accounts representative, has been at Interfaith Hospital in BedfordStuyvesant for 24 years. The institution treats a lot of psychiatric and chemical dependent patients. It went through a merger several years ago and is still awash in red ink. Business solutions won’t help a human services system, says Arthur-Smith, who spoke on behalf of the institution at MRT hearings in the fall. “It’s heartbreaking to hear them say they’d close us like they did with St. Mary’s,” she says, referring to the quick closure of another neighborhood hospital in 2005. “They don’t understand the impact on our patients. They have nowhere else to go. A lot of our patients are HIV positive, mentally ill or elderly people. We help them get the services they need. They feel confident coming to our hospital. Hospitals were run before like places where people could feel comfortable coming for their care, regardless of their insurance. Now they’re only judged on if they turn a profit.” Wyckoff Heights Medical Center serves a wide swathe of Brooklyn and Queens. Over the years the institution has come close to being shuttered more than once. In the 1980s things got so bad that workers went without paychecks for several weeks at a time. Throughout the years CEOs came and went, earning high pay, bringing with them new management teams and leaving behind the same problems when they departed. “They come in and they run all over the place and push panic buttons and who suffers when they do this? The community,” says medical technologist Neil of past bosses. “They want to merge and push hospitals ahead and if we don’t do what they say they clamp down on us, but mergers can be detrimental to the institutions involved in them. Instead of closing our hospitals they need to incorporate a real plan to put money into our hospitals so they can serve people.” The MRT has proposed merging Wyckoff with Brooklyn and Interfaith Hospitals. Wyckoff’s new CEO has rejected the idea, citing plans to rebuild independently through sustained efforts like extending privileges to more doctors, expanding ambulatory surgery and opening a federally funded community health center. Workers are cautiously optimistic
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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS PHOTO
and at press time were awaiting approval of state money which would fund the hospital’s expansion plan and outreach efforts. “We’re trying to educate our community,” says Jackie Venner, a cashier in Wyckoff’s finance department for 19 years. “We want to help them go to a doctor, because a lot of people are using the emergency department as their doctor. We’d like to keep our clinics open more hours. There are a lot of factors at work.”
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osephine McKie, a PC nurse at Interfaith, says the system is so dysfunctional that there will likely be some changes in Brooklyn’s hospitals. She wants to keep upheaval to a minimum. “We’ve got to train people how to cope with it. I tell people to make sure that they’ve got all their diplomas and licenses up to date, and if they are not, go and get whatever training you can. I make sure I’m talking to my members all the time,” says McKie, a delegate. Kingsbrook CNA Stephanie Wilson says whatever happens, she hopes that the result benefits her patients. “East New York deserves a stable hospital and the people of Brooklyn deserve a stable healthcare system,” she says. Some 20,000 textile workers in Lawrence, MA faced down police and military troops to win their historic 1912 “Bread and Roses” strike.
They’re all struggling hospitals that serve lots of poor people, uninsured people and people of color and they’ve all been put on the chopping block by axe-wielding politicians. From top: Wyckoff Medical Center delegates Joy Campbell, a laboratory technologist, finance cashier Jackie Venner and medical technologist Ancil Neil.
Bread and Roses Strike Centennial This year marks the 100th anniversary of the historic Bread and Roses strike in Lawrence, MA when 20,000 textile workers — many of them immigrant women — won a monumental crusade for better wages, working conditions and dignity on the job. The strike gets its name from one of its key demands, “We want bread, and roses, too.” The 63-day walkout began when bosses refused to meet with workers about wage adjustments after their workweek had been cut from 56 to 54 hours. With the help of the International Workers of the World, workers quickly organized and began their fight for improved conditions in addition to fair wages. They fought mistreatment at the hands of overseers and the withholding of wages based on production and attendance. The victory was not won easily. Strikers and their children were beaten and harassed by police. And they were ignored, until the strike picked up steam, by the powerful labor organizations of the day who thought it impossible to organize immigrants. It took eight weeks for mill owners to settle. They agreed to a 15% pay raise and to meet with grievance committees. The agreement guaranteed the largest raises to the lowest paid workers and eventually led to pay hikes for 150,000 New England textile workers. PCA Patricia DiMarco lives in Lawrence. Originally from Bogota, Colombia, she’s active in the community and the Union. “It all started with that strike. It started with women and it started with workers. These were people who were tired of being intimidated. They were frustrated and they said enough is enough,” she says. “Now we need to show people how not to be afraid.” The city of Lawrence is celebrating the Bread and Roses strike anniversary with numerous commemorative events. You can log on to: www.breadandrosescentennial.org for more information.
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Design: Milton Glaser