A JOURNAL OF 1199SEIU May/June 2012
TAKING IT TO THE STREETS
At New York City May Day march and rally, Maria Becerra, a member from New Jersey’s Crystal Lake NH, joined thousands in calling for social and economic justice.
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IN OBAMA MODE We’re mobilizing and we can make a difference. PRESIDENT’S COLUMN Stop and frisk is racial profiling. MAY DAY In actions around the country, the 99 percent heeded the call to action. OUR DELEGATE LEADERS Fred Hicks and Teresa Berry bring years of experience to their roles as delegates. WE ARE FAMILY 1199SEIU’s Citizenship Program helps members on the road to U.S. citizenship. THE WORK WE DO Workers at Lawrence Hospital in Bronxville, NY have helped transform the institution. SAVING OUR ENVIRONMENT An interview with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. PEOPLE Boston Medical Center’s Jonathan Hanson runs marathons to raise money for charity. FUKUSHIMA ON THE HUDSON New York State’s Indian Point Nuclear Plant is a threat to millions. NOT SILENCED BY GRIEF Constance Malcolm fights for justice for her lost son and other victims of police brutality. NJ HOMECARE FIGHT Members fight attempt to cut benefits. AROUND THE UNION Labor history: The Paterson Silk Strike; Peninsula Hospital closes; Florida members fight for time for patient care.
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p.13 Our Life And Times, May/June 2012, Vol 30, No 3 Published by 1199SEIU, United Healthcare Workers East 310 West 43rd St. New York, NY 10036 Telephone (212) 582-1890 www.1199seiu.org
Boston Medical Center’s marathoner Jonathan Hanson.
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p.14 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 RAPH :
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.
www.1199seiu.org
EDITORIAL
In demonstrations across the country on May Day, tens of thousands demanded change and justice for the working class.
IN OBAMA MODE We can make the difference.
From now until Nov. 6, the top priority of 1199SEIU is re-electing Pres. Barack Obama. Related to that is maintaining the Democratic majority in the Senate and winning back the House. The fight has begun. In April, the Union began training staff for election work in their regions — Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Maryland/D.C. and Florida — and at least three of the swing states: Virginia, Pennsylvania and New Hampshire. The deployment of staff in June will be followed in the fall by the mobilization of member volunteers. The mobilizations are a rebuttal to those who argue that unions should stay out of politics. Aware that so much of the funding for the institutions that employ our members comes from government sources, we can never be indifferent to
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government and politics. Our very livelihoods and the wellbeing of those we care for depend on government funding and policies. We are not entering the fight alone. Many others are in motion. Before last year, the progressive movement was characterized as percolating. Major protests bubbled up to the surface last year with fightbacks by public workers, most notably in Wisconsin, and the emergence of the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movements. These movements shined a light on income inequality and challenged elected officials to choose sides between the 99 percent and the banking and corporate elite. The Occupy movement created a big tent under which all but the superrich can gather. This year’s May Day events, for
example, brought labor, immigrants, women, students and other progressive movements together with OWS activists (page 5). They hoisted placards and banners calling for economic justice, an end to racial profiling, a path to citizenship for immigrants, relief of student debts and the right of women to choose. And while all organizers of the event didn’t specifically call for the election of the president and members of Congress, it is clear to most that whoever controls the reins of power in our branches of government has a profound effect on our ability to achieve social and economic justice. This issue of Our Life And Times also reports on a subject with important implications for the millions of people who live within 50 miles of the Indian Point nuclear reactors in Westchester County. An article (page 12) and an interview with attorney Robert Kennedy, Jr. (page 10) describe the extreme danger the reactors pose and how the movement to close Indian Point not only protects our environment, but also strengthens our democracy. The story of members who became citizens with the help of the 1199SEIU Citizenship Program (page 7) reminds us of
the millions of workers who are making contributions to our nation, but have yet to find a path to citizenship. We profile a veteran delegate who has traveled the world and continues to use his vast experience to help co-workers. Another veteran worker describes the joy of becoming a delegate late in life (page 6). Constance Malcolm, a member at Cedar Manor NH in Ossining, NY, was interviewed just days before Mother’s Day about her son Ramarley Graham, who was shot dead by police in his family’s Bronx apartment (page 13). She describes how she’s harnessed her grief to help put an end to racial profiling and thus protect other parents from experiencing her pain. What all the struggles highlighted in this issue have in common is that they would be far more difficult to win with Mitt Romney in the White House.
The Occupy movement created a big tent under which all but the superrich can gather.
THE PRESIDENT’S COLUMN George Gresham
Discrimination by Another Name ‘Stop and Frisk’ is racial profiling. By now, the entire world knows about Trayvon Martin, the Black teenager “armed” only with a bag of Skittles, shot to death by a vigilante in Florida. Tragic and shameful as that murder is, it has been portrayed as an isolated incident because of the widespread protest movement that has grown up around the case. But it is not isolated. Quite the opposite: abusing and harassing unarmed people of color—especially young people—is becoming increasingly commonplace. And more often than not, the abusers and killers are not vigilantes but officers of the law. In this issue of Our Life And Times you will read an interview with 1199SEIU member Constance Malcolm, the mother of Black teenager Ramarley Graham who, also unarmed, was shot to death in the bathroom of his family’s apartment by a member of the New York Police Department who entered the Bronx apartment without even a search warrant. This is a national disgrace that plays out in various ways on the streets of nearly every city in the country from Seattle to San Diego, New Orleans to Chicago. But we in 1199SEIU have to marshal our forces where we live, and nothing hits closer to home than the murder of one of our own members’ children. (It shouldn’t be ignored that Trayvon Martin was a friend and classmate of other 1199 members’ children in Florida.) In New York City, our Union’s home base, the police department, under Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, has instituted a “stop and frisk” policy that is nothing less than racial profiling. In 2011, nearly 700,000 New Yorkers—half between the ages of 14 and 24—were stopped and frisked by the police. Eighty-seven percent were Black or Latino or Asian, nine percent white. Most importantly, 88 percent were found to be totally innocent of any wrongdoing that would even cause suspicion. It should be obvious that the NYPD is not stopping and frisking New Yorkers who live on the Upper East Side, Tribeca, Gramercy Park and the other One Percent communities, despite the statistically disproportionate use of cocaine and other illegal substances—as only one crime—among the wealthy. This class bias is also reflected in the NYPD’s enthusiastic use of pepper-spray, kettle-containment and mass arrests of union members, students and other Occupy activists; and in the widespread surveillance of Muslims, going so far as to spy on Muslim students in states far from New York. Enough is enough. It is important that we have police and public safety. But it is disastrous that we have a police-state mentality and atmosphere. That’s why our Union, together with the NAACP and the National Action Network have initiated a Father’s Day March Against Racial Profiling in New York on June 17. We have already been joined by a widely diverse coalition that includes the NYC Central Labor Council, the teachers’, building service workers’, transport workers and a host of other unions, New York Civil Liberties Union, Working Families Party, and numerous state and city elected officials. (Ask your Organizer or Delegate or visit www.1199seiu.org for details.) A number of countries in the world allow their people the right to speak and peacefully assemble, but not many have that right guaranteed and enshrined in a Constitution. So it is a bit ironic that so few Americans exercise those rights. And even when they do, the corporate media often ignores them, and the police often abuse them. Speaking out and mobilizing our “strength in numbers” has never been a problem for 1199, however. We were born in struggle and fighting for what’s right for our members, our families, our patients and our communities is in the DNA of our Union. Our voices and our bodies are needed now more than ever. In the names of Ramarley Graham, Trayvon Martin and unknown hundreds of thousands of “stop and frisk” victims, we urge you to tie on your sneakers and marching shoes and join together this Father’s Day. I look forward to marching together with you for a better, more just tomorrow.
SELMA TO MONTGOMERY was blessed to have the opportunity to participate in the anniversary Selma to Montgomery civil rights march and to commemorate the anniversary of Bloody Sunday in March. When I was in my home country of Guyana during my years at school, we learned about what had been going on in America. We learned about segregation and how people of color were treated. This treatment was unacceptable then, and ever since we have been marching and fighting for equality. While on the march on the streets of Alabama, we proudly marched for what we believed in just as the people who marched 46 years ago — justice and equality for all people. We were cheered on by the residents of Alabama who lined both sides of the streets. It filled our hearts with courage and assurance, so that we forgot the pain in the soles of our feet. We marched. We shouted. We lifted our banners high. We have faith we will win this battle, because what we believe in is right. We shouted, “Yes We Can.” I once read in my Bible that “all things are possible if you believe.” That’s why I marched on. As we met our final destination, there was a beautiful sight of all God’s creations joined together in peace. As we listened to the speakers—Rev. Al Sharpton, Rev. Jesse Jackson and our President George Gresham—talk about how strong they still were regardless of how they were treated, we cheered in agreement. As they spoke, our hearts sometimes filled with grief, but we will never give up because we all know that almighty God did not bring us this far to leave us now.
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JOSEPHINE WILLIAMS Rite Aide #4613, Brooklyn, NY
OUR CHOICE IN NOVEMBER s a lifetime labor guy, I never thought that I would miss such Republican stalwarts as Senators Everett Dirksen and Bob Dole, or former President Jerry Ford. They look good in comparison to the current crop of misfits leading the Republican Party. Any working person who is not voting this November, or worse still, is planning to vote Republican should take a close look at some Republican initiatives.
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They include: outlawing collective bargaining, deporting twelve million undocumented workers, eliminating the minimum wage, establishing permanent tax loopholes and tax breaks for the super rich, maintaining corporate welfare and subsidies for oil companies, legalizing the actions of sociopathic predators through “stand your ground” laws, denying women access to health care, making it possible for anyone to carry a concealed weapon, etc., etc. The people behind these initiatives are very wealthy, very powerful, and want absolute control. We must stop them. But we also must remember that stopping them is only an immediate goal. Our ultimate goals include health care as a right, a job as a right, a living wage as a right, higher education or vocational training as a right, safe schools that are well equipped as a right and an organization of working people who will safeguard and maintain these rights. The United States of America is the richest country in the world. Yet we are woefully behind most if not all industrialized countries in quality of life factors such as health care, wages, and benefits. We are also the only industrial country that does not have a labor party. There are several reasons for this, institutionalized racism not being the least. Corporate interests have used race as a buffer in dividing the working class for centuries. This has to be fought and reversed. But first we must win in November. The differences are monumental. President Obama – the community organizer in South Chicago, the son of a single-parent mom raised with the assistance of food stamps, the constitutional law scholar — stands in stark contrast to Mitt Romney, a guy who amassed a tremendous personal fortune while destroying the lives of many working people. JIM GILBERT St. Barnabas Hospital, Bronx, NY
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.
PHOTO COURTESY JOSEPHINE WILLIAMS
1199er Josephine Williams (in yellow slicker) at Selma 2012. 1199SEIU Maria May/JuneSec. • OurTreas. Life And Times Castaneda, second from right.
Letters
MAY DAY
A May Day for the 99 Percent Workers heed the call to a national day of action.
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his year in the U.S., spurred by the Occupy Wall Street movement, May Day was a day of national action. From Oakland, CA to New York City, tens of thousands of 99 percenters participated in protests and demonstrations that ranged from bank branch pickets to street theater performances to mass rallies. Inspirited by the ever broadening gap between the haves and have-nots, demonstrators demanded the ouster of the Wall St. oligarchy and an end to the ceaseless right-wing attacks on working people, immigrants, women, students and people of color. In New York City, a contingent of 1199ers was among the thousands who rallied in lower Manhattan’s Union Square before marching downtown to Wall St. “It’s important for us to make our voices heard for justice. We teach workers that we have to stand together and fight and when we do we are a big force. To try to do it by ourselves is no good,” said Jeanitha Louigene, a CNA at Genesis Healthcare in Parsippany, NJ. “So I feel I have a special obligation to be here on May Day and represent all the workers in New Jersey.” At the Union Square rally, there were musical performances, including one from a jazz band that played on behalf or the American Federation of Musicians. Speakers included representatives from the labor movement, elected officials, entertainers and other progressives who touched on a wide array of topics in their remarks— from organizing rights to stop and frisk.
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ew York City Council member Jumaane Williams drew loud cheers and a chorus of “Agitate! Agitate!” after his fiery declaration. “The poor people are tired. The middle class is tired. The workers are rising up, and we’re tired. We’re going to sustain this agitation until we get some relief,” promised Williams. The lively, musical demonstration presented a diverse sea of colorful printed and homemade signs. Unions were wellrepresented; banners and signs from 1199SEIU, the United Auto Workers, the United Federation of Teachers, LIUNA and SEIU Local 32 BJ could all be seen. Innumerable placards were emblazoned with “We Are The 99%” and others challenged: “Take Back The Future” or “Legalize, Organize, Unionize.” 1199SEIU retiree Vincent King took time out from a visit to New York from Florida to participate. “All my life I have supported unions. Even before I came to this country, I was in a union. I will always stand with them to continue the struggle,” said King. “May Day came from the working people who struggled before my time and my goal now is to empower people and help others unionize and organize on their job. I want to get them involved and let them know what a union really means for the working class.”
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n other 1199SEIU regions, actions included an Occupy Miami march joined by public employees who rallied in support of the city’s struggling and threatened Jackson Memorial Hospital. In Baltimore, Postal Workers and UniteHere! members were among the trade unionists who marched alongside Occupy Baltimore in that city’s demonstration. And in Boston, home of the Occupy movement’s longest standing encampment, demonstrators marched on bank branches, through the city’s financial district and held a “funeral” to celebrate the death of capitalism.
“It’s important for us to make our voices heard for justice.” – Genesis Healthcare CNA Jeanitha Louigene
1199 retiree Vincent King (shown below) was among those who joined thousands in New York City May Day rally and march.
Our Delegate Leaders
A WORLD OF UNION ON A NATURAL KNOWLEDGE HIGH Fred Hicks has worked at Staten Island’s Silver Lake NH for 43 years. For 41 of those years, Hicks, a porter, has led countless campaigns and represented fellow workers as a shop delegate and Union local leader. “I grew up surrounded by unions and touched by politics,” Hicks says, recalling his early days in Georgetown, Guyana, where he was born, and Trinidad, where he was raised. He joined the merchant marines as a young man, which took him to ports around the world. “I sailed on ships under Scandinavian, British and U.S. flags,” he recalls. “I learned early on that working people had to stick together. I remember speaking in Liverpool, England, as a young man as a member of the National Maritime Union.” Back in the U.S., Hicks became a Silver Lake delegate and fought alongside Local 144 Pres. Peter Ottley to win Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday as a union holiday. He was soon elected to 144’s executive council. And when Local 144 merged with 1199SEIU in 1998, Hicks was once again elected to the executive council. He has been re-elected in every subsequent election. “I have decades of union experience, but I’m still learning,” he says. “At one time, Local 144 was the largest healthcare union in SEIU. Today 1199SEIU is so much bigger. And one of the major lessons I’ve learned in 1199SEIU is the awesome power Fred Hicks
“I don’t know when I’ll retire,” he says. “What I would like to see before that date comes is a unified labor movement under one federation.” of political action. “In the past, I wasn’t too interested in electoral politics,” he says. “Today I’ve come to see how it makes a difference. Politicians, for example, have to listen to us. They know we can make them as well as break them.” Hicks is not shy about expressing his opinion. Many recall his inspiring remarks on a multitude of issues during Union gatherings. “Having an experienced delegate like Fred to help younger members and explain the progress we’ve made makes my job easier,” says 1199SEIU VP Frances Gentle. Hicks continues to preach unity. “I don’t know when I’ll retire,” he says. “What I would like to see before that date comes is a unified labor movement under one federation.”
Teresa Berry has been a healthcare worker for 33 years. For the last eight years, she has worked as a patient care tech at Northwest Medical Center. Northwest is in the small city of Margate in Florida’s Broward County. Last year, Berry’s life took a big turn. “I obviously didn’t see what others saw in me,” she says. “I really didn’t think I had the brains or the experience to be a leader.” But others did, specifically 1199SEIU organizer Stella Williams and Northwest delegate Agnes Ferguson. They encouraged Berry to get involved in the Union and urged her to become a delegate. “They put me at ease by patiently answering my questions,” she says. “And they helped me find the confidence to speak to my co-workers. I stopped selling myself short and joined the fight.” Berry says that although she has learned a lot during the last year, her basic philosophy has not changed much. “I strongly believe that people should stand together for what they believe in and to fight for a common cause,” she says. She did not realize that she would have so much fun helping others to do so. “Going with my Union sisters and brothers earlier this year to Tallahassee (the state capital) to support healthcare funding was awesome,” she says. “I felt like a person on a natural high. I super enjoy being a delegate and helping to build our Union.”
“I’ve learned that you can’t judge a book by its cover, and you should approach even those who you think might not be receptive to the Union. I’m a good example of that. We’ll keep on pushing to sign folks up.” Berry says she has no illusions about working in a Southern right-to-work state. “It’s frustrating at times to talk to non-members. My department, for example, was a hard nut to crack. But I’ve learned that you can’t judge a book by its cover, and you should approach even those who you think might not be receptive to the Union. I’m a good example of that. We’ll keep on pushing to sign folks up.” Berry says that her activity and enthusiasm have led to other workers seeking her out. “If coworkers approach me during working hours, I make a mental note and I let them know when I’ll be available to talk.”
Teresa Berry
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We Are Family Immigrant members given path to citizenship.
1199SEIU has always been a Union devoted to moving its members from the margins to the mainstream. The Union was founded in 1932 by New York City drugstore workers, many of them Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe. In 1958, these workers took on the daunting task of organizing hospital workers who at the time made as little as $32 for a 48hour work-week. That successful campaign brought thousands of poor, mostly women of color out of the shadow of poverty into the sunlight of a living wage and first-class benefits. Since then, the Union has developed programs to help members on the job and in their homes and communities. 1199SEIU has always fought to ensure that all workers are treated with dignity and respect regardless of their place of birth or legal status. To that end, the 1199SEIU Citizenship Program offers counseling, workshops, classes and application assistance to help immigrant members gain U.S. citizenship. “When I took the citizenship oath last July, it was one of the happiest times in my life,” says Zhana Rakhman, a home attendant for Stella Orton Home Care Agency in Staten Island, New York. Rakhman emigrated in 2005 from Belarus in Eastern Europe to Staten Island with her husband and then 12-year-old daughter. “We won green cards and I had a friend in Staten Island who encouraged us to come,” Rakhman says. “At first, my daughter, Alena, was homesick and wanted to return, but that has changed. Now she has lots of friends. She’s a freshman in college and only wants to speak English.” Rakhman did not waste time beginning the citizenship process. She took English courses at her local public library and joined the 1199SEIU Citizenship Program, where she
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took advantage of the workshops and classes. She and her husband, Viktar, a mechanic, recently bought a co-op apartment. “There is so much to do and enjoy,” she says. “I am very happy to be here. I love walking in Manhattan. During my time off, I go to museums and shows. I’ve even been to Carnegie Hall.” Alvin Allen, a unit secretary at Montefiore Hospital in the Bronx, arrived in New York in 1990 from St. Mary’s parish in Jamaica. His passion was music, so citizenship was not uppermost in his mind, he recalls. “Becoming a citizen was something I eventually wanted to do,” he says. “But I never took the initiative. I did per diem work at the hospital before I joined the Union. After that, I finally had full rights in the Union, so why not have full rights in the country, I thought. “My wife started pushing me and I picked up a flier at work from the Citizenship Program. I joined the program and it is one of the best things I’ve ever done. The program was excellent. I found that I was given any help that I needed.” Allen and Rakhman were among the members who participated in the Union’s January celebration for its new citizens. Allen also sang at the event a year earlier. He’s written a reggae song entitled “I Got My Citizenship.” “I encourage all 1199ers who aren’t citizens to look into the program,” he says. “In that way, you’ll be able to experience the best this country has to offer.” Rakhman and Allen both say that they are looking forward to this year’s presidential election. “I was an Obama supporter in 2008, but I couldn’t vote for him,” Allen says. “I’m looking forward to voting for him this year.”
“You’ll be able to experience the best this country has to offer.” – Alvin Allen, Montefiore Medical Center unit secretary Above: Alvin Allen with wife, Nije Togba. Below: Zhana Rakhman, Stella Orton Agency home attendant
THE WORK WE DO:
Lawrence Hospital The struggle at Lawrence Hospital in Bronxville, NY is a milestone in 1199SEIU history. April marked 10 years since Lawrence workers won Union representation after a campaign that began in 1965. Today’s Lawrence is a different place, thanks to the work of strong delegates, dedicated negotiating committee members and positive labor-management relations focused on providing the best care. 1199SEIU represents 317 workers at the Westchester County institution, including housekeeping, nursing assistants and food service workers. In May, Our Life And Times visited Lawrence’s kitchen and the workers responsible for nourishing the busy hospital’s patients, staff and visitors.
1. Marianne Pappas, who is responsible for cleaning trays, distributing meals and making sure carts are clean and ready for mealtime, has worked at Lawrence for 30 years. “At the end of the day I’m exhausted, but I work out at Curves. That helps me keep up my energy,” she says.
5. Cook Donovan Headley is a delegate and member of Lawrence’s contract negotiating committee and has been there for 30 years. “Things are much better here now, especially since we have job security,” says Headley. “We also have a new management that’s more in tune with the rights of the workers.”
2. “I kind of float around. One minute I’m doing cooking, the next minute I’m working as a porter,” says Craig Brown, who has been at Lawrence for four years. “But my main position is a porter.”
6. “Sometimes I serve the line or I’ll take care of the dirty utensils. Other days I serve breakfast or lunch,” says food service worker Alfonso Paye. “I also work in the dish room as a porter. I basically do everything a food service worker does.”
3. Nobody gets past cafeteria cashier Nikki Ghebrengus, at Lawrence 30 years. “I really like the people here. They’re good people,” she says. “I see almost everyone every day and I know almost everyone by name.” 4. Gannie Bryan has been at Lawrence for 32 years. “I have always worked in the kitchen,” she says. “I do the salad bar and the prepared sandwiches. I do whatever is out there that’s not the sandwich bar.”
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“Things are much better here now, especially since we have job security.” — Cook Donovan Headley
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INTERVIEW
Saving Our Environment Is Saving Our Democracy
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obert F. Kennedy, Jr., is one of the world’s leading environmentalists and the author of many books and articles on the subject. He is the senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, chief prosecuting attorney for Riverkeeper, a watchdog organization, and chairman of the worldwide Waterkeeper Alliance. Our Life And Times interviewed Kennedy on May 1 in his office at Pace University School of Law’s Environmental Litigation Clinic in White Plains, NY, where Kennedy is a clinical professor and supervising attorney. Q. Why does Riverkeeper, an organization devoted to defending the Hudson River and our drinking water, devote so much of its time to the campaign to close the Indian Point nuclear reactors? A. First of all, the Indian Point power plants suck up 1.7 million gallons of water a minute. That’s virtually the entire fresh water flow of the Hudson River. It sucks the water through giant screens, super heats it and then discharges it back into the river. Indian Point also is one of the biggest fish-killing devices ever created. It kills a million fish a day. The great risk is that there will be an accident and the Hudson River will be ruined for eons. Some of the radioactive material that would be released wouldn’t
degrade for 30,000 years. Indian Point has the worst accident record of any nuclear plant in the nation. A serious accident there would make New York City uninhabitable. And there is no way to evacuate the more than 10 million people in the New York metropolitan region. In our country, the insurance industry is the final arbiter of risk. And the insurance industry has told Indian Point that it is too risky to insure. Q. What do you say to those who claim that nuclear power should be embraced as a clean alternative to dirty fossil fuels such as oil and coal? A. There are a lot cheaper and safer ways to make energy than nuclear power. For example,
right now I’m a partner in the biggest green tech venture capital firm in the world, Vantage Point. We’re building a power plant in the Mojave Desert that will be the largest in America, 2.7 gigawatts, three times the size of nuclear plants. We’re doing this at one-fifth the cost of a typical nuclear plant and it will be built in one-tenth the time. My home in Mt. Kisco, for example produces far more energy using renewables than we use. If we had a national grid that everyone could connect to, we could lower the cost of energy to almost nothing. Nuclear is too expensive and, worse, too unsafe. Q. You say that the fight for our environment is a fight for democracy. How so? A. First of all, the best measure of how a democracy functions is how it distributes the goods of the land – the air, wildlife, trees, public lands, the aquifers, the beaches, the shorelines, the things by their nature that are not susceptible to private ownership. They are the shared resources of a community. That’s why they are called the commons. Everyone has a right to these whether they are rich, poor, Black, white. No rich person can claim a greater right to a
“NO ONE HAS THE RIGHT TO STEAL THE AIR FROM OUR CHILDREN’S LUNGS.”
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PEOPLE
“THE INSURANCE INDUSTRY HAS TOLD INDIAN POINT THAT IT IS TOO RISKY TO INSURE.” public park. We all own the fish in the river. If somebody puts poison in the air, they are stealing the air from our lungs. That’s a theft. One out of every four Black kids in New York has asthma. Someone is stealing the air from their lungs. No one has the right to steal the air from our children’s lungs. Here in our state, General Electric stole the fish in the Hudson through its mercury pollution. Pollution and environmental racism are not consistent with democracy. Democracy and the commons go hand in hand. The first act of any tyrant is to privatize the public trusts. Those who seize the commons do so by getting rid of transparency in government, by capturing our regulatory agencies and corrupting public officials. Q. You often use terms like public trusts, public assets and commons when speaking in defense of our environment, yet you say you support free-market capitalism and private enterprise. Isn’t that a contradiction? A. Not really. Free-market enterprise operates under different rules than the commons. But both free-market capitalism and the commons, or public assets, need to be regulated. The question is, regulation in whose interests? The free market is the most powerful economic engine that’s ever been invented. But it has to be harnessed to a social purpose, otherwise it would lead us down the road to oligarchy and plutocracy where a few giant corporations are running our lives and running our country. We have to harness it for good as opposed to bad. Q. How do you harness it? A. You have to devise rules to make it possible for people to make money by doing good things for our country rather than evil. This is true in every sector, but I’ll give you an example from the energy industry. Utility companies traditionally make money by getting their customers to use energy wastefully. In California we changed the rules so that utility companies can make money by doing good things such as getting their customers to use renewables and to conserve power. In California, the largest and most populous state in the country, each person uses on average 6,000 kilowatt hours per year. The rest of us use 13,000. Therefore, anything produced in the state is more competitive, because it’s produced with less energy. In short, our energy laws in most of the country have been written by the oil, coal and nuclear industries to reward the dirtiest, most poisonous, most destructive fuels from hell. Instead we should reward renewables, the greenest, cleanest, most abundant and most patriotic fuels from heaven.
GOING THE DISTANCE Boston Medical Center’s Jonathan Hanson is a marathon runner.
A couple of years ago Jonathan Hanson, a service representative at Boston Medical Center, was at something of a crossroads. Hanson says he was looking for something to re-focus him — a project, maybe — when a co-worker invited him to a meeting of Team In Training. Team In Training raises money for cancer research by coaching teams of fundraising recreational athletes for endurance races like marathons and triathlons. Hanson went to the meeting and in March 2011, crossed the finish line at Italy’s Rome Marathon in just a little over six hours. He also raised $5,500 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of America. “The training was very intense,” he says. “It was very different for me. Training for a marathon is amazing. I never thought I could run that far. I never knew about structure as far as nutrition or eating right the night before a long run; things like staying hydrated throughout the week. If I didn’t eat well I felt it.” This April, Hanson took on the Madrid Marathon in Spain, a race with a course characterized by some of his team’s more seasoned marathoners as one of the world’s toughest. “It’s very hilly and in the middle there’s a park that’s very desolate. If you rely on the energy of the crowds, you can really lose it in there,” he says. “Running there I felt like I was back on the Charles River by myself on a training run.” Madrid also has a six-hour time limit, which is strictly enforced by taking runners off the course if they haven’t hit certain markers by a set time. “I almost got swept up, but I was able to catch up with my coach. I didn’t come all that way to cross the finish line in a van. I was determined. My mind just carried my body and when I crossed the finish line my team was cheering really loud for me,” he says. Hanson finished in 5:53. Hanson is looking towards a half marathon in Rhode Island in the summer and another full marathon next year, though he hasn’t picked one out yet. “It’s really lifted me up to know that I can commit to five or six months of training and reach a goal. Running has taught me that if I set my mind to something, I can do it,” he says. “These marathons have done a lot to lift my spirits. I’m turning 30 in a month — another milestone. I can say I’ve run two marathons and raised all that money for a charity. It’s a good thing.”
Q. What would you suggest we do to get more people and unions involved in the struggle to reclaim and clean up our environment? A. The thing that people have to get involved in is reclaiming our democracy. Real democracy would reorder our priorities. Once we do that, the environment is going to clean itself. All pollution is illegal. It’s just that democracy has been subverted, and the environmental laws aren’t enforced. It’s more important to change your politician than it is to change the car that you drive or your light bulb. ROSE LINCOLN PHOTO
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“Running has taught me that if I set my mind to something, I can do it.” — Jonathan Hanson
OUR ENVIRONMENT
ROGER WITHERSPOON PHOTO
FUKUSHIMA ON THE HUDSON
Indian Point reactors threaten millions.
Above: Visiting Japanese antinuclear activists at a recent protest near Indian Point. Japan has closed all its nuclear power plants. Below: The Indian Point reactor
nuclear power plant is located over fault lines that make it vulnerable to a strong earthquake, the public is entitled to know that New York has in place a comprehensive and well-prepared plan that can save the lives of millions of New Yorkers, including those downwind of the Indian Point nuclear power plant.” There are reasons to question the safety of the plant. Riverkeeper reports on its website that “Indian Point has been granted so many exemptions from safety rules in the last 10 years that an NRC spokesman says he couldn’t possibly recount them all.” Other reasons for closure include:
Can a nuclear reactor disaster such as the one last year in Fukushima, Japan, happen here? Many say yes. That is why 1199SEIU’s Executive Council has called for the closing of the Indian Point nuclear reactors in New York’s Westchester County. A disaster of the same scale at Indian Point would necessitate the evacuation of as many as 20 million people, effectively crippling the New York metropolitan region. “I have many questions about the Indian Point plant,” says 1199SEIU CNA Betty Whitehead of Brandywine NH in Briarcliff Manor, within 10 miles of Indian Point. “I have a long work week, and I’m very busy, so I don’t think about the plant much. But when it makes the news and someone raises questions about it such as comparing it to Fukushima, I begin to wonder.” The Union has teamed with Riverkeeper, a non-profit watchdog organization dedicated to defending the Hudson River and its tributaries and protecting the drinking water supply of New York City and Hudson Valley residents, in the campaign to close the Indian Point reactors.
• The problem of where to store the spent fuel, • Two earthquake fault lines cross just north of Indian Point. The NRC has determined that Indian Point is the worst location in the region for a nuclear plant, • New York City’s most important drinking water reservoir lies 15 miles from Indian Point, • The energy generated by Indian Point is not needed. Our lights will not go out if the plant closes.
Indian Point was originally a threereactor nuclear power station. Reactor 1 was shut down on October 31, 1974, because its cooling system did not meet regulatory requirements. The licenses for Reactors 2 and 3 are set to expire in 2013 and 2015 respectively. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is moving toward granting Entergy Corporation — Indian Point’s owner — a 20-year extension for each reactor. Opponents say the reasons for closing the plants are many, not the least of which is the absence of an evacuation plan by Entergy. In March, Bronx Assemblywoman Naomi Rivera called for a state public hearing to examine evacuation and emergency preparedness in case of a radiation leak at the facility. In her call, Assemblywoman Rivera said: “As scrutiny of nuclear energy facilities across the nation grows and with the revelation that the Indian Point
Riverkeeper also has a response to those who oppose the closing of the plant because of the economic impact and the possible loss of jobs. That was not the case when the Maine Yankee nuclear power plant unexpectedly shut down in 1997, Riverkeeper spokespersons say. While some Yankee workers took early retirement, others took other jobs in the energy industry, and at least 300 employees stayed on during the eight-year decommissioning process. Workers can also be trained for green jobs in the industry. 1199SEIU is calling on New York Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand to convene Senate hearings on Indian Point’s evacuation plan. It supports Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s call to decommission the plant and to move forward quickly with investments in energy efficiency, renewable energy, and new electric transmission projects.
“They can’t insure our safety.”
May/June • Our Life And Times
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OUR UNION
GRIEF WILL NOT SILENCE HER Constance Malcolm is determined to win justice for her lost son and all victims of racial profiling and police brutality.
T
he two-family house on 229th street in the Wakefield section of the Bronx looks like millions of others in New York City; vinyl siding, white wrought iron fence, a brick porch, kids playing in the yard. It’s the house that a lot of us grew up in. Now that house has become a memorial for 18-year-old Ramarley Graham, who was gunned down on Feb. 2 by New York City Police while his grandmother and six-year-old brother looked on helplessly. Graham’s death occurred about two weeks before the killing of Trayvon Martin in Sanford, FL. Though Trayvon’s shooting and the Sanford police’s subsequent failure to arrest neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman sparked national outrage, Graham’s case is less well known. Still, both have focused attention on the deadly consequences of unchecked legislation like Stand Your Ground laws and the harsh police tactics like the NYPD’s stop and frisk policy. Graham’s death hits the Union particularly close to home because his mother, Constance Malcolm, is member at Cedar Manor Nursing Home in Ossining, NY. Malcolm and Franclot Graham, Ramarley’s father, are broken-hearted, but they refuse to let their grief silence them, she says. “Sometimes it’s hard for me just to get out of bed, but I feel that I have to let this be known,” Malcolm told Our Life And Times in a recent interview conducted at her attorney’s Manhattan office. “The cops come into our neighborhoods, and they don’t respect us. They don’t listen to us. They mistreat us. When I was a kid growing up the cops knew us and used to play with us. They don’t do that any more. We don’t know who to trust. I know not all cops are bad, but I have to speak up.”
G
raham was fatally wounded by officer Richard Haste when police forcibly and without a warrant entered the young man’s apartment. Police contend that Graham was evading them during an undercover drug investigation and had what looked like a gun; video clearly shows the teenager walking calmly into his Bronx home, then police swarming the porch and pounding violently on the front door. Shortly after, Graham was dead, shot in the chest in the bathroom of his family’s apartment. Though the details of Trayvon’s and Ramarley’s cases differ, they expose for the broader public things people of color and the poor have long known: law enforcement’s endemic double standards and the brutal over-reactive tactics used by cops. “These kids are so scared they don’t even know what the cops are going to do to them; they throw themselves up against the wall before the cops can do it,” says Malcolm. “We want the cops in our community, but if they work in our communities they should live here, too. This stop and frisk is unevenly used,
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and our kids don’t even know their rights.” The deaths have mobilized 1199ers in the fight against stop and frisk, stand your ground and liberalized concealed weapon permits. The New York Times recently reported serious flaws in studies indicating that gun ownership actually reduces violent crime. And statistics show that stop and frisks don’t help apprehend criminals. In 2011 in New York City, less than 1% of 685, 274 stop and frisks yielded a discovery of a gun, an arrest or even a ticket issued to the person stopped. Pearl Gooden, a CNA from Tampa, was among the 1199ers who have demonstrated in Sanford, demanding the arrest of Zimmerman and for the repeal of the state’s Stand Your Ground law. Too many lives have been lost, says Gooden. “I’m a grandmother. This could have been my 19-year-old granddaughter,” said Gooden at a March 31 demonstration. “This could have been my neighbor’s child. We all know Trayvon Martin.”
A
t Thursday night vigils at Ramarley Graham’s home in the Bronx, neighbors, community and religious leaders and other concerned citizens have gathered regularly to call for justice for him, Trayvon and all families who have been the victims of police brutality. After each vigil there is a march to Wakefield’s 47th Police precinct. “We chose to have 18 vigils because my son Ramarley was 18, and we chose Thursdays because he died on a Thursday,” says his mother. “They are bringing the community together. I’ve met two people I didn’t even know who are now with me morning, noon and night. I have gotten so much support.” Other trade unionists regularly attending the vigils include members from CUNY’s Professional Staff Congress and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. “These kinds of attacks only happen to working or poor people. They only happen to people who work to pay their rents, or mortgage or food bills,” said Sneferu Boatwright, a pharmaceutical worker and member of Teamster’s Local 210. “If anything is going to change, we need to unite and support each other.” Constance Malcolm says she’s strengthened by the vigils and the presence of other mothers who have shared her grief. Her May 10 birthday, three days before Mother’s Day, was dedicated to her children Ramarley and his six-year-old brother Chinnor Campbell, she says. “I always told my kids that if you want something you have to fight for it, so I’m going to keep fighting even though some days I just want to lie down,” she says. For more information about the vigils in remembrance of Ramarley Graham or how you can get involved in the fight against police brutality, log on to www.ramarleyscall.org or send an email to ramarleyscall@gmail.com.
Constance Malcolm holding a t-shirt memorializing her son Ramarley Graham, shot by an NYPD member on Feb. 2, as his younger brother Chinnor Campbell, 6, (at left) looked on.
“We want the cops in our community, but if they work in our communities they should live here too. This stop and frisk is unevenly used, and our kids don’t even know their rights.” — Constance Malcolm
OUR UNION
“We’re not going to be able to survive.” 1199SEIU frequently reaffirms its support for the Affordable Care Act and its emphasis on person-centered care. The Union also backs efforts to ensure that sufficient Medicaid and Medicare funding is provided to states to guarantee the success of the new initiatives. But, far too often that is not the case. 1199ers have been forced to battle state legislatures that have slashed Medicaid budgets as well as employers who have used those cuts as a smokescreen for further cuts and unionbusting polices. That is why on April 25, New Jersey lawmakers joined home health aides on a picket line in Roselle, NJ, to protest an attempt by Personal Touch Home Health Services to cut the workers’ hourly wages by as much as 30 cents. Personal Touch provides in-home health services for the elderly and disabled. Some 355 members would be affected by the wage cut. Personal Touch, in fact, unilaterally cut wages in August 2010, but was forced by a National Labor Relations Board ruling to reimburse the workers. But during the recent round of negotiations, beginning March 19, it has once again sought givebacks. Workers now earn about $10 per hour, and a few earn less than $9 an hour. “There are a lot of single mothers here, and I’m one of them,” declared Personal Touch home health aide Bianca Leon on the April 25 picket line. “My co-workers and I are working very hard every day to care for our patients that management has never even met. If the wage cuts happen, we’re not going to be able to survive. It is already so hard to make ends meet.”
April 25 picket by members from New Jersey’s Personal Touch homecare agency who are fighting severe wage cuts.
NJ Homecare Members Fight for Themselves and Clients Contract fight has important implications in state.
Some 10,000 baby boomers retire every day in the U.S. By 2030, there will be more than 72 million senior citizens in our nation. And virtually all of them will need some form of long-term care. The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) announced in April three new programs under the Affordable Care Act to help Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries receive care at home or in their communities, rather than having to be admitted to a hospital or nursing home. “We know that people frequently prefer to receive services in their own homes and communities whenever possible,” said Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius of the programs. Studies have shown that home and community-based care can lead to better health outcomes, Sebelius noted.
For aide Francisca Martinez the situation is extremely grave. “Basically, it seems as if we work just to pay for transportation,” she says. “If management cuts our wages, we would have to work twice as hard to support our families.” The struggle has important implications for health care in New Jersey. “The state is focusing more and more on home and community-based services as an alternative to institutional care,” said Clauvice St. Hilaire, acting Exec. VP of the 1199SEIU New Jersey region. “It’s important that we pay close attention to the standards being set in the industry, and that we work together to maintain the quality of patient care wherever it’s administered.” Among the New Jersey elected officials who expressed their support at the rally were Assemblyman Joseph Cryan (D-Union), Assemblywoman Annette Quijano (DElizabeth), Assemblyman Gary Schaer (D-Passaic), Assemblyman Tom Giblin (DEast Orange), as well as Roselle Borough Mayor Jamel Holley. In addition to those in attendance, some 38 lawmakers signed a letter to Personal Touch management urging a fair settlement. The signers included U.S. Senators Frank Lautenberg and Robert Menendez.
May/June • Our Life And Times
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Around the Union
LABOR HISTORY: THE PATERSON SILK STRIKE OF 1913
PENINSULA HOSPITAL CLOSES After numerous efforts to save the institution — including rallies and demonstrations by determined 1199SEIU members there — Peninsula Hospital in Far Rockaway in New York City has been forced to close its doors. 1199SEIU represents some 500 workers at Peninsula. They are protected by the Union’s Job Security Fund, which provides education and training, job placement assistance and extends workers’ health coverage. The century-old hospital in southeastern Queens struggled for years with debt exacerbated by low Medicaid reimbursement rates, mismanagement and the unwillingness of the NYS Department of Health to invest money in keeping open community hospitals.
Greenwich Village also took up the workers’ cause. Paterson’s wealthy factory owners were powerful, controlling the press and keeping news and stories of the strike out of the papers. The public had little idea of Paterson’s desperate conditions — near-starvation hunger and poverty — and management’s refusal to budge. A major contribution of the artist community was the organization of a pageant, held in June, 1913, at Manhattan’s Madison Square Garden, which told the strikers’ story. The public responded overwhelmingly with large contributions to the strike’s relief fund. By July a series of strikes had spread to other silk manufacturing centers in New York, Connecticut and Pennsylvania. It looked as if their emergence might break the Paterson bosses’ stranglehold and the strikers could finally claim victory, but unfortunately Pennsylvania would be the weak link in the chain. With its workers the least militant group of strikers, Pennsylvania’s silk industry wasn’t as badly crippled as the others and bosses simply outsourced their orders to PA factories. The silk workers eventually went back to work and negotiated shop-by-shop improvements. In 1916 and 1919 Paterson’s silk workers again went back to collectively bargain for better conditions and pay. They won major concessions from bosses who were afraid to risk another strike like the one in 1913. You can learn more about the Silk Strike by visiting the American Labor Museum in Haledon, NJ. For information, log onto www.Labormuseum.net. Peninsula by last summer owed to various creditors as much as $60 million and closure seemed imminent when Union members kicked into high gear a campaign to save Peninsula — rallying the community, involving local politicians and speaking to community press outlets. When new management took over it was still struggling but workers were cautiously optimistic. Then in February, the hospital’s lab failed to pass inspection, and the hospital was ordered to stop admitting patients when it didn't come up with a plan of correction. Peninsula was put under the control of a court-appointed trustee. The institution closed in April. At press time in May, the hospital was up for sale and was expected to remain a healthcare facility. RN Peggy Frontera says her RN Training, Upgrading and Job Security Fund benefits are a relief for workers, especially in this economy. She says workers are also very concerned about how Peninsula’s closure will affect Far Rockaway “Our main concern is that whatever happens with our hospital it is beneficial for this community,” she says.
1199SEIU members at August rally to save Peninsula Hospital.
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LEWIS HINE PHOTO COURTESY THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES
Many know and celebrate the Bread and Roses textile strike in Lawrence, MA in 1912. In a lesserknown strike in 1913 in Paterson, NJ, 25,000 silk workers walked away from their looms, needles and dyes in a six-month strike to protest increasing workloads and in demand of an eight-hour work day. “Eight Hours Rest, Eight Hours Work and Eight Hours Pleasure” was one of the strikers’ slogans. Though the workers would lose the strike, they eventually won their eight-hour day and established Paterson as a center of labor militancy. The walkout was a model of solidarity between the skilled tradespeople like handloom ribbon weavers and low-paid laborers like dyers’ helpers; it also brought together the diverse immigrant groups who lived in the area and worked in Paterson’s silk industry — mostly new immigrants from southern and eastern Europe. The International Workers of The World, who had helped organize the Lawrence strike, helped organize the Paterson strikers. The artist community from New York City’s
Labor History ➽Peninsula ➽ Florida Members
The 1913 silk industry strike in Paterson, NJ established the city as a center of labor militancy.
FLORIDA MEMBERS SAY EVERY MINUTE COUNTS Since September 2011, 1199SEIU Florida caregivers have visited scores of states legislators’ offices, including in the state capitol in Tallahassee, to let Floridians know that the legislature made a major mistake when it rolled back safe staffing levels in its nursing homes. The legislature passed the staffing reductions behind closed doors just hours before the 2011 session ended. The “Every Minute Counts” campaign seeks to protect the state’s nursing home residents from potentially life-threatening risks. By April, 1199ers had visited 150 legislative offices and given firsthand accounts of the cuts’ impact on hospital and nursing home care. 1199SEIU Florida has created an online campaign website, www.EveryMinuteCountsFlorida.org, on which viewers can sign a petition pledging support for safe staffing and quality care. “As a result of cuts to bedside care and safe staffing in nursing homes, passed by the Florida Legislature and governor in 2011, the health of your loved one could be in serious jeopardy,” the petition reads. It asks, “If you have a mother, father or spouse in a nursing home, sign this petition urging the Governor and Florida Legislature to support legislation restoring safe staffing levels and bedside care in nursing homes.”
At March Lobby Day in Tallahassee, members pressed legislators to repeal staffing reductions legislation. In addition to the campaign to repeal the rollback, members at Avanté at Lake Worth NH last year negotiated safe staffing levels in their union contract. By including safestaffing protections in their contract, Avanté and its workers sent a strong message to the legislature that care for seniors and people living with a disability should be of the highest priority. Members are asked to submit a story online about why they believe every minute counts. They can also download copies of the safe-staffing toolkit on the site.
THE BACK PAGE
THE WORK WE DO Cook Angelia Vigilia is among the 317 members of 1199SEIU at Lawrence Hospital in Bronxville, NY. See story on pages 8 and 9