A Journal of 1199SEIU
Our Life And Times
September/October 2008
THE CHANGE WE NEED
Contents 3 4 5 6 7 8 10 11 12 14 15
LIKE NO OTHER TIME The stakes have never been higher. PRESIDENT’S COLUMN We must all do our part. FROM ‘04 HERO TO ‘08 LEADER Leadership by example. THOSE LEFT BEHIND Family and co-workers help fill a void. FIGHTING FOR HER FUTURE Health care, not warfare. FROM DIFFERENT BACKGROUNDS WITH ONE GOAL Mobilizing voters brings together members of every stripe. “THEY’LL HAVE A MUCH BETTER CHANCE WHEN OBAMA IS ELECTED” Obama victory will ensure progress for homecare workers. “SARAH PALIN WILL SET WOMEN BACK” Members say McCain running mate does not speak for them. CHANGING LIVES “This election is about our families and communities.” BATTLEGROUND STATE DIARY Junette James writes about her experience. AROUND THE UNION Victory at Kingsbridge NH & home health aides win contracts.
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Our Life And Times, September/October 2008, Vol. 26, No. 5 Published by 1199SEIU, United Healthcare Workers East 310 West 43rd St. New York, NY 10036 Telephone (212) 582-1890 www.1199seiu.org PR E S I DE NT: George Gresham S E C R E TA RY T R E A S U R E R :
Maria Castaneda EXEC UTIVE VIC E PR E S I DE NTS:
Eric Tjaden, a lab messenger at North-Shore LIJ Hospital
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Norma Amsterdam Yvonne Armstrong Angela Doyle Mike Fadel Aida Garcia Patrick Gaspard George Kennedy Steve Kramer Patrick Lindsay Joyce Neil John Reid Bruce Richard Mike Rifkin Neva Shillingford Estela Vasquez E D I TO R : J.J. Johnson S TA F F W R I T E R : Patricia Kenney P H OTO G RA P H E R :
Jim Tynan P H OTO G RA P H Y A S S I S TA N T :
Belinda Gallegos A RT D I R E CT I O N & maiarelli studio
DE S IG N:
C OV E R I L LU S T RAT I O N :
Shepard Fairey Our Life And Times is published 6 times a year by 1199SEIU, 310 West 43rd St., New York, NY 10036. Subscriptions $15 per year. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY and additional mailing offices. ISSN 1090-3089. USPS 000-392. Postmaster: Send address changes to Our Life And Times, 310 West 43rd St., New York, NY 10036.
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MARK GOTBAUM ILLUSTRATION
ELECTION ‘08
LIKE NO OTHER TIME The stakes have never been higher.
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n Nov. 5 our nation will either embark on a new era or continue on the road to ruin. Rarely, in our nation’s history have the differences in the candidates who are seeking the highest office in the land been so stark. And not since the Great Depression has the crisis to be tackled been so deep. The blame for today’s crisis cannot be laid entirely at the feet of the George Walker Bush administration, but it is safe to say that in most of our lifetimes, no administration has done more to contribute to the misery of its citizenry. The Bush administration’s crimes are numerous. We could begin with the economic collapse that resulted directly from the administration’s policies of permitting — no, actually encouraging — the moneylenders and financiers to use questionable accounting practices and to package and sell bad loans. Those who’ve lost their homes and savings, and all taxpayers, will have to pay dearly for years to come. A number of 1199ers have been victims of predatory lenders and a large percentage live in communities that are most acutely affected by the foreclosures. “I’m working to reach out to voters to get them to support Barack Obama to help my children and grandchildren,” says Adelaida Montalvo, a delegate at Brooklyn’s Lutheran Medical Center who’s doing election work with other 1199ers in Tampa, FL. This issue of Our Life And Times features Member Political Organizers (MPOs) like Montalvo and others such as Manhattan’s Mt. Sinai Hospital delegate Tyrome Bell, who’s working in Michigan to mobilize support for Obama, while providing leadership by example. The administration’s descent accelerated when it turned the national tragedy of 9/11/2001 into
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an assault on the Constitution, a cover for an undeclared war against a nation with no connection to 9/11, and a pretext for torture, illegal detention, kidnapping, spying and wiretapping. World-renowned economist and Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz has estimated that the ultimate cost of the war could be as high as $3 trillion. But the loss of lives cannot be measured in any currency.
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im Lyons, a 23-yearold secretary at Vassar Brothers Hospital in New York’s Mid-Hudson Valley, volunteered to work for an Obama victory in New Hampshire. Her chief reason is the war. The war already has claimed the lives of three young men from her small town of Highland. Earlier this year, the president vetoed a bill that would have provided health care for children because, he said, the cost was too high. The same argument is used to block measures to protect our environment and to keep our workplaces safe. There are those who argue that the presidential election is not about George Bush. Nothing could be further from the truth. The election is a referendum on Bush’s policies. And the major difference between Bush and Republican candidate John McCain is that McCain has a
A number 1199ers have been victims of predatory lenders and a large percentage live in communities that are most acutely affected by the foreclosures.
longer list of nations he would like to attack. Someone said recently, “A working person voting for John McCain is like a chicken voting for Colonel Sanders.”
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ohn McCain would lay out our nation’s resources on a silver platter for the corporate thieves. He would gamble with our Social Security by privatizing it. He would cut taxes on the very wealthy, including the big oil companies. Yet, he would tax families who received employer-based health insurance. Although McCain spent four years as a prisoner of war in Viet Nam, he has voted against increasing funding for veterans’ health care each year between 2004 and 2007. As late as August of this year, when working people were crying for relief from high gas prices, lost savings and rising unemployment, he declared, “The fundamentals of our economy are sound.” On every issue — Iraq, the economy, health care, women’s rights, civil rights, our environment, labor rights — Sen. Obama’s positions are far, far superior. And there is another area in which he stands heads and shoulder above Sen. McCain: He offers real hope.
An Obama-Biden victory is needed not only to stop the hemorrhaging, but also to set our country on a new course. Victory is in sight but it is by no means certain. It depends on our ability to maximize the turnout for Sen. Obama and our other candidates. Let us follow the example of our MPOs. We must all organize our family, friends and coworkers. Our Union also has set up a hotline for volunteers to work weekends in nearby swing states. Please call the following numbers. New York City (212) 408-8416 Syracuse (315) 424-1743 Albany (518) 859-3360 Buffalo (716) 982-0540 Long Island (516) 542-1115 White Plains (914) 993-6700 Rochester (585) 244-0830 Massachusetts (877) 409-1199 ext.151 Maryland/Washington D.C. (410) 332-1199
THE PRESIDENT’S COLUMN George Gresham
The Change We Need It’s not too late to do your part. In just a few days, we will be voting in the most important election of our lifetimes. It is not being overly dramatic to say that the fate of our country—perhaps of the world—depends on the outcome of the vote on Nov. 4. Arguably the two greatest presidents in U.S. history—Abraham Lincoln and Franklin D. Roosevelt—achieved their greatness because they came into office when our country was in its greatest crises. They successfully led the country out of those crises. Our country is in deep difficulties again: an unresolved financial crisis that threatens to blow up the economy; two undeclared wars and preparations for still more; a national debt of almost 12 trillion dollars; 50 million Americans without health care and still counting; the highest unemployment figures in a decade and the most housing foreclosures in half-a-century; and climate change and environmental deterioration that threaten to spin out of control. We will soon decide who is best prepared to lead us: Barack Obama and Joe Biden, or John McCain and Sarah Palin. Obama would win this election by a landslide if the voters’ decision was only based on the candidates’ intelligence, knowledge of the ways of the world, concrete programs to improve our lives, and willingness to break with and reverse the policies that got us into this hole. Unfortunately, the McCain campaign has slimed up the contest with months of lies, distortions and denigrations of Senator Obama. The McCain campaign should make clear that they are a third term for George Bush and Dick Cheney. Nor should any of us ever underestimate the impact of 400 years of slavery, Jim Crow, segregation and racism on large portions of the voting public. For us in 1199SEIU, everything is at stake on Nov. 4. We all have many roles—parents, taxpayers, homeowners or renters, consumers, citizens of the world, etc. But as trade unionists and healthcare workers in particular, our very lives are on the line. Barack Obama has pledged to sign the Employee Free Choice Act, giving non-union workers the chance to vote for a union without employer interference or threat. John McCain’s entire career is as a union-hater, and he hasn’t changed in 2008. Barack Obama wants to expand affordable health care to every American and has a plan to do so. Under John McCain’s “healthcare plan”—which would tax workers for their employer-paid health care—it is estimated that another 20 million Americans will lose coverage. Consequently, thousands of hospitals and nursing homes would be forced to close. Sisters and brothers, this election is not a spectator sport. All of us must do everything possible in the next several days to elect Barack Obama. Several hundred 1199SEIU activists have been working nonstop for several months in the battleground states across the country. Thousands more have been getting on buses as “Weekend Warriors” to travel to nearby states to campaign. On Nov. 1- 4, the four days leading up to and including Election Day, additional thousands will be joining the campaign, knocking on doors, phone banking and doing whatever it takes to begin to turn this country around. We can’t urge you strongly enough to be part of this effort. If you haven’t already, please ask your Delegate or Contract Administrator or Organizer how you can help. Meanwhile, every 1199SEIU member is urged to contribute $10 a month or more to our Martin Luther King, Jr. Political Action Fund (PAF). This is what makes our political action program possible— and what saves your jobs, your pensions, and your healthcare benefits every year when Congress or your state legislature decides on budget concerns. If you don’t yet contribute please speak to your Delegate or Organizer For the future of our jobs, for the sake of our families, for our country and the world, please join us. We need each other.
Letters FROM THE FRONTLINES y friends and family tell me I’m a bit hard to reach since being deployed as a Member Political Organizer to Michigan to work for the election of Barack Obama. The hours we are working here are long and hard, but so worth it. I constantly have in mind the idea of making all of you proud. We just switched to a six-day workweek so I will have even less time to keep in touch, but I want you all to know you’re in my heart and prayers. For without all of your support and encouragement I would not have this chance to be a part of history. I have seen everything from welcoming warm smiles and great conversations to a door slammed in my face and being cursed out. My own personal favorite is being called a sellout in one of the predominantly white suburbs here. But all of my experiences on this trip pale in comparison to those who came before me and without whom we wouldn’t have a chance to put this man in office. I used to hate politics and always laughed at the idea of even being involved in any way shape or form with it. But Barack Obama has changed my—and so many other people’s—views on what is possible in this country if enough voices are heard and carried by a strong leader to the highest office in our land.
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DAVID HOLMES Maimonides Hospital, Brooklyn, NY
David Holmes MURDER IN COLOMBIA olombia is the most dangerous nation in the world in which to be a trade unionist. Since 2001, more than 500 Colombian labor leaders have been murdered because of their union activity. That is one reason why we must strongly oppose efforts to revive the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement (FTA). By late August of this year alone, 38 Colombian trade unionists had been killed, almost as many as the 39 all of last year. Of the 38, 15 were union leaders. The Colombian government always
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denies responsibility despite its well-known connections with the paramilitary groups, which carry out these executions in the name of “national security.” That is why the U.S. Congress blocked the Bush administration’s attempts earlier this year to pass the FTA. U.S. Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid said at the time, “Many Democrats continue to have serious concerns about an agreement that creates the highest level of economic integration with a country where workers and their families are routinely murdered and subjected to violence and intimidation for seeking to exercise their most basic economic rights and [where] the perpetrators of the violence have near total impunity.” The Bush administration, corporations like Coca Cola and Chiquita Banana, and the Colombian government have not given up. In early September, Colombia sent more than 80 people to Washington for a lobbying blitz aimed at convincing members of Congress to take up the FTA during the “lame duck” session after November's elections. We cannot let this happen. We should extend our solidarity to our sister and brother unionists in Colombia and contact our congressional representative to make sure they oppose the FTA. ANNE BOYLAN New York-Presbyterian Hospital, Manhattan
DOMESTIC PARTNERSHIP t was good to see the inspiring Donna Payne, associate director of diversity for the Human Rights Campaign, featured in the July-August issue of Our Life And Times. The Human Rights Campaign has done good work for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities. However, 1199SEIU needs to do more to treat all its members with respect and equality. In New York City, 1199SEIU’s Benefit Fund asks that a Union member with a certificate of domestic partnership who is requesting health benefits for a partner provide not only the certificate but also proof of a joint bank account, letters received at a common address, etc. This is burdensome and an invasion of privacy. It is also unfair, since a person with a marriage certificate is not asked for any additional proof of committed partnership. Until the day that a couple of the same sex can get a marriage certificate in New York State, our Union needs to accept a certificate of domestic partnership as its equivalent.
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FRANCES ADAMS Columbia University Libraries, Manhattan
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Leadership by Example
FROM ‘04 HERO TO ‘08 LEADER yrome Bell, a mental health associate at Manhattan’s Mt. Sinai Hospital, leads by example. When he was asked by leaders of 1199SEIU’s political action department to spend some three-and-a-half months in Michigan to reach out to voters to support Barack Obama, he didn’t hesitate. Michigan is one of the key swing states. “This is not an ordinary time or an ordinary election,” Bell says. “One thing we try to communicate to voters is the historic importance of this election. We can not lose the opportunity to actually chart a new course.” “We’ve got a great team out here,” says 1199SEIU Exec. VP Angela Doyle, who oversees the Michigan work. “But Tyrome is special. He not only provides organizational savvy, but he also leads by example.” Doyle notes that the challenges in Michigan are great. She points to the boarded up houses and shuttered factories as symbols of the economic and for many, emotional, depression. A late September MSNBC poll found that 76% of likely Michigan voters say the U.S. economy already is in either a recession or a depression. “One of the enemies we have to defeat is apathy,” Bell says. He addresses that issue with sound arguments and his own enthusiasm. That helps him to connect to voters and fellow canvassers, some of whom have been attacked by dogs and residents who weren’t happy to see pro-Obama canvassers in their neighborhood.
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e is no stranger to adversity or leadership. In 2004 Bell worked in Jacksonville, FL as a Kerry canvasser. He’s the oldest of four children who were raised by a single mother in Cleveland. One of his earliest memories is that of his mother, a postal worker, going on strike. “Through the years she often discussed the importance of unions and civic activities,” Bell says. “She’s retired now, but still politically active.” During the early part of this year’s Michigan deployment, the team members concentrated on registering voters mainly in Detroit. Since then, they have moved to suburban counties and towns such as
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Macomb and Oakland. It is in Macomb that the Republican Party chairman has announced that he plans to use a list of foreclosed homes to block people from voting in November. Bell and others say that challenging voters who have defaulted on their house payments will most likely affect voters who are prone to vote Democratic.
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wners of sub-prime loans are most likely to default, and more than 60% of all sub-prime loans in Michigan were made to African Americans. Doyle and her team are working with SEIU locals and other advocacy groups to beat back any voter suppression efforts. The race remains close in Michigan, but team members say there are signs that voters are connecting the political dots and that their work is bearing fruit. In late September, Bell’s team members spoke with a retired worker who has voted Republican for 49 years. When asked his preference in this election, he responded, “I’m voting for Obama.”
“One of our tasks is to communicate the historic importance of this election” Tyrome Bell took a leave from his position as a mental health associate at Manhattan’s Mt. Sinai Hospital to mobilize voters for the Obama presidency bid in Michigan.
ELECTION ‘08
Lisa Alston-Lucas(above), a housekeeper at Greater Baltimore Medical Center, deployed to Cleveland in July. Husband Brian is home taking care of their five kids. At right: Mayrum O’Neill (second from right) a business associate at NYC’s Mt. Sinai Medical Center misses her co-worker and friend Tyrome Bell.
THOSE LEFT BEHIND Family and co-workers fill void left by deployed members.
For every 1199SEIU member working in a battleground state mobilizing voters to work for Barack Obama, there is a family, a community or a group of co-workers back home that misses them. At Mt. Sinai Medical Center in New York City, business associate Mayrum O’Neill works with mental health associate Tyrome Bell in the Psychiatric Dept. Bell, a delegate, left in July to mobilize voters in the battleground state of Michigan. O’Neill says the whole department feels Bell’s absence. “Tyrome is so positive. He has a special way of looking at things. He always looks at both sides,” says O’Neill. “He’s very level-headed and he knows the rules and policy. But he always keeps things balanced.” Recently, when O’Neill’s husband was diagnosed with cancer, she found herself relying not only on Bell’s strength as a co-worker, but also as her friend. “I need to be strong for my husband because I don’t want him to worry, so I call Tyrome and cry on his shoulder,” she says. “One of the ways I deal with it is by coming to work.” Though she misses her friend at work, O’Neill says she understands how important it is for Bell to be in Michigan. “Tyrome is such a grassroots person. He has such a way of communicating and persuading people to do things like vote and register to vote,” says O’Neill. “It can really change our lives.”
In Baltimore, Brian Lucas is holding down the fort at home while his wife Lisa Alston-Lucas, a housekeeper at Greater Baltimore Medical Center, is in Cleveland registering voters. The couple has five children between the ages of 3 to 13 and Brian Lucas works two full-time jobs. He is a floor tech at Genesis Eldercare and Maryland General Hospital. “It’s been high and low with her so far from the family. We really miss each other and I worry sometimes,” says Lucas. “But we keep things going strong by calling each other like crazy.” Both Alston-Lucas and Lucas are delegates. Alston-Lucas is a dedicated activist. During the 2004 presidential election, Alston-Lucas also went to Cleveland. She was an SEIU Hero, one of the many 1199ers who deployed across the country in an effort to defeat George W. Bush. At the time she was expecting her youngest son, now 3, who was born two months after the election. “My first call of the day is to home, my second is to the day care center and the third is to work,” she says. “And it revolves from there. Mostly everyone asks me what I’m doing and when I’m coming back.” Lucas sees caring for their family as his contribution to the work his wife is doing. “This time for change is really important. Everybody is too comfortable,” he says. “We’ve got to stand together for her to be part of history. It’s going to be a great change for us all.”
For every 1199SEIU member working in a battleground state, there is a family, a community or a group of co-workers back home that misses them.
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Health care, not warfare
FIGHTING FOR HER FUTURE
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im Lyons just turned 23, and she looks forward to a happy, healthy future. That is why she took a leave in late July from her secretary position at Vassar Brothers Hospital in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. Like many young workers and students, Lyons has been inspired by Barack Obama’s campaign for the presidency. She worked in Pennsylvania during the presidential primaries in April. “I found that I really liked going door to door and talking to people,” Lyons says. When she was asked to do outreach work in New Hampshire, she says she went without hesitation. “I like Barack Obama’s ideas and he has good positions on the issues that are important to me,” says Lyons. One of those issues is the war in Iraq. “I feel strongly that we need to bring our young men and women home,” Lyons says. “I come from a small town [Highland, N.Y.], so we all know each other.” Three former Highland HS students have lost their lives in Iraq. Lyons feels that should not have happened because the invasion was not worth the cost in lives and important social programs. Lyons comes from a union family. Her mother, Jeanne, is a Vassar patient care tech, and her father, Gerard, is a shop steward at Marist College.
“Working at a hospital, I see first hand the importance of healthcare coverage,” she says. “It aggravates me that [John] McCain says that it is OK to receive your health care from hospital emergency rooms.” She notes that under McCain’s healthcare plan, union members and others who have employerbased coverage would be taxed for their coverage. Lyons did phone banking and knocked on doors during her deployment in New Hampshire. She had a lot of explaining to do in a state that prides itself on its independence. “Lots of folks I spoke to were undecided and they were waiting to hear more and for the debates,” she says. emocrats say the state is moving politically and socially closer to its New England neighbors. They cite, as examples, a popular Democratic governor and in 2006 the Democrats’ first sweep of the state legislature in 132 years. Lyons returned to Highland and Vassar Brothers in September. She is working and going to school full time. She also is working to elect Congresswoman Kirsten Gillibrand, helping to organize nursing home workers, and mobilizing support for Barack Obama. That would help, she says, to insure her future.
“It aggravates me that McCain says that it is OK to receive your health care from hospital emergency rooms.”
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(Clockwise from below) Kim Lyons with grandmother, Dot Ingraham and parents, Jeanne and Gerard Lyons; Lyons canvassing with team in New Hampshire; saying good-bye to her grandmother, her dog, and packing up for her trip.
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From Different Backgrounds
With One Goal 1199SEIU has a long history of people from diverse backgrounds working together towards a single goal. Groups of members in Cleveland, Ohio, are continuing that tradition. They are among the 1199ers of every age, ethnicity, gender, professional background, and level of union experience that have come together in battleground states across the country. They are reaching out to local voters through registration efforts, phone banking, worksite visits and many other ways, so members of every community in the nation can be involved in helping Barack Obama win his historic presidential bid.
Top: Mobilizing voters in Cleveland takes Johns Hopkins housekeeping delegate Teirra Johnson, 23, away from her home in Baltimore for the first time. At right: “It’s great to see all kinds of people coming together,” says Eric Tjaden, a lab messenger at North ShoreLIJ Hospital in New York.
Vinel Johnson-Reid is a retired contract administrator from DeWitt Nursing Home in New York City. She is a seasoned political activist and she jumped at the chance to go Cleveland. Johnson-Reid’s partner is 23-yearold Teirra Johnson, a housekeeping delegate from Johns Hopkins Medical Center in Baltimore. The effort in Ohio is Johnson’s first major political campaign. In fact, her trip to Ohio from Maryland was her first time on an airplane. “When they assigned us together I wondered what I’d have
in common with a 23-year-old,” says Johnson-Reid. “But we work well together. I’ve learned a lot from her. What I don’t know she helps me with and what she doesn’t know I help her with.” Johnson, a member of 1199SEIU’s Young Worker’s Program, says partnering with Johnson-Reid is a daily reminder of why it’s so important to elect Barack Obama. “There is so much stuff going on that affects our future; the crisis with investment plans and the war,” says Johnson. “I have to talk to my friends about our
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futures, about things like health care. People think young people don’t care. It’s just because a lot of us are uneducated. If you pay more attention to them you can make young people want to get involved.” Johnson-Reid grew up in Jamaica and recalls political violence that kept people from voting. She talks to young people about not taking the Obama candidacy for granted. “I get excited just talking to young people,” says Johnson-Reid. “I tell them the only time in your life absolutely no one can tell you to shut up an listen to them is when you go into the voting booth to pull that lever.” Eric Tjaden is a lab messenger at North Shore-Long Island Jewish Hospital in New York. He’s also been in Cleveland since July, and like Johnson it’s his first major campaign with 1199SEIU. “I was a little sad because I’d miss my everyday life,” says Tjaden. “But I was determined to do this.” Tjaden and his team members have been doing voter registration and canvassing Cleveland neighborhoods, reaching out to voters to get them involved in the Obama campaign. Tjaden is one of the few white men on a team of activists that is largely AfricanAmerican and mostly women. “I look past color. I grew up around people from all cultures,” says Tjaden. “I’m just happy to know we’re doing this and making a big difference in people’s lives. Too many servicemen are dying and people can’t buy houses. It’s great to see all kinds of people coming together for Obama so we can make change.” Tjaden says his work has also given him a sense of responsibility for the city of Cleveland. “The people here have been hit so hard. The city has lost 239,000 jobs,” says Tjaden. “There are people here who can’t afford to put gas in their cars to go look for work or can’t take a day off without losing pay. When you hear about things you say, ‘This is why we have to do this’.”
Team member Margarita Pillot is a dedicated activist who has worked on many campaigns. She’s been in Cleveland since midJuly. Pillot took with her a good supply of sofrito seasoning so she could prepare her favorite Puerto Rican dishes. She’s the mother of five adult children, at least one of whom she talks to every day. Pillot is a delegate who works for the Aides at Home Agency in the Bronx, N.Y. Her quiet, almost shy, demeanor belies her determination. “I feel like I can make a difference. The first time I went out I was nervous,” says Pillot. “Now I know how to talk to people and I’m happy to do it.” Whether she’s registering voters at a shelter for homeless men or talking with seniors at a local center, Pillot says Obama is inspiring connection in people that she previously has not seen. “Yesterday I met a woman who asked me what seniors could do to help Obama,” she says. “I told her to remind all of her friends to vote. She could hardly walk but she wanted to do something to help Obama.” For her own part, Pillot says she feels it’s particularly important for her as a Latina to support Obama. “He’s a part of us. In Chicago he was working in our community with Mexicans and Puerto Ricans,” she says. “His agenda also includes things that are important for Latino people like health care and housing. They are most important. A lot of us are working, but we don’t make that much money. Obama is like the rest of us. He comes from something real. He wasn’t born with a silver spoon in his mouth.”
Top: Retiree Vinel Johnson-Reid helps prepare a mailing for Obama campaign. Center: Margarita Pillot, a home health aide with the Aides at Home Agency in New York City registers a Cleveland voter. Bottom: Retiree Vinel JohnsonReid (center) and Young Worker Program member Teirra Johnson (right).
“I’m just happy to know we’re doing this and making a big difference in people’s lives. Too many servicemen are dying and people can’t buy houses.”
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“Obama has pledged to sign the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). That’s so important, because home care has been at the bottom of the barrel for so long.”
“I’ve seen a lot with homecare workers. I used to work 60 hours a week. They cut your hours, then you’re not qualified for health care anymore,” says Selwood. “A lot of us are in Section 8 housing and on food stamps. It’s hard when I have to tell my workers where food pantries are. Some of them have to visit four food pantries a day to make ends meet. We don’t want four more years of this.”
Home health aide Lorna Selwood at her Cleveland headquarters preparing for a day of canvassing.
“THEY’LL HAVE A MUCH BETTER CHANCE WHEN OBAMA IS ELECTED” Obama victory will ensure progress for homecare workers, says home health aide Lorna Selwood.
For the last several months home health aide Lorna Selwood could have been at home in New York City, helping mobilize home health aides for 1199SEIU’s Justice For Home Health Aides campaign. Instead she’s been in Cleveland helping mobilize other SEIU members for political action. “Obama has hit a homerun for homecare. He’s made such an impact,” says Selwood. “He didn’t say he’s going to provide health care for some people. He’s going to provide it for all of us. And he’s pledged to sign the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). That’s so important, because home care has been at the bottom of the barrel for so long.” Selwood is a veteran activist and a strong voice for home health aides. She works for the Aides At Home Agency, where she is a delegate.
Selwood and her husband have five adult children. Last year, her youngest son graduated from high school, so this year she was able to leave her Bronx, N.Y. home to go to Cleveland for an extended period. In Ohio Selwood and her partner David Woods, a mental health worker who is a member of 1199 Ohio, have been talking to other union members about who they’ll vote for in November. They’ve also been on worksite visits to encourage SEIU members to contribute to political action and support the Employee Free Choice Act. Selwood says the work hasn’t always been easy. “The first time I had a door shut in my face [while working in Ohio] I thought, ‘I came all this way to have a door slammed on me?’ But then I realized that for a few doors that are closed, millions will be opened,” says Selwood. Selwood says workers call from New York City to check in every day and also to talk about the election. Many say they are undecided because they are mothers of service members, she says. “I tell them my son was in the war, too. He was retreating from crossfire and he was wounded. They patched him up and they put him back out there again. I tell my workers no matter what, they should give Obama a chance,” she says. Signing up local SEIU members to contribute to political action and talking to workers about the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), a law that will help stop employers stalling on first contracts, is very different in Ohio than it is in New York, she says. “We went to a job site and we were put out. I was so fired up after that, I wanted to go out and knock on 200 doors,” says Selwood. “We couldn’t talk union. We couldn’t talk to them about anything; not even on their lunchbreak. That’s why we need to mobilize, so workers can have freedom. They’ll have health care and they’ll have a union. They’ll have a much better chance when Obama is elected.”
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“I BELIEVE SARAH PALIN WILL SET WOMEN BACK” Members say McCain running mate does not speak for them.
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t’s generally accepted that Sen. John McCain’s choice of Gov. Sarah Palin was a way of appeasing the social conservatives in the Republican Party. But McCain may have also seen Palin as a way of swaying undecided women and disaffected Hillary Clinton supporters. Many working women say McCain’s Palin strategy isn’t going to work. They say gender is the only thing they have in common with the beauty pageant runner-up governor of Alaska. “He thought women don’t have the capability of thinking for themselves or seeing the games people play,” says Kim Thompson-Werekoh, a personal-care aide with the New York Foundation in New York City. “He thought we don’t think about our lives or our children’s lives. That we only vote with one mind.” Palin’s biography seems to contain something every woman can relate to. She is the working mother of five children. Her eldest son is serving in Iraq. Her political career started on the school board and she is self-described “hockey mom.” On the surface, Palin seems made to order. “I feel there’s a lot she’s hiding. She and John McCain are the same on many levels,” says Joyce Dukes, a central sterile supply tech at Johns Hopkins Medical Center in Baltimore. “She doesn’t support unions. She cut childcare programs in Alaska. If you’re with John McCain like her, you can’t represent me.”
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rom the outset of her run for vice president, Sarah Palin has been presented as equal parts mommy and maverick. Corinne Wilson-James, a dietitian assistant at Jamaica Hospital in Queens, N.Y., sees a contradiction in Palin’s two personas. “She’s someone who wants to go up the
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September/October • Our Life And Times
ladder [of success] and has the resources around her to have someone else take care of her children,” says Wilson-James. Thompson-Werekoh also believes Palin has abandoned compassion in favor of her political aspirations. “I don’t like her. As a mayor she had women pay for their own rape kits,” says ThompsonWerekoh. “As governor she voted against a bill to help the handicapped and disabled. I have to question her humanity.” Indeed, Palin has essentially refused to acknowledge her position on her hometown of Wasilla’s rape kit policy. But she did cut by 62% funding for children with the same disabilities as her own infant son. She also voted against funding for Special Olympics athletes.
Many working women say gender is the only thing they have in common with the beauty pageant runnerup governor of Alaska.
ukes is not surprised by Palin’s disingenuousness. The Hopkins delegate is the mother of a 25-year old son who has a difficult time readjusting to life in the U.S. after serving two tours of duty in Iraq. “She certainly doesn’t represent me on the war in Iraq, even if her son is there,” says Dukes. “I can’t imagine her talking to service members or parents of service members. McCain wanted to cut their benefits.” Thompson-Werekoh sees Palin’s staunch conservatism as dangerous. “I believe Sarah Palin will set women back,” says Thompson-Werekoh. “She’d like to repeal Roe v. Wade. The right of a woman to choose an abortion should not be taken away from her. I’m also concerned about pregnant teenagers; they could end up in backroom butchers. I believe in Obama’s position on personal responsibility, but I also like his morals and his compassion.”
Dietitian assistant Corinne Wilson-James of Jamaica Hospital in Queens, N.Y., believes Sarah Palin isn’t a genuine role model for today’s working mothers.
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ELECTION ‘08
CHANGING LIVES “This election is about our families and communities.”
“The people we’re registering, they thank us every single day. One woman was so happy to see what we are doing, that after I helped her register, she ran down the block to thank me again for my work.”
By Election Day, 1199SEIU members will have worked in some dozen swing states and countless cities and towns. Swing states, also referred to as battleground states, are those in which both candidates have a reasonable chance of winning. For 1199ers and other members of the Service Employees Union (SEIU), the states also are referred to as purple–a mixture of red and blue–on the way to a Democratic blue. “I’m blessed as a member of 1199SEIU with many benefits,” says New York Rite Aide cashier clerk Patrick George. George, a Member Political Organizer (MPO) is a Las Vegas volunteer mobilizing support for the Obama candidacy. He was born and raised in the West African nation of Sierra Leone and witnessed as a youth civil wars and coups of the 1990s. “In the U. S., we have the opportunity to bring about basic change, but it can’t be done without organization,” he says. “That’s why I’ve always been a community activist, and why I worked as a volunteer in Florida in 2004. “One of the reasons I’m out here is because I firmly believe that a man like Barack Obama who has overcome obstacles knows about the hardships that working people face. I believe McCain is clueless.” George says that Las Vegas has been especially hard hit by the economic crisis, and has one of the highest rates of mortgage foreclosures in the nation. “We need to help these people change their lives,” he says. New York City retiree and Wisconsin MPO Cora Matthew says that she especially draws strength from families who thank her for telling them that their actions can make a difference. “Some of these people tell us that no one has ever spoken to them about politics and the importance of getting involved,” Matthew says. Denver, CO. is a big change of scenery for Washington, D.C. native Pat Newson. A housekeeper at George Washington University Hospital, she has been in Denver since July registering new voters, as well as phone banking and canvassing to persuade voters to cast ballots for Obama in November. “The people we’re registering, they thank us every single day,” says Newson. “One woman was so happy to see what we are doing, that after I helped her register, she ran down the block to thank me again for my work.”
That made me feel so good. I’ve had some doors slammed in my face but most of the people want to talk to us and to see change.” Her work in Colorado is Newson’s first MPO experience. “I really like what I’m doing,” she says. I’ve got blisters on my feet, but it’s worth it to have Barack Obama be our president.” MPO Sandra Perry is a Brooklyn Independent Living home attendant canvassing in Eastern Pennsylvania. This is her first deployment for a presidential election, but she’s an experienced campaigner in local races and lobbying efforts. “I love people and I love talking to them,” she says. “I guess that’s why I’m a home attendant. I really like the personal connection.” Perry says that the six-day workweek suits her fine. “In fact, I get up at 5 a.m. to go the gym every morning,” she says. Perry has been assigned by site leader 1199SEIU VP Denis Allegretti as one of the presenters in orientation sessions for new canvassers. The sessions include 1199ers, SEIU members from New York and Pennsylvania and local recruits. The teams reflect the strategy of teaming experienced 1199SEIU staff, delegates and union activists with local activists and others interested in an Obama victory. “I never thought I would be doing this kind of work,” says Sharon Scott, a member of Perry’s team and an SEIU Pennsylvania Healthcare member. “I’ve learned so much doing this work. It has been a life-changing experience for me.” “What I’m doing now is for my children and grandchildren,” says Adelaida Montalvo, a delegate from Brooklyn’s Lutheran Medical Center who’s working in Tampa, Florida. Montalvo, a veteran activist, worked in the Miami area during the 2004 presidential campaign. “I think the feedback among independent voters is better this time,” she says. “The economy certainly has made a difference, people are hurting.” Montalvo says she is excited because she and the other team members are helping to build structures and relationships that will help the communities they are working in to continue organizing after the elections. Says Montalvo, “This work empowers us and the communities that we’re working in.”
September/October • Our Life And Times
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ZACH BOYDEN-HOLMES PHOTO MARLENE CORNMAN PHOTO
Adelaida Montalvo, left, a delegate from Lutheran Medical Center in Brooklyn, canvassing with team member Jennifer Collado.
Las Vegas Member Political Organizer Patrick George, a cashier at a Rite Aide Pharmacy in New York City.
Member Political Organizers send postcards to residents in communities they have canvassed. Brooklyn Independent Living home attendant Sandra Perry is sending this one to a Pennsylvania resident.
ELECTION ‘08
Battleground State DIARY Junette James, a CNA at Carlton Nursing Home in Brooklyn, N.Y., has been in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, since August. James and a team of her 1199SEIU brothers and sisters have been talking to Wisconsin voters about Barack Obama and November’s presidential election. Our Life And Times asked James to keep a diary about her experience. Here’s an excerpt: WEDNESDAY, AUG. 20: It’s been pretty great. We are on the blue team, so we can’t do voter registration because we’re not residents of Milwaukee. We have Palm Pilots and territories, and we talk to people from scripts that we have to go by. The weather has been good; we only had rain one day, but we just put on our ponchos and went out and kept going. On our day off we went to a jazzfest. Everyone was so peaceful, sitting on blankets together –black and white–people sitting in the grass together just having fun and listening to the jazz. I work out every morning before we go out for the day. It gives me energy. Then I get out and talk to people. They are really friendly here; even if they disagree with you they are so polite. We’ve had so many great conversations with people. My son is doing great holding down the fort at home. I don’t know what I’d do without him. FRIDAY, AUG. 22: A lot of people are undecided. They are telling us they’re waiting until Obama makes his VP announcement. In a lot of families, the husband feels one way, the wife another and the kids another. Yesterday I met a woman who was waiting for her
friend. She told me that she was for Obama, but she didn’t want the friend to know. Sometimes you have a conversation with someone, and they don’t want you to leave. But you have to because you have work to do. One guy told me “Unfortunately, I’m voting for McCain.” I guess it’s just tradition. People are afraid that others are going to judge them. They want change, but they want someone else to do it. I have a feeling a lot of Republicans are secretly going to vote for Obama. It’s so interesting –when people say they are for Obama they shout it, but when they say they’re for McCain it’s like they’re constipated. They’re grumpy and they’re angry. MONDAY, AUG. 25: Ten more people came here last week. They’re going out to the country where people have never gone before. That would be exciting. I think Joe Biden was a great choice. A lot of people were waiting for him to say Hillary, but some people didn’t want her. It may throw things out of balance for a while. Some people may be more outspoken today, especially at the convention. But I think it will be all right.
WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 3: Barack’s speech at the convention was illuminating. At the end everything was just flowing, coming from his heart and soul. It was so real. I was on the phone with my boyfriend. We watched the speech together. The day after, Obama was in Milwaukee, but he wasn’t so energetic because of Hurricane Gustav. There were a lot of union people at the rally and they were picking people to sit up on stage. The guy who is in charge here—Bob—is such a wonderful guy. The way he treats us; he makes sure everyone has their checks, that when we get in and
“When people say they are for Obama they shout it, but when they say they’re for McCain, it’s like they’re constipated. They’re grumpy and they’re angry.”
Junette James, a CNA at Carlton NH in Brooklyn, N.Y., packs for her deployment to Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
out of the office everyone is OK. It makes you want to do more and go that extra mile. I’m working with two beautiful retirees. It’s so inspiring to me. If they can do this work, I can too. Ms. Owens is just glowing with strength. You just want to listen to her and learn from her. You just want to know more. Some people have a way of speaking that when they talk you HAVE to listen. MONDAY, SEPT. 8: We went to try and see McCain at a rally, but we couldn’t get in. We were trying to talk to the media about Sarah Palin’s comment about community organizers. When I was canvassing one gentleman told me he’s for McCain because he’s anti-abortion. No one’s really saying anything about Sara Palin. I don’t know if it’s because of where we are, but it seems strange. I don’t think people are as into her as the media is saying. I think it’s just a phase. She’s a bully. She’s attacking everybody, talking about pitbulls. She really is a pitbull. MONDAY, SEPT. 15: SEIU did a poll and they’re saying things aren’t that good. Obama didn’t win here in the primaries. Now, we have to get one person in each county to change their mind. When you go to the doors, everyone says “Obama” so I don’t really understand what is going on. We’re not even seeing other people campaigning out there; it’s just us out there. I don’t know what it is. I think it’s just because of that Palin thing, and it will level off. It can be done.
September/October • Our Life And Times
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OUR UNION
Around Our Union VICTORY AT KINGSBRIDGE NH After a long a bruising six-month strike, 220 workers at Kingsbridge NH in the Bronx returned to work on Aug. 21. The 1199SEIU members struck in December 2007, after home owner Helen Sieger unilaterally violated the union contract and cut health benefits for the members and their families. Members were able to return to work after a federal district judge issued an injunction ordering Sieger to comply with 11 union demands. They included returning members to their positions with their full pay and benefits and engaging in good faith bargaining. Sieger also faces charges brought by New York State
HOME AIDES WIN CONTRACTS Just days before a scheduled strike, management at Bestcare and Prestige Home Care agencies reached tentative contract agreements with 1199SEIU in late September. The agreement came days after a Sept. 16 demonstration when some 6,000 home health aides and other 1199ers marched through midtown Manhattan and rallied in Union Square near the Bestcare offices. “We are healthcare workers who can’t afford to get sick,” said Delores Jackson, a home health aide from Personal Care agency in New York. “I’m marching because I care about my clients and they support me 100 percent, but I’m a
Attorney General Andrew Cuomo for failing to provide workers’ compensation insurance to the members for more than a year. A hearing on the charge is scheduled for Oct. 21. The joy of the victorious workers was tempered by the loss of striker Audrey Smith Campbell, a CNA who died during the strike because she couldn’t afford the $400 a month cost of her asthma medication. No 1199SEIU members crossed the picket line during the strike. “Today is the start of a new beginning after a big struggle,” said Kingsbridge housekeeper Pablo Santiago upon his return. “Anybody who tries to do what Mrs. Sieger did to us, we’ll stand against them.”
single mom and it’s just so hard for me.” She said she’s been working at Personal Touch for 12 years but has never had a vacation. Most of the members at agencies without contracts earned less than $8 per hour and had no health benefits, vacations or paid holidays. At an Aug. 7 Madison Square Garden rally in New York City, many elected officials promised their support to the aides, including Governor David Paterson, Sen. Chuck Schumer, and New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn. “We are not going to forget you,” Paterson vowed, acknowledging that low-paid workers like home health aides are
Above: Kingsbridge NH workers return to their jobs on Aug. 20 after a hard won six-month strike. At right: Home health aides from New York City’s Bestcare and Prestige agencies settled contracts just days before going on strike. hit hardest by the current economic crisis. 1199SEIU’s home health aides are employed at 25 agencies throughout New York City, Long Island and Westchester County. About 25,000 of the aides work at agencies that either have not negotiated contracts or at which contracts have expired. At press time, terms of the contract agreement had not been finalized.
Notice of right to limit obligation to Union to payment of fees equal to initiation fee and monthly dues Membership in 1199SEIU is very special. Not only are there material benefits which flow from membership, but as a member of 1199SEIU you can participate with your coworkers in making vital decisions that affect you and your families’ lives: what wage increases, health insurance and pension benefits will be in your collective bargaining agreement, whether or not you will strike, whom you entrust with the leadership of your Union. These are decisions that only union members can make. The gains we have won—enjoyed by you and your co-workers—are the direct result of the unity and strength of 1199SEIU’s members. It is because of our large and powerful membership that we receive the highest wages and health and pension benefits, and the best job security, of all health care workers. Union membership also carries with it the responsibility to help finance the union’s programs through monthly dues, to ensure the strength and vitality of the union, which translates into your wage and benefit levels.
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September/October • Our Life And Times
If your collective bargaining agreement has a union security clause you are obligated as a condition of employment to become a member of the union within 30 days of your date of hire and to remain a member, or to pay fees to the union equal to the standard initiation fee and monthly dues. Federal law requires 1199SEIU to notify the membership that an individual covered by a collective bargaining agreement can choose not to be a member of 1199SEIU, and still receive the terms of the collective bargaining agreement (but not the benefits of union membership). If you choose not to be a member, and thus to forgo the benefits of union membership, under the collective bargaining agreement your obligation is limited to the payment of fees equal to the initiation fee and monthly dues. In addition, under federal law you have the right to object to providing financial support to union activities not germane to collective bargaining, in which case you will be required to pay a representation fee equal to initiation fees and dues reduced proportional to the percentage of the
union's total expenditures that are not germane to collective bargaining. Based upon the most recent accounting, the representation fee is currently 61.3% of union dues (which generally equals 1.2% of an average 1199er’s gross pay exclusive of overtime), meaning that for the average worker the difference between monthly union dues and the monthly representation fee is currently only about $4.00 a week. However, by choosing this option you forgo the benefits of union membership. If you submit an objection, you will be provided with information reflecting the bases on which the representation fee was calculated and the procedure for challenging these calculations before a neutral arbitrator. If you choose not to be a member of 1199SEIU, and thus to limit your obligation to the payment of fees equal to the initiation fee and monthly dues, or if you wish to object to providing financial support to union activities not germane to collective bargaining, and thus to limit your obligation to the payment of a representation fee as described above, you
must inform the union in writing by sending notice of your decision to the SecretaryTreasurer, 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, 310 West 43rd Street, New York, New York 10036. Please include your name, address, social security number, name of employer and work location. If you object to providing financial support to union activities not germane to collective bargaining, make sure that the notice you send to the Secretary-Treasurer includes the word "object," and that you mail your notice no later than 30 days from the date you received this notice. Remember, the more union members, the greater is the strength of 1199SEIU, which ultimately means better contracts with higher wages and better benefits for you and your family. All of 1199SEIU’s expenditures benefit health care workers, including those directly related to collective bargaining, like the cost of arbitrations, as well as its legislative expenditures, such as those supporting extension of the Family and Medical Leave Act for all workers.
THE BACK PAGE Looking Towards a Brighter Future Obama supporter Kim Lyons, a secretary at Vassar Brothers Medical Center in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., spent five weeks this summer doing voter outreach work in New Hampshire. In September and October she’s heading out to talk to more voters with 1199SEIU’s Weekend Warriors program. “I like Barack Obama’s ideas and he has good positions on the issues that are important to me,” says Lyons. See p. 7.
“I feel strongly that we need to bring our young men and women home.”