8 13 FLORIDA’S FIGHT FOR $15
A JOURNAL OF 1199SEIU March/April 2016
NY’s Fight For $15 Win:
STANDING STRONG FOR WORKING FAMILIES
1199ers and their coalition partners helped win a path to the $15 minimum wage and paid family leave in this year’s NYS budget; both are historic gains for the state’s working families. See story on pages 6-7.
Please send address changes to addresschange@1199.org 1
March/April 2016 • Our Life And Times
RESTRUCTURING 1199 TO MEET TODAY’S CHALLENGES
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THE LAST WORD: CECILE RICHARDS
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Editorial
Our Life and Times March/April 2016
RECENT VICTORIES HELP OUR 4 BEACON BURN A LITTLE BRIGHTER
President’s Column
In The Regions NYC members celebrate the Year of the Monkey; Elizabeth Seton contract victory; MD members lobby in Annapolis; Cuban women visit 1199 & more.
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The Fight For $15 In NY Historic Budget agreement sets State on path to $15 minimum wage.
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The Fight For $15 in Florida Women in long term care will benefit most from winning the fight for a better wage.
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International Women’s Day New Jersey and New York members hold their annual celebrations.
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The Work We Do Columbia University’s dental assistants.
The right wing hate machine won’t tarnish the Fight for $15, affordable housing and other wins. Donald Trump can unleash his ugliness on our country, but 1199SEIU members make sure Lady Liberty’s torch outshines him. Recently, 1199ers continued to show workers’ power as they led the way to victory in New York’s Fight For $15, helped with passage of New York City’s landmark affordable housing law and stood up to Florida’s powerful Consulate Healthcare in a contract fight. And as this is being written, members are mobilizing to elect Hillary Clinton as the nation’s first woman President of the United States. With New York’s Fight For $15 victory, after scores of rallies, marches and speak outs where 1199ers told of choosing between food and paying the light bill or working two, and sometimes three, jobs – the next four years will bring raises for millions of hard working people. “I’m trying to raise four kids on $10 an hour, so sometimes I have to work seven day weeks, occasionally 22 hour days,” says Lisa Johnson, a 45-year-old home health aid from Queens, NY. At 19 Florida nursing homes owned by Consulate Health Care, 1199ers are also on the Fight For $15 front lines. “As caregivers, we are dedicated to caring for our residents because we know they are someone’s
grandmother or father. But we also need to take care of our families and Consulate is shortchanging us with poverty wages,” says Kim White, a CNA at Lake Mary Health and Rehabilitation Center. So as the right wing ratchets up the hate machine aimed at immigrants, women, people of color, the LGBTQ community and just about everyone of difference, 1199SEIU members will continue to light the way for justice – on the picket line, at the bargaining table and on the street. At a March 4 rally in NYC celebrating the Fight For $15 victory, Sec. Clinton reminded the crowd that they are the true vision of America. “This is what makes America great,” said Sec. Clinton. “People widening the circle of justice, dignity and opportunity.” Pradhouti Khusail, a home health aide with Rockaway Homecare, was also at the rally. “For all their bluster the other side can’t match the strength of united workers,” says Khusail. “I became a delegate years ago because I was impressed by 1199 then,” she says. “But it’s days like this that make me really proud. I’m proud of what we can do.”
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Our New Structure Changes in our structure reflect the healthcare industry, making us stronger and more effective.
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The Citizenship Program This year we celebrated a landmark 10,000 new citizens through our program.
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The Last Word Cecile Richards, President of Planned Parenthood and the Planned Parenthood Action Fund.
Our Life And Times, March/April 2016 ISSN 1080-3089 Vol 34, No 2 Published by 1199SEIU, United Healthcare Workers East 310 West 43rd St. New York, NY 10036 Telephone (212) 582-1890 www.1199seiu.org president
George Gresham secretary treasurer
Maria Castaneda executive vice presidents
Jacqueline Alleyne Norma Amsterdam Yvonne Armstrong Lisa Brown-Beloch Angela Doyle George Kennedy Steve Kramer Joyce Neil Bruce Richard Monica Russo Rona Shapiro Neva Shillingford Milly Silva Veronica Turner Laurie Vallone Estela Vazquez
editor
Patricia Kenney director of photography
Jim Tynan photographer
Belinda Gallegos art direction & design
Maiarelli Studio
cover photograph
Jim Tynan contributors
Brynley Lloyd-Bollard Regina Heimbruch JJ Johnson Stacey Mink Tobias Packer Our Life And Times is published six times a year—January/ February, March/ April, May/June, July/ August, September/ October, November/ December—for $15.00 per year by 1199SEIU, United Healthcare Workers East, 310 W.43 St, New York, NY 10036. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY and at additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: send address changes to Our Life And Times, 301 W. 43 St., New York, NY 10036.
LUBA LUKOVA
@1199seiu www.1199seiu.org
Letters HILLARY’S VISION WILL WIN FOR WORKERS t is evident that Hillary Clinton is the only realistic candidate to beat Donald Trump, who, it seems, is poised to win the nomination of the Republican Party. 1199 endorsed Barack Obama during his campaign for President and had a major impact on his success. SEIU has endorsed Hillary Clinton this time around and we must rally behind her. A true leader brings out the best in his/her followers. Both Clinton and Sanders have proven that they can engage in civil discourse, unlike their Republican counterparts who fight like bullies in a schoolyard. A good President surrounds herself with good advisors and one would hope that Hillary Clinton would invite Sen. Bernie Sanders to serve as a member of her Cabinet, much the same way President Barack Obama utilized Hillary Clinton’s expertise by appointing her as our Secretary of State, after she had served for eight years as a U.S. Senator for New York. She has political experience far beyond that of any other candidate in this election, Democratic or Republican. The people united will never be defeated. Let’s stick together to support Hillary Clinton for President of the United States.
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MONNIE CALLAN, Retiree, New York City
EDITOR’S NOTE: NEW PHONE LINE & EMAIL AVAILABLE FOR MAILING LIST CHANGES 1199SEIU now has available a phone line for mailing list and address changes. This voice mailbox is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. To change or remove a name or address from the Union’s mailing list, call 212-261-2300. If you prefer, you can make changes by email, at addresschange@1199.org. For all address changes, please indicate the member’s full name, last 4 digits of the social security number, and employer as well as your new address including zip code, new phone number along with any other pertinent information. We would also appreciate your email address. To remove a name from the mailing list, please indicate the member’s full name and current address. We’ll make requested changes based on your input. Thanks for your assistance in keeping our mailing list up-to-date, and please remember to update your information with your employer.
Let’s hear from you. Send your letters to: 1199SEIU’s Our Life And Times, 330 W. 42nd St, 7th Fl., New York, NY 10036 Attn: Patricia Kenney, Editor, or email them to Patriciak@1199.org and please put Letters as the subject of your email. 3
March/April 2016 • Our Life And Times
THE PRESIDENT’S COLUMN George Gresham
No One Who Works Full Time Should Live in Poverty Winning The Fight For $15 will put an end this disgrace once and for all.
Many Americans—possibly most—would be surprised to learn that most people living in poverty are employed, either in full-time jobs or two or more part-time jobs. Ours is a country of tens of millions of working poor. When the CEOs of Fortune 500 companies decided it would be more profitable to gut our manufacturing industries—steel, auto, rubber, etc.—and move operations abroad to take advantage of low-to-no-cost labor, they left behind what has become a largely “fast-food economy.” Millions of formerly well-paid unionized workers abandoned Detroit, Cleveland, Buffalo and the industrial heartland for Texas, North Carolina and Florida, where the climate is warmer, the rents cheaper, and there are plentiful, non-union minimum-wage jobs. The northern industrial states also now had lots of minimum-wage jobs, but without the warm climate and cheap rents. The growing income inequality that defines our country in the 21st century is the disastrous result of what leaders of both political parties cheered on in the name of “free trade.” In New York, considered one of the most progressive states in the country, a full 37 percent of all full-time workers are minimum-wage workers. Which is to say they get $9.00 an hour or $360 for a 40-hour work week. These are the working poor, and among their numbers are hundreds of thousands of healthcare workers, including 80,000 of our 1199SEIU homecare workers, plus many thousands of other union sisters and brothers in nursing homes, clinics, drug stores and even some hospitals. No one who works a full-time job should be forced to live in poverty. That’s why we in New York State created the Mario Cuomo Campaign for Economic Justice—to fight for the most vulnerable by pushing to raise New York’s minimum wage to $15 an hour. A reasonable minimum wage is a necessity to improve the standard of living for workers, encourage fair and more efficient business practices and ensure that the most vulnerable members of the workforce can contribute to the economy. Raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour means an additional $5,000 a year for over three million New York workers, or a cumulative $15 billion in additional wages for low-income New Yorkers. What a boon to the state economy that would be, over and above reducing the misery of poverty. The Mario Cuomo Campaign for Economic Justice is a coalition—actually headquartered in the 1199SEIU offices—spearheaded by Governor Andrew Cuomo in the name of his late father, the former governor. Last year, the state labor commission ruled that all New York fast-food workers will earn $15 an hour by 2018. Gov. Cuomo also established the $15 floor for all New York State employees. Other institutions are following. Buffalo and Rochester, two of New York’s largest cities, have set the $15 an hour minimum. Some 28,000 employees of the State University of New York (SUNY) have also won the new minimum wage. It costs a lot to live in New York. For example, the average monthly rent for an apartment in Long Island is $1,500, which is 100 percent of a minimum wage worker’s income. Forget Manhattan and Brooklyn. And many of those who work the hardest, including our own homecare workers—who are at the forefront of the Mario Cuomo Campaign—earn far less than a fair and livable wage. Simply put, New Yorkers deserve fair pay for an honest day’s work. Actually, everybody does. But the Mario Cuomo Campaign is a chance for New Yorkers to show the entire United States that economic justice is possible if we make it so. The Fight for $15 movement has given a huge burst of energy to organized labor. Until recently, that fight focused on fast-food workers, and we 1199ers proudly played a role in support of these poverty-level sisters and brothers. But we have tens of thousands of our own 1199 sisters and brothers who are making less than that. It is an absolute scandal that workers who devote their lives to caring for our frail, elderly, sick and disabled are themselves living in poverty. We aim to put an end to this disgrace. Last year, 1199ers made history when our 35,000 Massachusetts personal care attendants (as homecare workers are called in that state) became the first in the United States to win a $15 minimum hourly wage. This is a huge achievement. But it is only the beginning. It’s been a long time coming, but I know a change is gonna come. Oh yes, it will.
InTheRegions
Labor rallied with Hillary Clinton at NYC’s Javits Center on March 2.
PHOTO: ANDREW LICHTENSTEIN
NEW YORK
NYC 1199ers Rally For Hillary Cuban Women Visit 1199 NYC HQ 1199SEIU’s Executive Council welcomed to its March 18 meeting a visiting delegation of the Federation of Cuban Women. The group was in New York City for several events, including a reception and talk on March 19 at 1199SEIU’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Labor Center. The visit took place during Pres. Obama’s historic visit to Cuba; in a statement released ahead of the First Family’s trip, the delegation praised First Lady Michelle Obama for her dedication to progress for America’s girls and women and expressed hope that Cuba’s literacy and health programs would be an example for U.S. work in these areas. Federation of Cuban Women delegation with 1199 Pres. Gresham and Sec. Treas. Castaneda.
1199ers were among the union members who gathered at New York City’s Jacob K. Javits Convention Center on March 2 for a rally in support of Hillary Clinton. The post-Super Tuesday event drew thousands of members from scores of unions, including 1199SEIU, the Hotel and Motel Trades Council, LIUNA, and others. “We had to come here and come out in force to show New York and the country that we are behind her and that she is going to help working people,” said Jennifer Rougier, a mailroom clerk Northwell Health Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan. “We are going to stand behind our candidate no matter what.” Clinton was ebullient coming off her strong showing in the Super
Tuesday primaries. “We couldn’t have done it without labor,” she said. “As long as you’re fighting for the rights of working Americans, I will be too,” she continued. Secretary Clinton was joined at the rally by a host of New York’s elected officials, including Gov. Andrew Cuomo, NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio, the City’s Public Advocate Letitia James, its Comptroller Scott Stringer and City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, who were all greeted by a crowd that was revved up by the actor John Leguizamo. The rally was an event of warmth and welcoming—and a stark contrast to the values espoused by Donald Trump, observed the Gov. Cuomo. “The wall! The big wall! The long wall! The thousand-mile wall! The
China wall! Don’t worry, the wall is a beautiful wall,” Cuomo said, laughing off Trump’s proposal for the U.S. border paid for by Mexico. Desmond Gobin is a financial investigator at Jamaica Hospital. He’s a veteran of scores of 1199’s political campaigns and has knocked on an untold number of doors in numerous states. He was among a group of 1199ers who came to the rally but couldn’t get in, so they stood at the threshold listening for Secretary Clinton’s speech. “No matter what, I felt it was important for me to come here and show my support. We cannot take anything for granted this year,” said Gobin. “She is the best qualified candidate and we have to make sure she wins.” #ImWithHer
NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio with 1199 members Rita Smith (left) and Antoinette Rose at a March 23 rally celebrating the city’s new housing law.
NEW YORK
1199ers Celebrate NYC’s Landmark Housing Bill
Foley Square in lower Manhattan was a rainbow of union colors on March 23 as contingents of workers gathered there to celebrate the New York City Council’s passage of landmark affordable housing legislation. The sweeping new law will fundamentally change the way housing is developed in New York—the nation’s largest city—
and will make available thousands of units of affordable housing through rezoning to allow for more residential construction, changes in the eligibility formula currently used to qualify tenants for units and other provisions. “I have relatives who are struggling with housing issues rights now,” said Antoinette Rose, a health information systems worker at Montefiore Medical
Center in the Bronx. “This city is becoming so unaffordable that even on a working person’s salary you can barely find anything. We needed this.” After remarks from several union and community group leaders and elected officials, Mayor Bill de Blasio shared the rally stage with his wife Chirlane McCray and City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito. The main goal of the legislation, they all agreed, was to preserve the city’s historic sense of diversity and openness. “We cannot become an island for the wealthy,” said de Blasio. “Once we become a gated community and only the rich can live here, we aren’t a beacon. We aren’t New York.” The event’s special guest was U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julian Castro, who laid out the dire economics of housing in the U.S. A one-bedroom apartment is out of reach to minimum wage workers in most of the country, said Castro. “We are in a national crisis,” he said. “Let the call go out across the country that you are setting an example for affordable housing right here in New York City.”
March/April 2016 • Our Life And Times
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1199SEIU members brought their germs with them for a demonstration at Maryland’s Chamber of Commerce on March 9. The Chamber is an opponent of paid sick leave.
Baltimore Members Back Insurgent Slate for City Council
MARYLAND
Purple Power in Annapolis
More than 150 members of 1199SEIU MD/DC members held their annual Legislative Action Day in Annapolis on March 9. Members of SEIU Local 32BJ also participated in the lobby day. Workers met with delegates and senators in the Maryland General Assembly to discuss key items on the Union’s legislative agenda, including passing an earned sick leave bill and meaningful police conduct reform. Activists also educated legislators about a destructive bill that would speed hospital closures without adequate notice to workers and the community. “This year was great because it was the biggest ever. We’re getting more people to come because of the work we’re doing in the shops, spreading the political action message to our members,” said Wiley
Rhymer, a Delegate and an Environmental Care worker at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, who brought his 13-year-old son, Shayjon so that he can learn about how government works. “Elected officials are listening to us and I know they hear us. We get stronger as we get more members involved.” Member activists then took to the streets with U.S. Senate candidate and current U.S. Rep. Chris Van Hollen and some “germs” to hold a demonstration at the Maryland Chamber of Commerce, a leading opponent of earned sick leave legislation. “It was so exciting to march on the Chamber of Commerce. I felt like I was making a difference,” said first-time attendee Susan Clark, a GNA at Future Care Cold Spring. “Now I really understand the importance of PAC. I see what it’s doing and why it’s needed.”
NEW YORK
Contract Victory for Elizabeth Seton Workers
Workers at Elizabeth Seton Pediatric Care in Yonkers, NY on March 1 ratified contracts covering RNs, respiratory therapists and service and maintenance workers at the institution that mark the end of a months-long contract struggle. At issue were the adequate staffing and fair compensation necessary to ensure Elizabeth Seton’s critically ill young patients receive the care they need, says Lesley Halley a CNA at Seton for 31 years. “These contracts are a step in the right direction,” says Halley. “It was a struggle to get them to the table. We didn’t get everything we wanted but we are going to keep on going. We’ll get our retro money, and the nurses got improved salaries. We can build on those things.” 1199SEIU-covered RNs
and respiratory therapists were negotiating their first contract at Elizabeth Seton since organizing in 2013. They’d joined a service and maintenance bargaining unit that was organized at the institution since it was the New York Foundling Hospital and located in Manhattan. RNs and respiratory therapists at the 137 bed institution were severely underpaid and without a salary or seniority scale. “Our kids are in critical condition,” says RN Nadia Majidi. “We need to make sure that we had increases in place so that people stayed. They were just hiring people at whatever salary they felt like. People need incentive to stay.” The agreements ratified at Elizabeth Seton cover a total of 160 workers and are effective from March 2016 through Sept.
2018. New minimums for RNs and RT’s are $64,800 and in October, 2017 will increase to $66,000. Members already above the new minimums will receive lump sum payments of $1,800 in the first year and $1,500 in the second contractual year. Workers also won BS/MS experience differentials, which range from $1,500 to $5,500. Service and maintenance workers maintained all current contractual benefits and an additional lump sum payments of $3,000 was paid up on ratification. “I feel good about what we did. I won’t have to worry so much now. I won’t have to worry about paying bills and be so stressed,” says Majidi. “And when you don’t have to worry about the day-to-day things in life you are definitely able to provide better care.”
Saying that it’s time to clean house in the Baltimore City Council, 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East MD/DC endorsed a slate of insurgent and incumbent candidates for the late April 2016 primaries. In heavily Democratic Baltimore City, the primaries generally determine final outcome of the elections. Members endorsed: Jermaine Jones, a labor activist; Kristerfer Burnett, a former Good Jobs Better Baltimore organizer; Shannon Sneed, a community activist who is challenging an incumbent; and John Bullock, an academic who is seeking to unseat an appointed council member. Endorsed incumbents are Brandon Scott, Sharon Green Middleton, Ed Reisinger and Mary Pat Clarke. The Baltimore City Council has 14 seats. “I’m proud to work with my Union to put together this slate of candidates,” said Denise Wall, an 1199 member at Greater Baltimore Medical Center. “They share our passion for making Baltimore City a fairer, more just city where everyone has access to good paying jobs, quality education and housing, and opportunity for the future.” Candidates completed questionnaires and interviewed with Union members and staff to discuss their positions on issues including higher wages and workplace standards; water affordability; changing police practices; transparency in public contracting; immigration; education; affordable housing; and sensible economic development policy. A dozen member political organizers are working to support the candidates, knocking doors and engaging Baltimoreans in the issues and election.
Academic John Bullock (center), with 1199ers who endorsed him for Baltimore City Council.
1199ers Welcome the Year of the Monkey
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Year got off to an auspicious start. NYS Assembly member Ron Kim was the evening’s guest speaker. “I know what it means to be a dues-paying union member,” said Kim. “My father was an 1199 member and my mother wasn’t. I saw what the difference was. It’s so important because the middle class is getting priced out, especially in places like the area I represent. We AsianAmericans are just like every other immigrant. We are an important part of the fabric of this country.”
March/April 2016 • Our Life And Times
PHOTO: BRENDAN MCCARTHY
1199SEIU members gathered Feb. 29 in the Union’s New York City Cherkasky/Davis Penthouse for a festive evening of dance, food, and music hosted by 1199’s Asian American Pacific Islander Caucus. The Lunar New Year celebration welcomed The Year of the Monkey with performances of Taiwanese folk dance from the Ling Sing Music and Dance Troupe and Chinese folk dance from 1199’s own Homecare Cultural Group. A dancing dragon was also on hand to ensure the New
1199 retiree, Linda Chan, dances at a Lunar New Year celebration on Feb. 23.
The Fight For $15
THE FIGHT FOR $15: Bringing the Ends Closer Together New York’s workers win a path to higher wages and the nation’s most progressive paid family leave.
1199SEIU members and their coalition partners in the NY Fight For $15 celebrated on April 4 the historic budget agreement that puts New York State on the path to a $15 minimum wage and enacts the most progressive paid family leave policy in the U.S. The two provisions will substantially ease working families’ burdens and put millions of New York workers on the road out of poverty, including some 80,000 1199SEIU homecare workers, who’ll earn $15 an hour by the end of 2018. “I really feel overwhelmed by this,” said Pradhouti Khusail, a home health aide with Rockaway Homecare in Queens, NY. “We’ve been working towards this for a long time. It’s so hard to pay the rent and the bills. We can’t send our kids to college without big credit card bills. Now we’ll be able to improve our lives and the lives of our children. We didn’t fight in vain.” The rally at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center on Manhattan’s west side hosted Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Sec. Hillary Rodham Clinton and numerous elected officials and labor leaders. All of them lauded the dedication of Fight For $15 coalition members. “Right here in this room is what makes America great,” said Sec. Clinton. “Those who are widening the circle of justice, dignity and opportunity.” The plan increases the New York State’s minimum wage over time regionally:
• New York City workers will reach $15 by the end of December 2018. • Nassau, Suffolk and Westchester County workers will reach $15 the end of December 2021. • For workers in the rest of the state, the minimum wage will increase to $9.70 at the end of 2016 and then increase $.70 per year until it gets to $12.50 by December 31, 2020; it will continue to increase to $15 on an indexed schedule to be set by the Director of the Division of Budget in consultation with the NYS Department of Labor. “Now New York becomes the place where you don’t just make a minimum wage, you make a living wage,” said 1199SEIU Pres. George Gresham. “My parents came here because you could find a job where you could take care of a family, instead of needing two or three jobs.” Sec. Clinton reminded the crowd that the day was the anniversary of Dr. King’s assassination in Memphis. The celebration befitted his legacy, she said. “He knew we have to provide people with the opportunities to make the most out of their lives,” she said The Javits Center rally was the culmination of three years of Fight For $15 marches, rallies, speak outs and lobby visits across the state. On March 15, a rally 5,000 strong transformed Albany from the the Empire State capital to one of Economic Justice. Under the banner of the Mario Cuomo Campaign for Economic Justice—the coalition that spearheaded
March/April 2016 • Our Life And Times
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The Fight For $15
Left: Thousands rallied in Albany on March 15 calling on lawmakers to pass NY’s statewide $15 minimum wage.
“Now New York becomes the place where you don’t just make a minimum wage, you make a living wage.”
Below: At a pre-rally Speak Out on March 15, workers told of barely getting by on poverty wages.
the effort for fair wages, chaired by 1199 Pres. George Gresham and named for Gov. Cuomo’s late father— workers from across the northeast gathered on the city’s central mall calling boisterously on holdout state lawmakers to pass by April 1 a budget that included funding for Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s proposed New York State minimum wage of $15 an hour. New York State, New Jersey and Massachusetts 1199ers with their coalition partners from SEIU Local 32BJ, the New York State Nurses Association and the Hotel and Motel Trades Council got on Albany-bound buses before sunrise to continue calling attention to the impossible situation of New Yorkers trying to get by on as little as $9.00 an hour. Joined by community
NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo speaks at March 4 victory rally at NYC’s Javits Center with (from left) NYS Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, Sec. Hillary Clinton and 1199 Pres. George Gresham.
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March/April 2016 • Our Life And Times
groups like Make The Road, they rallied alongside security guards and airport, grocery store, child care and farm workers—those who do the cornerstone work of society, but can’t reliably support their own families. “We see so many workers who struggle to make ends meet and pay their bills. People have to rely on public transportation. Women struggle to pay for child care. They work so hard and reap no rewards,” said Pat Hatch, an LPN at Loretto Pace in Syracuse. “This rally is a good, positive sign. It’s outstanding and it’s a real push forward to politicians to do what’s right.” At a pre-rally speak out in one of the capital’s majestic halls, a group of workers told their stories. Though a diverse assemblage, their experiences were the same—they all spoke of barely getting by, going without and choosing between necessities. “As soon as I get paid I start budgeting,” said Tasha Cooper, a CNA at Focus rehab in Utica. “I try to budget really toughly. I pay my heat first so it doesn’t get turned off.” Cooper is her family’s breadwinner and has two kids. Her family is like too many across New York State; 66% of New Yorkers make less than $15 an hour working full time and 33% of them are raising their children on less than $15 an hour. In Albany, Pres. Gresham continued to carry the message that livable wages are society’s values writ large. “We cannot look out just for the
people at the top. We have to make sure the people at the bottom make it to the top,” he said. Gov. Cuomo joined Gresham in the demand to lift all boats on a new tide of economic equality. He rejected the idea of an America closed to those seeking opportunity. “They say they want to make America great again. We say they don’t know what makes America great in the first place,” said Cuomo, praising the diversity and passion of the rally. That rally finished up several weeks of the Drive for $15—a sojourn across New York State by Gov. Cuomo and Pres. Gresham during which they visited with scores of 1199SEIU members and other workers living on low-wages. There were stops in Albany, Syracuse, Kingston and on Long Island. Patsy Joseph, a home health aide at Park Nursing Care in New York City, was elated after the Javits rally. New York’s working families are going to have a better quality of life with higher wages and paid family leave, she said. “I took part for all the people who couldn’t be there,” Joseph said, motioning to the crowd around her. “I felt like I had a responsibility to them.” “There were times I wasn’t sure it was going to happen, but we marched and we went all over the state. We kept going back to Albany. We just did everything over and over again until we won,” she said, breaking into a smile. “It’s such a big relief.”
The Fight For $15
Consulate Workers Lead the Way to Living Wages in Florida Energized by the national Fight For $15, these women are the voice of wage justice for Florida’s workers.
“ Winning the Fight For $15 and earning a living wage is a way to bring back dignity to the American worker. ”
Bridget Montgomery of Mims, FL believes believes in the American Dream. “I think most Americans are like me,” she says frankly. “We want to live comfortably. We want to feed our families. Pay our bills. Contribute.” A CNA for three years at Vista Manor Rehabilitation Center in Titusville, FL, Montgomery, along with hundreds of caregivers, is standing up in an ongoing struggle for fair pay and better care for their residents. Vista Manor is owned by Consulate, Florida’s largest longterm care provider. “We demand better quality care for our patients and better pay and benefits so that we can live our lives and provide for our families,” says Kim White, a CNA at Lake Mary Health and Rehabilitation Center. “We’ve given Consulate opportunity upon opportunity to give us a living, decent wage, and we’ve been shut down every time. We’re tired of asking for their common sense, so now we’re demanding dollars.” While the nursing home industry has enjoyed five
consecutive years of market growth, Consulate caregivers are paid below average wages in institutions that are chronically short-staffed. “As caregivers, we are dedicated to caring for our residents because we know they are someone’s grandmother or father. But we also need to take care of our families and Consulate is shortchanging us with poverty wages,” says White, a single mother from Orlando. Consulate workers aren’t backing down; they’re among the millions of workers who’ve mobilized in the Fight for $15. 1199SEIU members at 19 Consulate facilities in Florida are demanding a living wage of $15 an hour and better care for their residents. “If we go to the table again and we don’t get $15, we’re ready to strike all 19 facilities,” asserts White. Montgomery is active on social media and first read about the Fight For $15 on Facebook. Inspired by last year’s news coverage of
striking fast food and service workers, Bridgette organized several co-workers and drove over 200 miles south to attend a Fight For $15 rally in Miami. “It was so exciting to see all of those workers fighting together. Young and old. People from different backgrounds—union and non-union who do all different kinds of work standing up for the same cause, together,” she says proudly. A former self-described “background person,” the growing national momentum of the Fight For $15 compelled her to step outside her comfort zone. Now she’s a leader. For Montgomery, the Fight for $15 is personal and means restoring the American Dream. “After that rally in Miami, I realized I have to do more. I grew up around here, so I went to school with many of my coworkers,” she says. “Right now, people don’t see the work I do as important. But me and my coworkers, we work hard to provide professional service and quality care to people who really need it. So when I stand up, I’m standing up for my family, my friends, and my community.” But she also knows that winning is vital beyond Florida’s borders, and she has to share the energy that’s bolstering the Fight there to win battles across the country. “Most Americans don’t want to be involved in politics. Winning the Fight for $15 and earning a living wage is a way to bring back dignity to the American worker. Someone like me who is struggling to support two teenagers on less than $10 and hour, I don’t really have a choice. We must step up,” she presses. “Corporations like Consulate Healthcare are not going to look after our best interest, so it’s going to take a political movement to win this fight.”
Dignity & A Living Wage: Kim White, a CNA at Lake Mary Health and Rehabilitation Center, is among the leaders in the Fight For $15 for Florida’s Consulate workers. March/April 2016 • Our Life And Times
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PHOTO: DAVE SANDERS
Our Members
Home health aide Anna Couch representing Venezuela on the Red Carpet for Social Justice in NYC on March 11.
1199 Celebrates
The Power of Union Women Members in New Jersey and New York City hold International Women’s Day events.
NJ Members Build Political Power On March 8, New Jersey 1199ers hosted their fourth annual International Women’s Day event, to celebrate the leading role of women in creating a more just, peaceful and healthy world. Patsy Allen, a recreation aide at New Vista Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Newark, explained that the holiday is significant to her because “it gives an opportunity for women of all nationalities to speak out and learn from each other. Coming together reminds us that we are all important. We are society’s caregivers.” Attendees used the day not just to celebrate, but also to organize, strategize and share perspectives on how to win two major campaigns they’ve brought to New Jersey over the past year—the Fight for $15 and a movement to improve staffing levels in nursing homes. Members participated in a media spokesperson training to practice telling their stories about the challenges of being healthcare workers, in preparation for speaking out for a $15 minimum wage at rallies, press conferences, and legislative hearings. “My adult daughter has special needs and needs round-the-clock care, so I have to pay someone to 9
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look after her while I’m at work,” shared Valerie Beach, a CNA at Alaris at Hamilton Park, and a nursing home in Jersey City. “Winning $15 would ease a lot of pressure on me, and maybe one day let me live my dream of going on a vacation with her.” Recognizing the importance that politics plays in building movements for economic justice and quality health care, 1199ers invited several elected leaders to the event who’ve been working closely with them on a range of initiatives. Members presented “Caregiver Champion” awards to NJ Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg, Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto, and Assemblyman Joe Lagana for their role in advancing legislation to bring compassionate staffing levels to nursing homes throughout the state. Patricia Matthews, a CNA and union delegate at Newark Extended Care, summed up the importance of coming together at times like International Women’s Day, to reflect on where 1199 has come and to look towards the future. “We’re building something for our children who may follow our footsteps and enter the healthcare field, not for a dollar bill but because they have a heart, because they care about others. Because we stood and didn’t run from our
challenges, I believe in a future when our children will earn $25 or $30 an hour, when society begins to see our job for what it really is. It may be hard now, but believe me and take it to the bank that our work will pay off.”
NYC Rolls Out the Red Carpet for Social Justice 1199SEIU members and staff on March 11 once again presented the Red Carpet for Social Justice in the auditorium at 1199’s New York City headquarters. The yearly International Women’s Day celebration is sponsored by a host of unions and labor and community organizations. It included music and dance performances from cultures around the world and a remembrance of those affected by women’s cancers. After remarks form the evening’s keynote speaker NYC Public Advocate Letitia James, event organizers presented the annual Audrey Smith Campbell Awards. The Smith Campbell awards are named for the late delegate from Kingsbridge Nursing Home in the Bronx; she died during a historic strike at the institution after running out of medication for a chronic illness. Her memory has become synonymous with the tireless fight for workers’ rights. Among the recipients was Francis
Attendees used the day not just to celebrate, but also to organize, strategize and share perspectives on how to win two major campaigns: the Fight For $15 and a movement to improve staffing levels in nursing homes. Wearing, a support staff worker at Columbia University in New York City for over 40 years, she has been an active delegate and leader in the Union and community. Wearing has devoted her life not only to mentoring her women colleagues, but also girls and young women, serving as a Girl Scout leader. “My mission is to prepare them for bright and promising futures. I challenge their minds and opens their eyes to ways to give back to their communities,” she says. After the event, a group of men from 1199’s staff served dinner to the women in attendance.
T HE WORK W E DO
Columbia University’s College of Dental Medicine: Where the dental assistants work hard to keep their patients smiling At Columbia University’s dental school, dental students work on patients under the supervision of trained dentists and 26 1199SEIU-represented, experienced dental assistants. Patients come to the clinic for every kind of dental and dental-related treatment—from pediatric care to oral, facial and head pain. What’s more, because the clinic is connected to Columbia Presbyterian Hospital, patients with specialized needs like heart conditions can receive care with continuity from workers who know them—which provides a sense of security and well-being.
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1. Caridad Reynoso has worked at Columbia’s clinic for 10 years. She’s shown cleaning a patient’s teeth before assisting a student dentist with a filling. 2. Inderia Franklin attended Columbia’s Dental Assistant Program and graduated as valedictorian of her class. “Some people don’t know how important their dental health is. I wish I understood that when I was younger,” she says. “The mouth is the window to all health; to take care of your teeth is taking care of all of your health.”
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3. Gladys Sierra, shown with dental student Amanda Dewundara and Dr. Joseph Wang. “Working with the students can be a little tough,” she says. “Sometimes it’s like being at home with the kids. You don’t always see eye-to-eye. We have to teach them and show them what they can and can’t do.” 4. Caridad Reynoso prepares for a patient’s X-ray.
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5. Kathy Ocasio worked in a private practice before coming to Columbia’s clinic. “This place is important. The costs of implants and other services are a lot in other places compared to here,” she says. “And we’re also important to patients who have conditions like heart disease because they can get treated by their doctors right here. That makes them feel comfortable.”
6. Adair Sheffer has worked at Columbia for 26 years. She started in pediatrics and then moved to the emergency clinic. “When I get a patient who’s nervous I tell them they shouldn’t be scared,” she says. “I put the numbing gel on and explain things to them. Then I converse with them and try to make them forget. It’s harder with kids. I sing to them and talk to them a lot. But some people are just scared regardless—no matter what you do.”
Our Union
Buffalo workers at a Fight For $15 rally on Nov. 10, 2015. Area nursing home workers have been hit hard by changes in their industry.
Meeting the Challenges of a
New Nursing Home Industry Western New York State members prepare for contract campaign.
Long-term care in Western New York is in crisis. And 1199SEIU is committed to solving it. Nursing homes in the region were buffeted by the Great Recession of 2007-08, the rising cost of health care, the increasing dominance of for-profit nursing homes and the need to stretch each Medicaid dollar. Nursing home workers and their patients are suffering the effects of the changes. “The current environment is not conducive to real quality care for our residents,” says Gabe Tyler, a veteran CNA at Williamsville Campus NH in Buffalo. Tyler speaks from extensive experience as a nursing home worker and victim of the recession. He has worked at Williamsville for the past eight years, and was a leader of the organizing drive that in 2013 brought the 220bed facility into 1199SEIU. About a decade ago, Tyler was earning between $17 and $18 per hour as a CNA at a not-for-profit nursing home. Then, under pressure from the growing for-profit homes, the home closed. At the time, of the 41 Western New York nursing homes represented by 1199SEIU, 17 were locally-owned not-forprofits. And downstate investors owned just three. Today downstate employers own 25 of those facilities and the number of not-for-profit is down to 12. “I not only lost my job when my nursing home closed,” says Tyler. “I also lost my home, had to file for bankruptcy and I moved into public housing.”
“ This environment is not conducive to quality care.” — Gabe Tyler CNA at Williamsville Campus NH, Buffalo Today, after some 22 years in the industry, Tyler earns $11.72 an hour. He is proud of his work record, noting that he’s never been written up. But he’s also sad and angry that the skills, compassion and devotion that he brings to his work are unappreciated and poorly compensated. That’s just one reason he was among the thousands of 1199ers and advocates who rallied in Albany on March 15 to press the NY State legislature to pass a $15 minimum wage. The Albany rally was a key component of the Western New York district’s campaign for a living wage with adequate benefits and good working conditions. Also at the rally with a group of co-workers was Tonya Goffe, a CNA at Buffalo’s Sheridan Manor NH. Her part-time work at Sheridan Manor is one of Goffe’s two jobs. “I’m the
mother of four, so because of my hourly pay, I can’t get by with just one job.” Goffe became a delegate last year during contract negotiations. “Winning the Union and getting a contract has improved the situation for us, but we still need a lot of improvement here, including better pay,” says Goffe, who earns $12.28 an hour. Goffe notes that management at the home increasingly relies on temporary agency workers, “The use of agency workers makes our work harder,” Goffe emphasizes. “They (agency workers) don’t have the commitment of the regular workforce and they are less reliable.” That undermines continuity of care, she notes. 1199SEIU is awaiting a state arbitrator’s decision on its grievance regarding the overuse of agency workers. At press time, raising the state minimum wage and enforcing contracts are challenges on the horizon for the commitment and organization of Western NY 1199SEIU members. Over the next 12 months the area’s Union members will be negotiating contracts covering 23 homes and 3,000 members—the vast majority of homes and members in the region. To achieve these goals, the district leadership has launched a year-long contract campaign that includes recruiting new delegates who will be trained for the struggles ahead. Members also are being mobilized for political action because industry-funding decisions are made in Washington, D.C. as well as Albany. The Union’s challenge is to win a political victory in 2016 and a contract victory in 2017. This campaign is also taking place in a changing industry: New York State now contracts with private insurers, known as managed care organizations (MCO), to provide services to the state’s Medicaid beneficiaries. These MCOs will be paid a flat rate based on regional pricing for the care insured institutions provide. This new system controls costs and rewards quality. So, instead of focusing on costcutting, institutions and the MCOs with which they contract can receive higher payments by delivering better care. Members can be important partners in that process, says Goffe. “As soon as we brought in the Union, procedures were put in place to improve patient care.”
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Our Union
RESTRUCTURING TO MEET TODAY’S CHALLENGES 1199 must keep pace with rapid changes in the healthcare industry.
Throughout its history, 1199SEIU has adjusted its structure to better increase the efficiency of staff and the mobilization of members. The Union’s goal has never changed: to improve the lives of members, their families and their communities, while ensuring quality patient care and greater access for all. While doing so, 1199SEIU has achieved historic gains. In less than three generations, 1199 has lifted healthcare workers in New York City from abject poverty—with salaries of less than $30 per week and abusive working conditions—to pay and benefits that set the standards for the rest of the nation. The Union has fought unceasingly to protect those gains and ultimately secure them for 1199ers in every region. That’s why the Union is changing in order to meet the challenges of a rapidly changing healthcare industry. Healthcare is under pressure to be leaner and provide better health outcomes at lower costs; to do this the industry requires greater coordination, flexibility and accountability. Within healthcare, coordination and consolidation have led to the establishment of mega-institutions, as larger hospitals and networks swallow up smaller ones. Much of the care that previously took place in hospitals has moved to outpatient facilities and neighborhood clinics; for-profits institutions, especially in the nursing-home industry, are replacing non-profits. Nursing home and home care are increasingly being merged into long-term care operations. These changes come at a time of formidable challenges, beginning with a nationwide political environment hostile to unions and workers as a whole. But not all of these changes are negative and some will improve patient care. Others are designed to help make better use of stretched state healthcare budgets. The Affordable Care Act, for example, has provided coverage to millions of the previously uninsured and has instituted practices that require greater accountability and more preventive care. “I’ve seen a lot of changes among our employers, including some bankruptcies,” says Tom Cloutier, a lab technologist at SBH Health System in the Bronx. Cloutier speaks from many years of experience. He has been a delegate and a member of the Union’s executive council for 36 years. “Medicaid reform in New York State incentivizes far greater coordination and cost savings,” Cloutier says. “The requirement for institutions to provide a greater range of services and for greater accountability has led to more mergers. This means that our Union needs to coordinate efforts within and among networks. We must continue to change as the industry does.” Some employers are attempting to solve budget issues on the backs of healthcare employees. Specifically, they are attempting to open new institutions, clinics and departments
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with non-union labor. 1199 has refused to take part in this economic race to the bottom, preferring instead to partner for good jobs, improve care and reduce waste. Organizing is an important part of this equation. Employers would do better to partner with the union to improve patient care, win better healthcare legislation on the local, state and national level, and increase funding through political and legislative action. Restructuring will help to make that possible.
“ Changes are designed to facilitate greater member involvement.”
The restructuring is not fully completed, but most of the changes are in the process of being put into place. Among the major changes are: • The creation of two senior executive vice president positions (EVPs) responsible for Health Systems—hospital systems—and one for LongTerm care—nursing homes and home care. • Assigning one EVP for each mega-system. • Assigning one EVP for all nursing homes in Downstate NY, the Hudson Valley and New Jersey Region. • Assigning one EVP for Home Care; one EVP for the RN Division; one EVP for the Hudson Valley/ Capital Division; and one EVP for the CommunityBased Organizations/Pharmacy Division. Although the target date for the changes was Jan. 1, 1199SEIU’s executive council agreed that the changes should take place in an orderly and flexible manner with little or no disruption to members.
The changes should better position Union officers and organizers to assist the members with the Union’s core mission: • Chapter Building through expanding and building member leadership through contract, social justice and new organizing campaigns. • Political Action to help members engage in activities at the workplace and in the broader community to win electoral, legislative and budget victories, and • Social Justice by joining hands with allies and other movements, immigration reform, an end to police brutality, affordable housing and equality and healthcare for all. Restructuring’s bottom line is greater member involvement. The evidence that it has been successful will be a more informed, committed and active membership that moves 1199 closer to its goals.
Our Members
Suyapa Garcia, a home health aide with the Chinese-American Planning Counil, became a U.S. citizen on Dec. 29, 2015, with help from 1199SEIU’s Citizenship Program.
1199SEIU Citizenship Program
Celebration “ Immigrants play a big role in this society. When we come to this country we see richness, but we also see people in need and we want to help.”
This 14th year of the Citizenship Celebration marked a milestone; as of last summer over 10,000 people became U.S. citizens with the program’s help.
The 1199SEIU National Benefit Fund (NBF) and Training and Employment Funds on Jan. 29 honored the 739 members of 1199SEIU who in 2015 became U.S. citizens with help from the 1199SEIU Citizenship Program. More than 200 new citizens and their families attended the Annual Celebration, which was held in 1199SEIU’s Cherkasky/Davis Conference Center overlooking Manhattan’s west side. The program was founded in 2001 and includes counseling, assistance with the application process, interview skills coaching, legal assistance and more. This 14th year of the Citizenship Celebration marked a milestone; as of last summer over 10,000 people became U.S. citizens with the program’s help. Among them was Dianne Charles, a CNA at Brooklyn’s Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center, who spoke at the event. Originally from Trinidad, Charles came to the U.S. in 1995 as a widowed mother of four. “I started working as a home health aide and then as a CNA. I even started LPN training, but had
to stop because my daughter who was living in Canada became ill,” she says. “She was diagnosed with cancer and for nine years I traveled back and forth by plane and bus to be with her. My supervisors at Kingsbrook were so understanding and supportive right up until the time she eventually passed away.” Charles was sworn in as a citizen on Dec. 16, 2015; she believes what she’s gone through makes her stronger. “I plan on going back to school to become an LPN because I love taking care of people. Immigrants play a big role in this society. When we come to this country we see richness, but we also see people in need and we want to help. We do the work lots of people won’t do,” she says. “People like Donald Trump aren’t educated about immigrants. He’s rich and has a different life and can’t see the other side. I can.” Citizenship Program Coordinator Celeste Douglass and Education Coordinator Maria Luisa Castaneda warmly welcomed the evening’s guests. They both noted the
perseverance and sense of purpose among all of the new citizens—and their willingness to see through what can sometimes be an arduous process. Castaneda reflected on the invaluable contribution of immigrants to society and in particular to the healthcare system. “While New Yorkers are still asleep, healthcare workers—nurses, lab technicians, CNAs, dietary aides, housekeepers, home health aides and many more—are already up and going to their jobs, “said Castaneda. “1199 workers—many of them foreign-born—activate the city. The healthcare industry is the largest employer of immigrants. SEIU Exec. VP Gerald Hudson was the evening’s guest speaker. Hudson, a former 1199SEIU EVP, spent dozens of years overseeing 1199’s political and cultural programs. He has devoted most of his adult life to the labor movement, civil rights and social justice. “We are at a critical time in our nation’s history,” said Hudson, as he impressed upon the new citizens the gravity of exercising their new voting rights. “The immigrant threads that have stitched together the nation are in danger of being torn apart by lack of understating,” he said. Suyapa Garcia, a home health aide with Manhattan’s ChineseAmerican Planning Council told how she defied life-threatening obstacles to come from a tiny Honduran village to the United States in 1987. “I joined a group of migrants crossing the Matamoros River and jumped in a moving train to Texas. We helped each other. Finally in New York I worked in a factory and sold ice cream on the weekends,” she said. Garcia became a citizen on Dec. 29, 2015, after raising four children, earning her GED and spending years supporting her family back in Honduras. “My faith in God helped me come from a small village to the big city, and now I feel as if a big weight was lifted off of my shoulders,” she says. “I’m so thankful for all of my teachers and the people who helped me, but my heart still aches for all of the immigrants who have to live in hiding because they don’t have papers. I had to do that. It’s humiliating and frightening. All people want to do is work. It’s my mission to help these people, so I remind everyone that now we have to vote. One vote can make a difference. Your vote will make the difference.” For more information about the Citizenship Program and eligibility log onto www.1199funds.org.
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The Last Word: Cecile Richards Cecile Richards is the President of Planned Parenthood of America and the organization’s political arm, the Planned Parenthood Action Fund. For more than 100 years, Planned Parenthood has provided healthcare, family planning and sex education services to millions of people. Ms. Richards is a leader in the fight to preserve access to federally-funded reproductive health programs for women and was an architect of women’s health services coverage in the Affordable Care Act. Although the organization has been buffeted by unprecedented violence and political attacks from the right wing, Planned Parenthood has continued to grow and broaden its membership under Ms. Richards’ steadfast leadership. PHOTO COURTESY PLANNED PARENTHOOD
Some of your earliest experience is as a labor organizer. What do you bring to your role as the leader of Planned Parenthood from that experience? My first job out of college was as a union organizer of garment workers on the Rio Grande border of Texas. I kept moving. My husband Kirk and I were itinerant organizers; we worked in Louisiana, Texas and California; it was the most important experience of my life having the honor of getting to work with women who worked in minimum wage jobs, for the most part in hotels and the service industry and nursing homes. Who did some of the most important and difficult work that anyone ever does and were the most underappreciated folks. I went on to organize janitors in L.A. as well. I feel like the women and families with whom I had the opportunities to work in those many years in the labor movement are the very same women that depend on Planned Parenthood for healthcare and who are really not looking for anything more than their fair share and an opportunity to take care of themselves and their families. I will remember to my last day the women that I worked with in those jobs and the struggles they have. I hope it’s helped me be a better ally and organizer in this work at Planned Parenthood. Where can our coalition partners do better in expanding on our message intersectionality? The places where we do see real progress, whether it’s at the state level or nationally, are the places where movements join together and recognize a common purpose and put all of our assets—our members, our learnings, our reach together. I’ve been proud to work with 1199, for example, in North Carolina in the Moral Mondays Movement, which is a very good example of a place where people can begin to appreciate each other and their issues and leadership and find strength in it, rather than be threatened by them. 1199 has always had a history of pioneering and recognizing how all of our movements are connected and I think that Planned Parenthood, which has been under such assault as an organization—and this is true for labor, too—it’s easy to go into a bunker. We have to do the exact opposite. We have to call out that an injustice to any in our movement is an injustice to all in our movement. And the way we’re going to change this country and make opportunity for everyone is in standing with each other. I’ll say that even though we’ve been under enormous assault in the last few months we got through this because leaders like Mary Kay Henry, Rev. Barber and Corey Booker reached out to me and we have to do the same in kind and not just in times of challenge but times of strength. 15
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Have the attacks on Planned Parenthood changed the way the progressive movement needs to think about the way we organize ourselves? We’ve had to learn how to take on our attackers and grow in strength. We’ve grown from about 3 million supporters to now 9 million because we have to look at these as organizing opportunities. It’s incumbent on the leadership of movement, whether it’s at the national level or the local level, to build the relationships. You can spend your days consumed with protecting your own organization or you can recognize and build community with others. Those are the only places we can succeed. This is the only way we got through all the assault we’ve been under—not just because we did our work, but because others stood with us. Whether its immigration reform, LGBT rights, or for working families to get a living wage. I hope that within the broad progressive community that we recognize that we have so much more in common than we have than we have different. I see it certainly in some of our midwestern states where our labor allies have been under such relentless assault. The work that people have done on the ground—whether it’s at election time or standing in solidarity at the state capitol in Wisconsin those are the kinds of relationships that are just essential. Going through fire with someone makes you lifelong allies. I’m really proud of how the labor movement has reached out to Planned Parenthood. How do we speak to those who may not depend on the services of Planned Parenthood about why they too need to stand up for the organzation? One thing my mother taught me early on was that people don’t do things for your reasons; they do things for their own reasons. I think it’s true. I think instead we need to give them tools and opportunity to become leaders. It’s true in the labor movement. The early fights; the things that Leon Davis and other leaders did are important to remember but what is important now is for allies to expose themselves to organizing campaigns or what other people are doing because it’s other people’s lived experience that motivates folks to do more and recognize that they’re part of a much bigger community. I spend a lot of time at our health centers across the country and there is nothing that brings it home more quickly than to get out of my office and go to a health center and talk to the patient in the waiting room, or a doctor or a women who had nowhere to go and found Planned Parenthood to reinvigorate your commitment. I do think unfortunately the growing economic divide in America is everywhere. We need to go back to our
roots. Do some door knocking. Get on an organizing campaign. Get in touch with what people are struggling with in this country. I was just in Ft. Worth, TX. As I was leaving a young woman from Midland told me she had to drive 400 miles for access to a legal abortion at Planned Parenthood. I will remember her maybe forever. What she said to me gave me so much motivation to keep going and recognize what’s at stake in this election. It’s far beyond a candidate or a party; it’s literally about the future of a whole generation. Planned Parenthood endorsed Hillary Clinton. It was a first. What did it mean for the organization and for women voters? We couldn’t sit on the sidelines and just take it and not speak up for our patients and our organization. We interviewed all three candidates and even though they all had a solid voting record there was only one who had been a leader on access to healthcare and women’s rights her entire life and that was Hillary Clinton. She’s been a courageous leader long before it was popular. What women need in the White House is not a supporter or a solid voter, but someone who will fight every single day for women’s rights and access to reproductive healthcare in this country. We’re at a pivotal moment. There folks in Congress who have voted to end access not only to Planned Parenthood, but to all healthcare for women in the family planning program and the Affordable Care Act. The stakes are huge. Frankly it’s not because Hillary Clinton is a woman. It’s because she’s fought for women her entire life and that sets her entirely apart from anyone else who is running for president.
“ I was just in Ft. Worth, TX. As I was leaving a young woman from Midland told me she had to drive 400 miles for access to a legal abortion at Planned Parenthood. I will remember her maybe forever.”
THE BACK PAGE The Work We Do Luisa Luzuriaga works in oral, facial and head pain in the dental clinic at Columbia University’s School of Dental Medicine. She works with patients who have conditions like Temporomandibular Joint Disorders (TMJ) and facial nerve pain. She also helps train student dentists. See pages 10-11 for story.
Photo by Jim Tynan