A JOURNAL OF 1199SEIU September/October 2010
10-2-10 Jobs Education Peace Immigration Environment Health Care
Be There!
Contents 3 WHY WE’RE MARCHING ON 10-2-10 Our nation is in crisis. 4 PRESIDENT’S COLUMN March on 10-2-10 and demand the change we voted for. 5 UNITING FOR A FAIR ECONOMY Wall St. thrives while working people struggle. 6 GOOD JOBS ARE UNION JOBS Organizing can help solve the economic crisis. 7 AN INTERVIEW WITH PRES. MARY KAY HENRY 10-2-10 gives us an opportunity to hold corporations accountable. 8 THE WORK WE DO Our Florida region’s Avante Lake Worth and Hebrew Home of South Beach. 10 SAVING OUR SCHOOLS Calling for an end to budget cuts and system wide inequities. 11 STOP FEEDING THE WAR MACHINE Iraq and Afghanistan wars drain resources we need here at home. 12 A COUNTRY OF IMMIGRANTS 10-2-10 is about immigrant rights and a fair path to citizenship. 13 DEFENDING OUR ENVIRONMENT It’s time to end polluters’ free-for-all with our natural resources. 15 AROUND OUR UNION Fight continues at North General.
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p.7 Our Life And Times, September/October 2010, Vol 28, No 4 Published by 1199SEIU, United Healthcare Workers East 310 West 43rd St. New York, NY 10036 Telephone (212) 582-1890 www.1199seiu.org
p.11 E DITOR : J.J. Johnson STAFF WRITE R :
Patricia Kenney PHOTOG RAPH E R :
Jim Tynan PHOTOG RAPHY ASS ISTANT :
Belinda Gallegos ART DI RECTION & DES IG N :
Maiarelli Studio PRES I DE NT :
George Gresham S EC RETARY TREASURE R :
Maria Castaneda
JAY MALLIN PHOTO
EXEC UTIVE VIC E PRES I DE NTS :
Anthony Anderson, a floor tech at Manor Care in Towson, MD.
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Norma Amsterdam Yvonne Armstrong Angela Doyle Aida Garcia George Kennedy Steve Kramer Patrick Lindsay Joyce Neil John Reid Bruce Richard Mike Rifkin Neva Shillingford Milly Silva Veronica Turner Estela Vazquez
Our Life And Times is published 6 times a year by 1199SEIU, 310 West 43rd St., New York, NY 10036. Subscriptions $15 per year. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY and additional mailing offices. ISSN 1080-3089. USPS 000-392. Postmaster: Send address changes to Our Life And Times, 310 West 43rd St., New York, NY 10036.
www.1199seiu.org
EDITORIAL
Hundreds of 1199ers marched against the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq at Syracuse rally in 2007.
Why We’re Marching We need both relief and recovery. Our nation is in crisis. Joblessness and homelessness remain at alarming levels. Our state and local budgets are bleeding red ink. Healthcare institutions — unable to balance their books— are closing their doors. Corporate polluters continue to befoul our air, land and water. Higher education for our children remains out of reach. Those that do graduate are unable to find jobs. We’ve yet to realize the change we voted for in 2008. We voted to end the shameless pandering to the corporate big-wigs, which was marked by deregulation, tax cuts and a transfer of wealth upwards. During the first eight years of this century, government entirely abdicated its role to curb the excesses of the corporate community and provide a social safety net for workers and the poor. The Obama administration has taken some steps to address the excesses, but far more needs to be done. For example, the $860 billion economic stimulus enacted by the Obama administration and Congress in 2009 made it possible for some three million workers to retain their jobs and pay their bills, thus preventing a bad situation from becoming even worse. Extending unemployment benefits did the same.
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But today, most reputable economists argue that the stimulus should have been larger. Sadly, most Republicans and some Democrats— fixated on the deficit and government spending — are reluctant to support increased government spending. Rather, the Republicans in the House have introduced a bill they call the Economic Freedom Act, which calls for more deficit-funded tax cuts for the wealthy and deregulatory policies that would hand trillions to the corporations. To some politicians economic freedom amounts to nothing more than government turning a blind eye to corporate excesses while excusing the rich and powerful from paying their fair share of taxes. During the contentious healthcare reform debate last year, a man stood up at a South Carolina town-hall meeting and told Rep. Bob Inglis to “keep your government hands off my Medicare.” The congressman tried to explain that Medicare is already a government program, but the voter, Rep. Inglis said, “wasn’t having any of it.” Tea Party demonstrators demand limited government and tax cuts. But that is exactly what got us into our current predica-
ment. Limited government meant that regulators looked the other way while giant investment banks pushed mortgages they knew the buyers couldn’t afford. Limited government permitted the same companies to package the worthless mortgages and in so doing precipitated the nation’s deepest economic crisis since the Great Depression. The tax cuts for the rich and very rich turned a Clinton-era surplus into a gaping annual deficit. That and the nation’s wasteful, bloated military budget rob our communities of essential services and jobs. That is why we are marching on 10-2-10. You’ll meet in the pages of this magazine fellow 1199ers who explain why they’ll be in Washington on Oct. 2 and why you should join them. Yvena Madeus, a CNA at Avante in Lake Worth, FL, will be in Washington for the One Nation march because she supports healthcare funding and the right to unionize. We urge you to join her and the hundreds of thousands of 1199ers and others who will be marching for the change we voted for: health care, education, jobs, clean energy, immigrant rights, hope and unity.
To some politicians economic freedom amounts to nothing more than government turning a blind eye to corporate excesses while excusing the rich and powerful from paying their fair share of taxes.
THE PRESIDENT’S COLUMN George Gresham
On to Washington On 10-2-10
Letters
We will demand the change we voted for. In just a few short weeks, we—and hopefully you—will be making history. We will be marching on Washington by the hundreds of thousands to demand the Change We Voted For. In this issue of Our Life And Times, 1199SEIU sisters and brothers from throughout our union tell why they are coming to Washington on “10-2-10”— October 2. Our union is hugely diverse: with the addition of Florida, we now have sisters and brothers on the doorstep of the Caribbean, while members in upstate New York live along the Canadian border. We or our parents come from too many countries to count and we speak dozens of languages. All of the world’s religions have believers in 1199SEIU, who work alongside members who belong to no faith. But whatever our differences, we have this in common: we are caregivers who provide for the sick, the injured and the aged. We are workers who give of ourselves so that our families can enjoy a decent life, our children can get a good education, and our elders can enjoy the security they deserve. And we live in a time when all that we work for and hold dear is threatened by a Wall Street-dominated economy where the wealth that working folks produce is re-distributed upward. Our jobs are threatened—and many of our sisters and brothers have already lost theirs. Our homes are threatened. Our children’s education is threatened. Our retirement security is threatened. Meantime, the bankers and CEOs continue to accumulate more wealth than any oligarchy in history. Two years ago, tens of thousands of 1199ers were among the millions of workers, young people, and first-time voters who went to the polls in record numbers to vote for change: For health care for all. For the right of every child to a quality education. For the right of every worker to join the union of her choice. For comprehensive immigration reform to bring 12 million foreign-born workers out of the shadows with a path to citizenship. For funding programs that meet peoples’ needs rather than for unwinnable wars of choice and underwriting war profits. For the defense of Mother Earth, the air we breathe and the water we drink against the likes of BP, the mining companies and the other corporate polluters. Since January 2009, every attempt to move forward on any of these issues has met with near-unanimous opposition from the Republican minority in Congress. Their votes have been supplemented by those of Democrats who are more fearful of their corporate contributors and of Fox News than they are loyal to the voters who sent them to Washington. Even when there is progress, as in the health reform and financial reform fights, it is not nearly the amount of progress we hoped for. The creation of the hate-mobs known as the Tea Party has dominated the airwaves for 18 months. To listen to some politicians and broadcast commentators, one would have thought that Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin and Rush Limbaugh won the 2008 elections. In fact, they lost badly that November. But they’ve made the noise and thus have set the agenda for a while now. Now it’s our turn. Politics, we know, is not a spectator sport. Working people have to join in—and in large numbers—to have a voice in a society where the large corporations (including the corporate media) dominate. Unfortunately, too many have been watching and complaining, but not doing. But no longer. On 10-2-10, we will be marching in Washington alongside the American Federation of Teachers, the AFL-CIO, the NAACP, the Sierra Club, the massive movements for immigration reform, environmental and peace—and many, many more. In poker, it is called “table stakes” when all the players’ money is on the table riding on the game. The plight of working people today is no game, but everything we hold dear is at risk. This is table stakes for real. For the future of your jobs, for the sake of your families, for our country and the planet Earth, please join us on 10-2-10. We need each other.
MARCHING ON 10-2-10 am urging you to participate in the march on Washington D.C. on Oct. 2, 2010. Since 9/11, we have embarked on a mission to rid the world of those responsible for the biggest terrorists attacks on American soil. At least that’s what we’ve been led to believe. In fact, the mission has evolved in many directions, none of which resulted in the capture of those responsible or any tangible resolutions to the issues at hand. We have yet to accomplish the goals we set. Nine years later, fear and anger have fueled our willingness to occupy countries that we have no business being in. After years of trying, we need to rethink our reasons and come to the realization that it’s not worth the countless lives we’ve lost and the billions of dollars we’ve spent. We Americans are facing one of the hardest economic times to date. We need to begin rebuilding and investing in our own states and cities. We need to bring our service men and women home and stop taking innocent lives. We need new jobs and new ways to educate our children and ourselves. I am proud of President Obama. I also know that if we don’t change our direction, not only will more lives be lost but the resources necessary to rebuild our economy will not be available. We must let our President know how concerned we are. We must mobilize in force to get this message to those in power. Our mission on 10-2-10 is simple. Our vision is clear: stop the war, bring back jobs, and rebuild our nation. “If we don’t stand for something, we will continue to fall for anything.” Let’s stand together in solidarity, a unified force on 10-2-10. God bless us all and God bless America.
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DWAYNE STAFFORD Community General Hospital, Syracuse, NY
CALLING SINGERS am one of several 1199SEIU members who are in the NYC Labor Chorus. Our Chorus promotes union solidarity by expressing through song the history and ongoing struggles of workers for economic and social justice. Our dynamic repertoire combines the power and culture of union music with the great gospel, jazz, classical and folk traditions. The Chorus will be conducting auditions as we begin our 20th year of singing for social and economic justice. Auditions will take place on Sept. 27 and Oct. 4 at 6 p.m. at 50 Broadway in Manhattan on the second floor. Please see our website www.nyclc.org for further information or call 212-929-3232.
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ENID POTTINGER Retiree, New York City
THE IMMIGRANT I mow the lawn and wash your car, I cook your meals and care for your kids Yet no respect I get. Why? I am an Immigrant. I mend the roof and mop the floor Cut the trees and plant the flowers Gather the leaves and dump the Trash and yet no respect I get— Why? I am an immigrant. To collect my check I am told To go below minimum wage my Boss says so, he knows he is Breaking the law but I am an Immigrant. Now he is old and in a chair, I brush his teeth and comb His hair, please push me here An push me there, now he Calls me son instead of boy For we are immigrants. J. ELAINE McDONALD Retiree, New York City
Let’s Hear From You Our Life And Times welcomes your letters. Please email them to jamesj@1199.org or snail mail them to J.J. Johnson, 1199SEIU OLAT, 330 West 42nd St., 7th floor, New York, NY 10036. Please include your telephone number and place of work. Letters may be edited for brevity and clarity.
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POLITICAL ACTION
United for
A FAIR ECONOMY “We are not Wall Street’s ATM.” Big banks and corporations have returned to profitability, but for working people the bleeding continues. The U.S. unemployment rate has remained at 9.5 percent throughout the summer. The number of underemployed— those who are too discouraged to look for work or are working part-time out of economic necessity—stands at 26 million. Some 41 million Americans are receiving food stamps. Four million homeowners are delinquent on their loans or in foreclosure proceedings. Economists say that without last year’s stimulus bill unemployment would be far higher. These economists also say that much more is needed. Yet Congressional Republicans, and some Democrats, balk at any effort to address the job crisis. Meanwhile Wall Street took $700 billion in taxpayer bailouts and went right back to business as usual. “It is our obligation to speak for the working class in this country,” says David Holmes, a patient account rep and delegate at Brooklyn’s Maimonides Hospital. “That obligation includes holding politicians accountable.” That is the message Holmes is delivering to his co-workers as he signs them up for the 10-2-10 demonstration in Washington. At a recent Our Life And Times visit to the hospital, Holmes was joined by delegates Sherral McAdam and Maureen Eastwick, both of whom are also working to build the demonstration. “I’m telling members that the Republican Party is trying to destroy Pres. Obama,” McAdam, a secretary, says. Further north, in Massachusetts, Andrea Smith-Dos Santos, a nutrition coordinator at Brandon Woods of New Bedford nursing home, stresses the importance of government financing to the well-being of patients and workers’ jobs. “Here, management has embraced labor-management cooperation,” she says. “Management understands that they can go further working with us than fighting us.” But Smith-Dos Santos is concerned about healthcare funding and the health of
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Sherral McAdam, Maureen Eastwick and David Holmes, delegates at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., are working together to build 1199ers’ participation on 10-2-10.
the economy. “Many of our firefighters were recently laid off. And that came after they had won a contractual raise,” she says. “We voted for change, but we also have to work to realize it. That’s what I’m telling members about Oct. 2. We’ve had years of problems and bad government, so we have to work to turn things around.” Smith-Dos Santos says that unity is a key ingredient in bringing about change. “We can’t do it alone. For instance in health care, what good is a doctor without the rest of the healthcare team? It’s like baking a pie—you need all the ingredients.” Marie St. Germain, a CNA at Clark Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Clark, N.J., tells her co-workers that they need to fight the policies of Gov. Chris Christie and those who support him in Washington. “Our members all have families. None of them are rich,” St. Germain says. “I tell them that if they don’t like the policies that hurt poor people, we must do something about it.” In early August she had signed up 10 of her co-workers for the 10-2-10 march. “Stopping the bleeding also has become very personal for us,” says Holmes. “I was on the North General (hospital) picket line in July and it pained me to know that my sisters and brothers were losing their jobs because the hospital was closing. Dr. (Martin Luther) King said that we (1199) are the conscience of the labor movement. We have an obligation to lead.”
Economists say that without last year’s stimulus bill unemployment would be far higher. These economists also say that much more is needed.
JOBS
JAY MALLIN PHOTO
Anthony Anderson, a floor tech at Manor Care in Towson, MD. Below: Yvena Madeus, a CNA at Avante Lake Worth in Lake Worth, FL.
city in the nation, hospital workers have taken a beating due to the failing economy and the antiunion environment. This year alone, some 1,500 members lost their jobs when Manhattan’s St. Vincent’s hospital shuttered its doors after more than 150 years. Several months later, another 700 members of 1199SEIU were furloughed when Harlem’s North General was scaled down to a clinic. In New Jersey, conservative Gov. Chris Christie has become a favorite of the fiscal conservatives as he has wielded the budget axe against public services and public workers. He has been especially brutal with the New Jersey Education Association, the state’s teachers’ union. And health care also is on his chopping block. Oct. 2 will seek to begin shifting the balance. One of the march’s key demands will be for good union jobs. Marchers and others will draw strength from and use as examples the work of unions like the Massachusetts region of 1199SEIU which has scored recent organizing and contract victories. fter winning drives at Catholic hospitals such as St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center in Brighton and Carney Hospital in Dorchester, 1199SEIU’s Massachusetts region is poised to sign up members at Boston’s academic medical centers. The region plans to use its relationship with Caritas Christi Health Care as a model for other hospitals As in Massachusetts, 1199SEIU’s MD-DC region is calling on healthcare CEOs to let Baltimore’s caregivers vote in fair union elections so they can have a real voice for quality care. The “Heart of Baltimore” campaign notes that one in five Baltimore jobs is in health care, so raising healthcare wages and conditions would raise living standards across the city. Anthony Anderson, a floor tech at Manor Care NH in Towson, MD, is in the middle of the campaign. “Our facility is not unionized, but I’m letting folks know how much better off we would be with 1199SEIU,” he says. Anderson speaks from experience, having been a member of both the United Autoworkers and the United Steelworkers in the 1990s. “Without a union, there is no due process, no chance to file a grievance if you think management is being unfair,” he says. “And you can be fired without cause.” Anderson says that he’ll be in Washington on Oct. 2 with his 18-year-old son, Marcus, and coworkers he plans to sign up. “If one of the demands is about making it easier for us to have unions,” he says, “I’ll be there.”
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Putting Our Country
BACK TO WORK Good jobs are union jobs.
rganized labor will be well represented in Washington on Oct. 2. The One Nation march has been endorsed by both labor federations, Change to Win and the AFL-CIO. “Working people can make a difference when we rely on ourselves and act collectively. We are America. And together we can make our voices heard,” declared the AFL-CIO’s executive council in its statement endorsing the action. “Justice and dignity comes with being a member of a union,” says Yvena Madeus, a CNA at Avante NH in Lake Worth, FL. Madeus and her co-workers fought management for years before finally winning union recognition. Madeus’s union, SEIU Healthcare Florida, voted to merge with 1199SEIU in June. Madeus says that workers in the South know well the importance of unions to democracy and social justice. “It is through the union we get our dignity and respect,” she says. But across the country, the playing field is not yet level. Even in New York, the most unionized
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“It’s time for us to demand
CHANGE
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An Interview with SEIU Pres. Mary Kay Henry.
ary Kay Henry was elected president of SEIU in May. While she is the first woman to lead the international, she has for decades been a fierce defender of the dreams of working people. As president, Henry has promised to bring to SEIU a new focus on politics, labor unity and grassroots organizing. She recently spoke with Our Life And Times about why it’s vital that SEIU members participate in the 10-2-10 demonstration in Washington, D.C.
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Q: Why should SEIU members be at 10-2-10? A: I thought [1199SEIU president] George Gresham made the best case when he said we voted for change in ’08 and it’s time for us to demand change in 2010. We need to explain to every member and all working people that the reason we’re in trouble is not because of the president or because he’s failed to act. 10-2-10 gives us an opportunity to hold corporations and employers accountable and discuss solutions that put America back to work. Q: Can you talk specifically about some of the things that SEIU is doing among its members to encourage them to mobilize for 10-2-10? A: We’ve redeployed a team of staff in our headquarters that’s working with 1199SEIU and SEIU Exec. VP Gerry Hudson to help reach workers mostly in the northeast and tell them what 10-2-10 is and why they need to participate. After that we’ll shift to the states in the Midwest. Delegations will also come from the west coast but it will be easier if there are local mass mobilizations there in California and Seattle. Our Red Team political organizers are going to weave 10-2-10 into voter mobilization for Nov. 2 for the midterm elections. This will be a springboard to help re-elect Obama in 2012. On 10-2-10 we need to make it clear that the President is not responsible for the problems besetting our country today.
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Q: We have been facing a lot of division in the labor movement. In what ways will 10-2-10 promote opportunities for dialogue and unity? A: The most important thing to achieve for the labor movement is unity for working people. When I was first elected president of SEIU I was told I should look at the affiliation with the AFL-CIO. But what I wanted to make a priority for our union was the deepening economic crisis working people face. What are we doing about it? If we address this then we can talk about the letters after our name. 10-2-10 is a response to this. Q: You’re the first woman to lead SEIU. Can you talk about the significance of 10-2-10 for the women’s movement and working women? And for women involved in the labor movement specifically? A: 10-2-10 is historic. It needs to unite the women’s, labor, LGBT, and environmental movements. It will allow us to put a spotlight on how the economic crisis is adversely affecting communities of color as well as white women. Families of color have disproportionately been losing wealth. The income gap is widening across the country because we haven’t addressed discrimination. The women’s movement is a way to give voice to that. 10-2-10 will be a way to address these issues as well as give all of them a voice. Q: Job creation is one of the major issues of 10-2-10. You’ve talked about SEIU’s renewed commitment to organizing. Can you talk about this and what it means for the healthcare sector? A: What we’ve really tried to take stock of is how this economic crisis has affected working people. And we know that how it gets addressed is by organizing the unorganized. It’s an approach that has worked for our 2.2. million members. Now it’s our job to make sure that every
September/October • Our Life And Times
worker has a voice on the job and a say in the wages he or she earns. Organizing is part of the solution to today’s crisis. The opportunities in the healthcare sector are greater than ever now because of healthcare reform. SEIU has a coordinated plan to work with our employers and local and federal governments to make sure that workers have a say in the spending of those dollars. The more we organize the better this plan will work. Q: 10-2-10 is in many ways about re-awakening the ability to struggle in coalition for diverse causes. Why is it vital for our members to be on the front lines of such issues as immigrant rights and the youth movement? You’re a founding member of the Lavender Caucus. Can you talk about the link between labor rights and LGBT rights? A: We cannot achieve justice for all people by ourselves. Having a deep understanding that what we are able to do together we cannot do separately is an integral part of our history. I meet with our rank and file and most feel a deep commitment for making the world better for their children and the future, but they don’t just want to be in the movement for the sake of the movement. They want to do something. And in terms of LGBT issues and labor our justice struggles are linked. The beauty of the trade union movement is that we can debate whether or not to support issues like marriage equality. In SEIU many of our members didn’t think the Union should have
“Families of color have disproportionately been losing wealth. The income gap is widening across the country because we haven’t addressed discrimination.” — SEIU Pres. Mary Kay Henry
supported marriage equality because of religious differences, but after discussion they saw that it was a way to economic equality and voted to support it because they wanted to support economic justice for all. Where else but in the labor movement do we get to have these struggles and learn about each other? Q: And finally, what do you hope to see result for working families and for all of the United States from the march on 10-2-10? A: I want people to be convinced that we don’t have to despair. We can own a home. We can send our kids to college and earn a family wage that helps us do better for our kids. Every immigrant can step out of the shadows and fully participate. We can convince every American between now and 2012 that we don’t have to settle for crumbs anymore. I hope that 10-2-10 is the beginning of that.
The Work We Do Our Newest Region: Florida
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1199SEIU welcomed in July its newest members—the 15,000 members of SEIU Healthcare Florida. The Union’s Florida Region represents workers at 75 hospitals and 10 nursing homes throughout southern Florida. They are the only 1199SEIU members represented in a right-towork (for less) state. Hundreds of Florida members will be marching with their 1199SEIU brothers and sisters from up and down the east coast in Washington, DC on 10-2-10. In early August Our Life And Times visited some of these new 1199ers at Hebrew Home of South Beach in Miami and Avante at Lake Worth.
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1. Yamilis Rondos has worked in the kitchen of Hebrew Home of South Beach for 12 years. “I work six in the morning until 2:30 in the afternoon. Thursdays I work 11:00 a.m. until 8:00 p.m. because they really need a hand on that day,” she says. “Otherwise working early is much better for me. I have a baby. I can drop her off [at the sitter] and still get to work on time.” 2. Avante Lake Worth CNAs Doreen Hamm, left, and Marie Louis, right, work in restorative care, helping patients re-learn skills like walking, eating, and dressing themselves. “I feel very proud that I am able to help restore people’s abilities,” says Hamm. “Sometimes you will have a resident and when they see that they can learn to eat by themselves again they start to do it on their own and they make real progress.”
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3. Olguille Dominique is a CNA at Hebrew Home of South Beach. “I cook every day and bring food for the staff—rice, chicken, or sometimes turkey,” she says. “I love to cook. We have lunch together every day.” 4. Marie Yvette-Louis works in housekeeping at Avante at Lake Worth. “I work 7-3 every day,” she says. “I clean the rooms. Mop. I clean the tables. I sweep up every day. Sometimes it’s hard because we have so many patients.” 5. Elifaite Cadet is a floor tech at Avante at Lake Worth.
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6. 7. Marie Cuis, left, and Roberline Moise, right are both laundry aides at Avante at Lake Worth. They are responsible for making sure the residents have clean clothes and the labels are inside their clothes. “Some residents have family that does their laundry,” says Moise. “But a lot of them come in here without anything, so we take care of everything for them.” 8. Valencia Metelus has worked in housekeeping at Hebrew Home of South Beach for 20 years. “I’m 71 years old. I might retire soon,” she says. “My body needs some rest. This is a hard job.”
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9. “I love my work,” says Marie Claude Joseph, a CNA at Hebrew Home of South Beach in Miami. “I love the way the staff appreciates us caring for old people.” 10. Schiller Saintilus works in Avante Lake at Lake Worth’s Dietary Dept. He’s shown cleaning up the kitchen after he and other staff members finished preparing lunch for several hundred residents.
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EDUCATION
Defending
OUR CHILDREN “We need to get back to basics.”
am not sure what Obama is thinking, but big government has a responsibility to educate its citizens, especially those who can’t do it for themselves,” says T. Thaddeus Brown, a substance abuse counselor at Terence Cardinal Cooke Rehabilitation Center in New York City. “But I think that at the end of the day any major change is really going to have to come from the people standing up for themselves.” Brown is an education activist and among the thousands of 1199ers who’ll be in Washington Oct. 2 to call for a new direction for America. “It’s a tragedy that this government has not taken the leadership to educate its citizens,” Brown says earnestly, sitting at a desk full of books and papers related to his profession. “Somewhere down the line it seems a trade has been made: national security for educating our people.” Brown is a father of four, with two still in school. He’s part of a coalition that’s working to create well-rounded curricula at schools in communities of color and also helps win failing schools a chance to succeed before they are shuttered for good. “Education is more important than just teaching to a test,” says Brown.
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res. Obama has proposed a wide range of education reforms—overhauling the disastrous No Child Left Behind Act, expanding Head Start, prioritizing science and math education, and a middle school initiative to help reduce high school dropout rates. Still, the debate about school funding and reform rages on in Washington, D.C. and among state and local governments. The nation’s children continue to lose ground. In spite of the fact that we spend an average of $11,000 per child per year on grades K through 12 — second only to Switzerland— U.S. 12th graders rank 19th in math, 16th in science and last in advanced physics out of 21 industrialized countries. Cynthia Cain Joseph, a social work assistant at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, N.Y. and mother of two school-aged children, encourages parents to speak up about the inequities in their schools. “Some kids are promoted just to get them out of school because [school personnel] feel they won’t succeed in college,” she continues. “But if they don’t have positive role models of course they’re going to drop out and get some little job, and that’s going to be it for them.”
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“We want to be able to compete with China and other countries, but how can we do that if our kids aren’t even in school?” Top: T. Thaddeus Brown, a substance abuse counselor at Terence Cardinal Cooke Rehabilitation Center in NYC; Below: Cynthia Cain Joseph, a social work assistant at Maimonides Medical Canter in Brooklyn, NY.
ain Joseph has served as president of her local P.T.A. and is a member of the 1199SEIU Child Care Committee. “We need to get back to the basics,” she says. “There’s a lot of money that could be allocated to smaller class sizes or keeping kids in school for more hours. We want to be able to compete with China and other countries, but how can we do that if our kids aren’t even in school?” Brown says he believes in the power of education and knows first hand how it can change lives. It’s one of the reasons he’s pledged to be in Washington on 10-2-10. “This is about basic human rights,” he says. “It’s 2010 and people are suffering. We’re spending so much money on a war and we’re19th on a scale out of the world (in education). That’s despicable. We’re coming together in a national movement. Now it’s contingent on the people to move and make the changes we need.”
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PEACE
Carol McNally, an LPN at Cayuga Ridge Nursing and Rehab in Ithaca, NY, above; Peter Sinatra, a nurse practitioner at Crouse Hospital in Syracuse, NY, at right.
Stop Feeding the
have to look far into the future to see how much damage these wars are doing.
War Machine
“It’s hard for Buffalo to get money for health care. They’re still trying to get more money from the government. This war is affecting our school system too,” says Truesdale, a delegate at Women and Children’s. “They’re closing down grammar schools and combining high schools. Our classrooms are so overcrowded; kids aren’t getting attention for simple things.” Truesdale has also committed to march in Washington on 10-2-10 and has also signed up a large group of his co-workers. “It’s important that we attend because we’re going to be talking about health care, people not losing their jobs, and the war,” he says. “It’s just a waste of money. We need to bring our troops home, maintain our own country and get things together over here.”
Members call for peace and use of badly needed resources here at home.
By last December the cost of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq had topped $1 trillion dollars. And since then, Pres. Obama has asked for at least $260 billion more to fund both wars for the next year. At the same time, cities and towns are asked to cut back or go without funds for basic services. Enough is enough, says Peter Sinatra, a nurse practitioner at Crouse Hospital in Syracuse, NY. “If we had that kind of money here for all the things that are taking a licking like health care and education—what a difference we could make,” he says. Sinatra is an active member of the Syracuse Peace Council and U.S. Labor Against the War. “There are lots of people in the military because of the economy in this country,” he says. “It’s difficult for people to get good jobs and the military takes advantage of that. They look to grab up our young people.” Indeed, military recruitment figures are rising right along with unemployment rates. The Army, Navy, Air Force and
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Marines sent a combined 169,000 active duty troops into training last year, the highest number since 1973. Carol McNally is an LPN at Cayuga Ridge Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Ithaca, NY. Her son Ryan, 26, has served in both Afghanistan and Iraq and just returned home from his second tour of duty. He’s decided to make a career out of the military. Carol McNally will be in Washington, D.C on 10-2-10 to call for an end to the wars and the creation of good jobs. Young people need good career choices other than soldiering, she says. “It’s going to be a disaster if we don’t get out of there,” she says of Iraq and Afghanistan. “We need our servicemen and women here and we need to keep our money here for health care and to create jobs. If we don’t get out of there now we never will.” Lamar Truesdale, an environmental services worker at Buffalo, NY’s Women and Children’s Hospital, says he doesn’t
“There are lots of people in the military because of the economy in this country. It’s difficult for people to get good jobs and the military takes advantage of that. They look to grab up our young people.” — Peter Sinatra
IMMIGRANT RIGHTS
Left: Polly Henry, a CNA at Cold Spring Hills in Woodbury, NY with husband Errol, fights for immigrant rights. Bottom: Janet Bowen, an RN at Kingsbrook Medical Center in Brooklyn, NY.
We Are A Country of
IMMIGRANTS
10-2-10 is also about the fight for immigrant rights.
“It’s important for working people to get involved in the fight for immigrant rights,” says Polly Henry, a CNA at Cold Spring Hills Rehabilitation Center for Nursing in Woodbury, NY. “We have to take up this cause and run with it so that others won’t be afraid to stand up for themselves.” Henry plans to be among the tens of thousands of 1199ers marching in Washington, D.C. on Oct. 2. She’ll be calling for a fair path to citizenship and immigrant rights. She knows firsthand the struggles of an undocumented immigrant. Henry, originally from Jamaica, lived undocumented in the U.S for nearly 15 years. She became a citizen in 2009. “There are thousands of Americans whose lives are touched by the work undocumented immigrants do every day,” says Henry, who worked as a caretaker for years while she was undocumented. “We are here because we want to be here. We want to work here. We want to contribute and pay taxes.” Janet Bowen, an RN at Kingsbrook Medical Center’s David Minkin Rehabilitation Center in Brooklyn, was sponsored in 1995 to live in the U.S. by a family for whom she worked as a babysitter. She took the opportunity to come to the U.S. and earn a better living and go to school, leaving behind three young children and a husband in her native Trinidad. Bowen got her green card in 2002 and took a job as a patient care technician at Kingsbrook Medical Center so she could go to school and realize her dream of becoming a nurse. She was also saving her money and navigating the U.S. immigration laws in an effort to bring her family to the U.S. It was a fraught path, and all of it took about 10 years. “They were some of the loneliest moments of my life,” she says. Bowen says she persevered, but says the citizenship process can be frightening and overwhelming. “I tell people never to give up, even if you’ve been here for years without your papers,” she says. “But they really need to do something —like an amnesty. If people have been here for years and paying taxes and achieving, people should be encouraged to come forward. They should know they can have opportunities to do even bigger and greater things.” Henry agrees. She says the nation’s current immigration laws force people into the shadows. “It suits the nation and it suits immigrants to have some kind or equilibrium,” says Henry. “We cannot just pass draconian, hatedriven laws like in Arizona. It takes a balanced review of each
“If people have been here for years and paying taxes and achieving, people should be encouraged to come forward.” — Janet Bowen
individual case to make the system work.” Henry is dedicated to reforming the nation’s immigration policies and encourages other members to stand up as well—and not just on 10-2-10. “America is a country of immigrants. It has always been a country of immigrants. It’s just that some people refuse to believe that,” says Henry. “People don’t come to this country because they want to live off the fat of the government. We have to show people once and for all that there is no back of the line and no front of the line in this country. We are all the same.”
September/October • Our Life And Times
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ENVIRONMENT
The11th Hour
Congress buries its head in sand while climate change intensifies.
ccording to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the planet has just come through the warmest decade and the warmest summer and spring on record. 2010 is on pace to become the warmest year worldwide since recordkeeping began more than a century ago. The burning of fossil fuels, scientists have concluded, is the main cause of global warming and climate change. The BP Gulf of Mexico oil disaster—the worst spill in U. S. history—dramatized the huge cost of our nation’s dependence on fossil fuels. Eleven workers lost their lives and 17 were injured when the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded. And it will be some time before we’re able to calculate the full cost of the disaster to the the fishing and tourist industries and U. S. economy as a whole. Yet, during the summer, the U.S. Senate tabled an energy bill that would have taken steps to reduce the burning of fossil fuels and their destructive carbon emissions. “We’ve been polluting the planet for so long, I strongly support the 10-2-10 demand for clean energy and green jobs,” says Vincent Waters, a behavioral health instructor at Manhattan’s St. Vincent’s hospital before it closed earlier this year. “I have children and I’m concerned about the planet we leave them.” Pres. Obama made a start in addressing the issue with the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which allocated $90 million to create jobs to make homes and businesses more energy efficient and invested in renewable energy and a modernized electrical grid. But this is far less than the actions taken by the other major industrial
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countries, the main emitters of polluting greenhouse gases. Although the developing countries and those in the global south have suffered the worst effects of climate change, no one has been spared. 1199ers in every region face significant challenges. The northeast coast of the U.S., which is densely populated, is among the most vulnerable regions to future changes in sea level and ocean circulation. The newest 1199ers in Florida are especially vulnerable. As multibillion dollar efforts to restore the magnificently diverse Everglades get underway, those efforts may be defeated by advancing salt water caused by global warming. Agribusiness and development have polluted Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay. That, too, is true of New Jersey, where in December 2009, a state health department report showed that residents near the site of a closed Dupont munitions factory in Passaic Country had elevated levels of kidney cancer and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Residents of the Garden State also are engaged in battles to protect their drinking water. ew Yorkers scored a major victory Aug. 3 when their State Senate voted to issue a temporary moratorium on a controversial method of natural gas exploration called hydraulic fracturing (fracking), which involves the injection of millions of gallons of chemically treated water underground in a search for natural gas. Energy companies tout fracking as a way of reducing U.S. dependence on foreign oil and polluting coal. However, there is concern about the impact the practice could have on the environment and public health. The federal Energy Policy Act of 2005 exempted
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“I have children and I’m concerned about the planet we leave them.” — Vincent Waters
hydraulic fracturing from regulation under the Safe Drinking Water Act, so shale gas drillers don’t have to disclose the chemicals they use. t the center of a fracking boom and controversy is the Marcellus shale, a region rich in natural gas that lies beneath parts of West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio and Maryland. Fracking has been linked to drinking water contamination and property damage in Colorado, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wyoming. New Yorkers, who boast some of the best drinking water in the nation, are especially concerned about the dangers posed by fracking. “Gasland,” an HBO documentary about the dangers of hydraulic fracturing broadcast during the summer, has helped to swell the anti-fracking ranks. “I urge all 1199ers to see it,” says Manhattan Beth Israel respiratory therapist Jeff Vogel, who helped to circulate petitions to New York’s state legislators. “It is a call to arms to defend the Earth, the Catskills and our drinking water.” Many of the 10-2-10 march participants will be marching under the banner of clean energy and green jobs. The action is also about preserving our planet.
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COURTESY HBO FILMS
In a scene from the new documentary “Gasland,” producers show tap water that’s so polluted it’s flammable.
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PEOPLE
RN Rosie Rounds plays the flute.
“I Get Into the Music and I’m Somewhere Else.” “Well, I like to play the flute because it’s easy to carry and it sounds nice,” says Rosie Rounds, an RN at NYU Hospital for Joint Diseases in New York City, about her instrument of choice. Her modest answer belies a distinguished career. She’s been playing the flute for 30 years. “Actually it’s the closest to the voice. It’s a wind instrument, so it’s like singing,” says Rounds, a long-time delegate at Joint Diseases. “It’s joyful.” Rounds has played classical music in opera company orchestras and at public concerts. She also plays Latin music with the ensemble Chameleon, which includes her husband, Sprocket Royer, who plays double bass. “We play music from all over Latin America — Venezuela, Brazil, and Mexico. I just love Latin music because it makes me happy and it’s fun to play,” she says. Rounds and Chameleon play at numerous Union-related events— including the annual Nurse of Distinction Awards, a gig she looks forward to each year, she says. She admits managing two careers can be a challenge. She gave up giving private lessons a few years ago. “It’s hard finding time to practice and make calls and set things up, but you just do it,” she says. “I like being up on stage. I’m a bit of a ham. I get into the music and I’m somewhere else.”
Rosie Rounds performs at this year’s Nurse of Distinction Awards ceremony in May.
“It’s a wind instrument, so it’s like singing. It’s joyful.”
September/October • Our Life And Times
14
Around the Union
Heart of Baltimore is for Better Care and Jobs
1199ers on the picket line at North General.
Fight Continues at North General For more than 30 years, 1199SEIU represented 700 workers at North General Hospital (NGH) in Manhattan’s East Harlem. Of the 700, approximately 100 worked at the NGH clinics. In July, although the North General workers were given virtually no notice, New York State’s Department of Health announced that the hospital would be closing and that its clinic, which would remain open, would be administered by the Institute for Family Health (IFH). Though IFH administrators initially claimed they would interview any North General worker who wanted a job in the new organization, they fired the vast majority of North General workers and brought in lower-paid employees from outside clinics. IFH has refused to recognize 1199SEIU as the workers’ bargaining agent. Workers fear that the new lower-paid, unfamiliar workforce is jeopardizing the high-quality care that North General
patients have received for so long from caregivers who not only worked at the institution, but also live in the neighborhood. Since the announcement and subsequent closing, workers, supporters and 1199SEIU staff have rallied and picketed the facility. 1199SEIU has filed unfair labor practices charges against IFH for its refusal to offer all the clinic’s positions to the former NGH employees – 1199SEIU members. A host of community leaders and elected officials have pledged to stand united with the former NGH employees. The battle has important implications for 1199SEIU and other unionized healthcare institutions. Employers across the nation are seeking to use federal healthcare reform as a smokescreen to close unionized hospitals and replace them with non-union clinics and community-based centers. At press time the fight continued to fill IFH positions with 1199SEIU members.
More than 800 healthcare workers and supporters rallied in Baltimore’s Mount Vernon Square Park June 24 to hear actoractivist Danny Glover, Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, 1199SEIU President George Gresham and rank-and-file healthcare workers talk about the need to win free and fair union elections for the region’s healthcare workers. The rally was a high point of 1199SEIU’s Heart of Baltimore Campaign, which seeks free and fair union elections at healthcare institutions to improve patient care and workers’ pay, benefits and conditions. Baltimore’s healthcare workers are paid less than caregivers in other big East Coast cities. Their counterparts in Washington, New York and Philadelphia all make more on average— 30 percent more in New York. Because Baltimore’s caregivers fill one in five jobs in that city, their low pay puts a damper on the whole city’s economy. And while it’s often assumed that the cost of living is lower in Baltimore, some expenses are actually much higher. The average utility bill there is 67 percent higher than New York. And lower wages in Baltimore make housing harder to afford. Forty-two percent of Baltimore residents pay more than a third of their income for rent.
We Oppose Anti-Immigrant Legislation For the last few months, 1199SEIU members and staff have been mobilizing for comprehensive immigration reform, several taking actions of civil disobedience at a number of protests in New York City. The 1199SEIU message at all the events rings clear–“immigration reform is a human rights issue for people wherever they are from.” 1199SEIU New Jersey members were among hundreds of protesters who rallied against U.S immigration policies on July 1. They participated in some of the twelve “Days of Action” events across the state, including rallies in Jersey City, Paterson and Hackensack. 1199SEIU members joined with those from SEIU Local 32BJ, other unions and a host of immigrants’ rights and civil rights organizations on July 8th
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in a rally outside Major League Baseball headquarters. The rally was called to demand that the 2011 All-Star Game be moved out of Arizona to protest recent apartheid-like racial profiling laws in that state.
Hundreds of 1199ers participated at March 21 rally in Washington, D.C. demanding immigration reform.
Heart of Baltimore rally on June 24 drew more than 800 1199ers.
Baltimore’s healthcare workers are paid less than caregivers in other big East Coast cities. Their counterparts in Washington, New York and Philadelphia all make more on average—30 percent more in New York.
THE BACK PAGE
The Work We Do: Our Florida Region Laundry aide Roberline Moise and CNAs Mirelle Alexandre and Marie Claude (left to right) are among 15,000 healthcare workers 1199SEIU now represents in Florida. In mid-July, a merger between 1199SEIU and SEIU Healthcare Florida became official, creating 1199SEIU’s Florida region. Hundreds of Florida members will be marching in Washington on 10-2-10. For many, it will be their first unionwide demonstration as 1199er. Moise, Mirelle and Calude work at Avante Lake Worth, a nursing and rehabilitation center in Lake Worth. “When I came here I immediately decided to become a Union member,” says Alexandre, a delegate. “We need people to talk. We need people to talk for them and not just say everything’s ok. Sometimes I may be smiling, but it doesn’t mean I won’t stand up.” PAGES 8 AND 9.
To read more about 1199SEIU’s organizing and contract victories and developments throughout all regions of our Union, log onto www.1199seiu.org