A JOURNAL OF 1199SEIU July/August 2015
Be Heard in the Workplac e & the White House! Fill Out and Re tu the Survey Ins rn ide by Sept. 9!
Victory! PCA Denise Almeida in front of the Massachusetts Statehouse June 30 celebrating historic Fight For $15 win. See story on page 8. 1
July/August 2015 • Our Life And Times
3 President’s Column
Money matters, but voters matter more.
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In The Regions
Contract fight at Michael Malotz in Yonkers, NY; Juneteenth Celebrations; Contract victory at NJ Genesis Nursing Homes; Racial justice vigil at Columbia Memorial, Brooklyn Justice Rally for Eric Garner and more.
8 Fight for $15 Victory
Massachusetts PCAs win $15 an hour.
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Make Your Voice Heard!
Fill out and return this survey to help create the Healthcare Workers Platform.
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Greater New York Contract Victory New agreement increases wages, improves pensions and removes benefit copays for 18,000 New York nursing home workers.
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Training Fund Graduation
Yearly celebration marks members’ achievement and all of those who helped them get there.
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Ebola Wasn’t a Natural Disaster
Organizing, improving worker safety and making sure vital resources are in place can stop epidemics.
Editorial
Our Life and Times July/August 2015
WHEN WORKING PEOPLE SPEAK AS ONE, WE WIN 1199 members understand that every victory starts with solidarity.
This issue of Our Life And Times has on its pages a survey that gives members a critical opportunity to help create our Healthcare Workers Platform, so political candidates have to listen to us and support our priorities. (The survey is on pages 9 and 10 and is due back by Sept. 9.) It’s going to make sure 1199ers’ foremost concerns are heard from the workplace to the White House. With spending on the 2016 Presidential Election estimated at $6 billion, workers have to speak as one and a lot louder than the money. 1199SEIU personal care attendants (PCAs) in Massachusetts made their voices heard loud and clear with a historic June victory in the Fight For $15. The Union’s 35,000 Bay State PCA’s are the first in the nation to win a starting wage of $15 an hour. The new wage, which takes effect in July 2018, comes in a contract extension reached after months of negotiations. It’s a testament to PCAs’ determination and their dedication to the Fight For $15, says delegate Lizete Rosa, a PCA in Fall River. “This moment took a lot of strength and a lot of work,” says Rosa. “It took a lot to get to this point and we were working toward it even before we joined the Union.” New York nursing home members won a major
contract victory in July. Members covered under the Greater New York agreement negotiated a new pact that includes marked benefit, staffing and wage improvements by sticking together, mobilizing and never being afraid to speak up for what’s right, says Annie Bryant, a CNA at Regency Extended Care in Yonkers, NY. “More than 18,000 members came together and took a stand for what is right – not just for ourselves but most importantly for our patients,” says Bryant. In his column on pg. 3, Pres. Gresham reminds us that the next Presidential election is not very far away, even though it may seem so. Never before has money so influenced our elections; never before have the ultra-rich been so advantaged in electing our President. With everything from Congress to the Supreme Court at stake, Pres. Gresham reminds us that our work together is now more important than ever. Money matters, but voters matter more. “It’s not too soon to put on your thinking caps about 2016,” says Pres. Gresham. “Before long we’ll be putting on our walking shoes as we campaign door-todoor in the fight of our lives.”
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Education: The Bedrock of Power
Members discuss how a robust leadership development program cultivates activists and Union strength.
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The Last Word
New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Mary Bassett
Our Life And Times, July/August 2015 Vol 33, No 4 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
Norma Amsterdam Yvonne Armstrong Lisa Brown-Beloch Angela Doyle George Kennedy Maria Kercado Steve Kramer Joyce Neil Bruce Richard Mike Rifkin 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
Belinda Gallegos contributors
Mindy Berman Bryn Lloyd-Bollard Rae Dunnaville Esther Iverem JJ Johnson Erin Malone 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, 310 W.43 St., New York, NY 10036.
Follow the conversation on social media: LUBA LUKOVA
@1199seiu www.facebook.com/1199SEIU www.1199seiu.org July/August 2015 • Our Life And Times
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Letters PHARMACISTS TAKE A ROLE TO END CAPITAL PUNISHMENT applaud the American Pharmacists Association recent decision to set ethical standards for its members about executions. We pharmacists should not be providing drugs to kill people. The group had to have searched deep within themselves to come to this conclusion. I believe it’s a moral obligation for those of us who know to stand up and support them in their decision. I have always been vehemently against the death penalty in any form. We as human beings have no right in making decisions about life or death. We are not barbarians and should never believe in an eye for an eye. This is representation of an uncivilized world. I ask all pharmacists and those in the medical field to refuse to take part, in any form, in aiding or obtaining chemicals to compound or acquire drugs to execute those on death row. It has been proven that the rich, powerful, and wealthy can get away with murder. The innocent are executed or put wrongly behind bars. Often this is due to income inequality and not being able to afford lawyers. We all know that there is no reversing a terrible error like an execution; we have all seen them brought to light. It’s a risk we have no right to take, especially in our broken justice system. If we insist on condemning those in our corrections system, life in prison is a far more humane sentence – if there is such a thing. And one where we have some hopes of rectifying our mistakes.
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MAURICE F. DE PALO Registered Pharmacist, Montefiore Medical Center, Bronx, NY STANDING UP FOR SENECA LAKE 1199SEIU’s Executive Committee should be commended for taking a stand on July 27 and unanimously passing a resolution opposing industrialized gas storage and transport on Central New York’s Seneca Lake. Even though New York State banned the practice of natural gas fracking, the Finger Lakes region has been slated to become the largest fracked-gas storage and transport hub for the Northeastern United States. Seneca Lake will be its epicenter. Seneca contains 4.2 trillion gallons of fresh water, and is the largest fresh-water lake within New York’s borders. It’s an important source of drinking water for the local community. It also provides natural habitat and sustains a thriving tourism industry, on which much of the local economy depends. The Finger Lakes Region is home to many world-class wineries. An out-of-state corporation purchased the US Salt Company on the Lake’s western side for the sole purpose of storing compressed natural gas and derivatives from fracked gas in the area’s unlined, depleted salt caverns. The company’s plan includes major infrastructural risks to the Lake that will only provide 8-10 jobs in the community. The industrialization puts our health and economic security at risk by threatening our drinking water, our precious natural resources and the tourism industry in the Finger Lakes, The list of concerns about this plan runs as deep as the lake itself, including a lack of cavern integrity, fault lines, risk of accident and explosion. Gas Free Seneca and all of the people in the Finger Lakes region applaud 1199SEIU for supporting our efforts to move away from dirty industry and toward renewable energy. YVONNE TAYLOR Co-Founder and VP, Gas Free Seneca, Watkins Glen, NY Editor’s Note: Nearly 7,000 1199SEIU members live in the Seneca Lake region. The project threatens the water supply of 100,000 people. The organization Gas Free Seneca helped bring the resolution before the Union’s Executive Committee. Follow the conversation on social media at #SaveSenecaLake. 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 in the subject of your email.
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July/August 2015 • Our Life And Times
THE PRESIDENT’S COLUMN George Gresham
Money Matters In Our Elections, But Our Votes Matter More With so much at stake for working people it’s time to start thinking about 2016. There are 15 months to go before next year’s Presidential election. It may seem strange to be talking about the election now—and it would be in any other country. But the United States is unique in our never-ending political campaigns. The day after one election is the first day of the next. Some Presidential candidates have already been running for several months, some for years. Does democracy really have to be this way? British law allows its elections to last no more than 17 working days. In 2005, for instance, the election season began on April 11 with voting held on May 5. The 2008 Canadian election began on September 14 and ended on October 7. Elections in Italy that year lasted about seven weeks and in the Netherlands about 10 weeks. The French allow two weeks for a first round of elections, and two more weeks of campaigning in a runoff between the two highest vote-getters. Why should American campaigns take 40 times longer than the British—and getting longer still? Follow the money. In 1996, Bill Clinton spent $42.5 million, Bob Dole, the Republican candidate, $44.9 million. By 2004, George W. Bush spent $270 million to be re-elected, John Kerry, his challenger, $235 million. Eight years later in 2012, President Obama’s reelection campaign in 2012 cost $1 billion. Analysts are now predicting that the 2015 Presidential race will cost a combined $6 billion. About two-thirds of that money will go for television ads. Democratic countries like France and Denmark don’t allow paid political advertisements. They allow each candidate an equal amount of time during the campaign of 2-3 weeks to make their case to the voters. Here, campaigns are hugely profitable for an army of consultants, ad agencies and TV and radio corporations, etc. We American working people are the losers, for the most part, because until now only candidates who are themselves wealthy or can tap into great wealth are considered viable. Obviously— and thanks to a right-wing Supreme Court majority—the ultra-rich have an outsized influence on who will be elected President. Which brings us back to why it is not too early for us 1199ers to start figuring out how to protect ourselves and to advocate for the needs of our families and our communities and to begin considering which candidate will best speak for us for the next four or eight years. The President of the United States may be the most powerful person on earth, with the power to take our country to war or wars (or to take us out of them); to be chief executive of a government that runs everything from Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security to immigration policy, veterans affairs, environmental protection, the Dept. of Justice, The Dept. of Labor and much, much more. The President nominates U.S. Supreme Court Justices. In recent years, we have seen the Court, with its right-wing majority, dismantle the Voting Rights Act and allow corporate billionaires to take over the political process. (In 2000, the Court actually chose George W. Bush to be President even though Al Gore received more votes.) More recently, good sense and widespread public opinion helped the Court decide in favor of the Affordable Care Act and marriage equality. In the next four years, four of the Court’s nine members will be in their 80s. Remember, a Supreme Court appointment is for life. So it matters greatly who becomes President. And because it matters so much, it is important for us 1199ers to decide what our priorities are and which candidate we can elect to help us. As always, working people fight an uphill battle. We’re told the economy has recovered from the 2008 financial crash, but it hasn’t gotten better for most workers. The bulk of new wealth has gone to the one percent and even the one percent of the one percent. Jobs, even whole industries, continue to flow overseas where labor is cheaper and raw materials closer. College education is now unaffordable for the children of most workers. Minimum wage workers, like our heroic home health aides and attendants, live in or near poverty. For most working folk, it now takes two jobs to bring home what one job provided a generation ago. Employer resistance—aided by anti-labor politicians and, again, an anti-worker Supreme Court—has destroyed collective bargaining rights for millions of workers. Next year, we will be working mightily to elect a new worker-friendly Congress. It is now firmly under right-wing control. If a right-wing Congress and a right-wing Supreme Court were joined by a right-wing President, we would be in a world of trouble. The world itself would be in a world of trouble. So it’s not too soon to put on your thinking caps about 2016. Before long, we’ll be putting on our walking shoes as we campaign door-to-door in the fight of our lives.
InTheRegions
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You cannot murder people without consequences. The law applies to everyone.
“ Eric Garner’s daughter, Emerald, at June 18 rally demanding justice for her father’s death.
NEW YORK
Justice Rally for Eric Garner The threat of rain didn’t dampen the passion for justice at a July 18 rally in Brooklyn that marked the one-year anniversary of Eric Garner’s death at the hands of New York City Police. The event drew hundreds, including scores of
1199SEIU members, who gathered in front of the U.S. District Courthouse demanding justice and the federal prosecution of the officers involved in Garner’s death on July 17, 2014. #ICan’tBreathe and #BlackLivesMatter, shorthand for the movement against the epidemic killing of young Black men and women at the hands of police, were emblazoned on every kind of banner, sign, button and t-shirt. “It’s a beautiful thing to see all kinds of people here— every color, race, creed and nationality standing up to say that Black Lives Matter,” said Tasha Fowler, a mailroom clerk at Brooklyn’s Brookdale Hospital. “But it has been one year and that cop hasn’t been indicted. He’s on desk duty. He’s still getting paid. That’s unacceptable.” Speakers included New York City Council member
Jumaane Williams, 1199SEIU EVP Estela Vasquez and Rev. Al Sharpton. Rev. Sharpton’s remarks were a sharp reminder that the Garner family’s recent civil settlement with New York City was not acceptance. “Money is not justice. New York did not donate something to these families,” he said. “This is settled in civil court, but it is not settled in the court of justice. It is not settled in the streets. It is not settled in the hearts of freedom fighters.” Garner’s family members spoke and thanked supporters; his mother, Gwenn Carr, stood with several other mothers whose sons were killed by the police, including Trayvon Martin’s mother Sybrina Fulton and 1199SEIU member Constance Malcolm. Malcolm’s son Ramarley Graham was shot to death in 2013 by NYPD officer Richard Haste in front of Graham’s younger brother and grandmother. “I don’t know what this country is coming to,” said Malcolm. “When a cop can break into your home and kill your kid. Ramarley deserves justice and I deserve answers.” Elaine Gibson, a home health aide with United Cerebral Palsy, said she came to the rally to fight the deterioration she sees in today’s society. That same day the Ku Klux Klan was holding a rally in Columbia, SC. “We are going backwards with all of this hatred. There are things that cannot be tolerated. There are things that just cannot be done. We are going to let people know that we are not going to stand for that,” she said. “We are going to let people know that the law applies to everyone. You cannot murder people without consequences.” The event was sponsored by 1199SEIU, 32BJ, the New York State Nurses Association, the National Action Network and others. Follow the conversation on Twitter at #Rally4Justice.
MARYLAND
Juneteenth Commemorations: Celebration and Solemn Remembrance On Jan. 1, 1863, Pres. Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. The Civil War didn’t end for another two-and-a-half years. And even then, many southern states refused to recognize the Union’s victory and rejected freeing the African Americans they held in slavery. On June 19, 1865, soldiers of the Union Army arrived in Galveston, Texas to announce slavery’s official abolition; they read the Emancipation Proclamation. As word spread, celebration began and thousands of Black Americans who were held captive in the misery of chattel slavery rejoiced in Galveston’s streets. The day became known as Juneteenth. One hundred and fifty years later many continue the observance, making it the country’s oldest commemoration of slavery’s extirpation. That said, there’s a real effort to develop greater awareness of Juneteenth, its importance, origins
A sign bearing names and photos of Charleston massacre victims from this year’s Baltimore Juneteenth commemoration.
and why as a nation, the United States must acknowledge the painful legacy of slavery. This year’s commemorations were a stark reminder of just how deep are the nation’s unhealed wounds, with the massacre at Charleston’s Emmanuel AME Church occurring just two days before Juneteenth. In Baltimore, Johns Hopkins Medical Center workers Dinesha Proctor and Renee Neal joined a June 20 rally, march and festival to draw attention to cases of Black women and girls killed or brutalized by police. The event also marked Juneteenth’s 150th anniversary “I think this is a good idea for us to come out today,” said Neal, an oxygen therapy technician. “We need to remember the women.” Sponsored by the organization Say Her Name, the downtown rally was followed by a march and festival near the site of April’s uprising after Freddie Gray’s death. Called Rekia’s Rally and Natasha’s Jubilee, the event called attention to the cases of Rekia Boyd and Natasha McKenna; Boyd was a 22-year-old Chicago woman shot in 2012 by an off-duty police officer and McKenna died this year in the custody of the
Fairfax County, VA police after being repeatedly tasered while she was restrained. Some carried signs bearing the names of the Charleston victims and called for an end to racist attacks. New York City retiree Alma Pendleton says commemorating Juneteenth is also critical if we are to heal the deep wound of slavery. “It’s really essential that we educate our nation about slavery. It’s what’s lacking in our history. There are people who feel things have gotten better, but so much still needs to be done,” she says. Pendleton has participated in Juneteenth commemorations in Coney Island, Brooklyn which include a ceremony of carrying libations and flowers to the ocean in honor of the ancestors. In Upstate New York, 1199ers participated in annual Juneteenth celebrations held June 13 in Buffalo. “It shows the city of Buffalo that there is unity,” says Kaleida Gates retiree Doris Crawl, who helped set up voter registration. “It shows that 1199 is not just concerned about healthcare. We are Black and white and all kinds of people marching together. We bring all kinds of information into our communities.”
July/August 2015 • Our Life And Times
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Photo: Ramundo Valdes
Workers picketed Michael Malotz Pavilion July 15 to say sale of the home will reduce quality of care.
NEW YORK
Yonkers Workers Fight Nursing Home’s Sale
Workers at the Michael Malotz Skilled Nursing Pavilion in Yonkers, NY held an informational picket on July 15 to protest the proposed sale of the facility by the home’s owner, St. John’s Riverside Hospital. The buyer is Adira at Riverside Rehabilitation, a for-profit entity which has a
poor labor track record. At Adira’s Sprain Brook Manor in nearby Scarsdale, 1199SEIU members have struggled with the employer for years; the company has cut their wages and benefits, eliminated union positions, subcontracted to outside corporations and incurred multiple labor law violations. In early July, a state
court judge temporarily halted the Malotz sale while the NYS Attorney General and Dept. of Health reviewed objections by 1199SEIU regarding its impact on caregivers and the quality of care at the institution. If the sale to Adira proceeds the jobs of 140 workers—who are currently covered by the Union’s contract with the League of Voluntary Hospitals and Nursing Homes—are at risk. Many have been with the Pavilion since it opened its doors decades ago. “We’re concerned because continuity of care is a critical part of quality care—and what’s more important than that? If the sale is allowed to occur, workers will lose their jobs or at best work with drastically reduced wages and benefits. It’s likely that the caregivers who the residents have come to trust and rely upon would not work here anymore,” said CNA Ray Outerbridge, a delegate at Malotz. At press time, workers at Sprain Brook and Malotz were planning additional actions to keep the pressure on Adira.
New York
One Nation Many Voices The NYC Puerto Rican Day Parade on June 14. New York City’s 58th Annual Puerto Rican Day Parade was held Sunday, June 14, and once again it transformed Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue into glittering, mile-long spectacle of Boriquen pride. Many marchers also called for freedom for Puerto Rican civil rights activist Oscar Lopez and demanded environmental justice for the island. Scores of civic organizations, unions, schools, and
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July/August 2015 • Our Life And Times
businesses were represented in the procession of dancers, musicians, floats that made its way up the famous boulevard to the delight of the tens of thousands of proud onlookers. The parade draws over one million celebrants each year, making it the country’s largest celebration of ethnic heritage. 1199SEIU members this year marched under the theme “Fight for 15—A Living Wage = Quality
Care.” And as usual, great planning and care went into the preparing the Union’s float and contingent; a perennial favorite among parade-goers is the 1199 Latinos Unidos Dancers, the Union’s Bomba dance troupe. Months of preparation and months of rehearsals go into preparing for the parade, but getting ready is a labor of love says retiree Wanda Charbrier, who leads the Latinos Unidos Dancers. “We’re celebrating our Puerto
Rican culture,” says Charbrier, an 1199SEIU retiree who worked for 44 years as a registrar at New York City’s Roosevelt Hospital. “I’m proud to be representing the culture not just as a Puerto Rican, but also as a woman. What we do is the Rumba. It goes all the way back to the African part of our heritage. This dance is the history of our Island.”
InTheRegions
This is The Future of America
June 26 was a day of big smiles, loud applause, cheers and even a couple of tears. Sixty pre-kindergarteners at the Future of America Learning Center (FALC) in the Bronx, NY celebrated the first of many accomplishments and walked down the aisle to their next big year— kindergarten. Among them were 30 kids of 1199SEIU members; eligible parents send their kids with help from their 1199SEIU Child Care Fund benefits. And because 1199ers were active in the fight to expand universal pre-K, more kids will have access to programs like FALC. “This meant so much. The teachers are always so helpful with everything. My daughter Kloe learned a lot,” says Tanya Dunham, a patient financial representative at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Manhattan. “She got a really good foundation. It is such a worthwhile investment in our children’s future.” For more information log on to www.1199SEIUbenefits.org.
Tonette Jeffcoat, a recreation aide at Genesis Voorhees Center in Voorhees, NJ, is among the 1,300 workers covered by a new contract.
NEW JERSEY
Lucky Number 13 for NJ Genesis Workers After just over six months of tense back-and-forth negotiations, 1,300 members at 13 nursing homes across New Jersey owned by the Genesis Corp. ratified a new three-year contract in July that provides wage increases for all members and safeguards their health benefits, pensions and paid time off. The negotiating committee was comprised of all represented classifications and departments—nursing, housekeeping, dietary and recreation— and workers credit unity across all 13 facilities for their success. “Everybody came together because
even though we work at different nursing homes, we all do the same jobs. We all have the same concerns for our families—being able to put food on the table and pay our bills,” said Marci Best, a dietary aide at Holly Manor Center in Mendham who served on the union’s bargaining committee. Members fostered solidarity at the bargaining table and in the shops with open lines of communication and at least six walk-ins on the boss where they delivered petitions against Genesis’ use of subcontractors. This agreement is about what’s best
for workers and residents, says negotiating committee member Emma Darko, a unit clerk at Park Place Center in Monmouth. “We knew that united we stand, divided we fall,” she says. “A good contract protects us and our residents too. When workers are treated well, they stay at the job longer. Residents get very attached to us—they see us day in and day out. They are more comfortable around us than their own families a lot of the time because we’re there caring for them every day. That’s why it was so important for us to secure a fair contract.”
Women’s Caucus Kickoff 1199SEIU’s Women’s Caucus held its kickoff event at the Union’s Manhattan headquarters on June 29. Caucus members spoke about the need to create opportunities for women in and outside of the labor movement. There were also spoken word and dance performances. The evening’s keynote speaker was Brooklyn Assembly member Diane Richardson, who 1199SEIU members helped elect. Richardson spoke the importance of women’s support in reaching her goals. “We women must be good to one another,” she said. “In certain respects we are all we have got. Who is going to understand our lives better than someone who is living it too? This Union is like a sisterhood.” For more information about the Union’s caucus programs log on to www.1199seiu.org/caucus July/August 2015 • Our Life And Times
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MASSACHUSETTS
First To Unionize, Boston Homecare Workers Make History There is power in a union. And Massachusetts homecare workers were feeling it in June. Inspired by 35,000 Personal Care Attendants (PCAs) who in mid-June won a historic $15 an hour wage, (See story on page 8.) a group of 236 impoverished private home care agency workers at Boston’s Medical Resources Home Health Corp. took on the boss. And on June 30, undeterred by a vicious, illegal anti-union campaign, they voted to unionize. The victory announcement came at the Massachusetts Statehouse during the June 30 celebration of the PCA wage victory, giving the already-joyful crowd a reason to cheer louder and longer. “We have very low wages and almost no benefits. And we have been fighting for almost two years. We have been fighting to raise our wages and today we voted that we want a union. For us to stand up was not easy. But it shows that when we fight we win. This victory is not just for Medical Resources workers. It is for the whole community,” said Yan Mei Lei, a Medical Resources caregiver.
“From the bottom of my heart I want to thank every single person in the struggle.” The election, which was overseen by the National Labor Relations Board, makes Medical Resources the first Massachusetts private home care agency workers to form a union. Workers held a series of rallies and letter-writing campaigns, and sent an online petition to company executives; in a show of solidarity, workers across the state united behind the Medical Resources caregivers and their cause, demanding management end their illegal attempts to sway the election. The vote also gained momentum from 1199SEIU’s leadership in the growing Fight for $15 movement. “As home care workers we are asking only for that which is right – a fair wage and the ability to continue caring for our clients while also being able to care for our own families,” said Ling Zhu Cao, a Medical Resources employee from Malden, MA. With offices in the heart of Boston, Medical Resources has been a long-time purveyor of poverty wages. The company is owned by Angelo, Gordon,
Co., one of the biggest, richest private equity firms in the country. The firm funnels much of the profit from its taxpayerfunded fees directly to the owners, while nearly all of the 236 caregivers are eligible for food stamps, subsidized housing or subsidized health insurance. “We have joined 1199SEIU and the Fight for $15 because
as home care workers we want a living wage, a voice at work, and dignity for ourselves and our clients,” added Kirsis Nina of Dorchester, MA. Medical Resources caregivers say they intend to file federal charges against company executives for their strong-arm tactics during the organizing drive.
Yan Mei Lei, right, is among the workers at Boston’s Medical Resources Agency who overcame threats and intimidation to win their historic organizing victory.
Union Calls for End to Dominican Republic’s Efforts to Deport People of Haitian Descent
Columbia Memorial workers Ruth Snow, left, and Tracy Smart, right, at July unity rally. NEW YORK
Unity at Columbia Memorial 7
At Columbia Memorial Hospital in Hudson, NY on July 20, scores of caregivers and the community came together at a unity rally to condemn racist and inappropriate literature that was posted on a bulletin board by some of the institution’s
July/August 2015 • Our Life And Times
administrative staff. “Seeing the racist posting at the hospital I work at every day brought up the most disturbing issues of my childhood during segregation, when rocks were thrown at us and we were spit on—no place felt safe then. After seeing what was on the bulletin board, I didn’t
feel safe at work in my own community anymore,” says Columbia PCA Tracy Smart. Smart and other Columbia members pledged to carry on 1199’s mission of fighting all forms of injustice. “These events should not have happened, and as CEO, I take full responsibility,” said hospital director Jay Calahan.
Calling it “ethnic purging,” 1199SEIU has condemned plans by the government of the Dominican Republic to deport hundreds of thousand of Dominicans of Haitian descent. “The threat of the government of the Dominican Republic to deport hundreds of thousands of Dominicans of Haitian descent is deplorable,” the June 19 statement says. “Just as we have always denounced racist and anti-immigrant practices in the United States, we denounce these inhumane deportations,” it continues, while “calling on the U.S. government and all people of conscience to speak out against the injustice.” The crisis is rooted in a 2013 Dominican court decision that ruled people born in the country between 1929 and 2010 to non-citizen parents did not qualify as Dominican citizens. The decision essentially stripped retroactively tens of thousands of people of their nationality, including those who are second or third generation residents. The Dominican government set a deadline of June 17 for people of Haitian descent to apply for legal residency. Many criticized the residency plan because the application process is difficult and poorly administered. Thousands have left the country since the deadline passed. “I don’t think this is right,” says Ramón Lara, an 1199SEIU delegate of Dominican descent and an environmental services worker at St. Luke’s Hospital in Manhattan. “Every country has a right to pass their own immigration laws, but I don’t believe it’s right to deny citizenship to people who have been in the country for generations. I believe in fairness. As a delegate, I represent all my members whatever their color or language.” His sentiment is echoed in the Union statement that calls for “compassion, unity, tolerance and human solidarity.”
Fight For $15
Massachusetts PCAs make history in the
FIGHT FOR $15! State’s homecare workers are first in the nation to win $15 per hour wage.
new minimum and funding of the Homecare Training Benefit, which includes CNA and CPR training and certification, bloodborne pathogen education and certification, college tuition vouchers and paid orientation. At press time, PCAs were conducting a ratification vote. Massachusetts PCAs organized with 1199SEIU in 2006, when they were making $10.84 an hour. Their initial organizing campaign, which was supported by senior and disability advocates, was a watershed moment for solidarity, community organizing and homecare workers’ strength. “This moment took a lot of strength and work. It took a lot to get to this point and we were working towards this even before we officially joined the union,” says Rosa. “This took the strength of all the PCAs in the state. And now we have to keep going. We can’t say we’re too busy to get involved with the Union. We need to stay involved, especially in politics and with politicians. They need us as much as we need them.” At a June 29 victory celebration on the Massachusetts Statehouse steps, numerous elected officials, community supporters and family and friends joined workers. Bunches of balloons swayed in the summer breeze. And little ones enjoyed cones of cotton candy.
Betzaida Santana, a PCA from Lakeville, brought her four-year-old daughter, Miley Rodriguez. “This really means a lot. It’s more pay. I work 24 hours a week, so I don’t make that much money. It’s a bit of a struggle, so it’ll be nice to have that extra,” she says. “The price of everything is going up, we have no rent control in this state. and college is so expensive. How are people expected to afford things? I worry every day,” says Richardson Charles, a PCA from Brockton and a father of six. “This is something good.” PCA Tammy Hall has been an activist from the earliest days of the organizing effort. She’s ecstatic about the win, but more importantly, she says, Massachusetts PCAs have to support other homecare workers fighting for better wages, like those in New York. “I’m telling our sisters and brothers don’t ever give up because we are here for you. There are a bunch of people up in Massachusetts that are here to support you,” she says. “We showed the rest of the country that we all have a voice. It starts here, now we can get something done when we all go out and knock on doors, get on the phones and get out on the streets.”
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We showed the rest of the country that we all have a voice.
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Massachusetts has made history. Again. The state that sparked the American Revolution, and more recently, paved the way for The Affordable Care Act and Marriage Equality was in June the site of another big win for the people. On June 26, some 35,000 Massachusetts Personal Care Attemdamts (PCAs) chalked up a major victory in the Fight For $15 campaign and became the nation’s first homecare workers to win a starting wage of $15 an hour. “This was such a great victory. We really need this,” says Lizete Rosa, a Fall River, MA PCA who cares for her grandson, Evan. “Since 1199 has been working with PCAs it has been a victory for us, but as the grandmother of a consumer I want to make sure that he has good people working with him who are getting paid a good wage. And it’s not just for my family; it’s for everyone. This is hard work.” The agreement was reached after months of contract negotiations with Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker. The contract extends terms of the current collective bargaining agreement and establishes a commitment that all Massachusetts PCAs will receive a starting rate of $15 per hour by July 2018. Under the terms of the extension, workers will receive a 30-cent raise on July 1, 2015. Other terms include a commitment to negotiate scheduled wage increases to meet the
Left: Mass. PCAs celebrate at the Statehouse in Boston. Top: PCA delegate Lizete Rosa of Fall River, MA cares for her grandson Evan, 20. July/August 2015 • Our Life And Times
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MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD FROM YOUR WORKPLACE TO THE WHITE HOUSE!
We are creating our “Healthcare Worker Platform” of the issues that matter to us most, and building a powerful movement so that candidates must listen to and support our priorities. What do you think about this platform and the direction of our union? Fill out the questionnaire below and mail this page to us following the simple instructions on the next page. You can also fill out the survey online at My1199Voice.org. The deadline to return your survey is September 9! VERY IMPORTANT
QUALITY HEALTHCARE FOR ALL
• Expanding Medicare and Medicaid • Quality homecare for seniors and people with disabilities • Protecting the Affordable Care Act • Access to community healthcare GOOD JOBS
• Strong contracts for healthcare workers • Fight for $15 and healthcare for all low-wage workers • Workers’ rights to join a union • Stopping wage theft • Ensuring taxpayer dollars are only invested in good jobs ECONOMIC SECURITY FOR WORKING FAMILIES
• Affordable, quality childcare, education and college • Paid sick and family leave • Affordable housing, tenants’ rights & protection from foreclosures • Making sure the 1% pay their fair share in taxes • Protecting Social Security and pensions • Investing in social programs, not military intervention RIGHTS & RESPECT FOR EVERY COMMUNITY
• Police accountability and focusing on rehabilitation for underage or non-violent offenders • Women’s rights and equal pay • LGBTQ rights and fighting discrimination FAIRNESS FOR IMMIGRANTS
• Comprehensive reform with a path to citizenship • Higher education opportunities for immigrants and their children • Drivers’ licenses and reporting crimes without fear of deportation PROTECTING OUR DEMOCRACY
• Expanding voting rights and getting corporations out of elections A HEALTHY PLANET
• Clean air, water and food for our communities • Renewable energy, green jobs and stopping climate change
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Is there anything you would change or add? To earn my vote, a presidential candidate has to: The most important way to build and improve our union is:
I want to get more involved in Political Action
I want to become a Delegate
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July/August 2015 • Our Life And Times
SOMEWHAT IMPORTANT
NOT IMPORTANT
Dear 1199 Sisters & Brothers,
OPLE G PEOPLE
eating w vision a new vision ed, k is and rewarded, and security s, respect, security w.wealthy Please few. Please
aa Castaneda etary-Treasurer urer
cess has ber hip leadership
Healthcare workers are on the front lines every day The members of 1199SEIU have always been on the front lines of healthcare—saving lives, delivering babies, healing the sick and caring for seniors and people with disabilities. But our mission goes beyond just our workplaces, and that’s why—from Massachusetts to Florida—we are also on the front lines in the fight for quality healthcare, good jobs and social justice for every community. Making our voices heard Our role in leading the fight for working people is now more important than ever. The economy is recovering, but all the wealth and power is going to the top 1%, while working families are still struggling to get by. That is why we have started a union-wide conversation to talk about the kind of future we want for our jobs, our communities and our country. From this conversation, our next steps will be: • Creating and voting on a “Healthcare Worker Platform” of our priority issues. • Building our union and fighting for our issues on the local, state and national level. • Working with allies in the social justice movement to demand that candidates support our issues. • Continuing to grow our movement so candidates are held accountable once they are elected. The key is member leadership The strength of 1199 and the job standards we are able to win have always sprung from the leadership and activism of front line healthcare workers. Now more than ever, when our country is being taken over by corporate interests and the healthcare industry is rapidly changing, it is vital that 1199 members step up and get active. A new vision We urge you to join us in creating a new vision for America where hard work is rewarded, and all working people have rights, respect, security and opportunity, not just the wealthy few. Please fill out the survey today, we look forward to hearing your voice. In Unity,
George Gresham President
Maria Castaneda Secretary-Treasurer
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MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD FROM YOUR WORKPLACE TO THE WHITE HOUSE! We are creating our “Healthcare Worker Platform” of the issues that matter to us most, and building a powerful movement so that candidates must listen to and support our priorities. What do you think about this platform and the direction of our union?
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Fill out the questionnaire on the previous page and mail this page to us following these simple instructions. You can also fill out the survey at My1199Voice.org.
How to cut and fold this page to return by mail:
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1199SEIU Members are Leading the Fight for Working People
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Drop in mail; no postage necessary July/August 2015 • Our Life And Times
10
18,000 New York Nursing Home Members
WIN BIG
New Greater New York contract addresses staffing issues and eliminates co-payments for prescriptions. An 1199SEIU bargaining committee representing 18,000 New York nursing home workers saved its fireworks for July 10. On that day, after nearly a year of talks with the Greater New York Healthcare Facilities Association, the committee reached an agreement with employers that improves staffing, raises wages, protects pensions and significantly improves health benefits. The 160 facilities covered under the new pact are located throughout the New York metropolitan area. “More than 18,000 members came together and took a stand for what is right—not just for ourselves but most importantly for our residents. Members did walk-ins while the committee was in bargaining. Together we were ready and together we won,” said Annie Bryant, a CNA at Regency Extended Care in Yonkers, NY.
Greater New York contract negotiating committee members.
July/August 2015 • Our Life And Times
Clova James has been a CNA at the Parker Jewish Institute for Health Care and Rehabilitation in New Hyde Park, NY for 8 years. She’s a delegate and has served as a member of the Union’s contract negotiating committee. She helps take care of up to 41 patients every day. Short staffing makes it a constant struggle, she says. James and her co-workers feed, dress, bathe and often provide total care for their residents. And then there’s the paperwork. On every shift, workers are given seven extra minutes to complete all of this; if they clock out later, they’re penalized. “What inspired me to write this was that I’ve had to represent quite a few members as their delegate for that seven-minute penalty,” she says. “And I had to say something. It’s just so unfair.”
on hiring full-time and regular staff. Workers are left concerned about the adverse effects on continuity of care. Many members unabashedly expressed their frustrations to management around short staffing during negotiations.
“There are big changes in the kinds of clients that are coming into our facilities now, with different needs,” said Michelle Coles, a CNA at Northern Manhattan Rehabilitative Center in New York City. “If we don’t have the staff to focus on the key issues and needs it just becomes a robotic motion. People get lost, especially our seniors. It’s packaged and we don’t want them sitting there wondering if someone is going to brush their hair or teeth or clean them. We don’t want them to feel lost.” LPN Roseyvel Reid is a delegate on the dementia unit at Split Rock Nursing Home in Terms of the three-year agreement include: the Bronx, NY. • 9.5% raises over the life of the contract “Staffing. That’s really the biggest win of • Staffing requirements that include hiring 300 this whole contract. You have no idea how hard CNAs and 1,500 LPNs; an additional 400 it is to deal with short staffing. For example, LPNs must be hired by the end of the first I could be the only regular staff on the floor year of the next contract. working with three brand new CNAs,” says • Protecting pensions Reid. “I need staff that knows the residents. • Eliminating prescription copays and lowering Regular staff knows how to handle behavior spousal co-premiums for health coverage problems and deal with the frustration.” Veteran negotiating committee member Hugo The victory came through a unity campaign Quinteros, a housekeeper at Bridge View Nursing that included, in addition to walk-ins, petitions, Home in Queens, calls the victory a major leap social media, sticker and t-shirt days. The forward for 1199SEIU’s nursing home members. top issue for many workers was staffing and “We mobilized, were militant and we employers’ abuse of staffing language in the won. It’s the best agreement we’ve had in many previous collective bargaining agreement; years,” says Quinteros. “Let’s take this victory increased reliance on agency workers cut down and keep it alive in our facilities.”
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Seven Minutes by Clova James
Parker Jewish Institute CNA Clova James I AM A NATIVE OF JAMAICA and a CNA at Parker Jewish Institute in Queens, NY. I work from 11 p.m. to 7:15 a.m. Ever since I was a child I’ve had a gift for caring and compassion. I used to take people off of the street to bathe and feed them. When my grandmother took sick, taking care of her came naturally. It never felt like a burden at all. It pleased me to administer quality care to her until she passed away. She made me promise that I would use my gift to help others. Some time passed after her death and I came to America, I started my own business and was a cosmetologist for about 35 years. One day, a customer, who happened to be director for a nursing home, came in to get her hair done. We engaged in conversation about caregiving and it all came back to me: the promise I made to my grandmother. I told her about it and she asked if I was interested in a CNA training program. I was ecstatic and immediately said yes. All the while, I was thinking about my grandmother smiling down at me and leading me one step closer to my destiny. MY NIGHTS CONSIST of various tasks. I check on all patients and make sure they’re comfortable. I make sure they have been fed and are hydrated. I ask if a patient would like water, tea, juice or coffee. In addition, I change each patient, which is done every two hours. In between tending to these patients’ needs I must pack our linen carts, get fresh water for each room, provide proper dental care like washing patients’ mouths, and change patients’ nightgowns and bed linens. There are some patients who put up a fight in every job and some who will not. Some patients refuse to eat during the day and I have to talk them into eating and drinking, so they stay healthy. Thankfully they listen to me. We all know it’s not the easiest of tasks. It does take time, but it is the patients’ health that counts. Some patients may have trouble going to the bathroom and I have to help them because that can be very dangerous as well. I will give up my break at times just to ensure my patients are well taken care off. This is my choice, but I don’t mind at all because it is more important to me that they are okay. ALL OF THIS WORK is divided between me, another CNA and a RN. There are 41 patients to a floor. These tasks can take anywhere from 10 to 45 minutes per patient. We are told to document each task as we go—which can be a task in itself. When all of this is completed I try to document what I have done overnight by 7:15 a.m. or in the allotted Seven Minute Grace Period. If we don’t do all of this within that time, we’re written up or penalized. What matters to me is to hear my patients say, “Thank you, God bless you” or “I am praying for you.” It lets me know I’m doing more than just a mere service to them. I am touching their hearts. I am here for each and every one of my patients, heeding every one of their calls, because I know they cannot do for themselves. I go above and beyond for all my residents. So you may ask: what’s more of a priority? Giving quality care or clocking out within that seven minute grace period? It’s hard to achieve both without the proper staffing, which we currently do not have, but I refuse to give my patients half of my time. They receive my full attention. Every minute of it.
Our Communities
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I wanted to advance my career. I wanted to do something in the medical field and I wanted to be a part of a team.
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president of the League of Voluntary Hospitals and Homes of NY; and keynote speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, speaker of the New York City Council, who warmly praised the students for their tenacity and contributions as caregivers. Every speaker reserved special gratitude for the families, friends and co-workers who supported the graduates.
Every year 1199SEIU’s Training and Employment Funds celebrate members who complete academic or training programs. Shown are graduates from a TEF G.E.D. Program at Long Beach High School (top) in Long Beach, NY and graduates who spoke at the Annual Recognition Ceremony in Manhattan in June (bottom).
JUST THE BEGINNING OF THE JOURNEY Annual Education and Training Recognition Ceremony celebrates members’ accomplishments.
Cheers, laughter and a well-deserved sense of accomplishment filled the ballroom of a midtown Manhattan hotel June 18 as more than 600 members of 1199SEIU gathered from across New York State to celebrate their 2015 completion of an academic or training program through the 1199SEIU Training and Employment Funds (TEF). Every year the TEF, which is the nation’s largest worker training initiative, holds a recognition ceremony to laud the Union’s graduates and their accomplishments. This year, over 900 members completed academic or upgrading programs. “I stand here tonight representing more than myself,” said Myrneth Ragot, who graduated from the Mandl School College of Allied Health in New York City with her Associate in Applied Science. “I’m proud to speak on behalf of all of us who made it.” Ragot, a mother of two young children, studied to be a respiratory therapist and will go to work at Mt. Sinai Queens Hospital. She thanked her husband for his support and told the story of coming the U.S. at age 14 to live with her biological father. “My mother was right,” said Ragot, who was born in the Philippines and spent her childhood Cyprus. “There are opportunities in the U.S. and I found them with 1199.” In addition to graduates, the evening’s program included Deborah King, executive director of 1199’s Training and Employment Funds; Bruce McIver,
“1199ers are some of the hardest working people I have ever met,” said Mark-Viverito, a long-time member of the 1199SEIU family. “I know the difference they can make in this city.” Mark-Viverito also characterized the cooperation of the 600 employers and 250,000 workers who have participated in 1199SEIU training programs as a model for finding solutions to healthcare’s challenges. “You are living proof and spokespersons for what we are fighting for. Our TEF invests in you so you can fight for our city,” she said. Chelsea Griffin, a CNA at Absolut Care in Westfield, NY, this year completed a two-year certification at Niagara County Community College to become a surgical technologist. “I wanted to advance my career. I wanted to do something in the medical field and I wanted to be a part of a team,” says Griffin, who has applied for several jobs in her field. “I like the structure of being a surgical tech. I like working with the surgeons, anesthesiologists and RNs.” Griffin’s commute to school was 90 miles each way; to complete her program she worked lots of extra shifts, late nights and weekends. “Going back to school was definitely a challenge. I live on my own, but I really wanted to succeed. In order to follow your dreams, you have to do something. Don’t have regrets. Make a plan and have your p’s and q’s in order,” she advised. In his remarks, 1199SEIU Pres. George Gresham reminded the graduates that their achievement certificates were tickets to the next phase of their journey. Gresham, who is a Training Fund graduate, encouraged members to use them. “Don’t let today be the end of your journey,” he said. “Let it be the beginning of your journey.” “And if you ever really want to show your love for the 1199 Funds, all we can ask you is that wherever your work takes you—just do the best that you can in your career.”
July/August 2015 • Our Life And Times
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Solidarity
Ebola: Organize, Protect
Workers and Prevent the Next Epidemic 1199 hosts West African trade unionists who are fighting for life-saving changes to their healthcare system.
“Ebola started in Guinea in 2014 and because of the transnational nature of the outbreak it very quickly spread to Liberia, Sierra Leone, Mali and Nigeria,” said Wabba. “To date there are 26,000 recorded cases with more than 10,000 deaths. A sizable number are health workers of all professions—doctors, nurses, medical laboratory scientists and cleaners have all been affected.” The panelists shared stories
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July/August 2015 • Our Life And Times
of Ebola overwhelming frontline caregivers, largely in poor, rural areas. Workers were without proper or any supplies and facilities. Funding streams that could have helped were diverted elsewhere or hindered by tangles of bureaucracy—often with no specific explanation of how or where money was being spent. Funds budgeted to aid caregivers, in too many cases didn’t make it to them. Healthcare workers often went without pay for months while treating Ebola patients. Other caregivers died from the virus, leaving behind orphaned children or destitute families. As long as all of this was going on within Africa’s borders the world’s developed nations looked away. “For the world to address Ebola it had to get to a point where it was a global crisis,” said Goss. “It had to get to the point where Europe was going to face a crisis, where North America was going to face a crisis.” The fight now is to ensure the availability of personal protective equipment, safe working conditions, a strong infrastructure and availability of resources to deal with infectious disease. Workers also need social and economic security for themselves and their families. Organizing and unions have a direct impact on the quality of care, and can by extension influence outcomes in national and global health crises. “A lot of the countries [that were effected by Ebola] are not allowed to be unionized,” said Wabba. “And it is in those countries where we saw the worst case scenarios.” In Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, where unions are weak (in Liberia it is against the law for public health workers to unionize ) the World Health Organization reported 5% of all Ebola deaths were among health workers. “We have to stress the importance of organizing in these challenging conditions,” said Wendy Verheyden. “We can lend our voice to the right to belong to a union. It
1199SEIU hosted trade unionists from West Africa to discuss the response to Ebola there. Home health aide Mercy Karne, originally from Liberia, was among the more than 200 members and guests who attended the July 8 event.
is a basic right.” She also stressed the importance of building solidarity through social media, collecting workers’ stories and getting them out on a global scale. “People don’t just need help now. They will need help well into the future,” says 1199 member Elijah Jarboe. “Liberia was in civil war for years. I went home and took my mother to the hospital. They have nothing. There are no drugs. They treat patients with bare hands. This is not just about Ebola, but about stopping all kinds of life-threatening disease.”
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The World Health Organization reported 5% of all Ebola deaths were among health workers.
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Ebola is not a natural disaster. Ebola is a political problem. Dr. Jasper Goss, Wendy Verheyden and Ayuba Wabba— trade unionists from West Africa—delivered this message on July 8 during a panel discussion hosted at the Union’s Manhattan’s headquarters. Moderated by SEIU’s Dr. Toni Lewis, the discussion centered on how the virus devastated West Africa’s most fragile countries, the effects on healthcare workers and how they are rebuilding their countries, their lives and continuing as caregivers. “This was a wonderful event,” said Elijah Jarboe, a dietary worker at Bronx Lebanon Hospital who came to the U.S. from Liberia 31 years ago. “I got up at a delegate assembly one night to appeal to our brothers and sisters to join the fight against Ebola, so to see this happening feels great.” Goss and Verheyden are representatives of Public Services International (PSI), a 20-million member global trade union federation that includes 1199’s parent, the Service Employees International Union. Wabba is President of the Nigeria Labour Congress and has led numerous labor organizations in Nigeria. They were in New York City to attend the International Ebola Recovery Conference at the United Nations, which was convened by Secy. Gen. Ban Ki-moon to ensure recovery efforts in West Africa address improved rebuilding and greater resilience for the region’s healthcare systems. Goss, Wabba, Verheyden and others were at the U.N. Conference to lobby on behalf of public health system reinforcement in West Africa and to give voice to workers’ rights issues and long-term change. These must be addressed if the region is to effectively face another health disaster, they say.
Education
Training a New
Generation of Leaders Education is key component of Union-building
Gadson, a CNA at Apollo Health and Rehab in St. Petersburg, FL. “Although I was progressing in my career, I didn’t know exactly how to fight for what I wanted,” she says. “Delegate training taught me how to fight.” Gadson says her learning takes place in various environments, not just in formal settings. “Activities like going with our Union to Selma for the anniversary of the [Civil Rights] marches taught me lessons, gave me strength and touched my heart. Seeing people of all colors walking together helped me to continue to walk a straight line in my facility.” It was injustice at his workplace that influenced Master Johnson, an environmental services worker at Zucker Hillside hospital in Queens, NY, to become a delegate and attend leadership classes. “A while back I felt that members at the hospital were losing their vigilance and that supervisors were taking advantage of that,” Johnson says. “Delegate classes taught me a lot I didn’t know about the contract, grievances and our rights,” he adds. “After I became a delegate, I helped to get a bad supervisor removed. One of the chief lessons which I pass on to others is that if you fight by yourself, you lose, but unity brings victory.” Helping co-workers inspired Mi Lin Lam Chau, a home health aide at Prestige Home Care Services in Manhattan, to take leadership classes conducted in Mandarin and Cantonese for Chinese 1199SEIU activists. “I now feel that I’m
equipped to teach what I’ve learned and that I can help organize my co-workers and explain many things to them about our Union,” she says. “I knew nothing about the Union when I started work,” says Michelle Payne, a CNA at Brighton Manor nursing home in Rochester, NY, and a member of the Union’s executive council. “I became a delegate because I wanted a voice on the job and I wanted fairness for all. “In the classes I learned how to investigate, how to listen and the best ways to communicate with co-workers and management,” says Payne. “Those lessons have helped her assist in the organizing of non-union workers. Another important lesson Payne and others cite is the realization that the problems in their institutions are not unique. “So much of what we learn about the workplace can be applied to our communities, especially about health care,” Payne says. She also credits 1199SEIU with her becoming a political activist. “I’ve come to understand how important politics is for us,” she notes. “Now I assess political candidates based on where they stand on issues that are important not just to my community, but also to our Union.” PCA Vidot similarly takes pride in her political consciousness and involvement. “Before my training in the Union, I would not have had the confidence to lobby on issues like the Fight for $15 or for candidates like (U.S. Sen.) Elizabeth Warren and President Obama. “I used to think that unions were no different from corporations, but now I know that the Union is me and my coworkers, and that together we are one.” Gadson reflects the sentiments of many delegates and activists for whom training has helped them find their voice. “I’ve learned that if I stand strong with my sisters and brothers for what is right,” she says. “I know that my voice will be heard.”
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Now I not only speak up for myself, I also help others do the same.
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Throughout the histories of the labor and progressive movements, 1199SEIU is lauded as a highly disciplined army of activists for justice and equality. Its officers are praised for their leadership and vision. But 1199SEIU’s exemplary contracts, exceptional benefits and widely admired political strength are derived not simply from the work of its elected officers, but mainly from its high level of member participation and leadership. And that leadership did not emerge by chance. It has been developed by the Union’s Education and Leadership Development Department, which partners with officers and organizers to train new leaders by building on what members have learned in their workplaces and communities. “I used to be afraid and I lacked confidence,” says Lesbia Vidot, a Holyoke, MA, personal care attendant (PCA). “Now I not only speak up for myself, I also help others do the same.” Vidot credits the change to Union leadership classes that have helped her become an effective delegate, negotiator, lobbyist and organizer. “What I’ve learned has helped me and other PCAs,” she says. “And our biggest victory was winning a $15-an-hour minimum for Massachusetts PCAs.” (See story on page 8.) She is proud that she was among the Union members who helped mobilize co-workers and was a member of the negotiating committee. 1199ers in other regions cite similar experiences. “Joining our Union and taking classes has helped change my life,” says Christine
Members received certificates for June leadership training conducted in Mandarin and Cantonese. July/August 2015 • Our Life And Times
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The Last Word: New York City’s Commissioner of Health, Dr. Mary Bassett When Dr. Mary Bassett was introduced as NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Commissioner of Health in 2014, she quoted Dr. King. “Of all forms of inequality,” she said. “Injustice in health is the most shocking and inhumane.” By choosing those words, Bassett was in signaling her progressive view of healthcare and health policy—one she has advocated for since working in Zimbabwe after graduating from medical school, during her tenure with Doctors Without Borders and as Deputy Health Commissioner under Mayor Michael Bloomberg. She is dedicated to improving school nutrition, health and wellness education—especially among our poor and underserved communities and is s a voice for encouraging diversity in the medical and healthcare profession. Our Life And Times spoke recently with Dr. Bassett. When you were introduced you said that public health has at its root the quest for social justice. Can you expand on that? The roots of public health include having access to medical care; everyone deserves access to medical care, but the roots of good health are really much more expansive. They have to do with having a decent everyday life. And that means having a job that pays decently, having decent housing that you can afford, having access to healthy food and recreational activity and living in a neighborhood where neighbors are in the position to support each other. It’s not only material things that people need for a decent life, they need the cohesiveness of a neighborhood where people feel confidence and not fear. All of these things have to do with being healthy. There’s good data to show that only 10% of our health has to do with access to health care; all of these other things are very importantly rooted in the values of our society: a living wage, decent housing and investment in public infrastructure—all of these are things that have to do with our society’s commitment to equity. What are the fundamental changes that we have to make to build healthier communities? Just about every sector has a role to play. The importance of focusing on our neighborhoods is something that I can’t overstate. The neighborhood of Brownsville in Brooklyn—which is the first neighborhood I lived in as a kid in New York—is the neighborhood with the shortest life expectancy in New York. It has nearly an 11-year gap with a wealthier neighborhood that is just a short ride away. Tackling that requires the action of all of us and taking a long view of health, so that’s why starting with early childhood and supporting reinvestment in children is so important. Our society has lagged woefully behind in re-investing in childhood. It means understanding the importance of all the things that unions typically are engaged in fighting for and solidarity with other workers who aren’t unionized. I think that’s an important role and it’s one that 1199 has been involved in. That’s absolutely fundamental. This represents a real opportunity. And it’s also the opportunity to be healthy in the workplace. This would be great for unions to continue to talk about. We’ve been advocating for this. You’ll see our signs all over our office about walking up the stairs. We have walking workstations. I just spent half an hour looking at my email while walking. One of the thing I said at the opening press conference was that having a decent life for all is fundamentally a question of social justice, but I also talked about how the leading causes of death do not change
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July/August 2015 • Our Life And Times
with a change in administration, so that tobacco remains the leading cause of preventable death in New York City and the problem of obesity is one we must continue to tackle. Our workplace continues to play a role in that. You’ve written that “obesity is the public health challenge of our time.” Why? What are some of the other ones? The escalation in obesity in this country is remarkable. When you look at the maps you wonder why our continent isn’t sinking. Something like 60% of adults are overweight or obese and that proportion continues to rise. We’ve had a little bit of success in children, but 40% of children in our elementary schools are not at a healthy weight. We’ve slowed that rise, but it’s still way too high and obesity is driving the epidemic occurrence of diabetes, which has been rising as a cause of death and is attributable to the fact that too many people are overweight. On an individual level this means you’ve eaten more calories than you’ve burned off. But on a social level we have to think about what kind of food is available to people, the time they have, the money they have and how foods that are high in calories but low in nutritional value are marketed to our population. It’s not enough to frame it as a lack of personal control. We need to look more broadly at what has changed. A lot of it has to do with what has been so successfully marketed. It has too much salt and sugar. Unions need to support their membership in making changes. People need the opportunity to have decent lunchbreaks, not eat at their desks, to have the opportunity even for exercise. Several people here walk the stairs together. Modeling health activity is something unions can do and it’s something people can take home with them to their families. Why is cultural competence so important for caregivers? Something I think is really important is the problem of implicit bias. It’s one thing to acknowledge the variations in culture and show respect, but we need to go a step further and help people understand the ways in which they have absorbed the deep and historical legacies of racism in our society and their own biases, so that they can be mindful of ways in which they may respond. This is not a matter of blame; this is simply a fact of the society in which we live. They wrote in the companion piece to my article about the way care varies by race in our society and there is a problem: without realizing it, people respond differently to people of different races. It’s been done with gender as well: Victoria Jones doesn’t get the same job offer as Victor Jones when people do blind resumes. I think the recogni-
tion of diversity is really important and that cultural competency is really important and part of that needs to be an acknowledgement of what goes under the heading of implicit bias. You wrote an article last year for The New England Journal of Medicine called “#BlackLivesMatter—A Challenge to the Medical and Public Health Communities.” It demands that we look at violence and other epidemics in our society in a new way. How are these public health crises as well as social justice issues? I was called to write after having a meeting with some academics when I was talking about addressing the gaps in healthcare by race and income in our city. Some of them gathered round shortly after the decision had been made not to indict after the death of Eric Garner. There was a lot of pain among many people around the tragic death of Mr. Garner. I wanted to make a couple of points in that piece: we consider violence a public health issue and the impact of violence on Black men is something we need to discuss. We need to acknowledge the role of racism in our society, but I wanted to go further than that in the piece. If we’re serious about talking about the cost of racism and the lives of Black men in our country and the loss of life to premature death before the age of 65—the premature deaths are accounted for principally from heart disease, cancer and stroke; these are also conditions which are preventable, as is gun violence. We should not accept the terrible toll that premature mortality takes on Black men because it is preventable, so I wanted to call upon my colleagues in public health and the medical profession and challenge them to talk about racism. I lived outside the U.S. for many years. When I returned it was really noticeable to me that the conversation about race had almost vanished. People were reluctant to use the word racism. I wanted to challenge my colleagues to not only name the problem of racism, but to use our position and authority in society to chart a way to addressing it. There are a number of things we can do: one is say that it’s important to document the ways in which the experience of racism affects health. This is an area of growing research. The other is to look at our own institutions. The real problem is with who’s getting into medical schools these days and the dearth of Black men in medical schools. I met with medical students form the area—they had a diein as part of a movement called White Coats for Black Lives and according to the students they only had one Black student in their entering class last year. We need to do better and all health workers have a role to play.
It’s not only “ material things that people need for a decent life, they need the cohesiveness of a neighborhood where people feel confidence and not fear. All of these things have to do with being healthy.” – Dr. Mary Bassett
THE BACK PAGE
This is The Future of America Princess Acheampong, 4, was among the 60 graduates who walked down the aisle on June 26 in the commencement ceremony from the Future of America Learning Center (FALC) in The Bronx, NY. Eligible members can send their kids to FALC with help from their 1199SEIU Child Care Fund benefits. Princess isn’t from an 1199 family, but because members helped win the fight to expand universal pre-k in New York City, more kids like her have access to quality, neighborhood programs like FALC. See story on page 6. Photo by Jim Tynan