Lincoln Hospital Takeover Offers Important Lessons for Healthcare Workers and Community By Patricia Kane, RN As we embark on this new year, I hope we will pause and reflect on the legacy of those who came before us. Their work offers encouragement that regardless of what we face, we can overcome any challenge if we work together. We know that the powerful use inequality and oppression to divide us. But when we are divided, we lose power and the opportunity to advance. It is only when we unite, and craft an inclusive vision for ourselves, our families, and our communities, that we can truly rise. As Frederick Douglass has said, “Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never has and it never will.” That is why we applaud the healthcare workers and community members who came before us. We are thankful for the sacrifices they made. The right to organize and bargain collectively came only after periods of intense struggle. The ability to be in community with people of different races and ethnicities came about through the courageous stance of civil rights activists. Even the Patient Bill of Rights, which is displayed in hospitals and
health systems across the country, can be directly attributed to the advocacy of activists, the Young Lords to be exact.
Where Do We Go From Here? To map a plan for our future, we must understand our past. The work of the Young Lords, healthcare workers and community members who occupied Lincoln Hospital in 1970 sheds light on what is possible when we unite as one. Who Were They? The Young Lords was a group of Puerto Ricans dedicated to advancing civil and human rights. The group was inspired by the Black Panther Party and fiercely dedicated to equity. It was against this backdrop that NYSNA organized a film screening of the film “Takeover” by Emma Francis-Snyder. The documentary details the Young Lords’ occupation of Lincoln Hospital. The activists, healthcare professionals and community members occupied the facility after growing tired of watching patients be mistreated. The facility was rife with roaches, rodents, dying patients, chipping paint and blood splatter on the walls and floors. Surgical instruments
were routinely left inside patients, and no one — not elected officials nor hospital administrators — lifted a finger to help until the occupation. In protest of egregious and deadly conditions at Lincoln Hospital, the Young Lords and others declared that they would not leave the South Bronx hospital until the city made a commitment to build a new hospital. They courageously challenged the hospital to do what was right for workers and the community. We know that while our resistance may look different, what is called for in this moment is a fresh assertion of that which nurses and healthcare professionals, patients, and the community need. As healthcare workers, we understand that treating symptoms rather than underlying conditions is futile. Today, as in decades prior, the root cause of unmet needs is inequality — based on class, socio economic status, race, gender, country of origin, ability, sexual identity, age. Unless and until we take up the fight against inequality — everywhere and anywhere — our victories will be limited to crumbs.
What Now? In the Dec. edition of New York Nurse, I laid out an agenda for our union for 2022. The roadmap includes preparing to bargain scores of expiring contracts, ensuring implementation of the safe staffing law, addressing rising concerns due to COVID-19 and ensuing variants, and getting involved in the 2022 elections. By engaging in these efforts, we will ensure that the immediate and future needs of nurses and the patients we serve are met.
NYSNA Executive Director Pat Kane, RN, at a rally for Mayor-Elect Eric Adams
We know that progress does not come easy. We also know that pain does not have to be perpetual if we remain united. For it is only together that will we truly rise. 2021: We are one
5
