Our Life & Times | Jan / Feb 2015

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NATURE IS MERCILESS. BUFFALO’S 1199ERS AREN’T.

6

700 WORKERS VOTE YES FOR 1199.

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UNION PIONEER’S GRANDDAUGHTER TURNS LIFE AROUND.

A JOURNAL OF 1199SEIU January/February 2015

NEW YEAR NEW CHALLENGES 1199ers are mobilizing and organizing for 2015 and beyond.

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January/February 2015 • Our Life And Times

In spite of the current right wing tide, hardworking 1199ers like unit clerk Jan Hall, a member at University of Miami Hospital, continue to lead the fight for working people.

3 President’s Column

Editorial

Our Life and Times January/February 2015

THEY MAY HAVE THE MONEY, BUT 4 WE HAVE THE NUMBERS.

With this new Congress we face serious new challenges.

In The Regions

Three organizing victories bring over 700 new members; Buffalo members braved record snows to care for patients; 1199SEIU Federal Credit Union turns 75; Sign up for the 1199SEIU Caucus Program.

7

The Earned Income Tax Credit: It’s Your Money! Come Get It!

Thousands of members are eligible for this working people’s tax credit. There’s tax help available at these locations.

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Hands Up For Justice

Fueled by the outrage over the killings of Michael Brown, Jr. and Eric Garner, 1199ers led demonstrations calling for an end to police violence and a new justice system.

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Contracts

Workers at Tenet-affiliated hospitals and nursing homes in New York and Florida are staying strong at the bargaining table.

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The Work We Do:

University of Miami Hospital.

Mother Teresa of Calcutta, who dedicated her life to caring for the poor and suffering, observed that we humans can find little peace among ourselves if we continually forget—or disavow—our responsibility for one another. But today it seems that there are many in our country too willing to forego their responsibility for others and the peace, safety and well-being of our society for political and economic gain.

As this issue of Our Life And Times goes to press, our great ally the Children’s Defense Fund (CDF) has released a startling report on child poverty in the U.S. The numbers are disgraceful. There are 14.7 million poor children and 6.5 extremely poor children living in America—the world’s largest economy. The number of poor children in the U.S. exceeds the combined populations of 12 of our states. Our country can easily afford to invest in programs that would make great strides in reducing this scourge. By closing tax loopholes for the rich and ending provisions that allow corporate profit shifting to off shore tax havens we can save billions. Increasing food and housing benefits and other subsidies, we would immediately improve the quality of life for poor children and their families.

Just ahead of the CDF report was a news story about the billionaire Koch brothers’ plans to spend an astonishing $889 million to help their candidate win next

year’s presidential election. This is more than either party has spent on a race in the country’s history. To be sure, the money will be spent trying to elect someone who will turn back the clock on workers, women, children, education, people of color, voting rights and just about every other area of progressive progress. All while one in five of our children lives in poverty.

Though things seem bleak, we aren’t completely hopeless. 1199ers continually fight the tide. We have long known the truth of Mother Teresa’s message.

It’s at the heart of our work. In this magazine we see members at Buffalo, NY nursing homes staying for days with their residents in the city’s recordsetting snowstorm last November. In New York City in January, workers at Callen-Lorde Health Center voted for Union representation not just for themselves, but to make sure the institution is strong for their whole community. And in Rochester, NY, Janice Snipes, the granddaughter of Union pioneer Mattie Best, tells the story of turning her life around with help from her Union sisters and brothers.

So yes, we’re fighting the tide. But as our president points out in his column, we always have. And they may have the money, but we have the numbers. And when we organize, we can fight together and win for working people.

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Stopping the Revolving Door of Destruction

1199er Janice Snipes, the niece of a pioneer at Rochester’s Strong Hospital, turned her life around with help from 1199’s Training Fund.

Our Life And Times, January/February 2015 Vol 33, No 1 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 Maria Kercado George Kennedy 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

Jim Tynan contributors

Mindy Berman Aaron Blye Jeff Hall 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.

LUBA LUKOVA

@1199seiu www.facebook.com/SEIU www.1199seiu.org January/February 2015 • Our Life And Times

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THE PRESIDENT’S COLUMN

Letters VOTER APATHY HAS CONSEQUENCES! he election that just passed has shown the consequences of voter apathy. It’s very sad that the media and the right wing declared the election a mandate. The election was recorded as one of the lowest turnouts in American history. This is not because public opinion has changed but indeed it’s because the majority of Americans did not cast their ballots. Let them have their day in the sun. This will set the tone to take back this wonderful country where all people are equal and have rights. I see their glee as a joke if they really believe this will last long. I guarantee you that the rhetoric that we are now hearing will only empower us, the working people of this country, to return this great nation to the fairness that we voted for in electing President Obama.

All of us need to enact our right to vote even when a particular election has candidates that don’t encompass all we stand for.

It’s paramount to vote in every election, no matter how small, for candidates that most closely stand for fairness and justice. This is how we support a president and party that represent our beliefs. Staying home just empowers the opposition. I have never missed an opportunity to vote, no matter how small the election and no matter who was running.

Are we the people of reform going to allow the reactionary minority to undo all the great accomplishments of President Obama, such as health care reform and fair immigration policies? Or are we going to declare war on racism and oppression by speaking out, taking part in demonstrations and casting our ballots in the future?

Let’s keep the progress of President Obama alive by doing what we do best.

T

I

ONE HAND DOESN’T CLAP wanted to write and say it was good to see a nursing home worker on the cover of the November/December Our Life And Times. It was a reminder for those of us in negotiations for the Greater New York contract to stick together. If we do, we can get through anything. I work at Queens Nassau Nursing Home in Far Rockaway.

On Dec. 29 we presented management with a petition letting them know how we felt about their proposal. It was an insult to all the members who come to work every day and take care of our residents. We work with people with schizophrenia and dementia.

We care for our patients and never turn our backs on them. We make sure the doors of our facilities stay open and that they are up to good standards. But when we need something, management turns their back on us.

We needed to remind management that one hand doesn’t clap, so we the delegates had members gather in our lobby and we read the petition out loud and then presented it to them. Since then, everyone has been dressing in purple, wearing specially printed t-shirts with “Employers: Take care of your Employees. They have been taking care of you.” on them, or wearing a purple ribbon in a show of solidarity until our new contract is signed. I’m really proud of our members and delegates and all the unity we’ve shown in this contract struggle. I know that we will stand together until we achieve our goal.

That’s the 1199 way.

LINDA SILVA Queens Nassau Nursing Home, Far Rockaway, NY

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January/February 2015 • Our Life And Times

With the New Congress Comes New Challenges

“

This is the best Congress that the Koch brothers and their like-minded billionaires could buy.

“

MAURICE DI PALO Westchester Square Campus, Montefiore Medical Center, Bronx, NY

George Gresham

We must lace up our marching shoes. We aren’t spectators.

With the complete takeover of both houses of Congress by right-wing Republicans—many of them from the Tea Party—we working people face enormous challenges.

In fact, the Republicans will rule both the House and Senate with greater majorities than they have enjoyed in either in generations. And they are determined to turn back the clock—really the calendar—to the early 20th century. They want to gut Wall Street restrictions and eliminate labor laws, worker protections, voting rights, civil rights, environmental protection, immigrant rights, reproductive rights and, of course, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and the Affordable Care Act (ACA). This is the best Congress that the Koch brothers and their like-minded billionaires could buy.

Despite all the testimonials in Washington, D.C. about how well our democracy works, the fact is that Congress is not “of, by or for the people.”

In the Congress just ended, for example, Republicans held a 242-193 majority.

But when the 2010 Congress was elected, Democrats received over 1.5 million more votes than the Republicans. This is because state legislatures controlled

by Republicans set the Congressional districts and gerrymandered them to maximize Republican strength and minimize Democratic strength.

In the Senate—this year also controlled by Republicans—Democratic Senators received over 20 million more votes than their Republican counterparts. But they still ended up in the minority. How? The Senate is simply not a democratic institution. Every state elects two senators. Republican stronghold Wyoming, a state with 583,000 people, has the same number of senators as Democratic-leaning California, with nearly 40 million people.

“Red” state Utah, with under three million people, has two senators—the same as “Blue” state New York with nearly 20 million. And so on.

We need to keep in mind not only the basic undemocratic nature of 21st century American politics, but also to take heart from the fact that despite the faces in Washington, D.C., they do not represent most Americans.

Last November’s elections brought to power the current right wing domination of Congress. This was achieved through a combination of unlimited amounts of money—the Koch brothers alone spent $300 million and purchased 44,000 ads for their candidates. Another feature of the campaign was voter suppression, with Republican governors and legislatures passing voter ID bills, cutting days for early voting, removing tens of thousands of Black, Brown and young voters, and other laws that harkened back to the pre-Civil Rights movement days of Jim Crow. Nor should we overlook the attempt of many Democratic Senators and House members deserting the progressive traditions of their party, running as “RepublicanLite” and even abandoning support of the ACA that they had voted for five years earlier. It was not surprising that most of these Democrats lost as their voting base stayed home while Republican voters preferred full-throated Republicans to Republicans-Lite.

The first weeks of the new Congress tell us all we need to know about the new Republican-led Congress. In their first month in office, they sought to destroy any progress toward immigration reform and to deport millions of decent hard-working foreign-born students and workers. They tried to block President Obama’s push for paid sick leave and family leave for American workers and gut the Dodd-Frank reform of Wall Street that was enacted to prevent another crash like that of 2007 that resulted in millions of unemployed and loss of homes. This Congress has relentlessly pushed for construction of the disastrous XL pipeline, a giveaway to the oil monopolies that would despoil our earth, air and water supply. President Obama’s veto and the strong progressive leadership of Senators like Elizabeth Warren from Massachusetts, Ohio’s Sherrod Brown and others are so far holding the wolf away from the hen house.

But this is not a spectator sport. 1199ers and our partners cannot leave the fight up to our friends in Washington, D.C. With the popularity of the movie, “Selma,” in this 50th anniversary year of the Voting Rights Act, it is once again time to lace up our marching shoes. We take heart and inspiration from the sight late last year of hundreds of thousands of sisters and brothers—led by a new generation of activists—taking to the streets to make #BlackLivesMatter and to save our planet Earth from catastrophic climate change.

Last November’s elections did not set in stone what future Congresses will look like. Not by a long shot. Fortunately there is another election next year— for President, Congress and most of our state governments. These next two years are going to be a difficult moment for working folks, but we have faced worse. The one percent obviously has the money. But we have the numbers.

When we organize, mobilize and fight, we can win. Let’s go to work.

InTheRegions

WASHINGTON, D.C.

Washington, D.C Homecare Workers Fight for Justice Thousands of Washington, D.C. homecare workers went for months in 2013 and 2014 without being paid by their agencies and have faced other forms of persistent wage theft.

As a result, many faced eviction, loss of possessions and family disruption.

Even though these workers care for the city’s most vulnerable residents, almost all of them are denied legally mandated sick days to take care of themselves.

You can lend your support to the right of Washington, D.C. homecare workers to get owed wages and benefits and a speedy process to form a union, so this never happens again. To sign a petition supporting the campaign for justice for Washington, D.C. homecare workers, log on to WECAREFORDC.org. You can also follow the campaign on Facebook and Twitter.

Ruth Johnston, a CNA at Autumnview Manor in Hamburg NY, walked four miles through snow to get to her residents in Buffalo’s record-breaking November storm.

NEW YORK

Mother Nature Is Merciless.

Buffalo’s 1199ers Aren’t.

Undeterred by chilly temperatures, Washington, D.C. homecare workers vowed to keep up the fight for justice at a December rally.

NEW YORK

An Early Christmas for Some Buffalo Workers

Early Christmas: Workers from Buffalo’s Grace Manor NH, closed in 2009, in December received settlement checks for which they’ve been waiting more than two years.

“When we were exhausted we just kept going,” says Patty Meckes, an LPN at Autumnview Nursing Home in Orchard Park, NY, of the work she and her coworkers did caring for patients during a November blizzard.

Residents of nearby Buffalo, NY had a staggering six feet of snow dumped on them during a snow storm in November. More snow fell on the city during two days of the blizzard than it typically snows in a year. Residents were left stranded on roads and in their homes. Roofs collapsed. People died from exposure and heart attacks.

As usual, 1199SEIU members were on the front lines, finding their way to work to caring for the sick and elderly—making sure the neediest and frailest weren’t without a helping hand during a scary time. After being prevented from traveling because of Buffalo’s State of Emergency, Ruth Johnston, a CNA at Ardenview Manor in Hamburg, NY walked four miles in the snow and hitched a ride from a stranger to get to work and relieve co-workers who’d stayed with their patients for five days. “It was overwhelming. Everyone did what they could. People slept on the floor,” says Johnston. “There’s a real satisfaction in knowing that we were able to help our residents. They’re like family. Knowing what they could have gone through in that storm breaks my heart.”

Santa Claus came early for some 200 former employees of now-shuttered Grace Manor Nursing Home in Buffalo, NY. The workers, who were members of 1199SEIU when they worked at Grace Manor, learned in early December they would be receiving the holiday gift they had been waiting for: a settlement check.

The payout dates back to 2009 when Grace Manor closed after nearly a year in receivership and several years of financial difficulties. More than two hundred 1199 members lost their jobs. The institution subsequently declared bankruptcy without paying owed vacation time and only weeks after the required 90-day notice.

1199SEIU filed suit in bankruptcy court.

Though a settlement was reached two years ago, which stipulated that workers were to receive up to three weeks back pay and two weeks of vacation pay, procedural issues delayed the final settlement checks. Now, more than two years after the court-ordered settlement and nearly six years after Grace Manor’s closure, those checks have been cut. Just before the New Year caregivers received anywhere from $900.00 to $5,000.00 with an average check of about $1,500.00.

“Grace Manor closed at a very difficult point in my life,” says Jeffrey Anderson, a former

1199SEIU delegate at Grace Manor. “It’s been a long journey, but this is why I would not work anywhere without union representation. The union secured our paychecks and continued to fight for hours we worked and were not paid even when some of us gave up hope. The closing of Grace Manor was a very sad time for both the residents and staff because the unity we built can never be replaced. I’m very grateful for 1199SEIU for winning our settlement.”

The 167-bed facility was the region’s first minority owned and operated nursing home. It was put into receivership by the state Department of Health in late March 2008.

Founded in 1979 by the late Rev. Houston Williams, former pastor of Grace Tabernacle Church, Grace Manor underwent a string of leadership changes and several years of losses, finishing its 2006 fiscal year $5.8 million in the red. Eventually, the facility’s board of directors voted to approve a closure plan, citing long-term structural, operational and financial issues.

The plan received official approval from the Department of Health soon after.

“I was sad and I’m still sad that our nursing home closed,” says former Grace Manor caregiver Valerie Carson. “But today I’m happy we received the restitution we were owed. The check will help me pay for Christmas presents and get through the holiday season.”

January/February 2015 • Our Life And Times

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MASSACHUSETTS

Landmark Agreement at Whidden Memorial Hospital Caregivers at Whidden Memorial Hospital in Everett, MA in December overwhelmingly ratified a new contract which covers over 230 1199SEIU members at the hospital. The pact includes a number of significant provisions that will benefit healthcare workers and enhance patient care. Whidden is part of the Cambridge Health Alliance and serves about 150,000 patients throughout the Everett, Chelsea, Winthrop, Revere and Malden region each year, including a large underserved population.

Inspired by the national Fight for $15 movement, the new contract achieves important progress for Whidden Memorial Hospital’s lowwage workers. For the first time, this agreement will lift all lower-wage employees at the hospital (present and future) to a minimum start rate of $15.00 per hour effective July 1, 2015. In addition, the new contract provides wage increases to Whidden workers at all experience and paygrade levels. In addition, the new contract provides wage increases to other employees. For the first time, interpreters and other workers will also be included in the contract.

Income disparities in the U.S. have soared in the last 50 years, with wages for the top 10% continuing to climb while wages for the nation’s middle class and low-wage workers have stagnated, according to research from the Economic Policy Institute. 1199SEIU members support the national Fight for $15 movement and have pushed for higher wages as the prevalence of low-wage work cuts across a variety of industries, including healthcare.

Many workers in low-wage jobs depend on public assistance to provide for their families.

“This contract is a major step forward for many of my colleagues who have struggled financially,

even as they work full-time providing an important service to our community,” said Judy Saint Louis, a healthcare worker at Whidden Memorial who will see her pay rate increased to $15.00 per hour in 2015.

“The Fight for $15 has inspired many of us. It’s very gratifying to see the hospital that we love make the effort to provide a living wage.”

The new contract also provides for the continuation of a Labor-Management Quality Committee made up of healthcare workers and hospital representatives. The committee works to promote quality care and create new forums to discuss any issues or recommendations that may arise.

December contract at Whidden Memorial Hospital in Everett, MA was inspired by the national Fight for $15 movement.

THIS AGREEMENT WILL LIFT ALL LOWERWAGE EMPLOYEES AT THE HOSPITAL TO A MINIMUM START RATE OF $15.00 PER HOUR.

WANT TO LEARN MORE ABOUT CAUCUSES?

Fill out this coupon and mail it to: Attn: Katherine Taylor, 1199SEIU Vice President, 1199SEIU Caucus Member Engagement Program, 611 N. Eutaw St., Baltimore, MD, 21298-3189 or fill it out online at www.1199SEIU.org/caucus.

Please Print Clearly FIRST NAME

1199SEIU member caucuses are important platforms for Union members to celebrate culture, address issues that affect our communities and build lasting bonds that strengthen our Union overall. Caucuses can serve as an entry point for taking full advantage of all the Union membership has to offer. You’ll find additional opportunities to exercise your voice and develop as a leader. Caucuses provide avenues for advocacy on social injustice impacting your community and allow you to make connections inside 1199SEIU and beyond. 1199SEIU is working to build and strengthen membership in the following SEIU Caucuses: African American (AFRAM), Asian-Pacific Islander, International Latino, Women’s, Purple Gold/Millennium, Haitian Caucus, Retirees’, Green Justice, People with Disabilities, Native American and the LGBTQ/Lavender Caucus. Caucus membership is generally open to all 1199SEIU members and staff, but individual caucuses may set aside additional membership criteria. Want to learn more? Fill out the form at right and return it to: 1199SEIU, United Healthcare Workers East, 611 N. Eutaw St., Baltimore, MD, 21298-3189. You can also fill out the form on line at www.1199SEIU.org/caucus.

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January/February 2015 • Our Life And Times

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Please send me more information about the following SEIU/1199 Caucuses: African American Caucus (AFRAM)

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TAKE A STAND FOR WHAT YOU CARE ABOUT! JOIN AN 1199SEIU MEMBER CAUCUS!

InTheRegions

1199SEIU’s Credit Union Celebrates 75 Years.

The 1199SEIU Federal Credit Union in January celebrated its 75th anniversary. The Credit Union was organized in 1940 by a group of pharmacists as the Local 1199 Credit Union as a way to promote saving and thrift among workers. Today’s Credit Union, located in the Union’s Manhattan headquarters, has grown into a 28,000-member institution with over $60 million in assets.

The 1199SEIU Federal Credit Union offers members basic financial services, including savings and share draft accounts, mortgages, personal loans, a Vacation Club, and a Christmas Club. Dividends are paid on all accounts except share drafts. The institution includes as part of its mission credit education and financial management, so members and their families can build a sound financial foundation for themselves.

In 2014, in a move that offered more members greater access to the institution and its services, the Credit Union became part of the Allpoint Network, a nationwide network of 55,000 surcharge-free ATM’s.

At the same time, additional surcharge-free ATMs became available to New York City members in Brooklyn and Bronx Rite Aid stores.

Credit Union membership is open to all 1199SEIU members in good standing. For more information about how to join or about available services call 212-957-1055, send an email to email@1199federalcu.org or log on to www.1199federalcu.org.

At NYC’s Callen-Lorde Health Center, 200 workers voted yes for 1199SEIU on Jan. 13.

New Organizing: More than 700 Workers Voted Yes for 1199 in January At Nashoba Valley Medical Center in Ayer, MA on Jan. 9, 170 workers voted overwhelmingly to join 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East. The election covered business office, clerical, and service workers.

“We all love working at Nashoba Valley Medical Center, but we wanted to come together to have a united voice and have a union” said Susan Roberts a secretary in the Cardiology unit who has worked at the hospital for ten years. “Our patient care is our top priority, and we feel like we can better represent them and ourselves by being a part of 1199SEIU.” Nashoba Valley Medical Center, a part of the Steward Heath Care, is a 73-bed facility serving Central Northern Massachusetts. Previously, workers at seven other facilities currently operated by Steward Health Care have voted to join 1199SEIU and have successfully negotiated a range of improvements to jobs within the state’s largest network of community hospitals. Those facilities include: St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center; Norwood Hospital; Morton Hospital; Merrimack Valley Hospital; Holy Family Hospital; Good Samaritan Medical Center; and Carney Hospital.

On January 13, 200 workers with Callen-Lorde Health Center in Manhattan joined with 1199SEIU. The CallenLorde workers encompass a variety of job titles, including nurses, doctors, social workers, patient care associates, medical assistants and many others. This marks 1199’s first LGBTQ health center in New York City; in Washington DC, the Walt Whitman Community Health Center, which also serves LGBTQ patients, has been 1199 since the 1990s. These workers join 1199’s over 5,000 members at federally qualified health centers throughout New York City.

“I’m unionizing because I believe in our namesakes,” said Ariadne Brazo, a Mental Health Patient Navigator with Callen-Lorde. “Audre Lorde and Michael Callen

wanted a better world for QTBLG folks. They stood up for change to make our community the best it could be, to make sure we are treated with respect. A union is good for the staff, good for the center, and good for the community.”

Callen-Lorde employees became interested in organizing with 1199SEIU in order to further the center’s mission of providing quality health care and education to New York’s underserved communities.

“1199SEIU is my choice because of their rich social justice history and ongoing dedication to meeting the needs of diverse communities,” said Leigh Howard, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with Callen-Lorde.

Ambulatory Care is among the fastest growing areas of healthcare employment. Since 2004, New York State’s outpatient care workforce has increased 24 percent. As care shifts to community settings through New York’s $8 billion Medicaid Waiver, caregivers in community settings are joining 1199 to ensure good, middle-class jobs and the highest quality of care.

On January 16, the 336 home health aides from New York City’s ElderServe won 1199 representation in a landslide victory driven by their desire to achieve higher wages, affordable healthcare and respect on the job.

“I voted to join with 1199 because I wanted to have a better future for me and my family,” said Zunilda Gonzalez, an HHA with ElderServe. “I want a voice in my work and job security.”

“I voted to unionize with 1199 because I want benefits and respect for my rights as an HHA,” said Julia Aguero.

With this victory, the ElderServe homecare workers join their Hebrew Home of Riverdale colleagues as 1199 members. Both Hebrew Home and ElderServe are owned

by ElderServe Health, one of the largest managed long term care plans in the city.

January/February 2015 • Our Life And Times

6

Our Union

The EITC Program Helps Make Dreams Come True Qualified members are urged to apply for the Earned Income Tax Credit.

So successful was the Syracuse effort that the Internal Revenue Service is studying the operation there to draw lessons to be used elsewhere.

The EITC, designed to encourage and reward work, is one of the nation’s most successful anti-poverty initiatives. Research indicates that families mostly use it to pay for necessities, repair homes, maintain vehicles that are needed to commute to work, and to obtain education or training to boost their employability and earning power.

But advocates fear that the current Republican-controlled Congress might attempt to weaken the EITC. Some conservative elected officials have argued that the nation cannot afford both the EITC and a rise in the minimum wage.

Meanwhile, inequality continues

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January/February 2015 • Our Life And Times

to widen. A study this year by Oxfam, the international antipoverty organization, found that the world’s 80 richest people have the same wealth as the poorest 50% (3.5 billion people). Oxfam warned also that if the current trend continues, by 2016, 1% of the world’s population will own more wealth than the other 99%.

Devery Reid-Holmes is proof that the country can’t afford not to support programs like the EITC. “I tell people, to take advantage of all our Union programs,” says Reid-Holmes. “I’ve used the education funds to finish my LPN training and I’m going on to become an RN. “Getting the EITC refund made a huge difference for me and my family.”

See accompanying boxed articles for information on where to go and call for assistance.

1199ers are strongly encouraged to apply for the EITC. You are eligible for the EITC if you meet the following requirements:

New York City and New Jersey The 1199SEIU Benefit Funds has partnered with VITA sites administered by Food Bank for New York City and Ariva. For information, call 311 or the VITA Site Locator Hotline at 800-906-9887 or log onto www.FoodBankNYC.org/News/FreeIncome-Tax-Services-Location.

LONG ISLAND MEMBERS can call 516-349-4288 or 800-906-9887 or visit website of partner organization, the Health and Welfare Council of Long Island, www.HCWLI.com.

WESTCHESTER MEMBERS can call 800-906-9887 or log onto partner website, Westchester-Putnam One Stop,

www.WestchesterPutnamOneStop.com.

NEW JERSEY MEMBERS can call 211or 800-906-9887. They also can visit www.

IRS.gov/Individuals/Find-a-Location-forFree-Tax-Prep.

MEMBERS IN NEW YORK CITY, WESTCHESTER, LONG ISLAND AND NEW JERSEY also can call the AARP Foundation-Tax-Aide at 888-687-2277 or log onto www.AARP.org.

The 1199SEIU Funds also provide EITC services in its Manhattan offices for Homecare members. Members must call 646-473-6920 to make an appointment.

• If your income was below $46,997, or $52,247 if married and filing jointly, with three or more dependent children • If your income was below $43,756, or $49,186 if filing jointly, with two dependent children • If your income was below $38,511, or $43,941 if married and filing jointly with one dependent child • If your income was below $14,590, or $20,020 if married and filing jointly, with no dependent children.

EITC Sites and Numbers to Call Buffalo, NY 2421 Main Street, Suite 100 For appointment, call 716-982-0540 Carla at Ext. 3721.

North Country (Gouverneur), NY 95 East Main St., Gouverneur For appointment, call 315-287-9013, Ext. 11.

Rochester, NY 259 Monroe Ave, Suite 220 For appointment, call 585-730-6433.

Syracuse, NY 1199SEIU/SEOC Free Tax Center 100 New Street For appointment, call 315-295-1822.

Baltimore, MD 611 North Eutaw Street For appointment, call 443-449-2019 or 443-449-2099.

MASSACHUSETTS SITES: Dorchester – 150 Mt. Vernon St, 3rd Fl. Springfield – 20 Maple St. Hyannis – 89 Lewis Bay Road For appointment, call 877-409-1199.

“

I would not have known about the EITC were it not for the Union.

“

Devery Reid-Holmes, a patient care tech at Rochester’s Strong Memorial Hospital, used her tax refund last year for a down payment on her new home. Her federal and state refunds totaled more than $10,000 thanks to the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) a program for low-and-moderateincome workers.

“I have gotten so much from my Union,” Reid-Holmes stresses.

“I would not have known about the EITC were it not for the Union.”

When Reid-Holmes began at Strong about 12 years ago, she regularly paid hundreds of dollars to have her taxes prepared by H&R Block.

“About five or six years ago I found out that the Union would help me and not charge a penny,” she says. Through 1199SEIU she also learned about the EITC. “On Oct. 14, last year, which was my grandmother’s birthday, I closed on the house that I share with my daughter, Imani, 12, and son, Daniel, 3,” Reid-Holmes proudly declares. For her, it was a dream come true.

Stories like Reid-Holmes’s abound throughout 1199SEIU. Last year, EITC programs run by 1199SEIU and the 1199SEIU Funds helped lowwage workers receive more than $15 million in refunds.

The 1199SEIU Benefit Fund partners with organizations in New York City, Westchester, Long Island and New Jersey to assist members and residents in those regions.

1199SEIU does the same in the Union’s New York upstate regions— Syracuse, Rochester, Buffalo, the North Country—in addition to Massachusetts and Maryland/D.C. When the program began just over a decade ago, 1199SEIU members received a total of $61,000 in refunds. Last year, the Syracuse region alone netted over $3 million in for low-wage workers. A number of 1199ers received refunds in the five digits, with one member getting a total refund of over $14,000.

Devery Reid-Holmes, with daughter Imani and son Daniel, used her EITC refund to purchase a home.

HANDS UP FOR

JUSTICE January/February 2015 • Our Life And Times

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“

It’s scary to be young and Black or Latino or even a young white man who doesn’t fit in with society.

Anything can happen to you.”

“

Hundreds of 1199ers were among the 10,000 people who marched against police violence in Washington, D.C. on Dec. 13.

The killings of Michael Brown, Jr. in Ferguson, MO. and Eric Garner in New York City and the subsequent failures to indict the police officers responsible for their deaths have sparked a passionate and diverse movement. At its root is the longstanding police brutality and racial profiling and suffered by people of color and the poor. 1199SEIU counts among its membership too many who understand the humiliation of harassment and the tragedy of loved ones lost to police violence—including the mothers of Sean Bell and Ramarley Graham of New York City.

Isael Galindo, a dietary worker at Bronx Lebanon Hospital in New York City was among the first members at a Dec. 3 demonstration in Times Square the night the Garner decision came down.

“We are here tonight because people are being killed in the United States and we have to demonstrate our disagreement with this,” said Galindo. “It’s very sad, frustrating and we are angry.”

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Members and Union leaders have continued to stress that the guiding spirit of the protests is pro-justice, not anti-police.

“This is not the time for divisive, political statements, which only stoke the flame of discord,” said 1199SEIU Political Director Kevin Finnegan in a statement released after the brutal assassinations of NYPD officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu. “It is incumbent upon the leaders of our city to promote unity during this difficult time so that we can move forward and engage in a peaceful dialogue where everyone’s concerns are heard.”

Members will continue to fight for justice and stand with New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and the hard working men and women of the New York City Police Department as they mourn Officers Liu and Ramos, says Damon Brown, a rehabilitation aide at New Vista Nursing and Rehab in Newark, NJ.

January/February 2015 • Our Life And Times

“VIOLENCE ONLY BEGETS VIOLENCE”

“What happened to those two cops should never happen to anyone,” says Brown, himself a victim of profiling. “No one should ever be gunned down like that. And we who have lost loved ones need to go to their families and support them. Violence only begets violence.”

It’s a couple of days before Christmas and Brown is speaking from the home he shares in Montclair with his wife Chandra Pierce and their four school-aged sons. (Pierce is also a recreational aide at New Vista.) His voice is earnest, intense and colored with sadness as he talks about the events in recent months: the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, the failure of the justice system on their behalf, and the murders of officers Liu and Ramos.

Brown, 42, is a member of Newark Communities for Accountable Policing, a diverse coalition that includes 1199SEIU which was founded last September

to work for a more respectful and accountable police department in the city.

“Police need to protect and serve our communities,” says Brown. “We’d like to see more beat cops walking our neighborhoods so people can get to know them. We understand that there is good and bad everywhere.”

Brown was born and raised in Jersey and his story isn’t an unusual one.

“I grew up with no father, but my mother was an activist. She was strict,” he says. “But when I was a teenager my structure got torn down. Later, I got away from all of that and I didn’t want to go back to the streets—to the guns and the drugs.”

On his way back home to Newark from a construction job in Dover ten years ago Brown was picked up by cops and held for two days as a suspect with 14 warrants against him. He fit the description of a “Black man wearing blue jeans and a white t-shirt.”

“I kept trying to explain that I had been the victim of identity theft but they just told me to tell it to the judge,” he says. “They kept telling me that if I was lying they were going to whoop my Black behind. I was in a cell by myself and called an animal. It took them two days to figure out that it wasn’t me they were looking for. I was so grateful when the cop finally came in and told me that they were releasing me, I just slid down the wall because I knew what could have happened to me.”

The experience, says Brown, lit a fire in him to speak out on behalf of those who have been the victims of police violence or harassment. So, too, has being the father of four sons.

“I just can’t sit here and do nothing.

My life is their life now,” he says. “It’s scary to be young and Black or Latino or even a young white man who doesn’t fit in with society. Anything can happen to you and to me that isn’t just.

We are all people. We are all the same.

We all live in the same house.”

MARCHING IN WASHINGTON, D.C.

Hundreds of 1199SEIU members from the New York City metropolitan area, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Washington, D.C. and Maryland were among the nearly 10,000 people who marched in the nation’s capital Dec. 13 demanding an end to police violence and the unjust treatment of people of color and the poor at the hands of the country’s law enforcement officials.

“I want to be here and make sure

1199ers were among the tens of thousands who stood up against police violence in the national movement sparked by the killings of Michael Brown, Jr. and Eric Garner; Washington, D.C. (top photo) and New York City were just some of the places where members joined actions to raise their voices.

that police stop shooting Black people and any other kind of people. There are other things that can be done besides shooting people,” said Adriane Franklin, a home attendant with New York City’s CABS agency for 30 years. “We all needed to be here today so we can stand up and stop this.”

The National Action Network organized the December march, which began with a rally at Freedom Plaza, continued down Pennsylvania Ave. and ended with a rally within sight of the U.S. Capitol building.

Rev. Al Sharpton and the families of Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Jr., Tamir Rice and other victims of police violence led the procession. Chants of “Hands Up!” and “I Can’t Breathe!” rang out over choruses of “No Justice! No Peace!”

Beverley Roberts, a CNA at Bethesda Health and Rehab in Bethesda, MD, walked with her daughter and two of her grandchildren.

“I’m here because one of my grandsons has been a victim of police brutality just recently. He isn’t here today, but it was terrible what they did to him. It should never happen,” she said.

In his remarks, Sharpton enumerated changes vital to the pursuit of justice: the creation in the U.S. Department of Justice of a division to handle cases of police violence, an examination of the legal thresholds between criminal and civil rights violations in cases of police violence, and special independent prosecutors to handle cases involving police violence and brutality.

The families of the victims also spoke, thanking members of the crowd for their support and urging them to continue the fight for justice. Sybrina Fulton, Trayvon Martin’s mother, encouraged the audience to educate those who may not understand the experience of racial profiling.

Anthony Nicholas, a drug counselor from Mt. Sinai Beth Israel Medical Center in Manhattan, was moved by the crowd’s passion and diversity.

“It was a great day. The energy was wonderful. Everyone was together,” he said. “The young people and families. You could really feel that people want this to change.”

TENS OF THOUSANDS MARCH IN MANHATTAN

The same day, 1199SEIU members were among the 40,000 who marched in New York City demanding an end to police violence and racial profiling. The New York City march was the largest of the demonstrations that began with the killing of Michael Brown. The number of people at those actions increased with the decision not to indict the killer of Eric Garner on Staten Island and climaxed with that Dec. 13 march.

The procession, at times extending more than a mile, began at Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village, wound up Fifth Ave., preceded across midtown and then south to its conclusion at One Police Plaza in lower Manhattan.

Demonstrators at the head of the march held up eight panels depicting Eric Garner’s eyes, created by an artist known as JR. Marchers chanted “I Can’t Breathe,” the last words of Garner before his death by asphyxiation, and “Hands up! Don’t shoot!” in reference to Michael Brown, who witnesses claimed had his hands in the air when he was shot to death by police officer Darren Wilson.

The majority of marchers were young, but every generation was represented. Parents came with small children, and seniors marched with grandchildren. Many carried placards that read “Justice Now!” and “Black Lives Matter!”

The New York City action was led by Millions March, NYC, which was founded by young African American women. The Facebook call for the action garnered 45,000 responses.

“My Black students have a dream. Don’t shoot,” read a sign carried by a white teacher. Other teachers also carried placards citing the dangers to Black youth.

Members of the Communications Workers of America and the United Auto Workers attended the march and carried signs that bore their logos. 1199ers, who attended protests in Washington and Boston, also were scattered among the marchers.

“I marched with my daughters because there was no other moral choice,” said 1199SEIU Brooklyn retiree Madeline Belkin.

“I walked the full distance, with knowledge that the bodily aches of aging I was experiencing were nothing compared with the lifelong searing aches of families who have lost loved ones because of senseless police violence. This march has to be just part of the actions which must continue.”

January/February 2015 • Our Life And Times

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Contracts

Tenet Members in Florida and New York Nursing Home Members

Stay Strong at the Bargaining Table.

“These are critical times for our Union. I tell people we can succeed if we support each other.”

1199SEIU bargaining teams from St. Mary’s Medical Center in West Palm Beach and North Shore Medical Center in Miami, two Tenetaffiliated Hospitals in South Florida, continued contract negotiations in January, nearly six months after they began last June.

Negotiating committees from institutions remained united and remained committed to contracts that provide caregivers with fair wages and affordable healthcare coverage. Also among their priorities is ensuring a work environment where nurses and healthcare workers can continue to provide quality patient care.

“At North Shore we get some very sick patients and that can cause a very high stress level for workers,” says pharmacy tech Shuman Milcent. “And we develop a lot of stress related conditions and chronic illnesses. We don’t want this to impact our work. We are here for our patients and we want to be here for our patients.”

Bargaining team members from both institutions are encouraging their co-workers to join their Contract Action Team (CAT) and spread the word about their union contract and negotiations, says St. Mary’s RN Eva Zavattai.

“This year it’s really important for everyone to get involved. Our healthcare is so important.

We need our healthcare for our members and our families,” she says. “Nurses especially need to be involved in negotiations. It’s one of the only times we get to voice our concerns with the administration and the hospital. We’re not just here for ourselves. St. Mary’s is a trauma hospital and stroke center. We get the sickest of the sick. We do difficult jobs and we want management to understand that we work very hard to take care of our patients.”

At press time, members were preparing for contract talks in Florida for five other Tenetaffiliated hospitals, including Good Samaritan Medical Center, West Boca Medical Center, North Shore Medical Center—FMC Campus, Palmetto General Hospital and Palm Beach Gardens Medical Center.

C. Todd Wallace, a behavioral health technician at North Shore, said solidarity was going to be the key to a successful outcome in all the negotiations.

“You know, there’s power in numbers.

People need to stay involved and talk to each other,” said Wallace, a bargaining committee member and delegate at North Shore. “Members have to come to negotiations themselves and get information first-hand and not hear it from me or someone else. These are critical times for our Union. I tell people that we can succeed if we support each other.”

IN NEW YORK, GROUP OF 35 MEMBERS AUTHORIZE A STRIKE On December 17, thousands of 1199 nursing home workers in New York City and on Long Island picketed outside of their facilities for fair wages, secure health benefits and improved staffing in nursing homes. The contract negotiations cover 43 for-profit nursing homes employing over 8,000 workers.

After difficulties arriving at a reasonable settlement in contract negotiations, caregivers

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January/February 2015 • Our Life And Times

Above: Workers at Daughters of Jacob NH in the Bronx, NY during Dec. 17 info picket.

Left: Bargaining committee members from Tenet-affiliated hospitals in South Florida.

“THIS YEAR IT’S REALLY IMPORTANT FOR EVERYONE TO GET INVOLVED. OUR HEALTHCARE IS SO IMPORTANT. WE NEED HEALTHCARE FOR OUR MEMBERS AND FAMILIES.” took to the streets to voice their frustration over perceived disrespect from the owners. The owners have submitted regressive proposals that would reduce healthcare benefits and would significantly diminish the low-wage workers’ pay.

The over 8,000 caregivers claim a difficulty in retaining staff to care for nursing home residents and see the cuts as only expanding the problem.

The workers believe the proposed changes could lead staff to look for additional work and leave the nursing home, further taxing the already low staffing levels. Members are continuing the fight and have kept pressure on employers with a strike vote with 95% voting yes to strike.

“Our members voted to strike because we

felt we had no other way to challenge nursing home owners putting profits before people.

Despite all of the many obstacles that we face on a daily basis, like inadequate staffing levels and short supplies, we still get the job done because we care for our residents’ well-being.

What nursing home management has proposed is very insulting. As the primary caregivers, all that we are asking for is a fair contract with a living wage and benefits so that we can have the peace of mind to take care of our families and continue to give valuable care to our residents,” said Leroy Bradford, Physical Therapy Assistant at Bushwick Center for Rehabilitation and Healthcare.

THE WORK WE DO:

University of Miami Hospital

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The 560-bed University of Miami Hospital (UMH) is the South Florida region’s first university-owned, multispecialty acute care hospital. 1199SEIU represents 1,800 workers at the institution, which has been organized since 2003, when it was Cedars Medical Center. 1199ers at UMH work in a broad range of capacities—as nurses, clerical workers and maintenance technicians, just to name a few. They serve a diverse and growing area population. 1199SEIU members come to work each day with a common goal: to be the best caregivers for all South Florida residents.

1. Floor tech Meikloss Saunders is a delegate and negotiating committee member at UMH. “My job is mostly scrubbing, stripping and repairing floors, but I do every little thing,” he says.

“Whatever is needed throughout the whole hospital, they can call on me.

If they need a bed or something moved, they can call me.”

2. Post Anesthesia Intensive Care Unit RN Elizabeth Jazon has been at UMH for six years. “I thank God he gave me the privilege to come to this country from Haiti. When I was a child there I wanted to be a doctor. I cleaned the booboos and took care of people in my family,” she says.

“When I came here I took full advantage of all the educational opportunities that were offered to me and I became a nurse.”

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January/February 2015 • Our Life And Times

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3 3. TerDavien Ford has been a cook at UMH for five years 4. Ann Stewart is a registered nurse in UMH’s gastroenterology dept. “We operate in all GI areas,” she says. “We do procedures and recovery. We try to rotate so we don’t always have on person working late. We see all GI functions here and treat GI bleeds, gallstones and do endoscopies. We see a lot of food bolusesthat’s choking on something. And usually more around Thanksgiving.”

5. Food service worker Tenoqua Freeman prepares patient lunches. “I prep food for the babies in the day care center and for patients at the eye care clinic and the Sylvester Cancer Clinic. What we do is important because we feed people,” she says. “Food can always make you feel better. I cook at home all the time. My grandparents were chefs and bakers. This comes naturally to me.”

4

5

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January/February 2015 • Our Life And Times

6

6. Yohn Gomez has been a GI tech at UMH for three years. “It depends on how busy we are, but I can assist with 10 or 12 procedures a day,” he says. “I started a transporter in this department and then I got the opportunity to train for this job. I’m also a medical assistant. I’m always in the learning process.”

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“

Food can always make you feel better. I cook at home all the time. My grandparents were cooks and bakers. This comes naturally to me.

“

8 7. “We work in different parts of the hospital— wherever we’re needed when a patient is discharged. We go in and clean the rooms. There are about 12 housekeepers and we get the rooms done very efficiently,” says Germania Lopez, (third from left) an environmental services technician at UMH for four years.

8. Lena Coleman, a dietary worker, has been at UMH for 32 years. She’s shown putting away leftovers. “I make sure that everybody has everything they need and that everything is ready for each shift,” she says. “Our staff comes in three shifts to cover all the meals. I come in the middle of lunch and take care of dinner.”

Environmental services technician Aleida Morejon (at far right) has worked at UMH for five years.

9. Food service worker Lorna Forbes preparing fruit cups in the hospital kitchen’s cold production area. She works at a different station every week.

Environmental service technicians Yesenia Osejo, (far left) and Maritza CruzDiaz (second from left).

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January/February 2015 • Our Life And Times

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Our History

Granddaughter of Union Pioneer

Turns Life Around Training Fund lends helping hand.

The past informs the present. Today’s 1199ers are frequently reminded of the debt of gratitude owed to early Union activists.

This is true for Janice Snipes, a University of Rochester cook’s helper and the granddaughter of 1199SEIU pioneer Mattie Best, who passed away in January 2013.

Best is a legend among Rochester 1199ers.

It was she who, in 1973 as a Strong Memorial Hospital lab worker, teamed up with Larry Fox, a young Local 1199 organizer, to bring the first healthcare workers union into Rochester.

“She knew when to confront and when to compromise,” declared 1199SEIU VP Bruce Popper at the 2013 memorial for Best. “She was the true embodiment of Dr. (Martin Luther) King’s activism. There would be no 1199 in Rochester if it were not for Mattie Best. Our Union stands on the shoulders of her incredible courage.”

So beloved and influential was Best that when she retired in 2008, New York Gov. David Paterson congratulated her, writing, “You built an unshakable reputation as a champion of civil and labor rights in the Empire State.”

Best’s pioneering union work did not save her granddaughter Janice Snipes from the negative influences of her East Rochester neighborhood.

“I spent 10 years of my life in the streets,” says Snipes, a 34-year-old mother of a son, Yulander Jr, 15, and daughter, Semaj’a, 7.

“The majority of people that I love or have loved are either dead or in jail,” Snipes notes.

Two of those people are her late brothers, “I lost one brother in 2003 in a car accident and the other in 2006, the victim of a drive-by shooting right outside our home. One brother was 17, and the other, 22.”

Another loved one, her husband, Yulander Sr., is incarcerated on a drug conviction.

“I still draw strength from his love and encouragement,” Snipes says.

She also credits her mother, Gwen Snipes, son Yulander Jr. and close friends for helping her turn here life around. That began about five years ago.

“One day I was getting some supplies that I needed at work,” she recalls. “I happened to see a flier on the bulletin board about the Union Training Fund’s GED program. I took that as a sign.”

Snipes earned her GED just four months after she began classes.

“When I showed my training rep the results, she hugged me signed me up for the Healthcare Careers College Core Curriculum (HC4) program at Monroe Community College.”

She also credits instructors and educators such as Siobhan Kemblowski, Kathy O’Shea, Nola Musleh, Christopher Bonawitz and Ray Meyers.

HC4 is a highly successful program in which 1199SEIU members attend classes together with the support of Training Fund teachers and counselors. Snipes was a student in Rochester’s first HC4 class. Last year, Snipes earned an associated degree in liberal arts from Monroe Community College.

“I earned my degree because people cared about me and believe in me,” she says. “And I hope that my experience can inspire others.”

She wants to begin with Yulander Jr. and Semaj’a. “Yulander has experienced a lot of what I did wrong, but he respects and loves the good in me, which also is in all of us.”

In January, Snipes began classes at SUNY Empire State to earn her bachelor’s. After that, she plans to go on to a graduate degree. “I’ve come so far, why stop now,” she says.

“I will always be grateful that through my Union I was given a chance I never thought I would have. And I intend to give back. My goal is to help troubled teens. I want to stop the revolving door and cycle of destruction.”

Snipes says that she was not very close to her grandmother, but has come to realize how much she owes her and how happy her grandmother would be that the road she paved Snipe is now walking.

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January/February 2015 • Our Life And Times

“ I WANT TO STOP THE REVOLVING DOOR OF DESTRUCTION.” Janice Snipes, a cook’s helper at the University of Rochester, speaking at a 2013 celebration of her Union pioneer grandmother, Mattie Best.

THE BACK PAGE

The Earned Income Tax Program May Help Your Dream Come True

Photo by Jim Tynan

The EITC is a tax refund program for low and moderate-income workers.

1199ers are strongly encouraged to apply.

Devery Reid-Holmes, a patient care tech at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, NY, used her refund last year for a down payment on a new home.

For information about how to qualify for the EITC and where to go for free tax assistance: See story on page 7.