Our Life & Times | April / May 2015

6 A JOURNAL OF 1199SEIU March/April 2015

THE DREAM MARCHES ON Fifty Years from Selma to Montgomery.

Special pullout inside.

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March/April 2015 • Our Life And Times

NEW YORK NURSING HOME CONTRACT VICTORY

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CLAUDETTE COLVIN’S BRAVE REFUSAL

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AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL: OUR ALLY IN JUSTICE

3 President’s Column

Ours is a Union of everyday heroes and sheroes.

4 In The Regions

Johns Hopkins members on NPR; Florida 1199ers support the ACA at the Supreme Court; Ebola responders honored; Massachusetts ramps up the Fight for $15; Puerto Rico launches retiree chapter.

6 Nursing Home Contract Victory New York members stayed strong and won.

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The Dream Marches On

Fifty years since the historic march from Selma to Montgomery.

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Before Rosa Parks Claudette Colvin, an 1199 retiree, was just 15 when she refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery, AL. bus.

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A Woman’s Place is in the Struggle

We celebrate International Women’s Month.

Editorial

Our Life and Times March/April 2015

SPEAKING TRUTH TO POWER & THE LEGACY OF SELMA “ It requires the occasional disruption, the willingness to speak out for what’s right and shake up the status quo.”

On March 7, President Obama delivered what is arguably one of his greatest speeches. Speaking at the foot of Alabama’s Edmund Pettus Bridge, on the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday—when that voting rights March from Selma to Montgomery became the tinderbox of the civil rights movement—the President reminded us that our country’s destiny is not an entitlement of the powerful or the wealthy. Its rights and privileges are not a preordination to be enhanced by greed and self-interest.

The truth, Pres. Obama reminded us from that holy ground, is the opposite. Everyone has the power to shape this country—no matter our station, color, gender, sexuality, or origin—if we are willing to stand up and speak truth to power. Every one of us can change a possibility into what is. “It is the idea held by generations of citizens who believed that America is a constant work in progress; who believed that loving this country requires more than singing its praises or avoiding uncomfortable truths,” said Pres. Obama. “It requires the occasional disruption, the willingness to speak out for what’s right and shake up the status quo.”

The marchers at Selma are our blueprint—bloodied, but unbowed, facing sheriff’s deputies armed with batons,

police dogs, cattle prods and tear gas, they kept on.

On the pages of this issue are 1199ers who are living the legacy of Selma by being “willing to speak out for what’s right and shake up the status quo” to strengthen chapters, organize and model change. They are the nearly 1,000 healthcare workers who voted to join 1199SEIU in recent months and the members who in February spoke out at the U.S. Supreme Court in support of the Affordable Care Act. And others, who want to build on 1199SEIU’s deepening relationship with Amnesty International, the world’s largest human rights organization, to broaden the Union’s mission of justice and dignity for all people. And a woman—one of our own retirees—who was just 15 when she refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery, AL. bus in 1955.

Osceola Medical Center Ultrasound tech Jessica Jimenez says attending the Selma anniversary commemoration with her co-workers changed her.

“I’ll be going back to Osceola with new eyes and a refreshed vision for our future,” says Jimenez. “If the marchers at Selma could achieve what they did 50 years ago, we can learn from them and there’s no limit to what we can do together today.”

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Our American Dreamers

1199SEIU members on their path to citizenship.

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It’s Not Just About Us

Labor coalitions make vital local and national contributions.

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Our Allies

Amnesty International has been fighting global injustice for fifty years.

Our Life And Times, March/April 2015 Vol 33, No 2 Published by 1199SEIU, United Healthcare Workers East 310 West 43rd St. New York, NY 10036 Telephone (212) 582-1890 www.1199seiu.org president

George Gresham secretary treasurer

Maria Castaneda executive vice presidents

Norma Amsterdam Yvonne Armstrong Lisa Brown-Beloch Angela Doyle George Kennedy Steve Kramer Maria Kercado 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

Bryn Lloyd-Bollard Rae Rawls Dunnaville JJ Johnson Erin Malone Amanda Torres-Price 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 March/April 2015 • Our Life And Times

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THE PRESIDENT’S COLUMN

Letters

George Gresham

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MONA PETERS Retiree, Oak Ridge, NJ NEW IMMIGRANTS MAKE US ALL STRONGER he recent push by U.S. House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner and the Republican Party to undo President Obama’s executive order to address the issues of our broken immigration system after years of neglect by Congress should have union members all over America up in arms. America’s unions have a lot to benefit from a common sense immigration law. These changes will allow hard working people with good intentions to stay in this country and not fear deportation.

We members of 1199SEIU should strongly support the president and his stance on Immigration Reform. Among other benefits it will enhance unionism and in turn provide a vehicle for upward social mobility to our new immigrants.

Here’s how: despite survey after survey showing a trend of dwindling union membership, the fact is that many union jobs are being filled by immigrants. In essence, new immigrants are where we are finding our strength. And in turn, immigrants like me have been able to change our destiny by benefitting from union programs, like tuition reimbursement, which helped me to work and go to school and grow into the middle class without the burden of loans.

Comrades! Let’s rally and let our voices be heard. We should let it be known to soon-to-be-documented immigrants that they have an ally in us.

We welcome them to join us and make our Union stronger.

T

WAYNE BASSEY Eastern Long Island Hospital Greenport, NY Let’s hear from you. Send your letters to: 1199SEIU’s Our Life And Times Letters Dept., 330 W. 42nd St, 7th Fl., New York, NY 10036 Or email them to Patriciak@1199.org and please put Letters in the subject of your email.

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March/April 2015 • Our Life And Times

Our members’ names may not be in history books, but they make history.

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Today our Union is filled with and led by everyday heroines (and heroes).

Besides holding down their jobs— sometimes more than one—they raise their families and are leaders in their local schools, houses of worship, and community organizations.

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WHERE IS LEGAL AID? worked as a clerk in the Criminal Division of the Legal Aid Society in New York City for 30 years. The organization does very important work and there used to be regular stories about it in the Union’s magazine. I haven’t read anything about Legal Aid in a while and it concerns me. I like to keep up with developments in the Union and all of our workplaces, but the publication is a particularly important connection for me to where I used to work. I just wanted you to know that there are those of us out here who read the magazine and look for our workplaces and co-workers in it. I hope you’ll do a story about The Legal Aid Society soon. Thanks for your good work.

1199 is A Union of Everyday Heroes

Americans pay little attention to history, perhaps because of how it is taught. In school, we learn that history is made by kings and conquerors, presidents and generals, but not by ordinary folk, who take the future into their own hands to determine their destiny. It took centuries before our schools started to recognize Black History Month, but even now the focus is usually on a Black hero—Jackie Robinson, George Washington Carver or Martin Luther King, Jr. And Dr. King is usually portrayed as The Dreamer, a skilled orator, but never as a profound thinker, organizer of millions and one who served a movement. Ava DuVernay’s brilliant film, Selma corrects this image and dramatically demonstrates an historical truth: basic change in society comes about because millions of people organize and mobilize to demand it.

President Lyndon Johnson deserves credit for pushing the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts through Congress, but he’d have never done so had not Southern Black schoolchildren faced police dogs and fire hoses and worse, and had not sharecroppers and millworkers and seamstresses—first by the ones and twos and then by the tens of thousands—faced down the Klan and America’s own apartheid justice system to demand the vote and their rights as citizens.

When history is taught as the history of great men—and it is nearly always men—we wonder: what does that have to do with us? And we working people lose so much of our rich heritage. Example: On May 1, 1886, more than 300,000 workers walked off their jobs in Chicago in solidarity with those attacked by the police in the struggle for the 8-hour day. Today, May Day is celebrated as a national workers’ holiday in much of the world but it is largely ignored in this, its country of origin.

Similarly, International Women’s Day, March 8, became a popular event after 1977 when the United Nations invited member states to proclaim that date as the UN Day for women’s rights and world peace. Yet for 70 years, International Women’s Day had been a widely celebrated holiday throughout parts of Europe, Asia and Latin America. But its earliest observance was in 1909 in New York City in remembrance of the 1908 strike of the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union.

Even though our modern women’s movement came of age in the late 1960s and 1970s, we have to remember that no popular movement springs from the air. Our history is rich with heroines. Many of us know the names of Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, Susan B. Anthony, Emma Goldman, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Mother Jones, Dolores Huerta, Rosa Parks, Fanny Lou Hamer, and other founders, leaders and organizers of the Abolitionist, Suffragist, Labor, and Civil Rights Movements. It was the determination, spirit of resistance and eventual sheer numbers of the women’s movement that led President Jimmy Carter to declare a national Women’s History Week in the 1980s, which has now become Women’s History Month.

If our schools have fallen short in teaching history to our children, we should acknowledge that our labor movement has not done a good job in teaching our members their own history of struggle, one that we can be enormously proud of. We 1199ers are a Union primarily of women healthcare workers. What was a union of 5,000 drugstore workers—overwhelmingly Jewish and male—changed dramatically when 1199’s founding president, Leon Davis, and his co-workers decided in 1959 to organize New York City hospital workers.

These were tens of thousands of largely Black and Latina women workers earning, at the time, $32 for a six-day work week.

The rest, as they say, is history—but a history made by a now predominantly female union membership. Braving hostile employers, willing to go to jail, walking picket lines 24 hours a day, seven days a week in miserable, cold winters and brutally hot summers, these heroic workers have built our Union into the 400,000-strong powerhouse we have become. It has been said that women hold up half the sky. I’d guess their burden is well more than half.

Today our Union is filled with and led by everyday heroines (and heroes).

Besides holding down their jobs—sometimes more than one—they raise their families and are leaders in their local schools, houses of worship, and community organizations. They mobilize at their institutions, at their city halls and state legislatures and they jump on buses to Washington, D.C. when they know it’s important. They knock on doors, staff the phone banks and many even travel thousands of miles to other states to elect worker-friendly political candidates.

They do this without compensation and without their photos appearing on the covers of magazines (except for this one). They will never be rich or famous. But they surely are heroic—and they are making history.

InTheRegions

FLORIDA

Florida 1199er to Supreme Court: Keep Healthcare Affordable Marilyn Ralat Albernas, an RN on the Mother-Baby Unit at Kendall Regional Medical Center in Miami, FL, was among the healthcare workers who spoke out in Washington, D.C. March 4, when the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in King v. Burwell, a case which could gut the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Ralat Albernas and 10 other SEIU members filed an amicus brief in the Supreme Court that supports maintaining the vital tax credits that keep healthcare affordable for some 8 million people.

“The financial assistance the law provides is important to ensuring the health of mothers and their babies,” Ralat Albernas wrote on an SEIU blog before she spoke at the Court. “We should be looking for ways to expand access to good prenatal care and support, not less.”

NEW YORK

Puerto Rico Retiree Chapter Kickoff On Jan. 22 more than 200 retirees gathered at the San Juan Hilton for a luncheon to kick off 1199SEIU’s new Puerto Rico Retired Members Chapter. The afternoon included a performance by singer Nydia Caro, important information about benefits, and a preview of the classes and activities that will be available to members of the new chapter. Puerto Rico is home to about 1,200 retired members of 1199SEIU and the new chapter will provide retirees with social, cultural and educational programs. It will also provide opportunities for activism in addressing the issues facing all the people of Puerto Rico—like protecting pensions, improving healthcare and fighting for economic equality. “The meeting was very nice. We need to do it once a year—and maybe we can do it in other areas of the country so that more retirees can attend,” said Miriam Nadal, a retiree from Montefiore Medical Center in New York City. “I hope that 1199SEIU becomes really active in Puerto Rico, because we have a lot of potential. If we get together and listen to the ideas that different people

“ TOGETHER WE CAN STAY CONNECTED, BUILD THE BONDS OF FRIENDSHIP, PROTECT THE INTERESTS OF SENIORS AND BECOME A POWERFUL VOICE FOR THE WORKING PEOPLE OF PUERTO RICO!”

Right: Dancers and drummers at Feb. 24 Lunar New Year celebration.

Left below: Attendees at Jan 22 kickoff luncheon of 1199SEIU’s new Puerto Rico Retirees Chapter.

– George Gresham bring to the table, we could bring real change. I also would welcome classes, especially if we have computer classes.”

1199SEIU Pres. George Gresham reminded members that the sky was the limit in his message to members of the new chapter. “There is no limit to what we can do as a committed, united group of retirees—but we must be willing to take action,” Gresham wrote. “Together we can stay connected, build the bonds of friendship, protect the interests of seniors and become a powerful voice for the working people of Puerto Rico!”

Gung Hay Fat Choy: Asian/ Pacific Islander Caucus Hosts New Year Celebration In an event organized by the 1199SEIU Asian American Pacific Islander Caucus (AAPIC), Union members and staff gathered at 1199SEIU’s Cherkasky/Davis Conference Center in Manhattan Feb. 24 to celebrate the Lunar New Year, which is a significant holiday throughout much of Asia and in areas of the world with large Asian communities. Observances vary from region to region, but the holiday is generally a time festive foods and wishes for good fortune, robust health and long friendships. According the calendar 2015 is the Year of the Goat.

1199SEIU’s celebration included a lunch of traditional Asian foods, a Chinese dance performance and Japanese drummers. Members also got a chance to discuss ideas for empowering workers and their community members. “It’s wonderful to be here for the holiday.

There are so many Asian people in our Union and events like this are great because sometimes we don’t get a chance to talk to each other,” said June Lau Chan, a home health aide from the Sunnyside Agency in Queens. “Everybody has something to share. We need places to come and talk with each other and share our problems and our experiences.” To learn more log on to www.1199SEIU.org/caucus

March/April 2015 • Our Life And Times

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Left: Johns Hopkins workers with Coretta Scott King and Ray Scott of the Baltimore Bullets basketball team during the 1969 organizing drive.

Below: Retired Hopkins cook Laura Pugh, left, was interviewed this January on National Public Radio about her experiences during the Hopkins campaign. She’s shown with Hopkins cook Jenny Humbles.

MARYLAND

At Baltimore’s Sinai Hospital, Profits Grow As Workers Struggle Caregivers at Baltimore’s Sinai Hospital held a candlelight demonstration on Feb. 11 calling for a fair contract and protesting the hospital’s latest proposals for an increase in out-of-pocket costs for medical expenses. The proposals would raise the cost of healthcare premiums for workers by 3.3%.

The hospital rejected a Union proposal to institute a health and wellness navigator to help workers better access health benefits. Sinai management also nixed a Union proposal that would make office visits to physicians within the parent LifeBridge Health system free to Sinai workers.

When patient care assistant Annie Mason-White was hit by a truck last year, she exhausted her savings after numerous visits to specialists. Because MasonWhite also lives with diabetes, she eventually had to resort to borrowing money from a co-worker to see her primary care physician.

“I’ve worked hard for this hospital for 43 years, and I really care about our patients,” says Mason-White. “At my age and as long as I’ve been here, I don’t understand why I’m still struggling to pay for healthcare.”

Sinai Hospital and LifeBridge Health have been very profitable for the past four years, with their profit margins showing continued growth. While Sinai is offering workers 2% raises in this contract, members of their management team have seen increases in wages and bonuses of up to 36% over three years. Sinai’s workers haven’t reaped the same rewards: a number of them earn far below the poverty level for a family of four, which is $11.47 an hour, and many of the lowest-paid workers earn less than $10.80 an hour.

“Sinai’s health benefits are a hardship for a lot of us,” says Scott Wright, a floor tech who had to resort to food stamps to feed his family when several hospitalizations and treatments to manage an intestinal disease wiped out his savings. “I’m already living paycheck to paycheck. I was looking forward to a real raise, but it’s going to be mostly wiped out if I have to pay even more out of my pocket.”

MARYLAND

NPR Interview Features Johns Hopkins Organizing Drive Veterans

In January, veteran 1199SEIU members in Baltimore, MD had an opportunity to reflect on a pivotal moment in the city’s history— when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s widow, Coretta Scott King, lent her voice and support to workers at Johns Hopkins Hospital seeking to organize with the union, then Local 1199E. Instrument processor Annie Henry and retired cook Laura Pugh sat down with reporter Jonna McKone at WYPR— Maryland’s National Public Radio affiliate—to talk about Mrs. King’s legacy in Baltimore and how her visits to the hospital workers in the late 1960’s helped inspire them to join the union.

As co-chair of an 1199 national organizing committee, Mrs. King reinforced her commitment to advancing the mission of her slain husband’s “favorite union.” A year after Dr. King’s death in 1968, Mrs. King came to Baltimore to meet with the union and the hospital workers

it was seeking to represent.

“I’d been employed at Hopkins for 6 months. I started there on April 24, 1969. By that December when the union came, I was ready to go. It was not a nice place to work,” Henry said. “A lot of managers and supervisors were disrespectful. They assumed because you were doing a ‘menial’ job that you were an ignorant person, and that wasn’t the case.”

“We only went in certain doors…we were not allowed to go in the front door,” Pugh said, remembering the obstacles that many African American workers faced in the workplace during those racially tumultuous times.

“We couldn’t go up on the first floor. This is the way it was.”

She continued, “[Coretta Scott King] spoke about nonviolence and standing up for our rights. She spoke about women stepping to the plate.”

To listen to the full interview, visit http://wypr.org/post/ coretta-scott-kings-visit-baltimoreeconomic-justice.

NEW YORK

Bellevue Members Honored for Ebola Response Frontline healthcare workers from Manhattan’s Bellevue Medical Center were honored at New York’s City Hall March 10 for their Ebola preparedness and response work. Among the workers presented with a proclamation by City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito were 1199SEIU members Miguella De La Cruz (third from left, looking straight ahead with hands clasped) and Mildred Altreche (fifth from left, holding proclamation), who are both medical technologists at Bellevue. “It was great to be recognized. For all of us—the doctors, the nurses everybody. We all worked together,” said De La Cruz, a lead medical technologist at Bellevue for 35 years. “It means a lot to be able to help people.

That’s part of our job and to be acknowledged that way felt great—especially for us medical technologists because we’re in the background. It was a real privilege to be chosen.”

RAIMUNDO VALDES PHOTO

MASSACHUSETTS

Mass. Members Ramp Up Fight for $15!

PCA Jean Abreau, far left, and consumer Sergio Goncalves, center, with Boston City Councilor Tito Jackson at March 10 community forum hosted by 1199SEIU. The event drew over 150 healthcare workers, advocates, and elected leaders to the union hall in Dorchester, MA. Topics at the forum included key 1199SEIU legislative priorities, upcoming labor negotiations, wage inequality, and the emerging Fight for $15 movement. The Boston forum was the first of five events 1199SEIU members hosted across the state in March as union members and allies ramped up for a major statewide mobilization to protest wage inequality on April 14, 2015. #FIGHTFOR15 #WAGEACTION

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March/April 2015 • Our Life And Times

Contracts

New York Nursing Home

Contract Victory!

Group of 44 members stayed strong and won.

After nearly a year of bargaining, members at 44 non-profit and for-profit nursing homes located throughout New York City, Long Island and Westchester County reached a tentative agreement on a two-year contract Feb. 12. The homes, members of several labor associations covered under one contract, came to an agreement with workers on the heels of a 95% strike vote in late January.

The two-year contract covers 8,000 workers, including nurses, certified nursing assistants, dietary aides, and housekeepers and provides two 3% wage increases—the first of which is retroactive to October in the first year of the pact. It also protects health benefits and pensions and improves working conditions.

Workers also won improved job security: as of Jan. 2015, all workers hired on or before Jan. 1, 2005 are eligible for the contract’s job security protections.

“I love my job and I love my patients. I do the best for them that I can but our work is very tough. We lift patients and heavy equipment. It takes a toll on your body and my benefits allow me to be there for my residents,” said Debra A. Brantley, a certified nursing assistant at Marquis Care Center in Glen Cove, NY. “No one wanted to go on strike, but we would have for our residents and to secure our futures. We work so hard. We fought for this and we deserve it.”

Throughout negotiations workers remained united and energized by keeping open the lines of communication. There was broad participation in the negotiations process, with a committee that numbered close to 300 members. Workers also made sure management heard their voices at informational pickets and other actions.

“I came to Avalon Gardens and took a lower pay rate because the 1199 benefits are so good—I was able to increase my skills,

Group of 44 negotiating committee members at Feb. 12 contract settlement. At left, negotiating committee member Rayon Wilson, a dietary aide at Chapin Home for the Aging in Queens, NY, and his one-and-a-half year old daughter Chanel at a bargaining session.

“ DURING BARGAINING, WE PICKETED, WORE OUR BUTTONS, AND CAME TO NEGOTIATIONS. ALL OF THAT KEPT THE BARGAINING MOVING AND GOT US TO THIS AGREEMENT.” — Annmarie Callahan, LPN, Avalon Gardens, Smithtown, NY. pursue becoming a registered nurse and earn a bachelor’s degree through them. During bargaining, we picketed, wore our buttons, and came to negotiations. All of that kept the bargaining moving and got us to this agreement,” said Annmarie Callahan, LPN at Avalon Gardens in Smithtown, NY. In addition to showing workers’ strength and solidarity, the agreement is significant because it comes at a time when the nursing home industry is in tremendous upheaval, with healthcare reform and budgetary constraints continually impacting the way care is delivered.

Caregivers need security, says Chris Rosario a dietary aide at Sayville Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Sayville, NY. “This has been a long time coming and we need it. We need quality wages and benefits to give the quality care we’ve been giving,” says Rosario. “We won this, above all, by keeping the pressure on management. If it were up to them we’d be swept under the rug. Let’s stay united and keep up the fight for our futures.”

At press time, bargaining was under way for 18,000 nursing home workers employed in forprofit homes that are a part of the Greater New York Health Care Facilities Association.

March/April 2015 • Our Life And Times

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The Fifty-Year Anniversary of the Historic March from Selma to Montgomery

THE DREAM

MARCHES ON Photos by Jim Tynan 7

March/April 2015 • Our Life And Times

A Special Pullout Section

The Fifty Year Anniversary of the Historic March from Selma to Montgomery

THE DREAM MARCHES ON In 1965, thousands of ordinary people stood up and for the voting rights of their fellow Americans. On March 7 of that year, a group of 600 people set out to march from Selma, to Montgomery, Alabama in a peaceful demonstration demanding voting rights for Black Americans. As the group attempted to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge, sheriff’s deputies with tear gas, nightsticks and police dogs attacked them, by order of Alabama Gov. George Wallace. The day would go down in history as “Bloody Sunday.” Unbowed, the marchers returned two weeks later, this time under protection of the National Guard, and completed their march. They arrived in Montgomery on March 25, 1965—25,000 strong—led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Not long after President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law, compelled by the refusal of the Selma marchers to back down. This year is the fiftieth anniversary of the March at Selma. And over the weekend of March 7, a group of 1199SEIU members—mostly from the Union’s Florida region—attended the commemoration.

Our Life and Times traveled with them to the event, which drew some 40,000 people. President Obama, from the foot of the Pettus Bridge, delivered what is arguably one of his greatest speeches. The president reminded us that Selma is holy ground for all Americans; it is not just history or a moment in time, but a living force that propels our nation in its journey towards its highest self. 1199SEIU members walked over the Pettus Bridge too, and linked arms singing “We Shall Overcome” in tribute to those who consecrated that ground for the good of future generations. “I never dreamed that I’d have the opportunity to come here and walk where others walked, where so many shed their blood,” said Jessica Jimenez, a radiological technician at Osceola Regional Medical Center in Osceola, FL. “It’s just so overwhelming. “ More images and video from the Selma commemoration can be seen at www.1199seiu.org/selma50. #SELMA50

March/April 2015 • Our Life And Times

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Above, at left, are Florida region 1199SEIU members crossing the Pettus Bridge on March 8 with tightly linked arms. They sang We Shall Overcome and led a sing-along of union songs.

“By being in 1199, I feel like I’m doing what [the first marchers] were doing. They set my foundation,” said Penny Caesar, a unit secretary at West Side Regional Medical Center in Plantation.

“It’s important for 1199 to be here because we are a union that was founded on uniting people — people coming together for a cause. People needed help and that’s what the Union is: equality by everyone uniting for a cause — that’s what we are about. 1199 is for everybody.” From left to right are: Gladys Charles, CNA at Bay Breeze Nursing and Rehab, Venice; Christine Gadson, CNA at Apollo Health and Rehab, St. Petersburg; Shirley Lyons, LPN at the Nursing Center at University Village, Valrico; unidentified celebrant walking with members; Ferrist Rowe, unit secretary, Osceola Regional Medical Center; Jessica Jimenez, ultrasound tech, Osceola Regional Medical Center; and another unidentified celebrant. “This is a dream and an honor to walk across this bridge,” said Gladys Charles. “To show our kids and our grandkids what it means to take this opportunity — for the people who died and who got beat up for this. It’s such an honor to do this.”

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March/April 2015 • Our Life And Times

The Fifty Year Anniversary of the Historic March from Selma to Montgomery

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Sojourner Truth’s hand was pushing down on one shoulder and Harriet Tubman’s hand was pushing down on the other.

BEFORE ROSA PARKS

Claudette Colvin was 15 when she refused to relinquish her seat on a Montgomery, AL. bus. Below, Twice Toward Justice, the awardwinning book about Colvin’s unsung bravery.

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Retired 1199er’s brave refusal came nine months earlier.

Rosa Parks’ courageous refusal to give up her seat on a segregated Montgomery, AL, bus sparked the boycott that led to the dismantling of the city’s segregated bus system.

The boycott movement also brought the young Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to the forefront of the Civil Rights Movement. But before the boycott and nine months before Parks’ brave stand, 15-year-old Claudette Colvin was dragged off the same bus line, arrested and convicted for her refusal to relinquish her seat.

Claudette Colvin also is a member of 1199SEIU, having retired in 2004 after a 36-year career as a nurses aide at Mary Manning Walsh Nursing Home in Manhattan.

“For 36 years we had a true American hero and pioneer in our 1199SEIU family, and we didn’t even know it,” said George Gresham as he introduced Colvin in 2009 during the Union’s 50th anniversary Manhattan celebration of its first hospital victories.

Gresham’s statement came one month after author Phillip Hoose was awarded the National Book Award in the Young People’s Literature category for “Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice” (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2009), the gripping account of Colvin’s role in the boycott victory.

The term “twice toward justice” refers to Colvin’s refusal to give up her seat and the equally brave decision to lend her name to and to testify in Browder v. Gayle, the landmark suit that ruled segregated seating violated due process and equal protection of the law.

Sixty years to the day after Colvin’s act of defiance and courage, she sat down with Our Life And Times to reflect on that day and subsequent developments.

“Unlike Mrs. Parks, what I did

was impulsive,” Colvin said. “We had been studying Black history in February in school. I was tired of what our people had to go through.”

Colvin noted that there were two empty seats in the row in which she was seated and no seats further back in the bus where she was ordered by the bus driver to go. “The white woman wouldn’t sit next to me because that would indicate that we were equal,” Colvin stressed. “When I was ordered to get up, I felt as if Sojourner Truth’s hand was pushing down on one shoulder and Harriet Tubman’s hand was pushing down on the other, so I refused to move.”

Colvin was convicted and placed on probation. After her arrest, many came to her defense, but many others in her high school and community turned their backs on her. Civil rights leaders perceived a poor 15-year-old as an unsuitable person to build a movement around, she noted.

Colvin prevailed. “What I tell young people is that you should always stand up for what you think is right regardless of the consequences,” she said. “You never know if your action might light a spark.

“In 1955, I was still sad about the death of my sister from polio a few years earlier,” she recalled.

“I also was angry about the death sentence imposed on my 16-year-old schoolmate and neighbor, Jeremiah Reeves, and the killing of Emmett Till in Mississippi that summer.”

Reeves was framed for the raping of two white women and Till was kidnapped and killed for allegedly whistling at a white woman. Colvin said that she is still angered and concerned about the treatment of Black youth today.

“Refusing to give up your bus seat also was a serious offense,” Colvin emphasized. The consequences for some

were the loss of their jobs, threats of lynching and at least in one case, being shot to death.

Colvin was further shunned by some when she became pregnant by a much older man who befriended her shortly after her action. “I was young and inexperienced and extremely vulnerable at the time,” she said.

That did not deter attorney Fred Gray from making Colvin one of the four plaintiffs and the key witness— with her parents’ permission—in the historic Browder v. Gayle. “Claudette Colvin had more courage, in my opinion, than any of the other persons involved in the movement,” Gray is quoted as saying in Hoose’s account.

Colvin eventually settled in New York and began work at Marry Manning Walsh in May of 1968, one month after the assassination of Dr. King. “I kept a low profile,” she said.

“My main concern was raising my two boys.”

She gave birth to a second son in the late 1950s. He’s now a CPA in Atlanta. Her first son passed away at age 37. Her low profile didn’t mean she was not a good Union member.

She took part in activities, including picket lines and strike actions.

“I have a good life,” she says.

“I’m able to live in Parkchester because of my union pension.” She reads, especially newspapers, and watches game shows on TV. She visits relatives, including her grandkids and great-grandkids when she can.

“We live in a capitalist society that is very competitive,” she tells young people. “We need skills to compete, so education is essential. So many jobs have gone abroad. I used to pound an Underwood typewriter, and with that you could find a job.

That’s not enough today.”

“The road to justice is long,” she says. “The struggle continues.”

March/April 2015 • Our Life And Times

10

Our Union

Rolling Out The Red Carpet

for Union Women Women’s History Month is a pageant of diversity, strength and accomplishments.

To mark International Women’s Month, 1199SEIU rolled out the red carpet for working women on March 13. And at the-Union hosted Red Carpet for Social Justice, 27 women — a combination of union rank-andfilers and staff members — walked down that carpet representing the working women of the world. Some danced, some read poetry and others spoke for social justice.

Held in the auditorium of 1199SEIU’s Manhattan headquarters and sponsored by the International Women’s Day Coalition, a group of unions and community organizations which included 1199SEIU, the New York State Nurses Association, AFSCME’s District Council 37 and the Healthcare Education Project, the event’s colors were pink purple and red as reminders of the ongoing battles against breast cancer, heart disease and violence against women.

“The goal of this evening is to launch and declare 2016 the Year of the Woman,” said 1199SEIU organizer Kim Gooden, an event co-host.

Public Advocate for the City of New York Letitia James, the evening’s keynote speaker, beamed with pride in the presence of so many dedicated Union women.

“When you want to stand for social justice you have to stand with the purple army – 1199,” she said. James went on to remind the audience that it was critical they care for themselves with regular screenings for breast cancer and by looking after their emotional health.

Following James on the program was the International Women’s Red Carpet for Social Justice, a pageant of traditional dress and music featuring members and staff. Saba Ashraf a home health aide with Sunnyside Homecare in Queens represented

Sandra Richards, a dialysis tech at Manhattan’s Rogosin Institute, representing Trinidad and Tobago on the Red Carpet for Social Justice, which was held March 13 at 1199SEIU’s NYC headquarters to celebrate International Women’s Month. her home country of Pakistan, Brooklyn’s Lutheran Hospital’s Kathleen Najab walked the carpet for her home of Guayana and Angelika Kogan, a home health aide with the Far Rockaway Agency danced a traditional Uzbek dance.

Presented at the celebration were the annual Audrey Smith Campbell Awards, named for a delegate from Kingsbridge Nursing Home in the Bronx who died after going without her asthma medication during a contentious strike. The prizes are given to women for their outstanding contribution to labor and social justice. This year’s rank and file

Another highlight was a performance of her original song, “Love Hurts” by 1199SEIU delegate Dawna Durham, a CNA from Absolut Nursing and Rehabilitation at Orchard Park near Buffalo, NY. Durham, who is also a playwright, wrote and produced the song about domestic violence and abusive relationships. Her performance received a standing ovation.

“It was wonderful being in the room with so many powerful

and positive women,” said Durham. “It was also important for me to perform for my Union sisters because you just never know who you’re touching. You can be reaching someone’s heart and not know it. You don’t know what people are going through.

It’s important to get that message out there. I just want people to know they don’t have to be afraid.

If we can save one life, that’s an incredibly powerful thing.”

After the awards and performances, guests were treated to dinner, which was served by the men of 1199SEIU’s staff—in honor of 1199SEIU’s women.

NJ Members Focus on International Women’s Day

EVERY MARCH 8TH, MILLIONS FROM around the globe come together to celebrate International Women’s Day, a holiday commemorating women’s struggles for equal rights, justice, and freedom. Originally established over a century ago as a remembrance of a 1908 garment workers strike protesting working conditions in New York City sweatshops, today it continues to be a time to reflect on past achievements and to prepare for challenges that lie ahead.

For the third year in a row, New Jersey 1199ers marked the holiday with a day-long celebration and political training. One major theme of the event was the need to empower the next generation to be leaders in the movements for justice

and equality.

Mikayla Byron, a high school sophomore and granddaughter of 1199 delegate Cleo Lomax, spoke to the crowd about how she was inspired to bring change to her school and community after seeing the film Selma, chronicling the historic 1965 civil rights marches, at a recent union family outing.

“I could see the similarities between then and now—how far we’ve come but still how far we have to go,” said Byron. “I believe that change starts with the youth, so I formulated an idea to start an activist group. I call it ‘social justice’ because the sad thing is that a lot of kids don’t know what ‘activism’ means. We will focus on fighting against racism

within the school, the inferiority of women, and anything that has to do with abuse towards the human race.”

Seeing her granddaughter become passionate about fighting injustice fills Lomax with pride.

“It’s amazing and a blessing to see Mikayla become her own person,” says Lomax. “When I was growing up, I thought that life was just a bowl of cherries and you didn’t have to do anything but go to work and come home, not knowing that there are a lot of stumbling blocks and injustices along the way that try to hold young people back.”

“With my determination and the determination around me, I’m going to start this group and bring some change,” says Byron.

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March/April 2015 • Our Life And Times

recipients were NYSNA RN Cheryl Powell and 1199SEIU retiree Claudette Colvin. (For more about Colvin, see story on page 10.)

RAIMUNDO VALDES PHOTO

Our Union

New Organizing: Nursing Home and Off-Site Victories Fuel Union Growth

Caregivers continue to vote union for better pay, dignity and a voice in patient care. to community settings.

And on March 6, at Arcola Health and Rehabilitation Center in the Maryland-DC region, 28 housekeeping and dietary workers voted 19 to 6 to join 1199SEIU. Many Arcola caregivers echoed workers from other institutions in explaining why they joined 1199SEIU: better pay, dignity, respect, rather than long hours without sufficient compensation and a lack of respect.

“I have worked at Arcola as a laundry aide for over 18 years,” says Vicki Watson. “For the past five years we have had no pay raises, health insurance or benefits whatsoever. Retirement is on my mind. I have put too much into this company to walk out with no retirement package and be homeless.”

In western New York in recent months, workers at five nursing homes have voted to join 1199SEIU, bringing over 275 workers into the Union. On Feb. 10, over 83 caregivers and other workers at Fiddler’s Green Nursing Home in Springville, NY were certified as members of 1199SEIU after voting to join the Union on Jan. 30; Fiddler’s Green was the fifth. Others include Sheridan Manor in Tonawanda, Brighton Manor in Rochester, Gowanda Rehabilitation in Gowanda, and St. Joseph’s in Utica.

Lori Beeman, a laundry service worker at Fiddler’s Green, says workers were motivated to join 1199SEIU for dignity and respect

and a collective voice to advocate for the residents they care for.

“I voted for our Union because I believe it will allow me and my co-workers to work together and create a better environment for our staff and residents,” says Beeman, who has been at Fiddler’s Green for 37 years. “It takes all of us to make a difference.”

Among the classifications covered under the elections were LPNs, CNAs, unit clerks, and laundry service workers. Kelly Crowley, an LPN at Gowanda Rehabilitation, says that healthcare, fair wages, job security and retirement security were the driving forces behind the Union votes.

“Being a part of the largest healthcare workers’ union gives us many opportunities we didn’t have as non-union workers,” says Crowley. “We are looking forward to winning competitive wages that will allow us to better care for our loved ones and affordable healthcare for ourselves and our families.”

John Brayman has been a CNA at Fiddler’s Green for 24 years. He voted yes not just for himself, but for his whole family.

“For all my years of experience and dedication to my residents, I am not making much more than newly-hired employees,” says Brayman. “I feel we deserve to be able to take care of our families like we have taken care of so many others.”

“

I voted for our union because I believe it will allow me and my co-workers to work together and create a better environment for our staff and residents.

“

Over 900 workers have voted to join 1199SEIU so far in 2015, with caregivers from Upstate New York to the Maryland/DC area affirming the need for affordable healthcare, better pay and a voice in patient care.

On Feb. 27, 63 Licensed Practical Nurses (LPNs) and Certified Nursing Assistants (CNAs) at Auburn Nursing Home in Auburn, NY voted overwhelmingly for representation by 1199SEIU. Major issues driving the campaign included short staffing, unfair discipline, and stagnant raises.

The Auburn victory was quickly followed by 1199’s first wins at two League of Voluntary Hospitals off-site facilities in New York City.

These wins are the result of 1199’s major contract victory in 2014, during which employers which are part of the League agreed to allow workers in its community based and outpatient settings a path to join 1199.

On March 2, at University Practice Medical Associates, 28 workers at St. Luke’s Roosevelt said yes to 1199SEIU representation. That win was followed up on March 11 when 57 workers at Mount Sinai Doctors Brooklyn Heights voted unanimously for 1199. Ambulatory care is the fastest growing sector of the healthcare industry. Since 2004, New York State’s outpatient care workforce has increased 24%, much faster than hospitals or nursing homes. Last year, 16,000 ambulatory care jobs were created in NYC and New York’s new $8 billion Medicaid Waiver will further shift care and caregiver jobs

— Lori Beeman, laundry service worker, Fiddler’s Green Nursing Home, Springville, NY.

Ambulatory care is fueling Union growth: members from Manhattan’s NorthShore-LIJ Healthplex at March 20 contract ratification.

March/April 2015 • Our Life And Times

12

Our Union

“ This Is Good For Everyone, Especially Other Immigrants Because It Shows What We Can Do”

Our New

CITIZENS

Clockwise from top left: New citizen Lupe Balseca, a member at HHH Homecare in the Bronx; members take the activist pledge at new citizens celebration in NYC Jan. 23; new citizen Olubunmi Balofin, an LPN at Richmond University Medical Center on Staten Island.

“Look at me now! I am the American Dream!”

The idea for 1199SEIU’s Citizenship Program came about some 14 years ago during a Union voter registration drive when it became clear that helping people navigate the path to U.S. citizenship also helped them navigate the path to the voting booth.

Today, the 1199SEIU Citizenship Program has evolved into a full-service program for eligible members and their dependents and is on track to helping 10,000 members become U.S. citizens by the end of 2015.

At the Cherkasky/Davis Conference Center, located in 1199SEIU’s W. 42nd St headquarters in Manhattan, the program held on Jan. 23 its 13th Annual Celebration of Our New Citizens, a yearly event that marks the accomplishments of new citizen members and their families. Throughout the evening, guests shared stories of dreams, challenges and turning discouragement into accomplishment.

“I wanted to get my citizenship so I registered for the classes. Everything was going really well until I got sick,” said Maria Cruz-Espinal, a home health aide with New York City’s Premier Agency who became a citizen on Aug. 29. “My kidneys weren’t working well and I developed diabetes. I couldn’t work full-time anymore and lost my apartment. I had to move in with my sister, but my legal counselor told me that 1199 could still help me because there was a grant even though I didn’t have the money to pay for my citizenship fees. I got help applying for a waiver.

I’m just so thankful.”

The evening’s keynote speaker was Phyllis A. Coven, District Director of the New York District Office of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Coven, along with Mitra Behroozi, Executive Director of the National Benefit Fund, and Deborah King, Executive Director of the 13

March/April 2015 • Our Life And Times

1199SEIU Training and Employment Funds, congratulated the new citizens; guests were reminded that citizenship comes with rights and responsibilities.

Reno Tucker, a CNA at Hebrew Home Riverdale in the Bronx, NY, takes those responsibilities and the privileges they bring, seriously. Tucker, originally from Jamaica, was sworn in as a U.S. citizen on Oct. 10, 2014.

“I can work anywhere and do things I thought only existed in books and movies,” she says. “I can travel to countries all around the world. I feel like I can move mountains.”

The Citizenship Program is administered by 1199SEIU’s National Benefit and Training and Employment Funds and offers a full range of services to eligible members and their dependents, including application preparation, legal assistance, civics courses and English language courses.

Francine Ogogo was sworn in on Dec. 30, 2014. She’s originally from Nigeria and a CNA at Brookhaven Rehab and Health Center in Far Rockaway, NY. Her journey to America started when her fiancée applied for the immigration lottery without her knowledge and won. Now married, Ogogo and her husband are both citizens and the future is limitless, she says. Her husband, a security guard, is working on a Master’s Degree at Brooklyn College.

“Opportunities are scarce when you grow up in a small village in Africa,” she says. “Now for generations to come, for my kids and my kids’ children, I can ensure they can be anything in life.”

For more information about the 1199SEIU Citizenship Program call 646-473-8915 or log on to www.1199seiubenefits.org.

Tagay Abebe, a purchasing agent at South Boston Community Health, was sworn in as a U.S. citizen in a ceremony at Boston’s Faneuil Hall on Feb. 26. Abebe, originally from Ethiopia, began his journey to citizenship after winning the U.S. immigration lottery in his home country several years ago. “After I won I was a little sad because I was always with my family and I knew I was coming to live here by myself, but then I made the decision that I would be okay,” says Abebe.

After arriving in the U.S. Abebe worked several low-paying jobs before coming to South Boston Community Health.

“This is my third job in this country,” he says.

“I really appreciate the benefits and the respect that we are treated with. I took training in materials management and I work in purchasing.

Having this job has really helped me a lot.” Abebe says his best friend from Ethiopia pushed him to file for his citizenship.

“I got so much help from people from my Union and from my co-workers.

They told me not to worry and helped me fill out my paperwork,” he says. “They went over everything with me for my tests and helped me find things I needed on the computer.” On Jan. 15 Abebe was interviewed and passed his test.

“The whole thing took six months,” he says.

“Now I can travel the world more easily. I can bring my family, which is good because I’m getting married soon. The process isn’t bad; once you apply, you just have to follow the rules. And then once you are done, you have all of the rights and privileges of a U.S. citizen. This is good for everyone, especially for other immigrants because it shows what we can do.”

Our Communities

Unions

Are Essential Component of Coalitions 1199ers work with allies to protect and extend gains.

1199ers recently have won important victories at the bargaining table (See nursing home story on page 6). Organizing within our institutions is key to those victories, but that’s not nearly enough.

Victories also are forged by members’ activities in legislative chambers and the streets. “I didn’t realize how important the political work we do is, until I got involved in political action,” says Isela De La Cruz, an EKG cardiac tech at Vassar Brothers Medical Center in Poughkeepsie, NY. She didn’t always feel that way. “As I became more active, I began to see the big picture and that my Union and my community were fighting for the same things,” she says. “We can make a big contribution to our communities and our nation, but we need to do a better job explaining what unions are about and that we’re not fighting only for ourselves.

I was extremely impressed by the People’s Climate Change March in September. That was about our children and our future.”

Grace Alexander, a CNA at Morris Hills Center NH in Morristown, NJ, knows first hand the benefits of labor-community alliances.

“The people who are in the one percent are getting away with murder,” she says.

“The rest of us are all in the same boat.”

Alexander came up against the one percent in the form of the Bank of America, which attempted to foreclose on her Morris Hills home after she lost two of her three

jobs and fell behind on mortgage payments.

“NJ Communities United came to my defense,” she says. “The people there are just like Union brothers and sisters, and they worked with me in my fight to save my home. There’s power in numbers and when we raise our voices. And we will win if we all work together.”

In Massachusetts, 1199ers are among the leaders of the Fight for $15 (an hour minimum wage). A call from the district leaders to members to join the campaign states: “2015 will be a year of important battles for 1199ers in the Bay State. We’ll be fighting for fair contracts and $15/hour for all healthcare workers. Together, we’ll speak out for legislative reforms and a state budget that will protect and invest in quality care.”

In Florida, a right-to-work state with a Republican legislature and governor, 1199ers know well the need for allies.

1199SEIU is on the front lines of the campaigns to preserve the Affordable Care Act (ACA), for immigrant rights, the Fight for $15, and other issues.

Florida has more people covered under ACA that any state in the nation.

Almost all of them, 1.6 million, receive insurance subsidies. Many Republicans are challenging the subsidies in an attempt to undermine and ultimately destroy ACA. In March the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in King v. Burwell, and

will decide whether those who buy health insurance on federally run exchanges are eligible for the subsidies.

Marilyn Ralat Albernas, an RN at Kendall Regional Medical Center in Miami, was among those who spoke at the Supreme Court in defense of the healthcare exchanges created by the ACA. (See story in Around The Regions on pages 4 and 5.)

“As healthcare workers, we have to reach out to the community to let them know that saving our hospitals isn’t just about jobs, but also about health care for the people,” says Debra JeJe, a patient care coordinator at United Medical Center (UMC) in Washington, D.C. JeJe was one of the 1199SEIU member political organizers whose work helped to prevent the closing of UMC. “Our work definitely makes a difference,” she says of 1199SEIU’s involvement in local struggles.

“I’ve done phone canvassing and door knocking for the Dream Act in Maryland because I feel education is something that all students who have good grades have a right to,” she says.

“Our involvement can help fight complacency and apathy,” says Kim Perkins, an RN at Prince George’s Hospital in Cheverly, MD. “We can change things from the grassroots. We also have to get young people involved. We have to look out for each other and we have to form partnerships with other organizations.”

“ AS HEALTHCARE WORKERS WE HAVE TO REACH OUT TO THE COMMUNITY AND LET THEM KNOW THAT SAVING OUR HOSPITALS ISN’T JUST ABOUT JOBS, BUT ALSO ABOUT HEALTHCARE FOR THE PEOPLE.” Wage Action Coalition members at a Fight for $15 mobilization in Massachusetts on Aug. 16, 2014.

March/April 2015 • Our Life And Times

14

Our Allies

A Partner On The

ROAD TO JUSTICE

Amnesty International is among the world’s foremost human rights organizations.

In February, Henry Claude Jean, a 19-year-old Dominican of Haitian descent, was found hanging from a tree in a square in the Dominican

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March/April 2015 • Our Life And Times

city of Santiago. AI promptly condemned the killing.

A statement released by 1199SEIU on March 2 read in part: “The lynching occurred in the context of a recent law that has essentially stripped the citizenship of 200,000 people of Haitian descent born in the Dominican Republic. This official stance has resulted in people of Haitian descent facing wide-spread prejudice, exploitation, violence and civil rights violations.”

The statement went on to liken the hanging to racist lynchings in the U.S. during Jim Crow era, adding, “Lynching and antiimmigrant hysteria have historically been used in the U.S. to divide working people along racial and ethnic lines, and create an under-class of exploited workers.”

“I’m very encouraged that an institution as reputable as Amnesty International is working to bring some clarity and sense to what’s happening in the Dominican Republic,” says Dalis Jean-Baptiste, an advanced imaging technologist at Brooklyn’s Brookdale Hospital.

“For years Dominicans and Haitians worked and lived side by side,” Jean Baptiste adds. “We need to understand why we’ve gone backwards. It makes sense for a social justice union like 1199 to partner with Amnesty.”

The 50th annual general meeting of AIUSA was scheduled to take place in Brooklyn from March 20-22 under the theme “From Moment to Movement.”

In his keynote address at the meeting, AIUSA Executive Director Stephen Hawkins stressed the need for a diverse human rights movement that includes labor activists, women, people of color, youth and the LGBTQ community.

“Human dignity is not just an ideal,” said Hawkins. “It is something tangible, something very real, and something that belongs to every human being.”

Brooklyn resident André Simpson, an 1199er who works in the referral management department of Advantage Care Physicians, welcomes 1199SEIU’s association with AI. “I think it’s incumbent upon our Union to join hands with such organizations,” Simpson says.

Caption for this photograph goes here

When asked if he’s ever been profiled, Simpson emphasizes that if you’re a Black male in Brooklyn you are most likely to have been stopped many times. He notes that the situation has improved under Mayor deBlasio, but acknowledges also that the work of unions like 1199SEIU and other progressive organizations paved the path to reform.

“We have to continue and we have to work with groups and individuals that share our concerns, Simpson stresses. “It would be irresponsible not to work with such organizations.”

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GETTY IMAGES

It would be irresponsible not to work with such organizations.

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From its earliest days, 1199 has joined hands with organizations that share its values. Among them are civil rights organizations such as the NAACP and the late Martin Luther King’s Southern Christian Leadership Council (SCLC).

Recently, 1199SEIU has deepened its ties with Amnesty International (AI), perhaps the world’s premier human rights organization. For more than five decades, the seven-million-member organization has campaigned for justice in every corner of the globe.

Dozens of 1199ers recently joined AI during its recent membership drive in the U.S. Although best known for its work in war-torn nations and its denunciation of repressive regimes, AI also calls for greater human rights in Western democracies.

For example, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, AI members traveled to New Orleans to interview residents to investigate President George W. Bush’s administration’s recovery efforts.

AIUSA also has studied and found wanting the U.S. criminal justice system. It frequently condemns prison abuse here, including the excessive use of solitary confinement. AI supports the abolition of the death penalty.

AI condemns the lack of labor rights and the denial of women’s sexual, reproductive and health care rights. And AIUSA members were on the ground in Ferguson, Mo., last summer following the killing of teenager Michael Brown.

For some 1199ers, the work of Amnesty International has had a direct impact on their lives.

Maria Castaneda, 1199SEIU’s secretary treasurer, was jailed at age 16 while fighting the Ferdinand Marcos dictatorship in her native Philippines. Amnesty International campaigned for the release of political prisoners such as Castaneda.

Today, AI has sounded the alarm against an injustice that affects many 1199ers of Haitian and Dominican descent. As has 1199SEIU, AI has condemned increasing discrimination against people of Haitian descent in the Dominican Republic.

THE BACK PAGE

Women Hold Up Half the Sky New Jersey 1199ers marked International Women’s Day with a day-long celebration and political training on March 8.

See story on page 11.