Our Life & Times

A JOURNAL OF 1199SEIU October/November 2011

Mary Beth Tinker, an RN at Prince George’s Hospital Center in Maryland, said “no more” to job and service cuts at Oct. 6 rally in Washington, D.C.

ent m e c n u o Ann n o i t n e v n of SEIU Co Election.

Delegate sert See In

THE 99 PERCENT FIGHT BACK

Contents 3 4 5 6 7 8 10 11 12 10 14

WE’VE BEEN PUSHED TOO FAR We’re fighting back.

WE ARE THE NINETY-NINE PERCENT And we support the Occupation.

RECLAIMING THEIR FUTURE Young activists rise to today’s challenges.

FIGHT FOR A FAIR ECONOMY An opportunity to make change in our neighborhoods and our nation.

AFRAID TO RETIRE Attacks on Social Security and rising prices keep many on the job.

THE WORK WE DO King Manor Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Neptune, NJ. WOMEN ARE THE HARDEST HIT Conditions for women and children are our nation’s shame.

BRIDES’ MARCH New Yorkers march against domestic violence and in memory of the lives it has claimed.

OUR DELEGATE LEADERS Rochester’s Ronieka Burns and Vicente dela Rosa from Lawrence, MA. VICTORY AT PENINSULA Determined members saved hospital from closure.

AROUND THE UNION 1199ers join Occupy Wall St. march; new contracts cover 59,000 members; what’s on the web.

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Our Life And Times, October/November 2011, Vol 29, No 5 Published by 1199SEIU, United Healthcare Workers East 310 West 43rd St. New York, NY 10036 Telephone (212) 582-1890 www.1199seiu.org PRES I DE NT :

George Gresham

p.12 E DITOR : J.J. Johnson STAFF WRITE R :

Patricia Kenney DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY:

Jim Tynan PHOTOG RAPH E R :

Belinda Gallegos ART DI RECTION & DES IG N :

Maiarelli Studio COVE R PHOTO : Rick Reinhard

S EC RETARY TREASURE R :

Central Florida Regional Hospital LPN Anesha Collins

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Maria Castaneda EXEC UTIVE VIC E PRES I DE NTS :

Norma Amsterdam Yvonne Armstrong Lisa Brown Angela Doyle Aida Garcia George Kennedy Steve Kramer Patrick Lindsay Joyce Neil John Reid Bruce Richard Mike Rifkin Monica Russo Neva Shillingford Milly Silva Veronica Turner Laurie Vallone Estela Vazquez

Our Life And Times is published 6 times a year by 1199SEIU, 310 West 43rd St., New York, NY 10036.

Subscriptions $15 per year.

Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY and additional mailing offices.

ISSN 1080-3089.

USPS 000-392.

Postmaster: Send address changes to Our Life And Times, 310 West 43rd St., New York, NY 10036.

www.1199seiu.org

Above: Tens of thousands marched with labor and community groups at Occupy Wall Street demonstration Oct. 6 in New York City.

Right: On Oct. 11 hundreds joined the Millionaire’s March through Manhattan’s Upper East Side, protesting the repeal of tax cuts for the wealthy.

We’ve Been Pushed Too Far

They say cut back. We say fight back.

In less than a year, our nation will vote in presidential and congressional elections.

The outcome of those elections depends greatly on what we do between now and then. We cannot underestimate the strength of the anti-labor forces and their outsized influence on the political, economic and social life of our nation.

In fact, some have likened the extremist takeover of Congress to a political coup engineered by the big bank, financial and business interests, including energy-industry billionaires such as the Koch brothers — the primary funders of the Tea Party — and media giants such as Fox News’s Rupert Murdoch.

What these extremists have wrought is a level of unprecedented inequality in our nation. In the past 10 years, Nobel laureate economist Joseph Stiglitz points out, the income of the top 1 percent in our nation has risen by 18 percent, while that of bluecollar workers has fallen by 12 percent.

The richest 1 percent has more wealth than half the U.S. population, more than 150 million people.

The poverty figures of the U.S. Census Bureau bear this out. The nation’s official poverty rate in 2010 was 15.1 percent, up from 14.3 percent in 2009 — the third

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October/November • Our Life And Times

consecutive annual increase. The median U.S. household income declined 2.3 percent from 2009 to 2010. And women and children were hardest hit.

The child poverty rate, already high at 20.7 percent in 2009, jumped to 22.0 percent last year. More than half of those poor children lived in female-headed families in 2010.

and the poor. That is the meaning of privatization and the attacks on teachers, other public workers and even the U.S. postal system.

It’s past time to counter this offensive with one of our own. Our fight for jobs and a fair economy is part of that fight.

Passage of the American Jobs Act is a step in that direction.

In addition, the percentage of women under 65 without health insurance increased from 19.2 percent in 2009 to 19.7 percent in 2010, the highest rate recorded in more than a decade. Over 19 million women younger than 65 were without healthcare coverage in 2010.

Meanwhile, the rate of unemployment has barely budged, except in the communities of color where it continues to rise. In the African American community, it is close to 17 percent nationwide and as much as 50 percent for many communities of Black youth.

And yet the corporate-sponsored offensive continues. Although the corporate tax rate is the lowest it has been in half a century, extremist Republicans are pushing for further cuts on taxes for the rich and elimination of services for workers

In late September our Executive Council voted to support and work with one of the most important movements in a long time — the Wall Street occupation. We are deeply inspired by the Occupy Wall Street activists — most of them young.

They represent the spirit of the Mideast and the U.S. activists like those in Wisconsin who earlier this year demonstrated against the domination of Wall Street and other moneyed interests.

Their fight is our fight. They are demanding justice from those who dashed their hopes and stole their future. They seek a new direction away from profits for the few towards jobs, justice and rights for all.

That is essentially what members profiled in this issue are seeking and demanding.

THE PRESIDENT’S COLUMN George Gresham

We Are the Ninety-Nine Percent!

And we support the Occupation.

Since January 2011, millions of ordinary working people and other citizens have taken over plazas, parks and the streets of cities throughout the Middle East, North Africa, Europe and Asia, demanding that the political, economic and financial elites of their countries make way for real popular democracy.

The world-wide economic crisis caused by the Wall Street bankers has left tens of millions of Americans unemployed and millions losing their life savings, their retirement security and even their homes. A generation of college graduates has a combined trillion-dollar debt but dim job prospects. Black and Latino communities have been especially devastated by growing impoverishment. Multiply these numbers many times over and you understand why people just like us in Cairo and Athens and Dublin have decided to take their future into their own hands.

While the politicians in Washington, DC made the taxpayers of our country bail out the “too-big-to-fail” banks with trillions of our dollars, the same officials apparently didn’t think the American working class — those who create the wealth and provide the services — was too big to fail. The billionaires of Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase and Citibank and Bank of America never missed a multimillion-dollar bonus payment and not one of them has ever been indicted, let alone gone to jail for devastating our country and the world economy. In the meantime, millions of our co-workers and neighbors face misery, and our prisons are filled with the largest incarcerated population (of mainly poor people) in the world.

In the face of this, our sisters and brothers in other countries were wondering why it seemed to be business as usual here in the United States: Why weren’t we doing what they were doing?

But since September 17, when a group of mainly young, audacious and courageous activists sat down and occupied Zuccotti Park in Manhattan’s Wall Street district, those questions have ended. The Occupy Wall Street movement has seized the imagination of millions all across our country and the world.

These words are being written only one month into “the Occupation.” But exactly four weeks after September 17, the headline on the Times Square electronic news ticker was “Occupy Wall Street Movement Goes World Wide,” as tens of thousands of protesters shut down the area as if it were New Year’s Eve and the ball was dropping.

Their chants of “This is what democracy looks like!” and “We are the 99 percent!” were echoed in simultaneous demonstrations in a thousand other cities worldwide.

For our part, the mission of 1199SEIU remains as it has always been: to protect and advance the interests of our members — and their families — as healthcare workers, on the job, in our communities and in the world.

We do this through ongoing organizing, collective bargaining and political mobilization. We have taken bold and important initiatives, such as putting together last year’s One Nation 10-2-10 March on Washington; and, together with SEIU, launching our Fight for a Fair Economy program.

But nobody has a monopoly on wisdom. And sometimes, new movements spring up — seemingly spontaneously — that capture the moment. Such a movement is Occupy Wall Street. The boldness and creativity of its members, their willingness to put their bodies on the line and make personal sacrifices, have been inspirational.

Occupy Wall Street is not ours, but a movement unto itself. Their message coincides with ours: Our democracy is undergoing a slowmotion death by the disparity of wealth, and the control by our largest financial institutions and corporations over the political process. The current system is causing widespread misery and joblessness, and ignoring human needs in favor of further enriching the wealthy.

We 1199ers are also “the 99 percent.” And our Executive Council voted unanimously to give all-around assistance to Occupy Wall Street, from supplying flu vaccine to those who need it, to working with the rest of organized labor to build solidarity. As long as they have the will, we will find a way to support it.

Letters NEED FOR A THIRD PARTY agree with most of the points made by Pres. George Gresham in his “Fighting Mad” editorial in the last issue of this magazine, but I feel that there are a few other facts that should be considered from which our readers can draw their own conclusions.

The corrupting power of money has captured control of both the Republican and Democratic parties. We are told that everyone has the right to petition government and that we all have a right to lobby our officials. The rich and the corporations have used this right to bribe the elected representatives.

The last person that I voted for was Ross Perot. I did so because he said that if free trade agreements like NAFTA and GATT were passed we would hear a gigantic sucking sound from all the U.S. jobs that would leave the country.

And, indeed, that is just what happened.

We now have a global economy, which means that the corporations have no obligations to provide jobs in the U.S. Free trade makes it possible for the corporations to rape and plunder other lands and to get off scot free.

They can make huge profits and pay no taxes and even get huge subsidies.

I blame the Democrats as well as the Republicans. Former Pres.

Bill Clinton did much to bring in the era of globalization. He passed NAFTA. He also hurt working people by supporting the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act, which separated investment banking from commercial banking. Clinton also pretty much eliminated welfare for the poor under the guise of reform.

If the situation doesn’t change, we are going to get ground into the dust. I believe we need a third party that is not controlled by the rich and powerful. One of the problems we have and will have is that there are disparate views about what the platform for that party should be.

That party could help undo all the damage of the recent years. It could also begin to rein in the corporations. I believe all the people who are unemployed and many working people would support such a party.

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SAM LANBERG Retiree, New York City PRAISE FOR CO-WORKER would like to add to the wonderful article in the August/September Our Life And Times about RN Rose Speranza, NICU (neo-natal intensive care unit) nurse at Women and Children’s Hospital of Buffalo (WCHOB). As was mentioned in the article, Rose also won the 1199SEIU PAC contest.

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I would like to point out that Rose is a delegate, the vice chair of the RN/LPN bargaining unit at WCHOB, vice chair of the 1199SEIU Western NY Nurse Council, member of the Regional Nurse Council and an active representative on the H-CAP committee. The H-CAP committee is a national health careers advancement program.

It is a labor-management project focused on workforce training and retraining.

Kaleida Health — the system of which WCHOB is a member — and the League of Voluntary Hospital and Homes are among the members of H-CAP. We at WCHOB are very proud of the work that Rose does, both with the 1199SEIU members inside her institution and on behalf of the Union as a whole.

Thank you for recognizing Rose!

Cathy DiFlavio, RN WCHOB, Buffalo, NY ONLY IN AMERICA hen we take bus trips to Union demonstrations, we not only help ourselves and others, but we also get other benefits. I recall the bus trip we took to the Poconos in April to help the hospital workers there.

I was so thankful to the bus driver who got us there and back home safely. The whole trip made me feel young again. The trip and action returned me to my youth.

The support rally and demonstration was successful, although I see that the workers are still fighting with a very stubborn management.

And as a bonus, I got to watch the American countryside. Only in America have I found such beauty and kindness. How wonderful to travel for such a righteous cause.

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MARION JOHNSTON MONG Retiree, Mount Kisco, NY OLAT FORMAT find Our Life And Times very informative and enjoy reading the magazine. But I would like to call your attention to the format.

I believe the magazine is too big and is a waste of paper. Do we really need poster-size pictures?

Please save the trees and make the magazine smaller.

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MARION L. ROBINS, Retiree, Cutchogue, NY Let’s Hear From You Our Life And Times welcomes your letters. Please email them to jamesj@1199.org or snail mail them to JJ Johnson, 1199SEIU OLAT, 330 West 42nd St., 7th floor, New York, NY 10036. Please include your telephone number and place of work. Letters may be edited for brevity and clarity.

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YOUNG MEMBERS

Reclaiming Their

Future

Young members rise to new challenges.

It’s not easy being young today. The financial crisis has not only claimed the livelihoods and homes of many in this nation, it also has stolen the future of our youth.

Rising tuition has placed college out of reach for many.

Recent federal data has revealed a sharp spike in collegestudent loan defaults. This is especially true in the fast-growing for-profit colleges, which prey upon students who have difficulty navigating traditional public and private institutions. Statistics indicate that the default rate in the forprofit sector now exceeds 15 percent.

Nor is the situation much better in the workplace.

Unemployment among young workers, including those with college degrees, continues to rise. Those fortunate enough to find work often are forced to accept lower pay and benefits than their older co-workers.

“A lot of young people I know are changing their major in school or their jobs because of lack of job security,” says Isaiah Dunmore, age 24, a dietary aide at Port Jefferson NH in Long Island, NY. “Jobs that were secure aren’t anymore and benefits no longer come with jobs.”

Dunmore, a delegate, is among the young members of 1199SEIU who are stepping forward to change the situation.

In addition to his work as a delegate, he’s also a leader in Purple Gold, formerly the 1199SEIU Young Workers Program, which seeks to integrate 1199ers between the ages of 18 and 35 into the work of the Union.

“The Union has helped me get involved in politics,” says 26-year-old Anesha Collins, an LPN at Central Florida Regional Hospital in Winter Springs. Collins, a delegate, was born and raised in New York City, where she worked at Staten Island University Hospital before moving with her family to Florida.

“I was involved in the Obama campaign and now I follow the news,” she says. She notes that young workers also are concerned with the same issues that are important to older workers. “First and foremost, I care about health benefits,” she says. “You need health insurance no matter how much you earn.”

Understaffing is another of her concerns. “I became a nurse because I like helping others, but lack of staff prevents us from doing as much as we would like to. And it endangers patients’ safety,” says Collins.

“Being active also has helped to me to grow as a young woman. It has been a learning and growing opportunity.

I never saw myself as someone who as a delegate would be meeting with HR staff and talking to management and CEOs.” Purple Gold also seeks to educate young members as unionists. “I didn’t know a lot about the Union,” said Taren Parker-Peterson, a Maryland General Hospital unit clerk, at an event earlier this year for young 1199ers in the MD-DC region. “Now I know that things like the 40-hour week were created because of the labor movement.”

But young members can teach as well as learn. “The great thing about a union is that people of different ages and backgrounds get to work together,” Dunmore says. “We know that things don’t always have to be done a certain way and that everybody can learn from each other.”

For more information you can follow Purple Gold on Facebook.

“Jobs that were secure aren’t anymore and benefits no longer come with jobs.”

— Isaiah Dunmore

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Anesha Collins, 26, an LPN at Central Florida Regional Hospital in Winter Springs, FL.

Isaiah Dunmore, 24, a dietary aide at Port Jefferson NH in Port Jefferson, NY.

FIGHT FOR A FAIR ECONOMY

SICK OF IT ALL Tired of paying Wall Street’s way, working people are Fighting For A Fair Economy.

Working people are fighting back. Under the umbrella of the national Fight For A Fair Economy campaign, 1199SEIU members are joining with community and progressive groups in grassroots coalitions that fight for good jobs, health care, the preservation of public services and for the wealthy to pay their fair share. UnitedNY, MassUniting, Good Jobs, Better Baltimore and 1Miami are empowering people to fight back against the corporate policies and economic injustice that corrode working people’s lives.

“It was the campaign’s focus on job creation, health care and the fight against foreclosures that really motivated me,” says MassUniting member organizer Teia Searcy, a Boston resident who worked as a personal care assistant for eight years before joining MassUniting full time. “Not just one of us can make a difference. Thousands of us have to stand up, and if we do that we’ll succeed.”

Searcy has participated in actions against Bank of America, one of the largest holders of foreclosed properties in Boston-area neighborhoods, community forums to mobilize and unify local residents, and Occupy Boston demonstrations.

“We cleaned up the yard of a foreclosed house in Malden and delivered the trash to Bank of America,” she says. “They are dragging down the values in our neighborhoods by holding on to these foreclosures. They won’t lend money to small businesses. They won’t give you a mortgage if you want to buy in certain neighborhoods. Is their system designed to make us go under or to help us with our American dream?”

The Fight For A Fair Economy was born last year, when SEIU committed to mobilize tens of thousands of working people and help take back the country from corporate interests and their government allies.

The Fight For A Fair Economy was born last year, when SEIU committed to mobilize tens of thousands of working people and help take back the country from corporate interests and their government allies. It also helps members organize around local issues — like crime or housing costs — which are a trickle-down of larger economic policies.

In Maryland, Good Jobs, Better Baltimore has been fighting skyrocketing utility costs. Baltimore Gas and Electric customers pay some of the highest electric rates in the nation. BG&E is also in talks about merging with energy giant Constellation, a move which threatens jobs.

The coalition held a Tell-A-Thon outside BG&E’s headquarters, giving the public a chance to talk about how high utility bills

Top: Teia Searcy, a Boston PCA, works full-time as a member for MassUniting.

Bottom left: At a July Tell-A-Thon in Baltimore, residents were able to speak out about their struggles with high utility bills and costs of living.

have affected them. A large group of members turned out to do the Electric Slide at BG&E headquarters as a reminder of what high electric bills do to working people.

“Wages aren’t matching the bills here, so members are really excited that we’re becoming more visible,” says Good Jobs Better Baltimore member activist Lisa Alston Greene.

Home attendant Louisa Antoine, a delegate at New York City’s KindCare Agency, says UnitedNY actions — particularly those with Occupy Wall Street — are inspiring and have re-invigorated people who may have felt powerless.

“We want the rich to know that we finally have a voice,” said Antoine as she marched with fellow 1199ers in the “Millionaires March” against tax cuts for the wealthy on Oct. 11 in New York City. “They have to pay their fair share. It makes me feel disrespected and it’s disrespectful to every working citizen of the U.S. who pays their taxes.”

For more information about the Fight For A Fair Economy and how you can get involved log on to www.unitedny.org; www.goodjobsbetterbaltimore.org; www.onemiaminow.org and www.massuniting.org. You can also follow them on Facebook and Twitter.

Jim McNeil Photo

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RETIREMENT

Afraid to Retire Older members also feel insecure.

Nancie Battaglia Photo

ur country is experiencing an explosion of citizens who are or will soon be reaching retirement age.

Some 76 million baby boomers were born between 1945 and 1964. Some 1199SEIU baby boomers already have retired, but there are many born even before the boom period who have remained in the workforce because they aren’t able to make ends meet without a weekly paycheck.

“I’m not just fearful for myself,” says Elise Rackmill, a Manhattan St. Luke’s Hospital social worker. “I’m just as concerned about my children and grandchildren. Even though we’ve fought for and won decent pensions, Social Security and Medicare, the question is, will we be able to maintain them?”

Pat Arquette, a medical transcriptionist at Potsdam Hospital in St. Lawrence County in New York’s North Country, also does not know when she’ll retire.

“I began working part-time about seven years ago,” she says.

“That way I can maintain my medical and dental benefits and care for my home and my land.” In December, Arquette will have spent 55 years at Potsdam.

Nancy Johnson also lives and works in New York’s North Country. She is in her 32nd year as a linen housekeeper at Carthage Area Hospital in Jefferson County.

“I simply can’t afford to retire,” she says. “My husband is retired, so he draws a fixed income, but the prices of everything like necessities, utilities, taxes and insurance keep going up.”

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embers like Rackmill who are in the 1199SEIU Health and Benefit Fund receive healthcare coverage throughout their retirement years. That is not so for all 1199SEIU retirees and is why many are extremely concerned about developments in Washington.

“I tell everyone to save as much as they can,” says Johnson. “You work all these years, but nobody seems to care. There’s all this talk about reducing pensions and doing away with Social Security.”

The Tea Party movement — backed by big business and billionaires — and GOP presidential candidates, support policies that would lead to the elimination of Medicare. Also in their crosshairs is the new healthcare law (Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act).

During a September debate between Republican presidential candidates in Florida, Tea Party audience members shouted “yes” to a question of whether an uninsured man should be left to die.

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Pat Arquette (above), a medical transcriptionist at Potsdam Hospital in St. Lawrence County.

Elise Rackmill (bottom), a Manhattan St. Luke’s Hospital social worker.

One of the Republican frontrunners in the nomination race, Texas Gov. Rick Perry, sticks by his assertion that Social Security is a “Ponzi scheme.”

“Social Security will not be secure until we recognize the rights of those who have contributed into the fund,” Rackmill says. “And I also fault the Democrats for not defending it like they should. Our economic crisis is no longer a question about the poor. More and more working people are finding it difficult to maintain a decent lifestyle.” ackmill notes that her two grown children have college degrees, but as is the case with most young workers, they don’t have health insurance or pensions. She says that the same mindset and policies that threaten her generation are robbing her children and two small grandchildren.

“We desperately need an ambitious jobs program, public works to repair our infrastructure and a living wage. That means we also have to oppose two-tier contracts. Our healthcare institutions also are in dire straits. St. Luke’s is in disrepair and we’ve had to deal with downsizing and hundreds of layoffs.”

1199SEIU older workers and retirees aren’t ready to sit idly by.

They feel the need to remain useful and relevant. Many find that in their work. And many others like Rackmill are on the frontline of the fight for political, economic and social justice.

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“Our economic crisis is no longer a question about the poor. More and more working people are finding it difficult to maintain a decent lifestyle.”

Mark Boyd Photo

— Elise Rackmill

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THE WORK WE DO:

King Manor Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Neptune, NJ 1199SEIU represents some 80 workers at King Manor Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in the quiet town of Neptune, NJ. Dedicated King Manor workers provide care for patients of a wide range of ages and abilities. “Good care is very important,” says Edilma McCall, a CNA at King Manor for 16 years. “Our residents need our help.”

1. “The residents help us too; they give you energy. If you feel down you say ‘it’s a different day’ and you come to work,” says CNA Edilma McCall, shown with with resident Robert Croft.

5. “At 11:30 we start serving lunch.

Afterwards we clear the tables and clean,” says dietary aide Edith Hernandez. “We’re busy all day long.

The days are long and it’s hard work.”

2. Ana Perez has worked as a dietary aide at King Manor for 3 years. When Our Life And Times visited, staff were preparing the kitchen and Kosher food for the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashana.

“There were a lot of extra hours getting ready for the holiday,” says Perez.

6. Housekeeping worker Florencio Aguilar has been at King Manor for six years. “The place makes a lot of garbage,” he says. “I go through continuously. If I’m not buffering the floors I go around and I pick up the garbage.”

3. “I was looking for a job for a while when I started here,” says housekeeper Rohan Cunningham.

“I came from Kingston, Jamaica, with my family — my wife and two kids — one college age and an eightyear-old. The eight-year-old is having the best time out of all of us.”

4. Pearl Meyer is responsible for the residents’ personal laundry at King Manor. “I wash, label, deliver them and everything else,” she says. “And when I’m not here it doesn’t get done. They are really happy to see me coming. I deliver three racks of clothes a day. People like to have their own clothes hanging in their closet. It’s something personal.”

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7. “I’m just a people person. I like taking care of other people,” says Sharon Johnson, a CNA at King Manor for nine years. “Elderly people need to be taken care of. We are all going to get old one day and someone is going to have to take care of us.”

8. CNA Lanette Sanchez has been at King Manor for just five months.

She got the job after accompanying a friend to fill out an application.

“The most surprising thing to me was how attached you can get to the residents,” she says. “They teach you in school not to get attached, but you just can’t help it.”

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WOMEN’S ISSUES

Women

Crisis Hits

Hardest

And that means an increase in child poverty.

Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2010.”

Many 1199SEIU women are among the working poor. Many others are just a paycheck away. And even those who are considered “middle class” are finding it increasingly difficult to make ends meet.

A record number of American women live in poverty, according to the latest statistics of the U. S. Census Bureau. And as usual, single mothers are the hardest hit. More than 40 percent of women who head families are now living in poverty. Since more than half of poor children lived in female-headed families in 2010, the child poverty rate jumped to 22 percent.

The poverty rate for Latina and African American women rose even more than the poverty rate for women generally — for Latinas to 25.0 percent in 2010 from 23.8 percent in 2009 and for African American women to 25.6 percent in 2010 from 24.6 percent in 2009.

These findings are contained in the Census Bureau’s report “Income, Poverty, and Health

Each year, 1199SEIU helps thousands of its members, the overwhelming majority women, apply for the federal Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). EITC is a refundable federal income tax credit for low to moderate income working individuals and families.

“It gets harder and harder to pay for everything we need,” says Monique Watford, a radiology assistant at Laurel Regional Hospital in Laurel, MD and a single mother. “I have two teenage children and I want to give them what they need and what they want. Javonte, who is 17, is a high school senior, and Jamaya, 15, is a sophomore.”

Watford says that as health care becomes more computerized, job security increases in importance. “If it weren’t for our Union, management would probably try to lay many of us off and replace us with computers,” she says.

Danielle Hallenbeck, a CNA at Liberty House NH in Jersey City, NJ, is a single mother with five children, two of whom are in college.

“To make ends meet, I also work part time at Bayonne Hospital,” she says. “And we’re still struggling. Food, rent, gas, tolls, health care — every day is a struggle.”

Hallenbeck also feels that she is penalized for being a caregiver.

“I like what I do,” she says. “I like helping people but I and my co-workers work very hard and are not appreciated or compensated for what we do. We’re considered little people and not important.”

When the poverty numbers were released, Census Bureau officials noted the relationship between the status of women and that of children.

The child poverty rate, already high at 20.7 percent in 2009, jumped to 22.0 percent last year. Women were especially affected during the mortgage meltdown, since they were targeted for sub-prime loans. And as public and service workers, they have suffered disproportionately from state budget cuts.

Danielle Hallenbeck, CNA at Liberty House NH in Jersey City, with daughter Diamond Bryant, 8.

Watford is trying hard to keep her children out of the 22 percent who are in poverty.

“I do a lot, including a lot of driving so that my kids are involved in good activities,” she says.

“Jamaya is on her school’s basketball team. Javonte is a senior, so that means extra expenses for his school and extracurricular activities. Fortunately he’s a very good student, so we’re looking into scholarships and grants for college.”

Watford, Hallenbeck and other 1199SEIU women who are struggling have in their favor what most working women lack, a Union that fights not only for wages and benefits, but also for fairness and equality.

Monique Watford, radiology assistant at Laurel Regional Hospital in Laurel, MD, with son, Javonte, 17, and daughter, Jamaya, 15.

Jay Mallin Photo

Even those who are considered “middle class” are finding it increasingly difficult to make ends meet.

October/November • Our Life And Times

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DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

“VIOLENCE WILL NOT BE TOLERATED” 1199ers help raise awareness of domestic violence with participation in New York City Brides’ March.

Scores of women dressed in wedding gowns, accompanied by men in black clothing and many student and community groups, made their way through the streets of Washington Heights and the Bronx Sept. 26 in the annual Gladys Ricart and Victims of Domestic Violence Memorial Walk. The walk is held each year to raise awareness about domestic violence, and to show those who live with abuse that there is a way out.

The Brides’ March, as the event is also known, is now in its 11th year. 1199SEIU is among the event’s sponsors. The walk began as a memorial for Gladys Ricart, who was murdered in 1999 on her wedding day by her abusive ex-boyfriend. It has since grown into an international day of awareness that includes events in New York City, the Dominican Republic, Lawrence, MA and Milwaukee, WI. “I’m here because I want to acknowledge the domestic violence that women suffer in their marriages. I’m a survivor, and I want to show that we can do it,” said Laura Labastida, a CNA at Schervier Nursing Care

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Center in the Bronx. Labastida, a member of 1199SEIU’s contingent, was swathed in an ivory wedding gown made of lace and covered in sparkles. It was her third time marching.

Before the march, participants gathered at the Fort Washington Heights Presbyterian Church for an opening ceremony. They were joined by elected officials, who included New York City Comptroller John Liu, New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and State Senator Adriano Espaillat. In their remarks, all three said that society must develop a zerotolerance policy towards domestic violence.

“There are countless people who have been beaten and permanently physically and emotionally scarred,” said Quinn.

“Violence will not be tolerated.

You are not just marching today.

You are taking steps towards a violence-free city.”

Quinn went on to describe new city initiatives that include training programs for doctors, dentists, and employers to help them recognize signs of

domestic abuse.

Also participating in the march again this year was Ana Ybe, mother of slain home attendant Jessica Ybe. Jessica’s boyfriend killed her and two of her four children in their Bronx apartment on Jan. 25, 2010.

Jessica was an 1199er who worked for the Alliance Homecare Agency.

“It’s painful to be here and hear all the stories, but I want to be here to support the Ricart family and all the other families who are victims of violence,” said Ybe. Ana Ybe wore all white and carried a banner printed with a photograph of her lost daughter and grandchildren, Sasha, 2 and Jellyhana, 6. She’s waiting to see if she can permanently adopt Jessica’s twins, who were spared by their father in the attack.

They were infants at the time, and Ybe now has custody of them.

“There is no day that I go without crying and thinking of my daughter,” she said. “But those little ones are my force of life and I keep going for them.”

Participants in the Sept. 26 Brides’ March in New York City.

Many wear wedding gowns to commemorate slain bride Gladys Ricart and the thousands of other women who lose their lives to domestic violence each year.

“You are not just marching today. You are taking steps towards a violence-free city.”

—New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn

OUR DELEGATE LEADERS

Rochester, NY’s Ronieka Burns (below). At right, Vicente dela Rosa, a PCA in Lawrence, MA.

Wide Acclaim

Student and Reformer

Although she just turned 30, Ronieka Burns, a patient care tech at Rochester’s Strong Memorial Hospital, is a veteran activist with almost a dozen years on the job. And she is as well-known in the Rochester community as she is in her workplace.

“I became active in our Union because I felt a lot of things weren’t right for working people,” she says.

“I remember that more than two years ago we lost members at Strong, and I saw how that affected patients and staff. Management increased the workload, and our members suffered a lot of back and shoulder injuries.”

Burns helped organize co-workers to increase staff and safety measures.

“If you’re not vigilant, management generally tries to ignore contract provisions,” she says. “These days I’m fighting management’s attempt to ignore contract language that gives members time to go to school. It comes down to a lack of respect for members at the workplace.”

Personal care attendant (PCA) Vicente dela Rosa of Lawrence, MA, is a prime example that language need not be an obstacle to involvement. Although he speaks little English, he is a Union leader in every sense of the word.

And he is devoted to those in his care.

“I decided to become a PCA because I’ve always tried to help those in need,” he says through a translator. He works seven days a week caring for his father-in-law in one location and a friend in another. He has been a PCA for seven years and because of his hard work and that of others, PCA’s voted to join 1199SEIU in 2008. It was one of the biggest healthcare organizing victories in the nation’s history.

Dela Rosa is not new to unions. He was a local officer in the Conferencia Nacional de Trabajadores Dominicanos (National Conference of Dominican Workers) in his native Dominican Republic. He has two grown sons in DR and three sons with his wife, Rosina, in the U.S.

Being a single mom of a teenager and a pre-schooler haven’t prevented her from being a leader in community activities and in local politics. Earlier this year the Monroe County AFL-CIO honored her with its Excellence in Political Action award.

And in May at the annual convention of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, Burns was named the outstanding member in the nation under age 40.

Burns is also a student. She is on schedule to complete her training by next spring to become a respiratory therapist.

“Even though I was in a union in the Dominican Republic, I’ve learned a lot as a member of 1199SEIU,” dela Rosa says. “Through the union, I got involved in the fight for national health care. I became a member political organizer. And I’ve learned a lot about equipment and services for our consumers. I’ve learned about safety and health procedures, who to speak to and where to go for many of the consumers’ needs.”

And dela Rosa has done as much as any PCA to build the Union. He was a member of the statewide PCA negotiating committee and labor-management committee. He has helped to coordinate Union canvassing campaigns. He has been working with Union leaders to develop a PCA training fund.

He also is a vocal advocate for reforms of the profession.

“We need to elevate the status of our profession,” he says. “That would help give us the respect and recognition we deserve.”

Kris Murante Photo

“I became active in our Union because I felt a lot of things weren’t right for working people.”

— Ronieka Burns

October/November • Our Life And Times

12

“We knew we couldn’t give up until the final lock was shut on the doors.”

— Rita Closky

Above: More than one hundred people turned out for an August 5 rally to save Peninsula.

At left: RN Mary Burke (center) and lab technologists Rita Closky (left) and Susan Greene (right) were among Peninsula workers who led charge to save the endangered hospital.

Workers Fight for Peninsula Dedication and solidarity keep a hospital and hundreds of jobs in Queens, NY. Peninsula Hospital in Far Rockaway, NY, is a bit battered these days, but it’s open. This to some seems like nothing short of a miracle because the last few months have seen Peninsula and its associated nursing home days away from being permanently closed, both facilities evacuated for a hurricane, and the institution left for dead by almost everyone. Everyone, that is, except a determined group of workers who refused to believe that their hospital couldn’t be saved.

Peninsula’s story is familiar: a community hospital that serves large numbers of poor and uninsured patients strangled with enormous debt in a financial morass that’s worsening by the day. Peninsula’s debt was as much as $60 million. Members say the response to their alarm was tepid at best. Then in March with the hospital owing some $20 million to the 1199SEIU National Benefit Fund alone, members lost their benefits and Peninsula was labeled yet another lost cause. But the workers saw it differently and were emboldened, refusing to have Peninsula’s name added to New York City’s list of closed hospitals and its 700 employees out on the street.

“We were told, ‘that’s it, you’re done,’ but we weren’t taking that for an answer,” says laboratory technologist Rita Closky. “In this climate this might easily happen again to

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October/November • Our Life And Times

another hospital. We knew we couldn’t give up until the final lock was shut on the doors.”

“It was in July that we really started to focus our efforts. We started rallying, getting the word out and letting people know what was happening. We were just really strong and dedicated,” says RN Mary Burke. “One of the residents even started a ‘Save Peninsula’ Facebook page.”

The state, the Union, and Peninsula discussed the possibility of a merger with St. John’s Episcopal, The Rockaways’ other hospital, but St. John’s was hesitant to take on Peninsula’s debt. And Peninsula’s workers characterized state officials’ proposition that one hospital could safely serve The Rockaways as shortsighted. Hurricane Irene put a fine point on their argument when she hit New York City on Aug. 27 and both Rockaway hospitals were evacuated.

“We’re on a peninsula surrounded by water here,” says Burke. “In an emergency the bridges are the first thing to shut down. We’ve had other hurricanes, plane crashes. We had an earthquake. It would be a disaster if people needed to get to a hospital and they couldn’t.”

“If the timing of that hurricane didn’t show why we need this hospital I don’t know what does,” says Closky.

After the storm, the institution limped

along but remained on the brink of closure with a patient census in the double digits.

Workers remained devoted to saving the hospital. They gave up vacation time to prevent layoffs and cuts to co-workers’ hours.

They held rallies, pickets and lobby days. They spoke with reporters any chance they got.

“We all stood side by side,” says Theresa Bentley, a registrar in the hospital’s dental clinic. “We came to work not knowing if we’d get a paycheck.”

The workers’ aggressive campaign yielded results. A number of investment groups came forward with proposals.

Medisys, which had been managing the hospital, ended its relationship with the institution. Peninsula’s board eventually accepted a proposal from Brooklyn-based Revival Home Care, which agreed to provide the hospital with an $8 million lifeline while it reorganizes in Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Revival says the Peninsula’s devoted workers convinced them to move forward with their proposal for the hospital.

“I’m really hoping that this organization can do what needs to be done to keep our little hospital going,” says RN Peggy Fontera.

“There were so many people who gave so much. Everyone wants this to work and I hope we can move forward.”.

PEOPLE

Around the Union Washington March for Jobs and Justice

His Paintings Start the Conversation Art is communication for Maimonides Medical Center’s Miguel Velandres.

One day when Miguel Velandres, a maintenance worker at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, was a little boy in his native Peru, his father took him to an art museum.

“When I asked my father what we were doing there he said he didn’t know, but his boss told him it was a good place to take kids,” says Velandres, laughing.

The boss was right.

Velandres says the memories of colors and images from that trip inspired him years later.

“I remembered looking at one of the giant sculptures of one of our Peruvian heroes and wondering how people could do it; how someone could make something so big,” says Velandres.

There was always something in Velandres that yearned to tell stories through paint, pen and ink and other visual media.

When it came time to apply to college, he chose art school instead of the technical school

Velandres’ homeland continues to be an inspiration for much of his work and he’s proud of his pictures and the stories they tell.

he’d discussed with his father.

The decision caused upheaval at home.

“My father wanted me to be a mechanic,” he says. “But I applied for art school and got in.

My father wouldn’t talk to me for a year. He thought art school was only for rich people.”

Velanadres eventually reconciled with his father, but the road wasn’t easy.

“The teacher ripped up my very first drawing on my first day. I knew that I had to stay or leave the place forever,” he says.

Velandres came to the U.S. in 1985. It was a productive period for him artistically.

“I started to see things differently,” he says. “I realized that Peru is such a rich culture.

I started getting ideas for illustrations and using my airbrush.”

Velandres’ homeland continues to be an inspiration for much of his work and he’s proud of his pictures and the stories they tell. He also wants the work to encourage people to talk to one another.

“I get a lot of satisfaction from my work. I believe it helps other people and it helps me communicate,” he says. “Maybe I can’t express myself clearly all the time, but if someone sees one of my paintings I want to hear what they have to say. That starts a conversation. I want people to look at them, touch them if they want to. Tell me what they’re thinking.”

1199ers were among the thousands of marchers who rallied Oct. 15 in Washington D.C. for Jobs and Justice. The event took place the day before the unveiling of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial. A focus of many of the speakers was the need for Congress to pass the jobs bill proposed by Pres. Obama.

“If you can’t get the jobs bill done in the suites, then we will get the jobs bill done in the streets,” declared the Rev. Al Sharpton at the rally.

1199SEIU Pres. George Gresham was another of the rally speakers. He renewed his call to tax the wealthy and use the resources “to put our country back to work” rebuilding our nation’s infrastructure. He also called for an end to attacks on immigrants, seniors, working families, the poor and unions.

“Over 45 years ago, my father talked about a redistribution of wealth,” said Martin Luther King III, Dr. King’s eldest son. “In fact, that is probably why he was killed.”

Speaking at the memorial dedication on the following day, the Rev. Bernice King, Dr. King’s younger daughter, denounced inequality and praised the Occupy Wall Street movement, adding, “We should never adjust to the one percent controlling more than 40 percent of the wealth.”

Denise King, a CNA at Rosewood Gardens Nursing Home in New York’s At the Oct. 15 Jobs and Capital Region, took a 3:30 a.m. Albany Justice march and rally bus to the Oct. 15 rally with fellow three-year-old Luke Simmons walked with 1199ers. She said the need for jobs was on her mind: “I support The American Jobs his aunt, Sheron Act. If people don’t have jobs, it’s not just Simmons from the one person that suffers. It’s entire families Brooklyn Center for and communities.”

Nursing and Rehab.

Washington March ➽ Occupy Wall Street ➽ Contracts ➽ Our Website

We Are in the 99 Percent 1199ers were among the tens of thousands of unionists and others who rallied and marched Oct. 6 in support of the Occupy Wall Street activists who are protesting the stranglehold that the powerful corporate interests have on our economy and nation.

1199er Margaret Passley, a home attendant at New York City’s Kind Care Agency, was among the participants. “We the people have to stand up,” she said.

“I’m about to lose my job. My agency is about to close. It’s our time to speak up.”

“We cannot let the Tea Party be the voice of working people in this country,” said 1199SEIU Pres. George Gresham at the rally preceding the march. “We are the 99 percent, and we are here today to say that working people are going to stand together until we get a fair economy,” he promised. “We are going to make sure that America lives up to its promise to working people.”

The 1199SEIU Executive Council voted unanimously on Sept. 30 to give allaround support to the Wall Street occupation.

“It feels great that people are finally getting the message and coming out for the cause,” said rally participant Marilyn Green, a home attendant with the Bushwick-Ridgewood Agency in New York City. “It means a lot to see so many people from so many backgrounds joining together to stand up and speak up for rebuilding this country for our children and grandchildren.”

59,000 Union Members Win New Contracts During First Nine Months At the end of 2010, the 1199SEIU leadership declared 2011 to be “The Year of the Contract.”

Some 400 collective bargaining agreements covering 86,000 members were due to expire. In addition, the Union had to secure 49 first contracts for 10,000 new members who had voted to join 1199SEIU. Through September — three-quarters into the year — 59,000 members or nearly 70 percent of 1199ers with expired contracts, had won new contracts. One contract covered 25,000 Massachusetts Personal Care Attendants. In all, some 218 new contracts have been settled.

But 184 additional contracts, covering another 27,000 members, had not yet been completed in early October. In addition, so far this year, the union has settled 19 first contracts — the most difficult to achieve — covering 2,500 new members.

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October/November • Our Life And Times

1199ers at Brooklyn’s Labor Day West Indian Day parade (above and center) and (at right) at Sept. 18 Harlem’s African American Day parade.

ON OUR WEBSITE: THE HEART OF NEW JERSEY On Sept. 15, NJ 1199SEIU nursing home workers and their supporters held their second informational picket and rally in as many months at Forest Hill Care Center. They are among 4,000 1199SEIU members at more than 30 nursing homes across New Jersey whose contracts expire this fall. Their campaign is called “Voices for Quality Care And Good Jobs. The Heart of New Jersey.” The members are seeking fair wages and benefits, including training, a secure pension and retirement with dignity. http://1199seiu.org/heartofnewjersey.

STANDING UP FOR WORKERS’ RIGHTS IN PENNSYLVANIA Pocono Medical Center’s law-breaking campaign reached a new low recently when the hospital fired phlebotomist Rafelina Caraballo for speaking out against favoritism and mistreatment from management.

Now Caraballo and her husband are struggling to make ends meet and support their three boys. 1199ers are supporting their sisters and brothers at PMC. http://1199seiu.org/media/news.cfm?nid=2509.

1199 ROCKS BALTIMORE CITY PRIMARY ELECTIONS It was a clean sweep for 1199SEIU endorsed candidates in September’s Baltimore primary elections. And 1199ers played a major role in the victories. Led by Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, the slate was expected to breeze to general election victories in November. http://www.1199seiu.org/media/news.cfm?nid=2502.

RNS AT ST. MARY’S IN QUEENS VOTE BY 90% TO JOIN 1199SEIU Registered nurses at St. Mary’s Healthcare System for Children in Bayside, Queens, voted by a wide margin to join 1199SEIU Sept. 16. St. Mary’s RNs say they now have a voice to advocate for their patients, provide for their families and ensure good jobs for the communities in Queens. http://1199seiu.org/media/news.cfm?nid=2496.

1199ERS SPARKLE IN BROOKLYN’S WEST INDIAN DAY PARADE The 44th annual West Indian Day Parade made its way down Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn Sept. 5, and several hundred 1199ers were among the thousands of participants who marched danced, sang and wore the beautiful and festive costumes that are the event’s hallmark. See slideshow at http://1199seiu.org/media/news.cfm?nid=2499.

FLORIDA MEMBERS WIN SAFE STAFFING In August, union members at Avanté NH in Lake Worth, Fla., made history by voting to ratify the first union contract in the state to include safe staffing requirements, which guarantees residents will receive a minimum weekly average of at least 2.9 hours of bedside care per resident per day. http://www.1199seiu.org/media/news.cfm?nid=2486 FLORIDA 1199ERS RALLY FOR HAITIAN EQUALITY 1199SEIU members, including Pres. George Gresham and Exec. VP Monica Russo, joined 200 activists Aug. 11 in front of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigrations Services office in Miami to demand just immigration policies for Haitians. The protest called for the Department of Homeland Security to immediately enact a Haitian Family Reunification Plan (HFRP) to help Haitians in Haiti and the U.S. http://1199seiu.org/media/news.cfm?nid=2479.

MASSACHUSETTS MEMBERS WIN FREE SPEECH BATTLE 1199SEIU members at Golden Living Center (GLC) in Lexington, MA won a victory for free speech in the workplace recently when the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruled that nursing home management could not prevent them from wearing union stickers at work. http://www.1199seiu.org/media/news.cfm?nid=2505

THE BACK PAGE

The Brides’ March

On Sept. 26 members of 1199SEIU were among the hundreds who participated in the 11th Annual Gladys Ricart And Victims of Domestic Violence Memorial Walk through upper Manhattan and the Bronx in New York City.

The walk is held each year in memory of Ricart, who was murdered by a jealous exboyfriend on her wedding day, and to raise public awareness of domestic violence and its effects. See story on page 11.

To read 1199S E I U more about and contr ’s organizing a developm ct victories and ents all region throughout s Union, lo of our g www.119 on to 9seiu.org