Our Life & Times

Announcement of Union Election See Insert

A JOURNAL OF 1199SEIU December 2012/January 2013

Gina Farelli, a CNA at Arnold Walter NH in Hazlett, NJ, waits for FEMA inspectors outside her badly damaged Keansburg, NJ home. Amid the chaos, 1199ers displayed their special brand of dedication and heroism, safeguarding their communities and patients.

See story on page 8.

WHAT HURRICANE SANDY WROUGHT

Contents 3 LABOR’S HEROES From re-electing our president to aiding recovery efforts, 1199ers answered the call.

4 PRESIDENT’S COLUMN Our 2012 victories are building blocks for the future.

5 UNION YES! Right-wing union bashing didn’t slow 1199SEIU’s organizing express in 2012.

6 2012 ELECTIONS We are a major political force.

8 HURRICANE SANDY 1199ers share their stories of heroism and loss.

11 OUR DELEGATE LEADERS New York City’s Sam Swartz and Victoria Holt from Buffalo.

12 A SPECIAL KIND OF PEACE OF MIND Patient service representative Rosie Delgado can’t put a price tag on her health benefits.

14 AROUND THE UNION Chinese members blend cultural activities and organizing.

15 JUSTICE DELAYED IS JUSTICE DENIED Delegate Michelle Cordero vows to exonerate her husband Angel from a crime he did not commit.

p.6 Our Life And Times, Dec. 2012/Jan. 2013, Vol 30, No 6 Published by 1199SEIU, United Healthcare Workers East 310 West 43rd St. New York, NY 10036 Telephone (212) 582-1890 www.1199seiu.org

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E DITOR :

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COVE R PHOTOG RAPH :

George Gresham

Jim Tynan

S EC RETARY TREASURE R :

Maria Castaneda EXEC UTIVE VIC E PRES I DE NTS :

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Southside Hospital’s Cheryl Beckett

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EDITORIAL

MEMBER HEROES

1199ers like these canvassers in Florida worked mightily to get out the vote.

1199ers answer the bell.

1199ers rejoiced on the evening of Nov. 6.

When the ballots across the nation were tallied, a more just and progressive nation began coming into view. The elections brought us closer to a nation with greater rights for women, workers, immigrants and gays.

The results clearly rejected the right wing’s extreme austerity measures and their deficit-debt hysteria. Also rejected were a host of Tea Party candidates and attempts by the ultra-rich to hijack our democracy.

And 1199SEIU can rightly take its share of credit for the victories. Few organizations made as great a contribution, including in the battleground states of Florida, Virginia, Pennsylvania and New Hampshire. (See page 6.)

Recall that in 2004 when George W. Bush won re-election by a far smaller margin than Pres. Obama’s in 2012, Pres. Bush declared that his new “political capital represented a mandate.” We can thus assume that the Nov. 6 results also represent a mandate for the needs of the 99 percent.

But the results did not guarantee a progressive agenda. The House remains in the grip of the Republican Party and the one percent is surely at work figuring out how to regroup. In fact, the enormous resources of Wall Street banks, the insurance industry, the energy lobby and the drug companies help to underscore the enormity of our Election Day victories.

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December 2012/January 2013 • Our Life And Times

We realize, however, that victories are not permanent and that the energy that went into the president’s victory must also drive a people’s agenda.

Since unions are the most powerful vehicles for challenging corporate power, our agenda must include labor law reforms that give workers the right to bargain collectively and set serious penalties and enforceable remedies against union-busting employers.

A people’s agenda also includes recognition of the essential role of government in a just, democratic society. That need was made clear days before the election in the aftermath of the superstorm that crippled so much of New York, New Jersey and other regions. The immediate response of Pres. Obama and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) highlighted the difference between the president and candidate Mitt Romney who believes that private companies should be responsible for emergency assistance.

The aftermath of the storm also underscored the commitment of 1199ers to an administration for the 99 percent. Members and staff who suffered damages and outages nevertheless traveled to swing states on Election Day to canvass for Pres. Obama and other union-friendly candidates.

Others remained in the stricken areas, including in their healthcare institutions to care for their patients. Homecare members traveled

1199SEIU can rightly take its share of credit for the victories. Few organizations made as great a contribution, including in the battleground states of Florida, Virginia, Pennsylvania and New Hampshire. for hours to reach clients, many of whom had no one else to help or care for them.

Some of these 1199SEIU members, unsung heroes of the storm, are profiled in the pages of this magazine. Their courage and commitment are an example to us all. Their work inspires what 1199SEIU needs to do in the period ahead to realize the promise of the Obama administration and the electoral victories that can only come to pass through the organization and mobilization of the broad coalition that rejected corporate domination on Nov. 6.

THE PRESIDENT’S COLUMN George Gresham

Winning the Future We must build on our 2012 victories.

On behalf of your entire 1199SEIU Executive Council, I want to wish you and your family and loved ones the best possible New Year.

2013 will be full of challenges—working women and men never have it easy—but it is worth reflecting on our most essential achievement of 2012: the victories of the November elections.

By re-electing President Obama, we dodged more than a bullet. We dodged an entire division of tanks ready to roll over workers’ rights, civil rights and women’s rights. And in addition to the president, we elected a new Congress, adding strong progressive voices like those of Senatorselect Elizabeth Warren in Massachusetts and Tammy Baldwin in Wisconsin. Anti-worker Tea Party Republicans and rightwing “blue dog” Democrats were defeated. In dozens of state and local referenda, voters supported labor rights, marriage equality, and immigrant rights.

Winning the future for our children and their children at least is now possible—though by no means guaranteed. We—the labor movement and our allies and partners—have hopefully learned something from the mistake we made following the great 2008 election victory. We cannot sit around, proud of our victory, and leave it to the president to move us forward. We have to stay organized.

When I say we, I’m talking about us 1199SEIU members. Tens of millions of people went to the polls to vote for progressive candidates and issues, and tens of thousands of volunteers worked hard to get them there.

But nobody—I mean nobody—worked harder, longer or more effectively than our 1199 sisters and brothers. And everyone who was paying attention, from the White House on down, recognizes that this was so.

Thousands of you helped get out the vote. Hundreds of you volunteered to leave your families and your work to register and educate voters. The stories we have heard from you are heart-rending and inspiring. We’ve gotten reports, for example, from our Florida members about folks spending five and six hours in 80- to 85-degree weather standing in line, refusing to leave, waiting to vote—even one 102-year-old voter and mothers with infants in their arms.

Even after the election was called at 11:30 p.m. on election night, people remained in line to cast their votes up until 1 a.m. the next day.

The right to vote has been won over the centuries at the cost of great sacrifice and it is clear that our people are not prepared to sacrifice that right any time soon.

But now the real campaign for working people begins. We have much more work to do. President Obama and Congress cannot secure our future. We must do that. We believe that Barack Obama is a good man and, with our strength and that of our partners, we aim to help him become a great president.

This means mobilizing and organizing and building alliances that can turn the promises of this election into reality with: • Protecting and guaranteeing Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid; • Securing comprehensive immigration reform; • Making the wealthy and the corporations pay their fair share of taxes; • Addressing catastrophic climate change with strict limits on fossil fuels and transition to safe and clean energy; • Ending our distorted federal budget priorities where military spending accounts for fully half of all spending (more than the next 20 countries— including China and Russia—combined); • Putting the hundreds of billions in new tax revenues and cuts in wasteful military expenditures towards job creation, rebuilding the infrastructure, expanding public education from pre-K through college.

And with Obamacare now assured, it will, if fully implemented, cover tens of millions of Americans currently without insurance. This may well require tens of thousands of new and retrained healthcare professionals and caregivers.

All of this may sound like a dream scenario and of course nothing is guaranteed. But all of this is possible and worth struggling and working for. We welcome 2013 knowing that 1199ers are no strangers to struggling for a better future and working hard. We know you are ready for the fight to come.

Letters A DESIRE TO SERVE e received a call from our Md-DC RN organizer Patricia Marthone asking for assistance with the Weekend Warriors campaign for President Obama’s re-election. We volunteered to campaign on Election Day although we were uncertain because we had not done this before. The plan was to go to Virginia and knock on doors.

We left the Landover office with five vans full of excited Union members, and went to the Democratic campaign headquarters in Arlington, VA, for a briefing. Our goal was to encourage our fellow citizens who are eligible to vote to go out and perform their civic duty.

The weather was perfect, kind and bright for accomplishing our goal. Our group consisted of six women strong. We headed for our assigned area and started knocking on doors. Some people had either voted or were on their way to vote. Some were coming home from voting.

We probably knocked on over 150 doors. As the day progressed to evening, the weather became cold, and unshaken by the cold, we went back to revisit the homes of those who were not home earlier. The people we visited appreciated our time and commitment. There was good conversation from the people we visited that Pres. Obama would continue to build on and improve his commitment to issues such as job, education, health care, etc.

We enjoyed the opportunity to serve and work with such an enthusiastic and energetic group of women. We got home late, very much proud of what we had accomplished that day. We were overwhelmed with joy watching the news of the president winning Virginia and the nation. We would do it again because of the great success and feeling of achievement.

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ERUSA ONUKWUBIRI DEBBIE SELF Laurel Regional Hospital Laurel, MD RETIREES REJOICE ’m extremely proud of and happy for the 1199SEIU members, but especially for our retirees who did incredible work to help re-elect our president.

So many of our retirees— 79,000 strong—from all the New York boroughs, and from Virginia, North Carolina, Florida and other states—worked hard to help preserve Social Security, Medicare and other essential programs.

But we retirees didn’t just work hard for ourselves. We volunteered for our children and grandchildren.

We worked because we care about jobs for all, for affordable health care, for a pathway to citizenship for immigrants, and for health care for all. All of those things would have been jeopardized if Mitt Romney and Paul

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Ryan had not been defeated.

Retirees were part of the 100,000 SEIU members who worked to elect our president. Together we knocked on five million doors and made 13 million phone calls. We did it for everyone in our great country.

We all need Pres. Obama to be our commander in chief and to lead our nation to victory.

The president’s record speaks for itself: insisting that the wealthy and big corporations pay their fair share, saving the auto industry, ending the war in Iraq, supporting women’s rights.

We older Americans need to preserve everything we have worked so hard to achieve. Our work is not done. We 1199SEIU retirees for as long as we live will continue to do battle for our great Union.

In the days ahead, we must continue to join hands with our working brothers and sisters. It is our duty to hold our leaders accountable 365 days a year, not just on Election Day. God bless America and God bless a great Union called 1199SEIU. LENA HAYES, President, 1199SEIU Retired Members Division LEARNING AND WINNING t first I was kind of nervous about canvassing because I didn’t know what to expect. But throughout the campaign I learned a lot from myself and other people.

We had meetings almost every day talking about our experience at the doors. My impression on this campaign was extremely exciting— especially with the crew I was working with. We supported each other, we had each other’s back and we knew what to do. We were working as a family.

The campaign was exciting, with new ideas and with the use of social media. And I was not discouraged by difficulties. When we knocked on some people doors, some of them were mean. Some people didn’t want to go out and vote. Some didn’t even know it was Election Day. We truly believed that we could help convince people and we pushed them to go out and vote. I truly believe that we made a difference.

The next day after the first presidential debate, we went knocking on doors and it was hard because a lot of people were disappointed. After talking to them, I changed their mind to let them know once you support someone, you support them all the way.

I felt the president really did a good job because he’s a professional and a leader and he acted like one.

After the last two debates, it was easier because people were happy. In fact, people were nice to me for the most part. On Election Day, most of the people I visited had already voted for the president.

Overall it was fantastic because we did a great job. We did it!

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ROBERLINE MOISE Avante Lake NH Palm Beach, FL

December 2012/January 2013 • Our Life And Times

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NEW ORGANIZING

Union

YES!

Our organizing victories help breathe life into labor movement.

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arely have unions taken such a beating as they did during the 2012 election season. Far-right candidates made 2012 open season for union bashing.

At the Republican Party Convention in Tampa, for example, the most notorious GOP union busting governors, such as Wisconsin’s Scott Walker, Ohio’s John Kasich and South Carolina’s Nicki Haley, were accorded hero status.

Despite that toxic anti-union environment, 1199SEIU continues to win impressive organizing victories. In fact, in 2012 the Union organized over 2,300 new members from Florida to Massachusetts.

The 101 technical workers from West Palm Beach’s Good Samaritan Medical Center who voted 1199SEIU in January continued the biggest organizing string of victories in the South since the Great Depression. The victory pushed the 1199SEIU Florida hospital membership past the 10,000 figure.

In another Southern state, Maryland, 1199SEIU has continued to lay the basis for a major organizing drive. Its “Heart of Baltimore” campaign, launched in 2009 at a citywide conference of healthcare workers and stakeholders, envisions a future in which better jobs and conditions for caregivers — about 20 percent of Baltimore’s work force — lead to improved outcomes for patients and a better economy for all the city’s residents.

The campaign includes billboards at the city’s Penn Station highlighting the leadership of the late Coretta Scott King, who in 1969 after the death of her husband helped organize Johns Hopkins and other local hospitals.

Further north, on March 9, nursing home workers at Care One’s Woodcrest Health Care Center in New Milford, NJ, voted to join the 1199SEIU family. The vote united the 214 workers with their sisters and brothers at Care One’s Somerset Valley Rehabilitation and Nursing Center who joined the Union in 2010.

The victory was significant because Care One waged a vicious anti-union campaign.

Just as Somerset Valley has done, Care One Woodcrest has refused to recognize the worker’s union. Now, a major priority for 1199SEIU members is to hold owner Daniel Straus accountable and stand up for workers’ rights and quality care at Care One facilities.

Workers throughout New York State voted 1199SEIU during the year. In New York City hospital and clinic workers voted to join the Union, as did nursing home workers in Westchester, the Mid-Hudson Valley and upstate New York.

Some 130 certified nursing assistants (CNAs) at Waterview and Salem Hills Rehabilitation Centers in Purdy’s, Westchester County, overcame a management anti-union campaign to vote overwhelmingly in May for 1199SEIU. Members there cited the need for better pay, benefits and more respect. They also stressed their concern about patient care.

“Management often pulls us away from

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December 2012/January 2013 • Our Life And Times

Organizing committee members from Morton Hospital in Taunton, MA.

our residents for meetings,” said CNA Rayama Gamble after the victory. “With 1199, we will sit down with management and negotiate a contract that will protect the workers and the people we care for.”

1199SEIU’s victory at Morton Hospital in Taunton, MA brought in close to 500 members. Some 94 percent of the workers voted yes. That was due in part to Morton’s agreement to a free and fair election.

“In this tough economy, we need protection,” said Victoria Pereia, Morton Hospital lab tech, prior to the vote. Other members cited job security, health insurance, pay and a voice on the job. Many said a vote for 1199SEIU was a vote for the future.

Members should urge non-unionized healthcare workers who want a better future to log on to join1199seiu.org.

“IN THIS TOUGH ECONOMY, WE NEED PROTECTION.” — Victoria Pereia, Morton Hospital lab tech.

ELECTIONS

Ending Year on a

High Note

We were major players in 2012 political victories.

1199SEIU was among the first unions to support the reelection of Pres. Barack Obama. And the Union backed up its endorsement with huge resources. None was more important than the volunteers who help turned what was supposed to be a very close contest into a significant win for the Obama-Biden ticket and victories in races and ballot measures across the country.

Many had rightly feared that Republican redistricting, voter disenfranchisement measures and record spending resulting from the Citizens United decision might defeat the president. But working people across the nation refused to let the one percent and those who do their bidding hijack our democracy.

1199SEIU contributed mightily to those victories. On Election Day and in the weeks leading up to it, thousands of 1199SEIU members and staff knocked on doors, made telephone calls and helped get voters to the polls for labor-friendly candidates.

“Members came out to canvass because they feel like I do,” says Joyce Bryant, a home health aide at New York City’s Alliance for Health who canvassed in Philadelphia. “People want a better life for their children and grandkids, and they were afraid that Romney and Ryan would have taken away their chance for that life.”

Winning New York State was never an issue for the Obama team, but helping to weaken the GOP obstruction in the House was. 1199ers took part in several key Congressional battles.

Members in Central New York helped Democrat Dan Maffei win back the seat he lost in 2010 to Tea Party-backed Republican Ann Marie Buerkle. 1199ers helped re-elect veteran Rep. Louise Slaughter in the Rochester region. And in the heavily-Republican North Country of the state, 1199SEIU was instrumental in sending Rep. Bill Owens back to Congress.

In the state’s Hudson Valley, Democrat Sean Patrick Maloney, with strong 1199SEIU support, defeated another Tea Party favorite, Nan Hayworth. In doing so, Maloney became the first openly gay man elected from the state to Congress.

1199ers in the Md-DC region helped lead the fight in the Maryland legislature for marriage equality.

“I didn’t always understand marriage equality the way I do now,” Pearlie Davis, a delegate and cook at Baltimore’s St. Joseph’s Medical Center, is quoted in campaign literature for Ballot Question 6 (marriage equality.) “I know that all of us deserve to be treated fairly. All of us — gay and straight — should be able to marry the person we love,” declared Davis, a grandmother of four.

Md-DC 1199ers also were instrumental in the passage of Question 4, the Maryland Dream Act, which grants an in-state tuition discount to undocumented college students.

And while Maryland members were helping to win groundbreaking legislation in their own state, they also helped deliver the Southern state of Virginia. “I voted at 7 a.m. for Pres. Obama before I got on the bus to help him win here,” said Robert Frazier, a certified nursing assistant who canvassed in Virginia and returned on Election Day to help get out the vote.

Demetrius Smith, a nutrition technician at Prince George’s Hospital in Cheverly, MD, works every other weekend. And during the final weeks of the presidential campaign, she spent the weekends she was off to canvass for the Obama ticket. She often worked with her daughter Sherri Howard, a labor and delivery RN at Prince George’s.

“My daughter Sherri delivers babies. She helps to bring life

Pennsylvania Claire Daniels, a CNA at Cranford Health in Cranford, NJ, canvassed in Philadelphia with sister Caroline Lovis. Below, Kevin Harris, an environmental services worker at Methodist Hospital in Brooklyn, NY, greets a Philadelphia resident during canvassing on Election Day.

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“I voted at 7 a.m. for President Obama before I got on the bus to help him win here (Virginia).”

Massachusetts In Massachusetts, Euphemia Knuckles, top, and PCA Audrey Malone were among the thousands of 1199ers who helped elect Elizabeth Warren to U.S. Senate.

– Robert Frazier ROSE LINCOLN PHOTO

into this world,” Smith says. “I also work hard every day.

Pres. Obama cares about people like us. He is president for all the people, not just some. A Romney administration would do nothing for working people, like my other daughter, an unemployed mother. I want her to have a chance.”

Hundreds of 1199ers also helped deliver Pres. Obama’s second southern state, Florida. Their work helped Sen. Bill Nelson, a strong supporter of Obamacare, handily defeat Connie Mack, his far-right Republican opponent. Four 1199SEIU-endorsed Congressional candidates also were victorious, including Patrick Murphy who defeated Tea Party extremist Allen West.

Virginia Top, (from right) Debbie Self and Erusa Onukwubiri, RNs at Laurel Regional Hospital in Maryland, talk to Arlington, VA, couple on Election Day. (See their letter on page 4.) Above, Prince George’s Hospital members, Demetrius Smith, a nutrition technician, and her daughter, Sherri Howard, an RN, in Arlington.

The election victories also herald the emergence of a growing grassroots campaign that includes at its core1199SEIU and the Florida New Majority coalition. The coalition worked throughout the state, registering voters and helping to pull out early and Election Day voters. “I met voters who have young people in their family who are in school who don’t have health insurance” says Veyonne Nereus, an 1199SEIU canvasser and a CNA at The Parks Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center in Orlando. “They want to see their young ones free of debt after college and to benefit from healthcare reform.”

Nereus and coalition members will continue to build on their victories. They have taken aim at Florida’s recent voter nullification measures in the state.

1199SEIU members in Massachusetts helped elect to the U.S. Senate one of nation’s outstanding consumer advocates, Elizabeth Warren.

“I think Elizabeth Warren will be a better senator than Scott Brown because she stands for working people and strengthening the economy,” said Keila Price, an 1199SEIU administrative assistant at Boston Medical Center. She was one of the more than 500 members across the state who worked to elect Warren and other 1199SEIU endorsed candidates. Massachusetts members also canvassed in the swing state of New Hampshire.

1199ers say they will not rest on their laurels. They will bring the same enthusiasm and organizing skills to battles in the next session of Congress for issues such as jobs, tax fairness, health care, public services, immigrant rights and the protection of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.

Florida Top, members prepare literature for distribution.

Above, canvassers at meeting in Palm Beach.

JOSHUA PREZANT PHOTO

Hudson Valley 1199ers prepare for canvassing in New York’s Hudson Valley area.

ANDREW LICHTENSTEIN PHOTO

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December 2012/January 2013 • Our Life And Times

OUR MEMBERS

HURRICANE

SANDY For millions of people throughout New York State and New Jersey, recovery from Hurricane Sandy will be a long road. Homeowners saw years’ worth of hard work and memories ruined or washed away. Flood waters displaced renters, leaving them searching for housing in a contracting and expensive market. The storm mercilessly left our poorest, oldest and most vulnerable in cold and darkness, without access to essentials like food and medicine.

While Sandy wreaked almost unprecedented havoc on the citizens and infrastructure of New York and New Jersey, thousands of 1199SEIU members were doing their best to safeguard their patients and communities, all the while knowing that when the storm cleared many among them would face the enormous task of putting their own lives back together. Some of those members spoke with Our Life And Times in the days after the storm. These are just a few of their stories.

Members were victims and heroes in the superstorm.

A SAFE HAVEN Few areas were hit harder – and can afford it less—than the Rockaways in Queens, NY. The peninsula is home to a couple of big public housing developments, large working class African American and senior citizen communities, a considerable number of nursing homes and St. John’s Episcopal Hospital. Most of the Rockaways is poor or working class, despite its lovely ocean views.

During the hurricane, St. John’s Episcopal became an emergency shelter for those who did not or could not heed the community’s evacuation order. The lobby was full of people in need of dry warmth and blankets. Social workers treated those in distress and the hospital’s emergency department was full to capacity.

“As the evening went on there were more people,” says RN Shirley Benjamin. Benjamin works in

Ambulatory Care, but was called in to the Emergency Dept. for the storm. “They would come in soaking wet. Their perceived fear was very high. They had to be dealt with in triage; this was of paramount importance. You really saw things get progressively worse as the night went on, so we really needed a sense of organization and support, because we were feeling the tension as well.”

Unlike in last year’s Hurricane Irene, Rockaway nursing homes were not ordered to evacuate.

“We had staff that came in on Sunday and stayed three days to take care of our patients even though they were displaced [themselves],” says Dudley Julian, a CNA at Bishop McLean Nursing Home, which is connected to St. John’s Episcopal.

Julian, a delegate, says staffers kept patients calm, especially when Bishop McLean received evacuees from neighboring nursing home Ocean Promenade.

“It was mindboggling and scary, but it was also friendly because

December 2012/January 2013 • Our Life And Times

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Bulldozers heaped the remnants of flooded homes in Sea Bright, NJ.

“EVERYTHING WAS GONE”

everyone was here together and when the blackout came we just kept each other company,” says Bishop McLean CNA Sharon Bridgewater. (Bridgewater’s Rockaway apartment flooded while she was at work.) “We kept the patients calm and let them know everything was going to be alright. I prayed a lot and made sure I spoke to my son.”

It has not gone unnoticed how much more quickly and easily resources moved to Rockaway’s wealthier gated community of Breezy Point, where more than 80 homes burned down in a horrific fire sparked by the hurricane.

Delegate Michael Walkes, an LPN at St. John’s Episcopal, says catastrophes like Sandy set in relief the worth of St. John’s, but he worries about the effect the storm might have on the struggling hospital’s bottom line.

“This institution does not make a lot of money and it needs to get paid,” says Walkes. “We took all the admissions they called social admissions. We were a shelter. We cannot ask people to step up after they’ve lost their homes.”

“Coming to work is the most normal thing they have —if you can call that normal,” he continues.

“Most of the people going through this live and work out here. People have been here a long time. This is a community hospital.”

1199SEIU retiree Merides Forston with drywall stripped from her flooded Far Rockaway home.

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St. John’s Episcopal nursing assistant Roy Ritchie made sure to stow his important documents somewhere safe before he left his Rockaway Park apartment the day of the storm. It was hard for Ritchie to describe what he found when he got home.

“I lived in the middle [of Rockaway] and the ocean and the Bay met,” he says rubbing his forehead and sighing deeply. He pauses a minute before going on.

“Everything was gone.

I’d put my papers on top of my entertainment center and when I tried to open my front door I couldn’t because my refrigerator was in front of the door. The water toppled everything. For the first three nights I slept in my car because there was nowhere else for me to go,” he says.

Ritchie has been staying with a friend while he waits for his FEMA money and tries to understand what happened to him. When asked, Ritchie like other storm victims says a bridge loan for some furniture and a security deposit would be the most helpful.

“I remember looking around, and as old as I am I started to cry.

It’s an experience I never want to relive. I made a U-turn. I went right to the nursing office and told them I wanted to work because I had nowhere else to go. I thought about what the next chapter of my life would be like.”

“WE’RE NEW YORKERS. WE’RE STRONG.” As in every other region, hundreds of Staten Island 1199ers have joined the effort to rebuild their neighborhoods and get their friends and co-workers back on their feet. At Staten Island University Hospital there are “company stores” where workers can, without any questions asked, take what they need from donations of everything from clothing to household goods to baby supplies. Staten Island University Hospital and Richmond University Medical Center have also given out tens of thousands of dollars in gift cards so workers can have cash on hand. And of course, 1199ers have among themselves taken up collections, made contributions and donated their time and money to help their affected co-workers rebuild their lives.

Tracey Olsen works in the GYN clinic at Staten Island’s Richmond University Medical Center. She seems plain-spoken and a little shy. She and her husband, who live in Gerritsen Beach, Brooklyn, lost the contents of their apartment including all their furniture, clothes, and both their cars to Hurricane Sandy.

“Earlier that evening my husband

December 2012/January 2013 • Our Life And Times

St. John’s Episcopal registrar Tonisha Williams

“WE JUST SAT THERE AND PRAYED” On the evening of Oct. 29 Tonisha Williams, a registrar at St. John’s Episcopal Hospital, was watching television with her family in the den of her home in Far Rockaway’s seaside section of Arverne.

“My 17-year-old son had just looked out the door and said it wasn’t so bad,” says Williams.

Within moments, says Williams, a pair of storm surges girded by record high tides brought rushes of water down her street so quickly that they engulfed her home’s first floor. She barely had time to get herself and her kids, 21, 17 and 3, upstairs. The four-foot rush of water toppled furniture, soaked the walls, ruined belongings and rendered the space unlivable.

“I just started yelling ‘Give me the baby, give me the baby.’ My

suggested I pack a bag for us and drop it off at my son’s. He lives on the water. The water was up to our knees and we knew there was no going back,” she says. “My son lives up high, so it was okay, but he had no lights or no heat. My son already sent his wife and kids to stay with her family. His father-in-law said, ‘Why don’t you come and stay with us instead of sitting here freezing?’”

They accepted the invitation.

When she spoke with Our Life And Times she had been there for about 10 days. Olsen says that even though they were without anything but what she packed, she and her husband were shy to accept the help from her in-laws. And when she returned to work, co-workers pooled their money and purchased her a new winter coat, knowing she’d lost hers in the flood. Again, she felt grateful, but it was hard to accept the gift.

“It makes you feel like less of a person because you’ve always been the one who’s doing,” she says.

“Who has to buy you a coat? Who’s giving you an envelope?”

Olsen was overwhelmed by the outpouring of caring she received from friends and co-workers.

“You just feel guilty feeling sorry for yourself. Like how dare you? I can only imagine what other people are going through,” she says.

Olsen’s main goal was to

husband went outside and tried to move the car, and it just stalled. I went upstairs and started banging on my neighbors’ door,” says Williams.

“It was like the movie Titanic. I’d never seen anything like it before, except on television. Soon we were in the dark. The power went out. We just sat there and prayed and tried to keep the baby calm.”

“My husband went downstairs to see how bad the damage actually was and he couldn’t even get the door open,” she says tearfully. “Everything was moved. All the furniture was turned over. The worst was the smell.

The sewer had backed up.”

When Williams spoke with Our Life And Times, she and her family were staying with relatives in Brooklyn while they waited for FEMA representatives to survey the damage to the family’s home.

“My main concern was to get my children out of there. With no lights I was very concerned about safety. I just went into mommy mode and said ‘We have to get them out’,” she says.

Richmond University Medical Center’s Tracey Olsen

reorganize her family’s life and regain financial stability.

“A loan for some furniture where I wasn’t in too much debt again when I was paying it back would really help,” she said.

“You know, I just feel overwhelmed right now and I haven’t felt this way in the weeks since the storm,” she says. “In the beginning I wanted to cry, but I was more worried about my husband because he seemed so devastated and lost. Now I’m tired.”

“But we’re New Yorkers,” she says, with a wry smile and a shrug.

“We’re strong.”

HURRICANE SANDY (Cont.)

The Staten Island home of Maria Bessos, (far left), was ravaged by Sandy’s floodwaters. She’s shown with friend and co-worker Intessar Moghabghab.

MEMORIES WASHED AWAY While cleaning out the ruins of her kitchen in Midland Beach on Staten Island after Hurricane Sandy, Antonia Bessos, a housekeeper at Richmond University Medical Center, found canned food and other items that she didn’t recognize. Flood waters, five feet high, had washed into her house the contents of other peoples’ homes.

“The pictures of my kids, I can’t find them,” she says, weeping, wringing her small hands. “There was all kinds of stuff in my house.

My things could be in somebody else’s house. Who knows?”

Bessos, a widow who lives with her youngest son, immediately set to cleaning out the damaged house after the storm with the help of her three children.

“I’M JUST AFRAID OUR HOUSE WILL COLLAPSE” When Gina Farelli, a CNA at Arnold Walter NH in Hazlett, NJ, spoke to Our Life And Times she was waiting for FEMA outside her home in Keansburg, NJ. Farelli couldn’t go in because the place had a red sticker on the door that meant it was unsafe; waves of flood water driven by Hurricane Sandy’s record tidal surge hit the house and cracked the foundation.

It was also flooded with sewage and coated with toxic sludge. Farelli’s was the voice of exhaustion.

“I have a 12-year-old, a six-yearold and two dogs. We evacuated and went to my mother’s,” she says.

Sandy left little room for doubt about the dangers of global warming.

“There’s nothing there now. We took everything out,” she says. “We have been living in a Ramada Inn. I’m tired. It’s not normal. FEMA came. They told me they were going to give me $3,000, but how am I going to fix up the house with that?”

Bessos expressed gratitude from the tremendous support of her friend and co-worker Intessar Moghabghab, a building services worker at Richmond University Medical Center.

“When I see her it breaks my heart, but I want to stay strong for her too,” says Moghabghab, her own voice breaking as she puts her arm around her softly crying friend Bessos. “The truth is we have had a lot of donations here on Staten Island and loads of supplies, but people also need help mentally.

People need to come and sit down and talk to them. The stress is very great. Sometimes they won’t pick up the phone, so we need to reach out to them.”

“Last year I lived in the same house during Irene and it wasn’t as bad.

We lost a couple of shingles on the roof and had to redo the bathroom.

Now the same bathroom is ruined.”

Living with relatives isn’t easy, even when you’re getting along, she says – especially for a whole family.

“It’s so depressing. I don’t even actually want to go to my house,” she says. “You get there and there’s note on the door saying you can’t even go inside your own house. It takes a toll on you. My husband and I have to go to work.

Plus my mother’s not well. All my possessions are in my house—all our clothes. I only brought a few things to my mother’s. The rest I tried to keep up high. I don’t know what we’ll do. I’m just afraid our house will collapse.”

The contents of entire households were strewn on Sea Bright, NJ’s streets after Sandy, tossed like toys by the storm’s flood waters.

NO QUESTIONS ASKED Cheryl Beckett, a secretary at Southside Hospital in Bay Shore, NY, says she only lost her chimney and has a giant hole in her roof, so she’s lucky. Beckett may not be wrong. Sandy hammered the towns that line Long Island’s south shore and where many of Beckett’s neighbors live in places like Mastic, Lindenhurst and Babylon.

“When I started hearing the stories about what happened to people, I knew I had to do something,” says Beckett, a longtime delegate. “Our CEO took the idea and ran with it.”

Beckett’s idea was a “company store” stocked with goods and supplies of all kinds where any worker employed by the Long Island Jewish Health System (of which Southside is part) who was affected by Sandy could come and take what they needed, no questions asked. (Meeting Beckett, it’s pretty clear that once she sets her mind to something it gets done.) Southside’s CEO, Donna Moravick, quickly green lighted the project, and gave it room in one of the hospital’s buildings, helped schedule staffing and arranged for notification to other LIJ sites.

Donations started pouring in.

By Nov. 8, over 80 Southside workers were able to get things at the store. Today that site has such an abundance of donations that the bounty can be divided between several LIJ locations and other local institutions. Donations have come from as far away as Massachusetts.

Rite Aid Pharmacies sent a truckload of health and beauty aids worth $40,000.

Sylvia Woodson is a ward clerk

at Southside who helps staff the store in her off hours. She has also “shopped” there. Her Freeport home sustained significant damage in the storm and she’s been staying with her mother and sister while the house is repaired.

“Well there’s at least six feet of water in my basement and now they’re having problems finding a boiler. A tree also fell through my kitchen. When I first saw the condition of things it hit me very hard, but thank God I’m here to talk about it. It could have been the middle of the night and I wasn’t able to get out,” she says. “I just pray to God and stay thankful for what I have. I used to be the person who did all the donating.

They talked to me about that.

When you’re in need, you’re in need. I just had to step forward and take the helping hand.”

MEMBERS can access the Union’s relief services by calling 1199SEIU’s Hurricane Sandy Hotline at 212-857-4306.

THERE ARE also mobile sites visiting affected areas throughout New York and New Jersey where members can receive help in filling out or following up on their FEMA applications.

COUNSELING services are available through the National Benefit Fund’s Members Assistance Program.

FOR MORE INFORMATION about these programs or how you can help, please speak with your organizer or visit 1199SEIU’s Hurricane Sandy Relief website www.1199Sandy.org

December 2012/January 2013 • Our Life And Times

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OUR DELEGATE LEADERS

A Leader of the Team “We have the power to create a better world.”

Sam Swartz wears many hats.

And he wears them with passion.

He has worked as a certified occupational therapy assistant (COTA) at Parker Jewish Institute in Queens for the past 17 years.

“I like that my patients run the gamut from newborn to 100 years old,” Swartz says.

Swartz is also a certified personal trainer. “The name of the game is staying in the game,” he says. “And that game is life.”

“I am a generalist who firmly believes in a holistic approach to health care,” Swartz stresses. “Exercise and nutrition are important aspects of the healing process.”

Swartz believes that a wellrun workplace requires an organized work force. He has been a Union delegate for almost as long as he’s worked at Parker. He served on the last Nursing Home Division Negotiating Committee, and he’s a member of the Union’s

Rehab Committee and Interdisciplinary Education Committee.

And he brings years of union and political experience to his posts. Earlier in his career, he was an active member of the Carpenters’ Union. That was followed by a post with the Citizens Campaign for the Environment.

“I stumbled into my position as a COTA when, during a rally for jobs in the early 1990s, a friend mentioned that her son was training to become an assistant.

“I knew the importance of landing a union job,” he says.

“Being in a union like 1199SEIU is good for patients, workers and our society as a whole. I don’t always agree with every position our Union takes, but I realize how much more difficult things would be without 1199SEIU.” Swartz talks about the impor-

tance of spreading the Union message, especially to younger workers. “The only way fundamental change is going to come in our country is from the bottom up. We, the workers, have the power to create a better world.”

Sam Swartz, certified occupational therapy assistant at Parker Jewish Institute in Queens, NY.

“We Are All the Same and We All Bleed Red Blood” For 25 years Delegate Virginia Holt has been an undeterred advocate for Buffalo’s workers.

Virginia Holt, a housekeeper for 34 years at Buffalo’s Hawthorne Health, has been fired six times.

“In that second your whole life just flashes before your eyes,” she says. “You think about your children and your bills and how you’re going to pay for things.”

The first time Holt was dismissed, was 25 years ago when she was falsely charged with theft.

“I saw what was happening.

It was about the way that they looked or dressed or spoke. If they didn’t like you, you were fired,” she says. “I spoke up about it and they said to me ‘OK, you’re fired.’”

Unintimidated, Holt went back to management and irrefutably disproved a theft of which she was accused and demanded her job back – which she got, along with two weeks’ pay. She also took on the role of Union delegate, vowing to ensure the just treatment of her coworkers.

“It gives me a sense of pride and lets me know I’m doing the best for others,” says Holt. “When I can save somebody’s job I give myself a little pat on the back.

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Every time I help someone I’m reminded of what happened to me and why it’s important for me to go on.”

Over the years Holt’s passion for justice and unwillingness to back down have made her a target. On another occasion, a manager accused Holt’s son of stealing. Those accusations were derailed and she learned to methodically collect facts.

“I’m an investigator. You can’t hide anything from me. I’m going to find things out by myself and for myself,” she says.

Today her reputation is one of a fair and relentless advocate for the workers she represents.

“My mother taught me that we all deserve to be treated fairly — that we are all the same and that we all bleed red blood,” she continues. “When a member is right, I’ll tell them, and when a member is wrong, I’ll tell them.

They get mad and I’m not right all the time, but they know I’m dedicated to them.”

She comes in an hour early and stays an hour late each day to make herself available to people. Holt’s credo is the dogged

December 2012/January 2013 • Our Life And Times

ROBERT KIRKHAM PHOTO

pursuit of the truth combined with respect and courtesy.

“My baby brother is a social worker, and he told me that when I get mad at someone, I should take my phone into a closet, call him and yell at him,” she says. “I never go off or yell and holler. It was the best advice anyone ever gave me.”

Virginia Holt, a housekeeper at Buffalo’s Hawthorne Health, has been a delegate for 25 years.

OUR MEMBERS

“The Greatest Comfort a Parent Can Have” For Rosie Delgado, a single mom who works at Manhattan Physicians Group, 1199SEIU benefits bring a special kind of peace of mind.

Manhattan Physicians Group patient service representative Rosie Delgado encourages her son Kenneth’s passion for technology. “He wants to make an app that helps people with disabilities communicate because that’s one of his main challenges,” she says.

Rosie Delgado, a patient service representative at Manhattan Physicians Group, isn’t an 1199SEIU delegate, but she might as well be.

She advocates for her co-workers, doesn’t mind asking hard questions and has contagious exuberance.

“She’s just the most amazing person,” says Manhattan Physicians Group organizer Diann Jeffries.

“She’s always available whenever I ask her to do anything. She’s just got tons of energy.”

The Bronx apartment Delgado shares with her three sons—Kenneth, 18, Marc Anthony, 12, and Jayden, 3— brims with almost as much energy as she does. From the minute she gets home from work she’s simultaneously taking off her coat, chatting, straightening up, and peppering her kids with questions.

WHAT SHE CALLS A CHALLENGE MIGHT SIDELINE SOME OF THE TOUGHEST AMONG US.

“I wish I could call on myself to be everywhere I need to be at once,” Delgado tells visiting Our Life And Times staffers over the bubbly hum of video games, music and television.

“Being a single mom for the last two years has been challenging, but I have lots of angels and so far everything has been okay.”

What she calls a challenge might sideline some of the toughest among us. Over the last two years her marriage ended, most of her closeknit family moved far away and she became the single parent to her three boys – the oldest of whom, Kenneth, was diagnosed at the age of one with cerebral palsy.

“Every day is a struggle. It is for any parent who has three kids. It’s a lot,” she says. “But whenever I have the opportunity I share my blessings

December 2012/January 2013 • Our Life And Times

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At left, Kenneth and brother Marc Anthony participate in NYPD Explorers, an educational program that encourages higher education and community service.

Below, Rosie Delgado talks with her sons (from left) Kenneth, 18, Jayden, 3, and Marc Anthony, 12.

“WHEN I RETIRE I’M GOING TO COME BACK AND VOLUNTEER FOR THIS UNION. I’M OUR BIGGEST ADVOCATE.”

with a disability requires research, note taking and constant education, she says. Sitting beside Kenneth and holding his hand as she talks, Delgado discusses the operations and procedures that have helped him over the years.

with my children. I believe I was put on this earth to be Kenneth’s mother.”

Kenneth, a handsome kid with a big laugh and wide eyes ringed with feathery lashes, is currently waiting for placement in a college program. He’s attended special schools where his needs could be met and he could get the attention he required – not just for his cerebral palsy, but also because he’s intellectually curious and exceptionally bright. (Apple Computers has shown

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an interest in an application he developed to make computers more accessible for people with conditions like cerebral palsy.)

He also uses a wheelchair and has had five major surgeries in addition to his regular care protocols — which include therapy, medications and doctor and hospital visits.

Delgado says some of her strength comes from the security of having 1199SEIU healthcare benefits; they free her to focus on her kids’ needs, especially Kenneth’s. Having a child

December 2012/January 2013 • Our Life And Times

“I tell him that if something is going to work for him and help him, then we should at least talk about it,” she says. It’s clear from his reaction that they haven’t always agreed on his treatments.

As Delgado talks, her other two boys buzz around her, vying for her attention. Marc Anthony, 12, shows off his iPad. He’s a gifted math student and went to sleep-away camp for the first time this summer through the NBF’s Camp Program.

The youngest, Jayden, 3, soon gives up on the conversation and settles in front of the computer to watch videos.

“Knowing that the Union will cover all of Kenny’s medical needs and will pay for his wheelchair and all his surgeries is just the greatest comfort a parent can have,” says Delgado. “I have a very limited amount of money and I’m thankful because I don’t have to worry about anything for him.”

“I cannot tell you how many parents I have seen who had to leave the hospital or couldn’t get rehab because their insurance said no,” she continues.

“When I ask if my son can have braces the Union says yes or if he can have a particular surgery they say yes – as long as God wakes me up in the morning, I know that I’m good.”

Delgado’s drive, dedication and positive attitude have not gone unnoticed.

“I’ve had opportunities where doctors have asked me to come and work for them. I would make more money, but I won’t leave because I can’t be sure I’ll have 1199 benefits.

Those are worth a lot to me,” she says.

She tries to pass along the lessons of her experiences and make sure the things she’s grateful for are there in the future for others.

“I always tell people that we are the Union. We can’t expect people to come here and just give us these things. There were times I thought I was going to have to quit or go on welfare to pay the bills, but I stayed and the Union has always taken care of our needs,” says Delgado. “When I retire I’m going to come back and volunteer for this Union. I’m our biggest advocate.”

AROUND THE UNION

Cultural Activities Help Chinese Members Organize.

“Our Union is here for the whole community.” traditional Chinese dance, listen to music and to discuss politics. They also talk about Union activities and what’s going on in their own shops.

Li Xiu Na, a home attendant with New York City’s Chinese American Planning Council, arranged tables and chairs on a recent Friday night as she prepared for the evening’s activity—a discussion about member participation in political action and the recent Presidential election.

“This helps us spread the Union’s message in our shops,” she said through her interpreter, Organizer David Ho. “I feel more connected to the Union and understand its role in things better. We can help members feel that the Union is behind them when there is a problem.

In October, delegates participated in a political action training conducted in Mandarin and Cantonese.

“WHEN I FIRST CAME TO THIS COUNTRY IN 1971 A FRIEND TOLD ME I SHOULD GET INVOLVED IN POLITICS. I REMEMBER SAYING ‘NO WAY!’ ”

O

n any given Friday night, there’s a gathering in the Retired Members Division of the Union’s New York City headquarters. But it’s not for retirees. In what has become a traditional start to the weekend, a large group of the Union’s Chinese members—mostly workers from the Homecare Division—gather every Friday to share a meal, participate in

We feel like a family—all together.”

Retiree Nancy Fong attended a late October training for Weekend Warriors that was conducted in Cantonese and Mandarin; members participated in role-play exercises for phonebanking and GOTV canvassing.

“I try to help out because a lot of our members don’t speak English. We practice talking about things like economic issues, education, all the money that’s going to the war in the Middle East,” said Fong.

Fong often brings family members, including sister Kitty Wu, also a retiree, to events.

They’re both more politically active now than they were when they were younger, she says.

“When I first came to this country in 1971, a friend told me I should get involved in politics,” says Fong with a laugh.

“I remember saying ‘No way!’.”

Home attendant Xiao Ping, a delegate with Brooklyn’s Cobble HIll NH, brought her 86-year-old mother to an October political action training.

“I’m a supporter of the Union and it provides us good benefits and good doctors and is there for me whenever I need it,” she says.

“But it’s not just there for the members. When we get together we want to show how our Union is here for the whole community.”

– Nancy Fong

PEOPLE

Cape Cod Hospital’s Cathy Chase-Jones is a potter.

W

hen Kathy ChaseJones, a secretary at Cape Cod Hospital in Hyannis, MA, was in grammar school her class was visited by a potter who demonstrated his craft for the kids.

“I said ‘man, I want to do that’,” says Chase-Jones. The day after she finished high school she started working at a pottery factory on her native Cape Cod. Since she is the last of six kids in a working class family, her parents couldn’t help with college tuition. She worked her way through school and after graduating worked in various studios and in a factory where she met husband Andrew Jones.

Today they together run Earthn-Fire Pottery in Barnstable on Cape Cod where they produce handmade pottery. “We have a gallery, we do a few shows a year and we do wholesale to about 38

galleries at this point,” says ChaseJones. “When we opened the business we said it was either going to be the best idea we ever had or the biggest mistake we ever made.”

Their work ranges from small, decorative pieces in delicate colors to large bowls and plates in bold colors. One of their most popular creations is a round bodied bird— a cartoonish seagull—with stick legs and charming wide eyes that has become a favorite souvenir for visitors. The Joneses produce the bird in a several sizes and will customize special gift orders that are placed in advance.

Chase-Jones says it can be exhausting trying to juggle the responsibilities of her jobs, her business and a family, but it’s worth it to get to do what she loves.

“With pottery—no matter what you can imagine you can do it. And no matter how you plan it

it’s always going to come out different depending on what’s next to it in the kiln. It’s like Christmas morning. You just never know what’s going to happen every time you open that kiln,” she says.

Cathy Chase-Jones knew she wanted to be a potter since she was in elementary school.

December 2012/January 2013 • Our Life And Times

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SOCIAL JUSTICE

“Justice delayed is justice denied.”

Bronx man while he was walking to his parents’ home was accosted and stabbed by a group of strangers. At the same time, Cordero, who had never been arrested or been in trouble with the law, and his younger brother, Ramon Rivas, were leaving a party nearby. Noticing the melee, Cordero and Rivas walked over to the scene of the attack.

Four plainclothes policemen arrived moments later and quickly nabbed five men out of the crowd: Cordero, Rivas and three others. The three, in return for pleading guilty, were charged with beating and robbing the victim. But Cordero and Rivas, were charged with attempted murder and related crimes.

At the trial, the defense presented eyewitnesses who testified that Cordero and his brother had crossed the street and arrived on the scene only after the assault was over.

The defense argued further that the real stabber was Dario Rodriguez, a community resident with a very long rap sheet that several witnesses identified as the assailant and who admitted to others that he had committed the crime. Unfortunately Cordero bears a strong physical resemblance to Rodriguez.

Angel and Michelle Cordero.

Member Fights for

HUSBAND’S EXONERATION Angel Cordero served 13 years in prison for a crime he did not commit.

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December 2012/January 2013 • Our Life And Times

Michelle Cordero could never be mistaken for a shrinking violet. As a Guidance Center of Brooklyn clinical social worker for high school students, she has to be a good listener. But to her co-workers and GCB management she’s well known for raising her voice in defense of 1199SEIU members and her clients.

“Michelle is one of our delegates that management never wants to take on,” says 1199SEIU Organizer Kim Gooden. “Most recently, Michelle as part of the bargaining committee has fought for ground-breaking proposals. She is a true fighter for our members.”

But Michelle Cordero also is consumed by another fight. That is to clear the name of her husband, Angel Cordero, who was convicted and served 13 years behind bars for a crime he never committed.

“I’m stubborn and that sometimes makes me my worst enemy,” Michelle Cordero admits. But my stubbornness means that Angel and I are not going to stop fighting until he’s completely exonerated.”

Angel Cordero was paroled in March. That he and Michelle have had to devote so much of their time and resources for a measure of justice speaks loudly about the gaping holes in our criminal justice system.

Angel Cordero’s ordeal began in the early morning of May 16, 1999. when a young

In spite of overwhelming evidence of their innocence, Cordero and Rivas were sentenced to 15 years in prison. Angel Cordero, who had never been in trouble with the law, was taken from his home and family, including the love of his life, his three-year-old daughter, to spend the next 13 years behind bars.

And for 13 years and eight months he has fought to clear his name. “Knowing that I was innocent kept me strong,” Angel Cordero says.

He speaks softly and measures his words carefully. His calmness belies his 13 years behind bars.

“During those early days in prison, my mom kept me going, and my stepfather was my mother’s backbone,” Cordero says. He noted that his and his brother’s incarceration took a heavy toll on his whole family. His mother, for example, lost 60 pounds.

While he was in prison, Cordero married long-time friend, Michelle. She has been his rock, helping him to pick up the pieces. “I’ve always believed in him,” she says. “And I believe that because the evidence of his innocence is so overwhelming, that he will be exonerated.”

She points to the abysmal record of the hanging judge who sentenced Cordero, the 21 witnesses who have testified to his innocence and, most important, Dario Rodriguez’s confession as unassailable proof of her husband’s unjust conviction.

“Attorney Barry Pollock of the Innocence Project leads a team of dedicated lawyers and soon a documentary film about Angel will be ready for screening,” Michelle Cordero says.

Angel Cordero is looking for a full-time job while he attends trade school to become an electrician. “A job would help ease our financial burden,” offers Michelle Cordero.

The Corderos are confident that Angel will be exonerated. The question is when. The “Angel Cordero is Innocent” website quotes human rights figures such as Martin Luther King, Jr., Henry Thoreau and the Dali Lama. It calls to mind one of Dr. King’s well-known admonitions, “Justice delayed is justice denied.”

For information on how you can help, log on to www.angelcorderoisinnocent.com

THE BACK PAGE

Our Heroes 1199ers got out the vote in Philadelphia and throughout Pennsylvania and helped deliver the state for Pres. Obama’s historic victory.

Once again 1199ers proved their potency as a major political force. See page 6.