Our Life & Times

A JOURNAL OF 1199SEIU March/April 2011

Tackling States’ Budget Crises Thousands rallied in Manhattan March 10 to urge passage of Gov. Cuomo’s proposed NYS Medicaid budget, which provides a living wage for home health aides.

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UNIONS IN RIGHT-WING’S CROSSHAIRS Budget fights are about more than funds.

PRESIDENT’S COLUMN Wisconsin is about us all.

TACKLING STATES’ BUDGET CRISES We won’t pay for Wall Street’s crimes.

THE WORK WE DO Our PCAs and homecare members provide devoted care.

HOMECARE WORKERS TAKE TO STREETS Health aides, PCAs score wins.

PUBLIC EMPLOYEES ON FRONTLINES They are easy scapegoats.

NURSING HOME BUDGETS THREATEN PATIENTS We help soften budget cuts blow.

RETIREES LAUNCH PAC CAMPAIGN Asked to protect gains and future.

PEOPLE LPN draws comics with a message.

AROUND OUR UNION Victories throughout Eastern seaboard.

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p.8 Our Life And Times, March/April 2011, Vol 29, No 2 Published by 1199SEIU, United Healthcare Workers East 310 West 43rd St. New York, NY 10036 Telephone (212) 582-1890 www.1199seiu.org

E DITOR :

J.J. Johnson STAFF WRITE R :

Patricia Kenney PHOTOG RAPH E R :

Jim Tynan PHOTOG RAPHY ASS ISTANT :

Belinda Gallegos ART DI RECTION & DES IG N :

Maiarelli Studio PRES I DE NT :

COVE R PHOTO :

George Gresham

Belinda Gallegos

S EC RETARY TREASURE R :

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 Neva Shillingford Milly Silva Veronica Turner Laurie Vallone Estela Vazquez

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Allys Ansah-Arkoful, an RN at Schervier Nursing Care Center in the Bronx, NY.

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EDITORIAL

Unions in Right-Wing’s

CROSSHAIRS Budget fights are about more than funds.

When far-right Republicans captured half of our nation’s governorships and state legislatures last November, their first order of business was to remove the major opposition to their pro-corporate agenda. Though conservatives rail against budget deficits — national and local — that concern pales in comparison to their central mission of crippling, if not destroying, unions.

If these far-right Republicans and some conservative Democrats sincerely cared about budget deficits, they would close them by getting revenue from those who not only are responsible for the shortfall but who also have profited handsomely during the past few years, while millions of working people and their families have lost their jobs, homes and savings.

For example, in Wisconsin, although public workers have agreed to all the requested economic concessions in the state budget, Republican Gov. Scott Walker is not satisfied. He wants nothing less than to cut the heart out of the public unions by denying their collective bargaining rights. His bill also imposes enormous healthcare and pension cuts, eliminates automatic paycheck deduction of union dues, and requires public sector unions to hold recertification votes every year.

Similar union-busting efforts are underway in other states. In New Jersey and Florida, 1199ers are facing off against governors whose policies differ little from those of Gov. Walker. But the pro-corporate governors and legislators seem to have overplayed their hands.

The courage and unity of Wisconsin’s public workers have galvanized the U.S. labor movement. Workers are rejecting attempts to pit public against private, uniformed workers against teachers, old against young.

And 1199ers in all five states and the District of Columbia have participated in solidarity actions for Wisconsin workers.

“It’s not just about Wisconsin,” says Ronieka Burns, a CNA at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, NY. “This is about us.”

At press time, New York State 1199ers were working with Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office and the state legislature on a budget with significant reforms to enhance the quality of health care across the state while reducing costs. A cornerstone of those reforms is an opportunity for 1199SEIU home health aides to receive a long-overdue living wage and affordable health care.

“The budget fight is not just about pay and benefits for healthcare workers,” says RN Allys Ansah-Arkorful, a delegate and 19-year veteran of Schervier NH in the

The pro-corporate governors and legislators seem to have overplayed their hands.

The courage and unity of Wisconsin’s public workers have galvanized the U.S. labor movement.

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Bronx, NY. “It’s about patient care and about how we treat those in the twilight of their lives.”

Ansah-Arkorful says that members and management from her home would join hands to lobby state legislators. The final budget was due April 1.

July 1 is the budget deadline in the other four 1199SEIU states. It is Oct. 1 in the District of Columbia. Members from Massachusetts, New Jersey, Maryland and Florida describe their budget campaigns in the pages of this issue.

Boston Medical Center’s Howard Rotman has been a patient transporter for 38 years and an activist for most of that time. At press time, he was celebrating the region’s winning of federal funding for BMC and other safety-net hospitals. He also is organizing for 1199SEIU’s May 11th Advocacy Day at the Massachusetts State House in Boston.

Members in other regions were preparing to lobby in their districts and at their capitol. They say they are doing it for themselves and their patients, but the battles also are about the future of labor and the future of our nation.

Thousands turned out for a rally at New York’s City Hall in Manhattan on Feb. 26. The event was part of a national day of action in support of Wisconsin’s public workers and against the right-wing assault on working families.

THE PRESIDENT’S COLUMN George Gresham

Wisconsin Is About Us All At stake is the existence of our labor movement.

Over the past couple of months, extreme-right politicians have launched a full-scale attack on working people, with the aim of destroying collective bargaining rights and creating a toothless labor movement and a docile middle class.

The rising up of Wisconsin working families by the hundreds of thousands has inspired trade unions throughout the country to fight back as if their very existence depends on it. Which, in fact, it does.

The battle lines were formed before most of us were born. In the 1950s, one of every three private-sector workers in our country was a union member. Today, it is one of every 14. That strong labor movement of a half-century ago gave us employer-based health insurance and pensions and, in the 1960s, Medicare and occupational safety and health protections and, later, family and medical leave legislation.

The singular contribution of the American labor movement is providing workers the bridge to the middle class. Unions gave us the weekend. They ended child labor. They were pivotal in winning Social Security and unemployment compensation.

Seniority, a voice on the job, the 40-hour work-week, overtime pay, paid vacations and sick days and holidays — all came about only because of a labor movement that fought for them.

But in the 1970s, with the rise of global capitalism, U.S. multinational corporations decided to gut our manufacturing industries — steel, auto, rubber, etc. — moving millions of jobs abroad for cheap labor and ready access to raw materials. The heart of industrial unionism in this country was also gutted. Unions that once had a million members now have maybe a quarter-million. When Ronald Reagan became president and calculatedly destroyed the air traffic controllers union, he set into motion a one-sided class war against working Americans that has never let up to this day.

Today, for the first time, unionized public-sector employees outnumber unionized workers in private industry. And they — our teachers, sanitation workers, bus drivers, fire fighters — are the target of an all-out assault by those who would destroy our public services in order to privatize our public wealth. For us healthcare workers, even when we don’t work in public hospitals, our industry is dependent on Medicaid and Medicare, that is to say, on public funding.

The corporate elites and the right-wing extremists don’t only threaten the unions of Wisconsin, Ohio and the rest of the American heartland. They are a threat to every working person in America — and to our ability to bargain on an equal footing for the right to earn a living wage. The American middle class was formed by the struggle of union workers standing shoulder to shoulder in defiance of the idea that being rich means being right. All that now stands at risk.

The corporate elites want us to believe that our country is broke, so we have to give up our pensions and our union rights and take a wage cut and pay more for health care.

But this is a lie of monstrous proportions. Our country is extremely wealthy, but the wealth is not in our hands. In one of history’s great thefts, the wealth we produce and the taxes we pay have been given to the bankers and the hedge funders and the Wall Street billionaires. The richest 400 Americans have more wealth than that of 155 million Americans combined.

They control the mainstream media and the message coming at us 24/7. They control the political culture of our country and most of the politicians.

So we owe a great debt to our sisters and brothers in Wisconsin for standing up, saying “Enough!” and fighting back. They have led the way and working people all across our country are following their lead.

The forces trying to crush workers in Wisconsin and Ohio are relentless. They are coming for us also. 1199SEIU was forged in struggle by a generation of working-class heroes who would not retreat.

This is not a spectator sport. Now it is our turn to fight, alongside millions of sisters and brothers, in our cities, our state capitals, and in Washington, D.C. It’s our time to stand up for ourselves, our families, and our country.

Are you ready to be heard?

Letters GAY RIGHTS COVERAGE n Feb. 8, when I came home from work I received the latest issue of Our Life and Times.

While going through the magazine one particular article greatly interested me. The article entitled “LGBTQ Caucus Combats Hate” introduced an organization within 1199SEIU that takes a stand and advocates for LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer) members. This article discussed how the Caucus hosted a breakfast that was attended by New York City Council President Christine Quinn, and other gay activists, to raise awareness of LGBTQ issues in our very city.

It also acknowledged the importance of standing up for and advocating LGBTQ issues by tying them to the overall mission of 1199SEIU, which is to stop injustice everywhere, and to continue the legacy of Dr. King.

Being an openly gay male myself, and a member of 1199SEIU, I became so excited and I felt a great relief and victory to finally see LGBTQ issues being discussed and taken care of. In a time when gay marriage is at the front and center of heated political debate, and massive hate crimes are emerging throughout the city, I am particularly grateful, and excited to see a strong workers’ union is not only advocating for fair labor rights, but gay rights as well.

In my view, I see the caucus bringing about unity not only of its members but within the city. The mere fact that such a LGBTQ caucus exists and is developing brings a sense of pride of being a member of the LGBTQ community and a member of 1199SEIU. Being openly gay to your co-workers and managers can bring severe consequences at the workplace, such as hearing homophobic comments, dealing with discrimination or simply not being able to discuss your same-sex partner or bring that partner to a work-related event.

Not having a union fight for your rights and or the rights of your same-sex partner can be even more difficult. Therefore, the LGBTQ Caucus is a tremendous step forward in bringing social awareness, social tolerance, and social equality to the hospitals, and healthcare facilities in New York, and across the nation. I strongly believe that the LGBTQ Caucus along with its members will make a great contribution to what I like to call the Gay Rights Movement.

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JOSHUA CANCEL Mt. Sinai Medical Center, Manhattan

CLIMATE CHANGE ISSUE he January-February issue of Our Life And Times featuring “Creating A Cleaner, Greener Workplace” is plain wonderful. Informing members (and retirees) and their families on the urgency of facing and dealing with climate change gives us the understanding — the basic tools — for coping with an already altered world.

And where else do we get such a full story? Hardly a word about this is provided in any media these days. (Some TV bosses tell the reporters to avoid the subject — or slant the stories in a “funny” or skeptical light.)

An exception to the usual silence, though, was a New York Times article (2/17/11) reporting on a new scientific study involving elaborate computer programs looking from 1951–1999 (not including the 2010 catastrophic flooding in Pakistan, China and parts of the U.S.) It was headed, “Study Says Rise in Precipitation Is Connected to Human Acts.”

It explained why the study concluded human actions are involved.

As I write this, howling winds from the Arctic have been knocking down my recycle bin, tearing off more tree limbs still surviving from the “microburst” of last fall and driving me a little batty. It makes me think about the serious early human victims of climate change: like the islanders of Tuvalo, part of the Maldive Islands in the South Pacific who tried to get the UN to help them from drowning some 10 years ago.

Then I wonder — do the CEOs of the carbon dioxideemitting industries think they can protect their grandchildren behind the gates of their properties or send them to live on the moon?

Finally, I especially loved the editorial and the interview with Sean Sweeney, director of Cornell’s Global Labor Institute, who said: “Labor needs a new agenda — one grounded in social solidarity, environmental sustainability and economic democracy. Climate protection thus becomes a core concern, not a side issue.”

As we used to say, right on!

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ELAINE SPIRO Retiree, Great Neck, 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 J.J. 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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POLITICAL ACTION

TACKLING STATES’ BUDGET CRISES WE WON’T PAY FOR WALL STREET’S ROBBERY. Wall Street is awash in black ink. The gap between working people and the rich widens each day. Yet states from New York to California, unable to balance their budgets, are cutting vital services and jobs. Governors and legislators in at least 16 states are attempting to eliminate or seriously weaken public unions.

It is in this toxic environment that1199ers are struggling to maintain their jobs and provide quality health care for the patients they serve. Virtually all healthcare facilities that depend on public funding are being asked to do more with less. But for some 80,000 members whose contracts expired or are about to expire this year, the moment is especially critical. New York State’s budget deadline is April 1. July 1 is the deadline for 1199ers in Massachusetts, New Jersey, Maryland and Florida.

NEW YORK At press time, the New York State Legislature was scheduled to vote on Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s executive budget in time to meet the April 1 deadline. The budget, which includes a package of Medicaid savings and reforms designed to cap the state’s gross Medicaid spending at $52.8 billion, essentially adopted the recommendations of the Medicaid Redesign Team (MRT) appointed by Gov. Cuomo to propose $2.3 billion in Medicaid savings for the state. The MRT was co-chaired by former 1199SEIU Pres. Dennis Rivera and included 1199SEIU Pres. George Gresham and Greater NY Hospital Association Pres.

Kenneth Raske.

“Amid Cuomo’s Medicaid Cuts, Health Care Workers’ Union Shapes a Victory” read a headline in the Feb. 26 issue of The New York Times. The article noted that the MRT’s proposal to streamline Medicaid costs also included a number of reforms sought by 1199SEIU. Chief among them is an innovative proposal to protect Union home health aides, including a wage floor that will finally bring the aides’ wages up to the $10-an-hour living wage paid to Union home attendants.

In addition to the living wage for home health aides, the governor has adopted the MRT proposal that guarantees home

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attendants will maintain their wages and their union status for at least three years.

The governor also adopted an 1199SEIU proposal that will consolidate the homecare industry by eliminating a number of the non-union for-profit agencies and concentrating cases into the nonprofit largely unionized sector.

“I’ll continue to lobby the politicians to see that these reforms are passed,” says Tina Lam, a home attendant at Hanac Home Services in Manhattan and a veteran 1199SEIU political activist. “Clients need consistency of care. It’s difficult and confusing when a client has to work with different homecare workers because of turnover due to the low pay.”

The MRT proposal on hospital reforms also differs considerably from those originally proposed by the governor in his State of the State address by eliminating all of the deepest cuts he originally proposed.

Not-for-profit nursing homes, many of which have been struggling to keep up with contractual benefit and pension payments, also will get some relief in the proposed budget. The homes will have proportionately smaller budget cuts than other sectors. Since there were no nursing home management representatives on the MRT, 1199SEIU was the primary voice at the table for limiting the cuts.

Tina Lam a home attendant at Hanac Home Services in Manhattan and a veteran 1199SEIU political activist: “I’ll continue to lobby the politicians to see that these reforms are passed.”

“We still need all hands on deck to ensure that we have the necessary funding,” says Allys Ansah-Arkorful, an RN at Schervier Nursing Care Center in the Bronx. “We can’t be penny-wise and pound foolish.

Families are already overburdened. If low funding causes us to release patients before they are ready, that only worsens the situation for all.”

POLITICAL ACTION

MASSACHUSETTS For 1199ers in Massachusetts, 2011 is the year of the contract. More than 60 contracts are up for negotiations this year, including that of the Personal Care Attendants (PCAs), homecare workers who represent more than half the Division’s members.

The Division, with nearly 40,000 members, has tripled in size during the past five years, and it has greatly increased its political muscle. But, as in virtually every state

in the nation, Massachusetts also must close a budget deficit. This year it stands at $1.8 billion.

In 2006, under then-Gov. Mitt Romney, the state introduced a universal healthcare plan. Today 98 percent of all adults and 100 percent of the children in the state are covered, but healthcare costs continue to spiral upwards. In response, Gov. Deval Patrick recently announced payment reform legislation to rein in costs.

“1199SEIU applauds Gov. Patrick for his leadership in working to control healthcare costs and improve quality,” declared 1199SEIU Exec. VP Veronica Turner in late February.

Turner also praised the legislation for calling for the establishment of an advisory board that includes union representatives.

Turner did express concern about the plan’s failure to address the low state Medicaid reimbursement rates, which in turn drive up costs for consumers with private insurance.

“We’ve been able to get the necessary funding for safety-net hospitals such as Boston Medical Center (BMC),” says BMC veteran transporter and delegate Howard Rotman. “But the fight for adequate funding never ends. I’ll be joining other delegates to mobilize for the May 11 Advocacy Day at the Massachusetts State House in Boston.”

Thanks to outstanding advocacy work by 1199SEIU and its allies, the governor’s budget includes full funding for PCA services and jobs. 1199SEIU activists were holding meetings in March with elected officials to prevent PCA funding from becoming a casualty of the state budget deficit.

MARYLAND

Howard Rotman BMC veteran transporter and delegate: “We’ve been able to get the necessary funding for safety-net hospitals such as Boston Medical Center (BMC), but the fight for adequate funding never ends. I’ll be joining other delegates to mobilize for the May 11 Advocacy Day at the Massachusetts State House in Boston.”

Maryland’s Gov. Martin O’Malley has proposed a balanced budget that would close a projected deficit of almost $1.6 billion.

Since the budget includes no new revenue proposals, the gaps would be closed by cuts, including a $264 million reduction in Medicaid payments to hospitals. That figure represents the largest spending reduction in the budget. In March, Republicans in the state senate released a budget proposal that would chop another $621 million from Gov. O’Malley’s proposal Because health care — employing one in five Baltimore workers — is the city’s largest industry, cuts would hit Baltimore residents especially hard. 1199SEIU last year launched its Heart of Baltimore campaign to boost the

JAY MALLIN PHOTO

TACKLING STATES’ BUDGET CRISES

Phil Jones Johns Hopkins Hospital delegate: “It’s about time working people and poor people stop paying for the mess created by the big financial companies. Not only were they bailed out, they continue to earn big dollars while we face cuts.” healthcare industry and the fortunes of the city and its residents.

“When Baltimore’s health care employers start working together with their employees,” says 1199SEIU Exec VP John Reid, “we’ll be able to break the vicious cycle that’s impoverishing caregivers and weakening our city.”

Rather than weaken patient care and eliminate jobs with Medicaid cuts, 1199SEIU is supporting various revenue proposals, including a “dime a drink” tax on alcohol. And as in New York, Maryland 1199ers are calling for a millionaires' tax that would force individuals and multi-state corporations to pay taxes on profits they take from the state.

“This is only fair,” says Johns Hopkins Hospital delegate Phil Jones. “It’s about time working people and poor people stop paying for the mess created by the big financial companies. Not only were they bailed out, they continue to earn big dollars while we face cuts.”

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POLITICAL ACTION

NEW JERSEY Before there was Gov. Scott Walker in Wisconsin, there was Chris Christie in New Jersey. Walker had a year to watch Gov. Christie go after teachers, other public workers and essential social services before he launched his attacks.

As a percentage of its overall budget, New Jersey suffers from one of the largest deficits in the nation. And Gov. Christie takes pride in counting himself among those far-right Republicans whose cure is to cut taxes on the rich, reduce services for workers and the poor and force public workers to reduce their already low compensation by paying more for their pensions and healthcare coverage.

It is in this environment that NJ 1199ers have to fight for adequate healthcare funding and decent contracts. They are not alone.

On March 5, Trenton saw its largest protest ever. Some 35,000, including healthcare workers, teachers, police officers and state workers gathered in the Capitol to oppose Gov. Christie’s proposed $29.4 billion budget.

The governor estimates that the total Medicaid short fall is $1.1 billion. His plans call for cuts of about $0.5 billion, through various

reforms, including a “global waiver” from the federal government allowing the state to overhaul its Medicaid management in ways not yet identified.

“Any cuts would cause patients to suffer,” says Latarsha Foy, a CNA at Jersey City’s Hamilton Park NH. “We are already underpaid and short staffed. I’m concerned about the children and the elderly we care for. Cuts would put them all in jeopardy.”

Foy said she wished the governor could walk a day in her shoes, which is what leaders in the Region invited several New Jersey legislators to do on Jan. 31. One of those who accepted was Assemblyman Jason O’Donnell of the 31st District in Hudson County.

After his “workday” Assemblyman O’Donnell promised his support and said he was “blown away” by his experience with nursing home workers.

“When the term ‘waste’ is used in relation to the work these people do, it’s an ignorant statement,” said O’Donnell. “If we can’t take care of our young and our old, then what are we doing as a society?”

“We’ll be spending a lot of time talking to our representatives and going to Trenton between now and July 1,” Foy says.

FLORIDA

Latarsha Foy CNA at Jersey City’s Hamilton Park NH: “Any cuts would cause patients to suffer.

We are already underpaid and short staffed.

I’m concerned about the children and the elderly we care for. Cuts would put them all in jeopardy.”

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1199ers in the Sunshine State also must contend with a pro-business, anti-worker, conservative Republican governor, Rick Scott.

In addition, Republicans outnumber Democrats two to one in both houses of the state legislature.

Gov. Scott, the millionaire former chief executive of Columbia/Hospital Corporation of America (HCA), has proposed a budget that eliminates nearly $5 billion in state spending.

His plan is to slash Medicaid spending by $4 billion over the next two years.

Cuts in Medicaid spending would mean that hundreds of millions of federal matching dollars would be forfeited by the state. The governor and the state legislature have proposed expanding a statewide managedcare system for Medicaid participants. Many oppose this plan because managed-care providers operate on a cost model that generally means far less service for poor communities.

Scott, who was strongly supported by Tea Partiers, also plans to cut $3.3 billion from the state’s public school budget, which would

Cloreta Morgan CNA at Miami’s Unity Health and Rehab Center: “I have made many trips to Tallahassee to fight for healthcare funding, If the proposed cuts are enacted, residents are going to decline.” mean mass layoffs of teachers and other school personnel across the state.

On March 8, the opening day of the state’s legislative session, demonstrators marched in at least 40 sites across the state to protest the Republicans’ budget proposals.

“I have made many trips to Tallahassee to fight for healthcare funding,” says Cloreta Morgan, a CNA at Miami’s Unity Health and Rehab Center. “If the proposed cuts are enacted, residents are going to decline.

We’ve been talking to families to ask them to talk to their elected officials.”

Meanwhile, the Florida Division of 1199SEIU is building strength by successfully executing one of the most successful labor organizing drives in the history of the South.

1199SEIU’s New Organizing department has recently won 13 elections in HCA-affiliated hospitals and has now brought 19 of 38 HCA hospitals into 1199SEIU. Ironically, Gov. Scott in 1997 resigned as chief executive of HCA — though with a handsome severance package — amid a scandal over the company's business and Medicare billing practices. HCA ultimately admitted to 14 felonies and agreed to pay the federal government over $600 million.

Once again, Gov. Scott has got Medicaid in his crosshairs. 1199ers and their allies are fighting hard to force his retreat.

THE WORK WE DO

Lizete Rosa cares for her grandson Evan Couto, 15, at the family home in Fall River, Mass. Evan has cerebral palsy. Rosa is one of three PCAs that care for Evan while his mother, Jessica Mayhew, and her husband, Dana, work full time outside of the home. Rosa worked in a factory until she became Evan’s PCA a few years ago.

“I became a widow when my daughters were babies,” she says. “Evan changed my life. Of course it was very sad when we found out he had problems, but over the years I love him more and more every day.

He’s my life, and he’s my job.”

THE WORK WE DO OUR DEVOTED HOMECARE WORKERS AND PCAs

In New York State 1199SEIU represents 70,000 homecare workers. In Massachusetts some 28,000 Personal Care Attendants (PCAs) are members of 1199SEIU. Though they have different titles and work under different systems, their work is very much the same — they are devoted providers of in-home care and support for seniors and people with disabilities.

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Yonette Baker a home attendant with New York City’s FEGS agency, has worked with client Virginia Mitchell for four years. Baker is with her three days a week. Mitchell has Parkinson’s disease and diabetes. “I cook breakfast, lunch and dinner for her and clean up her surroundings,” says Baker. “Since she’s a diabetic, I have to remind her to take her medication. My mother was a diabetic, so I know how to cook for her. Plus I like to eat healthy foods, so I know what to do to make things that she likes.”

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HOME CARE

Amid Budget Battles:

A BRIGHTER FUTURE FOR HOME CARE “It’s time for a change to the old system.”

In spite of gusting winds and rain, hundreds of 1199ers and their supporters turned out for a March 10 rally in New York City to call for the passage of Medicaid reforms that would finally give home attendants a living wage.

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ome health care is one of the nation’s fastest growing workforces.

1199SEIU already represents some 70,000 home attendants, home health aides and house keepers in the New York City metropolitan area, 28,000 personal care attendants (PCAs) in Massachusetts and 420 homecare workers in Maryland. A recent report predicted that in New York City alone, some 50,000 new homecare jobs will be created by 2016. Healthcare reform and an aging baby boom generation are moving long-term care away from institutional settings and towards home and community based care.

“People are living much longer now and they want to stay at home where they’re more comfortable,” says Margaret Passley, a home attendant who works for the Kind Care and Progressive agencies in New York City. “This is where our quality care comes in. Home attendants make sure clients are safe and there’s less stress for them. It’s also less costly than putting someone who’s not sick in a nursing home.”

But when it comes to funding, home care has had a big target on its back. It’s heavily dependent on Medicaid, so in these economic times this makes the struggle particularly difficult. In Massachusetts, PCAs have been fighting for health coverage and most don’t qualify for state-sponsored health care.

This year, PCAs who work less than 15 hours came dangerously close to losing their jobs.

In New York State, home health aides barely make minimum wage and many have no benefits; dishonest agencies compete for limited dollars and to increase revenue, give clients hours they don’t need.

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n spite of their tenuous position, there has been progress. This year, 1199SEIU homecare division members and PCAs have avoided the wholesale slash-and-burn Medicaid cuts proposed by many governors. In Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick included in his version of the budget full funding to maintain the status quo for the state’s PCAs. At press time there were several state spending plans before the Massachusetts legislature. 1199ers were meeting with lawmakers and urging them to pass Gov. Patrick’s budget.

“Our biggest hurdle is the budget,” says Denise Leschenier, a PCA in Quincy, Mass.

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Margaret Passley, a home attendant with New York City’s Kind Care agency. and representative on 1199SEIU’s Executive Council. “We’ve just tried to find balance.

We know that so many people have lost their jobs. We’re just trying to keep everything on an even keel.”

And when New York State Gov. Andrew Cuomo called for close to $3 billion to be cut from the state’s Medicaid budget he assembled a Medicaid Redesign Team (MRT) — which included 1199SEIU Pres. George Gresham and former 1199SEIU Pres. Dennis Rivera. The MRT recommended a number of reforms for home care that would yield savings for the industry and help workers.

They include the creation of a long-term managed care program to help weed out unscrupulous, profit-driven agencies that drive up costs and a minimum wage of $10 per hour for home health aides. Long-term goals include increasing home care’s scope of practice, career ladders, and a single standard for all homecare workers.

1199SEIU Pres. Gresham characterized the changes as a victory for homecare workers.

A

t press time, the MRT’s recommendations had not yet been approved by the state’s legislature. A rally was held for March 10 in lower Manhattan to demand that legislators pass

the measures.

“When they say they were going to cut home care, I wonder how low they can go,” says Passley. “It’s time for a change to the old system. The way it was laid out wasn’t working.”

With growing numbers of homecare workers and PCAs, fixing the system’s problems just makes sense, says Leschenier.

“People want to hang onto their independence,” she says. “PCAs become friends and confidants. We are much more than healthcare workers. And this is a job that is not going away. There will always be someone who needs care. Everyone will be faced with challenges and we can provide different types of care. There are all sorts of reasons that this profession will continue to draw people.”

SOLIDARITY

The Attack on Public Employees is

AN ATTACK ON US ALL Working people are paying the price for Wall Street’s misdeeds.

“So many public servants are underpaid.

Public workers – especially in the hospitals – work really hard. Those rich guys just fight for other rich guys.”

—1199SEIU member Brian Thrower, LPN at Bellevue Hospital Center in Manhattan

New Yorkers rallied at Fox News headquarters in Manhattan on Feb. 22 and at New York City Hall on Feb. 26 in support of the Wisconsin teachers.

cross the country, public employees and institutions are being portrayed as drains on the public coffers.

Hard-earned salaries, benefits, pensions — and collective bargaining rights — are being blamed for massive deficits. Many legislators are using budget battles to wage war on union contracts.

“We’re all in the same boat,” says 1199er Kurt Monroe, an LPN at Coler-Goldwater Hospital, a public hospital on Roosevelt Island in New York City. “If we allow our public employee brothers and sisters to be taken advantage of, eventually it’s going to happen to us. They need our help to stand strong and one day we’ll need them, so we should be there for them now.”

“It’s so offensive and upsetting when someone with millions of dollars says we’re draining the system,” says 1199SEIU member Brian Thrower, an LPN at Bellevue Hospital Center in Manhattan.

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Thrower, a delegate, is among the 1199ers who work alongside members of AFSCME’s District Council 37 in the city’s public hospitals.

“So many public servants are underpaid,” continues Thrower.

“Public workers — especially in the hospitals — work really hard.

Those rich guys just fight for other rich guys.” hrower doesn’t have to look too far for evidence. In December, four consultants to the City of New York were arrested for stealing $80 million while working on a payroll project.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the problems with the group had simply “slipped through the cracks.” Under Bloomberg’s watch, subsidies in the hundreds of millions have gone to developers for massive luxury housing and business complexes, while the city’s Health and Hospitals Corp.

(HHC) faces an $8.8 million deficit and is looking at closures and the

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elimination of some 4,000 jobs.

Yet Bloomberg insists that schoolteachers will bankrupt the city if they don’t relinquish some of their pension benefits and allow the city to lay off the “more expensive” senior members of the profession.

And New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has proclaimed that there are two classes of people: public employees who receive rich benefits and people who pay for them.

But public workers are not quietly allowing themselves to be scapegoated. Tens of thousands have turned out for massive rallies in Madison, Wisconsin, to protest vicious anti-union cuts proposed by their state’s governor. They even received a letter of support from members of the Superbowl champion Green Bay Packers.

And across the country, tens of thousands have marched in solidarity with Wisconsin public workers. loser to home in New York State, a new group, the Strong Economy for All Coalition, which includes 1199SEIU and the United Federation of Teachers, is working to turn things around. They want Wall Street to pay for its own mistakes. On their agenda is an extension of the millionaire’s tax, an income tax surcharge on high income New Yorkers that’s set to expire in December. Gov. Cuomo had proposed eliminating it. They’ll also be lobbying, canvassing and conducting other organizing efforts that take to task the millionaires and billionaires who drove the financial crisis and recession, not the state’s vital workers.

“When people talk about the waste in our public hospital system it just tells me that they don’t understand our mission or the work we do,” says Thrower. “We provide a service to people who can’t afford it — homeless people, immigrants and the very poor.

When they say we’re wasting their money, it upsets me because I know what we do every day, and if it wasn’t for us here to help those people, then who would do it?”

Monroe says solidarity and the struggle for jobs is about the whole society.

“The healthcare system has to be around for everyone,” he says.

“People are always going to get sick. We can’t let them put any of us on the back burner. Once we do that we all go down hill.”

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MONICA GRAFF PHOTO

OUR NURSING HOMES

Nursing Home Budget Cuts Have Human Costs

Olamide Oladejo, far right, a CNA at Liberty House NH in Jersey City, NJ, and her co-workers showed Assemblyman Jason O’Donnell the proper way to make beds during a Walk a Day in My Shoes event at the home in January.

“People need our care 24 hours a day.” ursing homes in nearly every state are facing budget cuts.

While many governors and other elected officials continue to talk about “irresponsible” Medicaid spending, workers wonder how their institutions will tolerate more funding reductions.

Olamide Oladejo, a CNA at Liberty House Nursing Home in Jersey City, NJ, says workers are continually being asked to provide the same quality care to more patients in less time and with fewer resources.

“If you want to cut budgets, it should not be cut from poor people’s health care,” says Oladejo. “This is not a bingo game with numbers. This is about people’s lives. I really hope our legislators can be our voice on this. One day the governor is going to get old and he’s going to need help.”

In New Jersey, Gov. Chris Christie called Medicaid spending “out of control” and in a budget address in February called for cutting the state’s reimbursement rate to nursing homes by 3%. In New York, nursing homes were not hit as hard as expected. An initial proposal from Gov. Andrew Cuomo sought to save $100 million in nursing home spending and significantly change the state’s pricing system. That would have hurt many not-forprofit homes.

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he final budget proposal for nursing homes scrapped that plan, but Medicaid reimbursement rates will still be cut 2%, though the administration has said it intends to cut that to a significantly smaller

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March/April • Our Life And Times

number which will be better for homes. Some homes still face losses in the millions of dollars. At press time, the final budget proposal was awaiting approval by New York State’s legislature.

As much as New York State is trying to minimize pain to its nursing home sector, Felice Brisbon, an LPN for eight years at Oxford Nursing Home in Brooklyn, is still worried.

“The first thing that usually goes with budget cuts is staff,” she says. “And with a census of 43 [on one unit], how can we possibly take care of our patients? Then comes the quality of supplies — it changes and so we’re doing more work with less. It’s just frightening to me. We’re doing the best we can with less now. The majority of my residents are psych patients and these things cause behavior changes. There’s a ripple effect that spreads through the whole institution.” ay McClamb, a dietary worker at Buffalo’s McCauley Residence, knows first hand what budget cuts can do. Buffalo has lost four nursing homes in the last three years. Hundreds of jobs have gone with the closures. Before working at McCauley, McClamb also worked at Nazareth Nursing Home, which was shuttered in 2007.

“If they cut our budgets [again] staff will go down. Our residents still get good care, but it takes you longer to get to them and at the end of the day, you’re exhausted and you wonder if you’ve done enough for the people you take care of,” she says.

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“This is not a bingo game with numbers. This is about people’s lives.

I really hope our legislators can be our voice on this.”

Oladejo says that healthcare workers need to educate the public about what nursing home workers do every day.

“It’s very important for us to be heard because we are healthcare workers and we are taxpayers, too,” she says. “When they say we’re expensive, I say take a person home, take care of them 24 hours a day, take them to the doctor, pay for the doctor visits, lift them up, and then see how much it costs. Are we that expensive?”

Rose Williams has been a CNA at Liberty House for 41 years. “I like to work with these people,” says Williams, who works a second full-time job at St. Ann’s Home, another Jersey City institution. “I think this is the work God wants me to do. I’ve been a secretary and worked in a store, and this was the only thing that ever stuck. I just don’t think it’s fair what they do to our nursing homes. People need our care 24 hours a day.

If anything they should be adding to our budget. Sometimes I wonder what they’re thinking.”

OUR RETIREES

Retirees Asked to Help Protect

GAINS

Extraordinary times require extraordinary efforts.

“I walked the picket line for 46 days while I was pregnant with my first child and it was one of the best things I’ve ever done. I love my Union. But so much of what we took for granted when we were in the workforce is now under attack. It was long, hard work to make the road we’ve trod. And it’s up to us now to keep those paths open for our children and grandchildren.”

To do so, Hayes and the other leaders in her division have joined hands with 1199SEIU and its parent union, the Service Employees International Union, in a broad campaign to convince retirees to contribute $5 a month for union dues and another $5 per month to the Union’s Martin Luther King Jr. Political Action Fund.

“When I was campaigning for Barack Obama in Indiana, I saw seniors living in dire poverty,” says Victoria Owens, former rehab aide/EKG tech and vice president of the Retiree Division. “Many of those seniors didn’t have any teeth, because they had no retirement benefits and the state doesn’t cover denture care. As 1199 retirees, we sometimes take our pension and health benefits for granted. But everything we have, we had to fight for, and we

Retirees get ready to travel to Pennsylvania on March 15 to support striking workers at Pocono Medical Center.

‘If you invest $10 a month in building our Union, that’s a surefire way to protect your pension, health benefits and Social Security.’

—Eustene “Hazel” Corbin, retired nurse’s aide from Mary Immaculate in Queens, NY.

1199SEIU Retired Members Division President, Lena Hayes 1199SEIU retirees share a proud history.

They are the architects of countless victories that have made our Union one of the most celebrated in our nation’s history.

Unfortunately, today so many of the gains that are the source of 1199ers’ pride are in jeopardy. And retirees are being called upon

to help save those gains for themselves, the patients they’ve cared for, current members and future generations.

“Retired but active” is how many retirees describe themselves. These activists never fail to answer the call for major campaigns, and often arrive first to picket lines, sign up early for lobbying trips to state capitals and give up afternoons and evenings to staff phone banks.

Retiree Clifton Broady, for example, in a letter printed in this year’s January/February issue of Our Life And Times, wrote about the busload of members from North and South Carolina who made the long trip Oct. 2 to the One Nation rally in Washington, D.C., for jobs, justice and equality.

“We’ve come a long, long way, but we can’t stop now,” says Lena Hayes, president of the 72,000-member 1199SEIU Retired Members Division. Hayes recalls working a 44-hour week for a take-home check of $24 before the Mt. Sinai Hospital workers joined 1199 in 1959.

need to keep fighting to protect it. We all need to step up to the plate and contribute to our Union, so our own retirement is protected and our voice is heard throughout the nation.”

“If you go to Atlantic City and place a bet, you’re betting on a long shot and most likely, you’ll lose. But if you invest $10 a month in building our Union, that’s a surefire way to protect your pension, health benefits and Social Security,” says Eustene “Hazel” Corbin, former nurse’s aide from Mary Immaculate in Queens. “Our Union needs to pay for fliers that mobilize workers in contract fights, and buses that take retirees to lobby our legislators. All 1199SEIU retirees should come together in unity and pay dues and political action contributions.”

“I don’t know where I’d be without my Union,” Hayes says. “Every retiree should be proud to give something back.”

An authorization card is enclosed in this issue for retirees who are not paying dues or contributing to the Political Action Fund to fill out and return today.

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PEOPLE

Not Just for Laughs LPN Jeanette Melanson draws comics with a message.

Jeanette Melanson, an LPN at Glendale Nursing Home in Scotia, New York, has always had an affinity for painting.

“It was really easy for me and I enjoyed it. I had an inclination for it,” she says. “I got started by painting murals on the sides of Volkswagen buses and on motorcycle helmets.”

Then, says Melanson, she married and her children started coming along and she put her paint brushes away.

As a working mother — and eventually a grandmother — there just wasn’t time to pursue her art.

“I’d paint and draw with my grandkids, but that’s about it,” she says.

Now Melanson’s kids are grown and she has more free time.

One of the things she’s done is become active in her Union. She’s a member of Glendale’s contract negotiating committee. She was doodling in a January committee meeting and composed a comic strip about worker unity. Melanson’s drawing wound up on a contract bulletin that was distributed to Glendale employees.

“I was really having fun,” she says. “I was a little hesitant at first because I wasn’t sure how people would receive it.”

Jeanette Melanson, an LPN at Glendale NH in Scotia, NY, draws comics.

The comic got glowing reviews. Melanson was encouraged to produce more work in the same vein. Her activism has re-awakened her artistic vision.

“Comic strips are a fast and effective way to say something that doesn’t take a lot of words,” says Melanson.

She says she’d like to draw a comic history of unions and has already drawn a strip about crooked politicians who contributed to the economic crisis.

“Comics are challenging because you have to really capture the idea of what you want to say and make sure you get it across to people,” she says. “But they do draw you in. When you pass a comic on the wall you have to stop and look at it.”

Around the Union

We Are All Wisconsinites

1199ers March in Solidarity

Massachusetts Contract Victories

On March 7, 1199SEIU Pres.

George Gresham issued a statement in which he praised the united fightback in Wisconsin and other areas in the Midwest.

His statement described the broad implications of the battle: “No Social Security, no Medicare, no unemployment compensation, no occupational safety and health regulations, no protections against firing, no seniority, no health benefits and retirement security, no 35- to 40-hour work week, no overtime pay or paid vacations and holidays and sick days, etc.

“This is what is at stake in the fight unfolding before our eyes — all the rights and protections the labor movement has worked to gain over the last 50 years. This is where we must make our stand. If we don't stand up now, there may be nothing left to stand up for in the future.”

The spirit of Wisconsin has spread across the country.

Hundreds of thousands of supporters have demonstrated in scores of actions in all 50 states. 1199SEIU members have joined actions in their home regions. For example, in Buffalo, NY, 1199ers were among hundreds of community activists, union members, college students, elected officials, and concerned citizens who gathered Feb. 26 on the steps of City Hall.

“Working people and middle class families are tired of budgets being balanced on our backs, while billionaires keep getting tax breaks.

It’s not fair, and enough is enough,” said 1199er Charlene Joyner, an LPN at Absolut of Orchard Park.

In spite of the national anti-union, cost-cutting environment, Massachusetts 1199ers were able in February to negotiate contracts that improved wages and benefits at four healthcare institutions. On Martha’s Vineyard, members negotiated new agreements at Windemere NH and Martha’s Vineyard Hospital. Two-year agreements were won at Armenian NH in Boston and Nantucket Hospital, where members also were able to secure greater job security.

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March/April • Our Life And Times

1199SEIU. It will focus on new and innovative ways to educate, engage and build leadership among young members through new technologies and creative, youth-focused events.

For information or to join, log on to www.1199seiu.org, visit the PurpleGold Facebook page or email purplegold1199@gmail.com.

PurpleGold – Labor’s Future 1199SEIU’s young members’ collective, PurpleGold, held its first games night March 4 at the Union’s Manhattan headquarters. PurpleGold creates a pathway for change and growth for the young members of

Members from Oak Hill Hospital in Brooksville Florida celebrated on Dec. 9 after voting to join 1199SEIU. The hospital is one of 13 Florida Hospital Corporation of American (HCA) institutions at which 6,000 workers have voted to join 1199SEIU since last spring.

THE BACK PAGE

Home Care Sees a Brighter Future Julia Spooner is a home health aide with New York City’s Partners in Care agency.

Groundbreaking Medicaid reforms in New York State will finally bring tens of thousands of homecare workers like Spooner a living wage and affordable health care. “I love the job and taking care of people and making sure they eat and they’re clean and happy and in a good state of mind,” says Spooner. “But I make $8.50 an hour. I work six days a week. If I don’t work on Saturday I can’t pay my rent.” See page 10.

To read more about 1199SEIU’s organizing and contract victories and developments throughout all regions of our union, log onto www.1199seiu.org