Our Life & Times

A JOURNAL OF 1199SEIU October/November 2012

NOV. 6 IS ABOUT OUR FUTURE Michelle Guzman of Lynn Community Health in Lynn, MA, with four-year-old son Emmanuel, is working to help re-elect Pres.

Obama. See page 13.

Contents 3 NO TIME TO REST We cannot be complacent.

4 PRESIDENT’S COLUMN Defending the things we are thankful for.

5 THE HIGH-STAKES BATTLE FOR CONGRESS New York State’s Congressional races are key.

6 WINNING IN THE SUNSHINE STATE 1199SEIU is changing Florida’s politics.

8 WE’RE ON THE GROUND IN PENNSYLVANIA More than 2,400 active and retired members live in the critical swing state.

10 SENIORS FLEX POLITICAL MUSCLE Union retirees are a major electoral force.

11 PRIDE AND PAGEANTRY We celebrate our heritage and unity at West Indian, Puerto Rican, Dominican and African American Day Parades.

12 OUR DELEGATE LEADERS Florida’s Jerry Depeine and New York City’s Aileen Li. 13 IMMIGRATION REFORM Member activists are working to re-elect President Obama to protect gains and build on progress.

14 “HE CAN RELATE TO OUR STRUGGLE” Obama administration is fighting for LGBT community.

15 AROUND THE UNION PurpleGold Weekend Warriors, Quality Care Victory in MA., NJ Contract Victory Averts Strike.

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Our Life And Times, October/November 2012, Vol 30, No 5 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

PRES I DE NT :

COVE R PHOTOG RAPH :

George Gresham

Rose Lincoln

S EC RETARY TREASURE R :

BAC K COVE R ART :

Maria Castaneda

Maiarelli Studio

EXEC UTIVE VIC E PRES I DE NTS :

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

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

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STAFF WRITE R :

Patricia Kenney DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY:

Jim Tynan PHOTOG RAPH E R : Belinda Gallegos ART DI RECTION & DES IG N :

Maiarelli Studio

A future voter holds literature during recent weekend mobilization in Philadelphia.

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

www.1199seiu.org

EDITORIAL

NO TIME TO REST We cannot be complacent.

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lection day is nearly upon us.

And if we all do our part, Barack Obama and Joseph Biden will take the oath of office on Jan. 21, 2013, the same day the nation will observe the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. It was Dr. King who proclaimed, “The arc of history bends toward justice.” But he also said, “Our nettlesome task is to discover how to organize our strength into compelling power so that government cannot elude our demands.”

Never in most of our lifetimes has the difference between two candidates for the highest office in our land been starker. Never has a candidate and political party been more hostile to the labor movement and working people. Never have our beliefs and values been more challenged.

And thousands of 1199ers have answered the challenge. More need to do so between now and Nov. 6.

Two years ago, voters, angry that the Obama administration had not yet pulled us out of the greatest economic crisis since the 1930s, expressed their disappointment at the polls. While progressives were looking the other way, Tea Partiers and their allies captured scores of state houses.

A result of that takeover was redrawn political lines that favored Republicans and 34 state laws designed to block access to the ballot. Under the guise of taking back the nation, the extremist politicians and their corporate backers attempted to take us back to the days of poll taxes and literacy tests.

More, they sought to drag women back into caves. They told immigrants to self-deport and asked seniors to depend on the stock market for their retirement income and vouchers for health care.

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e, together with our friends in labor and people of conscience, fought back. The fight is centered in the political arena. In this round of elections, New York State is ground zero in the fight for Congress. 1199ers are on the ground in Long Island, the Hudson Valley and the northern regions of the state pounding the pavement for Democratic friends of labor.

New Jersey members are working hard to re-elect Sen.

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October/November • Our Life And Times

Robert Menendez and elect Shelley Adler in the 3rd CD. Maryland members are among the leaders of the fight for the state’s Marriage Equality Bill.

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assachusetts 1199ers have pulled up their sleeves in one of the most closelywatched and hard-fought Senate battles. They have mobilized throughout the state for Elizabeth Warren, a champion for consumer rights who, if elected, would be among the most progressive members of the Senate.

1199SEIU Weekend Warriors (page 8) continue to travel to the swing states of Pennsylvania, Virginia and New Hampshire. In addition, the Union’s Political Action Department has contacted the more than 2,400 Pennsylvania active and retired members, many of whom have volunteered to help get out the vote in their battleground state.

Florida is a bellwether state. In 2012, the GOP has concentrated tens of millions of dollars and countless ground troops to deliver the state for Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan. In 2008, the state went to Barack Obama. At the time, the

SEIU healthcare workers — who worked mightily for the Obama ticket — were not 1199SEIU members. But since merging with 1199SEIU in 2010, the local has almost doubled its membership and has become a powerful political force in the region.

Dozens of 1199ers marched through Harlem on Sept. 16 in New York City’s African American Day Parade and reminded community members to get out and vote for President Barack Obama on Nov. 6.

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lorida is also the home of more than 7,000 1199SEIU retirees, who not only vote, but also campaign. This issue features a number of them, including Tillie Miller (page 10) of Palm Beach, who retired from the Bronx’s Einstein Hospital before many of the young Member Political Organizers (MPOs) such as another Palm Beach-area member Jerry Depeine (page 12), were born.

Rafael Suarez (page 6), an MPO and a CNA at Kissimmee’s Osceola Regional Medical Center, is among the New York City transplants who are spreading the Union message. And MPO Pat Slade (page 6), has made the journey from an itinerant fruit picker in her youth to a political leader.

“I’m not going to rest until Nov. 7,” she says.

We should heed her words.

Never in most of our lifetimes has the difference between two candidates for the highest office in our land been starker.

THE PRESIDENT’S COLUMN George Gresham

Much to Be Thankful For And we must vote to defend what we have.

With Election Day only days away, we sincerely hope you are planning to vote. Millions of Americans take the right to vote for granted — and often ignore it — but that right was only achieved for most of us only after centuries of difficult struggle and much blood spilled.

For all of their wisdom, the founding fathers of the United States, in writing the Constitution, confined the vote to men of property. They excluded women, men without property, and slaves (who were themselves property). It took 150 years of campaigning and enormous sacrifice before women were finally guaranteed the right to vote in 1920. It took a Civil War costing 600,000 lives, and another century of fighting to defeat brutal segregation — the American apartheid — before the Civil Rights Movement secured the right to vote for all Americans legally of age.

Even today, that right is under constant attack with attempts to eliminate early voting and impose I.D. laws that would prevent millions of elderly, students, poor people and particularly Black and Latino citizens from voting.

So, we strongly encourage you to exercise this right that has come at such a high price. Voting is what defines us as citizens.

We give thanks to all of our forebears who fought for this right and on whose shoulders we now stand.

And we have much more to be thankful for as Thanksgiving Day approaches. Of course our families and our loved ones — that goes without saying. And in this economy, we are certainly thankful we have jobs. But more than that, we are thankful for the particular jobs we have. Healthcare workers have every right to be proud. The work we do — caring for the sick and disabled, saving and nurturing lives — is noble work. While an investment banker or a television news anchor receives compensation way beyond what we caregivers make, no one is more important to the wellbeing of our country and communities than we are.

Working people have never had it easy. We have had to struggle for everything we have. But we are the ones who produce the wealth and provide the services that everyone benefits from.

One hundred fifty-one years ago, in his first State of the Union Address, President Abraham Lincoln said, “Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if Labor had not first existed. Labor is superior to capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.”

Lincoln, the founder of the Republican Party, also said, “All that harms labor is treason to America.” So we should be proud and thankful that we are who we are.

And I know that when I sit down with my family on November 22 to cut the turkey, I will especially give thanks that I am a member of 1199SEIU. Aside from the obvious benefits of belonging to this strong, audacious organization that brings us all together for a voice on the job, and to improve our wages and benefits for our families, our union has done so much to contribute to our communities and to the political and social life of our country.

In my 30-plus years as a member of our Union, I have met some of the bravest, most dedicated¸ and most generous people in the world. When I talk to a nursing-home worker who is not only caring for her patients but also raising her own children, volunteering in her community, working in her church, and then going out and registering voters and making sure they go out and vote, I know I’m talking to a hero. There’s no other word to describe her though she would never think of describing herself that way. But I’ve met many thousands of such heroes in our Union. They make me humble and proud. And very thankful.

Letters PRIDE, NOT PREJUDICE rowing up in New York City, I was interested in politics and felt great pride when an Italian American, Mario Cuomo, ran for mayor, although unsuccessfully, and eventually became our governor.

I knew then that it was the Democrats who were the trendsetters.

Gov. Cuomo’s election was followed by other firsts in our city and state. They include Mayors Abraham Beame and David Dinkins, New York Council Chair Christine Quinn, NYC Controller John Liu and State Sen. Tom Duane.

Today, we have another first, an African American president, who has turned out to be one of the best in modern times. And the right wing is stooping very low in an attempt to stop him. Many prejudiced fear tactics are being infused into the election campaign to influence white Americans.

These include questions about President Obama’s place of birth, his religion and his healthcare bill.

What they call Obamacare should really be called Obama Cares!

The fact remains that President Obama has done so much for the majority of Americans and the 99 percent. The attacks are being instigated by the one percent. And Republicans are calling unions the country’s number one enemy. The truth is, labor unions are key to moving our nation forward.

I cannot stress enough how much is at stake. If Obama is not reelected, unions and the interests of all working Americans will be imperiled. So, too, would Medicare and Medicaid. Insurance companies would refuse to cover patients with pre-existing conditions. Young Americans would lose coverage.

And we would lose much more.

I ask fellow 1199ers to fight the prejudice that suppresses individual rights and goes against the principles our country was founded on.

That means joining me in the fight to re-elect our president, Barack Hussein Obama.

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MAURICE F. DePALO Westchester Square Hospital, Bronx, NY IN IT TO WIN IT am a proud member of PurpleGold, our Union’s young workers program. Today’s youth in our nation have to start empowering ourselves to build a better America. We need to stay focused about certain issues that affect us, especially as it relates to our politicians and the government.

Without our involvement there will be NO CHANGES. And that would lead us down the path of suffering. Too many of us think that because we are young, things will automatically get better for us as we get older. But unless we are active today, not long from now it will be too late. We need to stand tall now

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and let our voices be heard.

I am encouraging all 1199SEIU members — young and old — to contribute to our Political Action Fund so that we can communicate to everyone about our political campaigns. I also encourage all people to register to vote. My theory is, if you do not vote or get involved, then you should not have anything to complain about.

TAMOYA NORWOOD Vassar Brothers Medical Center, Poughkeepsie, NY OUR FUTURE AT STAKE d like to refer back to the March/April issue of Our Life And Times. The first page I always read in the magazine is the President’s Column.

The headline in that column led me to write this letter.

“Our Future Is at Stake” said the headline. A letter writer in that issue wrote, “Any working person who is not voting this November or, worse still, is planning to vote Republican should take a look at some Republican initiatives.”

I agree and say that members should study both parties and see that the Democratic Party does more for all people, especially working class people and their unions.

People should examine their heads and hearts and see all the good things Pres. Obama has done in such little time, four years.

Children can remain on their parents’ health insurance until they are 26. Auto workers, those in the military, students, immigrants and women all have been helped. And don’t forget, all you seniors. Mitt Romney wants to cut our Social Security and Medicare. And if you’re not a senior yet, remember that soon you, too, will be there. What about our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren?

In 2010, Congress was won by Republicans because Democrats did not go out to vote. I urge members not to stay home this time. I say please exercise your right to vote.

God bless you all. God bless our Union. And God bless the United States of America.

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YVONNE JACKSON Retiree, Bronx, NY PROBLEMS WITH TEXT enjoy getting and reading all of every issue of Our Life And Times. Some of the text, however, presents a challenge to read to completion without strain.

In the August/September issue, part of the table of contents and the paragraphs in much smaller and lighter print on pages 5, 11, 13, 14 and 15 are difficult, even though my vision is pretty good.

The pages are large. Please use some of that ample space for larger, darker text. The content is all interesting and the change would allow all the readers to see it, instead of neglecting to read the magazine altogether. I suspect many readers would appreciate it.

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LYNN COHEN Retiree, Bronx, NY

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ELECTIONS 2012

The High-Stakes Battle for Congress Key races include the Senate contest in Massachusetts and House races in New York State.

Many 1199ers who are pounding the turf for the Obama-Biden ticket are doing double duty.

They also are campaigning for worker-friendly Congressional candidates. Their goal is to maintain the Democratic majority in the Senate and at a minimum put a dent in the Republican majority in the House.

Priority number one is the election of Elizabeth Warren over Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown for the seat that was long held by the late Sen. Ted Kennedy.

Warren is a staunch supporter of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, and helped launch the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Scott Brown last year voted for a debt plan that would have slashed $1.8 trillion from programs such as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. In addition, Brown voted against the American Jobs Act, which would have created two million new jobs, invested in infrastructure repairs, and extended unemployment insurance for some five million Americans.

“I think Elizabeth Warren will be a better candidate than Scott Brown because she stands for working people and strengthening the middle class,” says Keila Price, an 1199SEIU administrative assistant at Boston Medical Center.

Price and other Massachusetts 1199ers will be visiting communities across the state with historically low voter turnout to encourage voters to cast their ballot for Warren and other workerfriendly candidates.

The U.S. House candidates that Massachusetts members will be canvassing for include Richard Neal in the 1st CD, Joe Kennedy in the 4th, Niki Tsongas in the 5th, John Tierney in the 6th and Bill Keating in the 9th.

1199SEIU Floridians are focusing on the re-election of Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson, who has come under fire from the far-right for his support of gun control and working families’ issues. His opponent, conservative Republican Rep. Connie Mack, is a favorite of Tea Partiers.

New Jersey 1199ers are supporting Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez, who is being challenged by Republican State Sen. Joe Kyrillos.

The election for Congress in New Jersey’s 3rd District is considered among the most competitive in the country. In that race, 1199SEIU members have endorsed Shelley Adler, based on her commitment to protect Medicare, Social Security and civil rights.

“Shelley knows that a new direction is needed in Washington and that we deserve a better Congress,” says Claire Wombough of Toms River, an 1199SEIU certified nursing assistant at Manchester Manor Rehabilitation Center.

New York is the state with the greatest number of competitive Congressional races.

1199ers will be working for three candidates on Long Island, Tim Bishop in the 1st CD, Steve Israel in the 2nd and Carolyn McCarthy in the 4th.

1199ers in the Hudson Valley have been working for Sean Patrick Maloney since the spring. In coalition with union allies, they helped Maloney win a five-way primary in June.

“It was hard work. We canvassed in the rain and in the extreme heat,” Lydia Schmidt, a delegate and unit clerk at Vassar Brothers Hospital in Poughkeepsie, says.

“But we were motivated every day, knowing we have the opportunity to take back Congress and elect someone who will represent us, the 99 percent.”

1199SEIU Upstate members also will be working for Bills Owens in the 21st CD, Nate Shinagawe in the 23rd, Dan Maffei in the 24th, Kathy Hochul in the 26th, Brian Higgins in the 27th and Louise Slaughter in the 28th.

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MINDY BERMAN PHOTO

NYS Congressional candidate Sean Patrick Maloney (center) with 1199SEIU volunteers Jane Fellman, Michael Douglas, Lydia Schmidt, Richard Turk, Ozzie Harris and Lillian Sissan-Chrysler.

1199ers in the Hudson Valley have been working for Sean Patrick Maloney since the spring. In coalition with Union allies, they helped Maloney win a five-way primary in June.

ELECTIONS 2012

Winning in the

SUNSHINE STATE

1199SEIU is changing Florida’s politics

Pat Slade picked oranges as an itinerant farmworker in her childhood. Today she is a skilled 1199SEIU member political organizer (MPO). “I’m proud to be fighting for equal rights, not just for my co-workers, but for everyone,” Slade says.

And there are many others like her, she says, “thanks to 1199SEIU,” which she believes is paving the way for unions in the South.

1199SEIU Florida is the fastest growing union in the South with close to 25,000 members. Much of that growth is due to an aggressive organizing campaign that took off after the region re-affiliated with 1199SEIU in 2010. Increased density, experience and an educated and committed membership has translated into greater political power, 1199SEIU Florida has emerged as a leader in the fight for civil, human and economic rights. It is a foremost voice for the rights of

Florida’s Haitian and Latino immigrants. It was on the frontlines for justice in the Trayvon Martin killing.

And in September, the Florida region struck a major blow against voter suppression, when Melande Antoine, an 1199SEIU RN from North Shore Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale, was among those who successfully sued to reverse the state’s flawed purge system, which would have resulted in the disenfranchisement of thousands of eligible voters. “I wanted to take a stand against the purge and Gov. Rick Scott’s efforts to potentially suppress my vote,” said Antoine.

The victory reverberated far beyond Florida. Since 2011, rightwing legislatures have introduced bills in 34 states to limit ballot access. It is no secret that those laws are specifically designed to disenfranchise the poor, seniors, youth and communities of color — those who most often vote Democratic.

The victory also boosted the work of Florida Breakthrough, the state’s largest grassroots political campaign, with offices from Jacksonville in the north to Miami in the south. The campaign was launched in the spring by the Florida New Majority coalition and 1199SEIU. Toward that end, dozens of 1199SEIU caregivers have taken temporary paid leave from their jobs in nursing homes and hospitals to work full time on the campaign.

The northern part of the state generally votes Republican, while the south leans Democratic. Both the

“I’m a registered Republican, and I’m voting for Pres. Obama.”

— Karen Quattlebaum, surgical tech, Largo Medical Center

Obama and Romney campaigns are concentrating their fire on Central Florida, traditionally a toss-up region in a toss-up state. As of late September, more advertising dollars had been spent on the I-4 Corridor — from Tampa to Daytona Beach — than on any region in the nation. This is where Pat Slade since September has been mobilizing co-workers to vote and volunteer for Pres. Obama.

“Organizing into the Union gave us backbone,” Slade says. “We’re going to use that backbone to re-elect our president and help the whole country.”

Rafael Suarez, another MPO and a CNA at Kissimmee’s Osceola Regional Medical Center, works with Slade out of the Orlando office. “I came from Staten Island, so this right-to-work state shocked me,” he says. “I was a member of AFSCME Local 420, the public hospital workers’ union in New York City. I was used to having a voice at work. Had I not found the Union here, I would have worked somewhere where I would have been fired and out on the street.”

Suarez says that he is an MPO working on the Obama campaign because he doesn’t see the separation of union and political work. “Making our hospitals and nursing homes better places for workers and patients doesn’t just happen through our union contracts,” he says. “We have

MPO Roberline Moise (above), a laundry worker from Avante Lake Worth in Palm Beach.

Facing page, from the top: MPOs Pat Slade, a CNA at Terra Vista Rehab and Health in Orlando, Darrell Condry, a CNA at University Village NH in Tampa, and Rafael Suarez, a CNA at Osceola Regional Medical Center in Kissimmee. to elect politicians who support health care and are willing stand up for patients and workers.”

Ramon Quinones, another Osceola delegate who, like Suarez, hails from Puerto Rico, was a founder of the region’s annual Puerto Rican Festival. Puerto Ricans are the I-4 region’s fastest growing ethnic group as well as a growing political force in the region.

1199SEIU Florida also is a major presence in the Tampa region. “One of the reasons I’m working as an MPO for the Obama ticket is because I want to continue the fight for better health care, says MPO Alex Rodriguez, a dietary worker at Northside Hospital in St. Petersburg. “My younger sister is on dialysis and I’m her caregiver.

I know dozens of people who need better health care.”

Another MPO leader in the Tampa region is Darrell Condry, a CNA at University Village Nursing Center. He has helped to recruit fellow delegates to the “Bring Ten,

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Win Again” campaign. Its goal is for each delegate to identify 10 Union members who in 2008 were first time or infrequent voters and get them to return to the polls this year. “I do this because we have to win this election,” Condry says. “But it’s also about building for the future. Also, doing this work, I learn something new every day.”

The 1199SEIU Florida region works with any candidate who supports working families’ issues, including members of the Republican Party. The District has established Republican committees throughout the state.

And some of these committee members are working for the reelection of Pres. Obama.

“I’m a registered Republican and I’m voting for Pres. Obama,” says Karen Quattlebaum, a surgical tech at Largo Medical Center in the Tampa region. “I don’t believe Mitt Romney can help the middle class. I don’t believe he knows anything about the middle class. He’s not at all about people. He’s about making money.”

In Palm Beach County, both active and retired 1199ers are making a difference. Retiree Yvonne Richardson of Lake Worth is using her years of experience as a delegate at Beth Israel in Manhattan to mobilize seniors for Pres. Obama. So, too, is Tillie Miller of Delray Beach (page 10).

“Election work is more difficult in 2012 than it was in 2008,” says Doreen Holm, a CNA at Avante at Lake Worth NH in Palm Beach.

Holm has been canvassing in Palm Beach since February, with a month off in May. “I don’t see the same excitement I did in 2008. I think because people don’t realize how much Obama had to overcome.”

Holm says that the downturn of the economy in Florida and around the country contributes to the lack of enthusiasm.

“It just means we have to work a little harder.”

Roberline Moise, a laundry worker at Avante, has taken a leave to canvass daily with Jerry Depeine, a dietary worker at Palm Gardens NH in West Palm Beach. In place of the old walk lists carried by canvassers in the past, Moise and Depeine each have iphones with voters’ addresses, their voting and registration records, maps and gps’s. Their canvassing goal is to encourage voters to not only vote, but to vote early.

Although still in his 20s, Depeine says he’s canvassing for the future of his two young children. This is a familiar refrain from 1199ers throughout the state. Older members include their grandchildren and great-grandchildren among their reasons for wanting a better future.

“As a child, I traveled with the seasons” says Pat Slade. “I picked oranges in Florida, peaches in South Carolina and apples in New York.

I was fortunate to eventually find the Union. My co-workers and relatives are proud of the work I’m doing to re-elect the president. I’m not going to let them down. We’re going to win Florida.”

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ELECTIONS 2012

Keeping Pennsylvania

Blue

More than 2,400 active and retired members live in the critical swing state.

“Pres. Obama is for us, so we’re for him,” says Shakeria Campbell, an OR nurse tech at St. John’s Episcopal Hospital in Far Rockaway, Queens.

Campbell, however, doesn’t vote in Queens because she lives in Pennsylvania.

She is one of more than 2,400 active and retired 1199SEIU members who live in the Quaker State. And because Pennsylvania is one of the nine swing states, the 1199SEIU Political Action Department has reached out to all 1199ers in the state in addition to sending hundreds of members and staff from outside Pennsylvania to canvass voters on weekends during the two months before Election Day. “I know that Pres. Obama supports working people because I was able to buy my house through the President’s first-time home buyer’s $8,000 tax credit,” Campbell says. “Without that,

I would not have been able to have my home. I’m going to talk to relatives and neighbors to encourage them to vote for Pres. Obama.”

Pennsylvania retiree Robert Rose during a Sept. 15 meeting of 1199ers in the Poconos also pledged to work for the reelection of the President.

“The Republican platform doesn’t take care of workers or unions,” he said.

“I know the importance of union support. My medications, which I don’t have to pay for, because I’m an 1199 retiree, are keeping me alive.”

“I have seen how government can be used to help our economy and improve people’s lives,” Rose said.

“I’ve also seen women die from back-

New York City Weekend Warriors in Philadelphia during the last weekend in September.

The group shown canvassing included 1199SEIU Secretary Treasurer Maria Castaneda (far right, center photo).

Pennsylvania is one of nine critical swing states in this year’s election.

alley abortions when the procedure was illegal. We can’t go back to that.”

During the Sept. 15 meeting, speakers stressed that Pennsylvania was ground zero in the fight against voter suppression. On Oct. 2, a Pennsylvania judge blocked the state from requiring voters to show photo identification in the November election.

One response to voter suppression has been a robust turnout of 1199ers for the Weekend Warriors program. By late September, the average number of 1199SEIU weekend volunteers had spread to more than 400 in Pennsylvania. An additional 100 members from the Maryland-DC region were

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working in Virginia with a similar number of Massachusetts 1199ers canvassing in New Hampshire.

Among the Virginia canvassers was Demetrius Smith, a delegate and a nutrition technician at Prince George’s Hospital in Cheverly, Maryland.

“Saturday was great,” said Smith of her first weekend outing in September. “The weather was beautiful. The people we spoke to understood what this election is all about. One man even told me that he could tell Mitt Romney isn’t worried about working people. It’s good to see people are paying attention.”

Smith and other 1199SEIU

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members returned on weekends leading up to the election to help ensure Virginia remains “blue.” Smith says she is also working to get her family and coworkers involved. “I want to see the young folks out here. I wear my Obama button at work and everybody wants one. I tell them the only way to get this is to come out on Saturdays.”

“I’m definitely in Obama mode,” says Smith, who volunteered extensively to elect Pres. Obama in 2008. “We’ve got to keep him in there.

He’s still got work to do. And it’s harder this time around — with all those Republican attack ads. We’ve got to motivate folks, make sure they know they still have to vote.

October/November • Our Life And Times

“I’m definitely in Obama mode.

We’ve got to keep him in there. He’s still got work to do. And it’s harder this time around — with all those Republican attack ads. We’ve got to motivate folks, make sure they know they still have to vote.”

– Demetrius Smith Nutrition technician at Prince George’s Hospital in Cheverly, Maryland.

ELECTIONS 2012

Seniors

FLEX POLITICAL MUSCLES

“If the president is re-elected, we’ll be able to save Social Security and Medicare,” says 1199SEIU retiree Tillie Miller of Palm Beach, FL.

Union retirees are a major electoral force.

1199ers do not have to be employed to be a political force. 1199SEIU retirees, particularly in New York and Florida, are playing a major role in this year’s elections. Some 8,000 of the Union’s 74,000 retirees reside in Florida.

“I’m working as hard as I can to get out the vote for Pres.

Obama so that he can complete what he’s started,” says Yvonne Richardson of Lake Worth, Florida, who retired from Manhattan’s Beth Israel Hospital 10 years ago.

“Romney has nothing to offer retirees or anyone else who works for a living,” Richardson says. “I don’t want an America that’s run by hate mongers who want to reverse all our civil rights and peace gains.

I also don’t want to elect people who want to make decisions about what we do in our bedrooms and with our own bodies. That’s between me and my God.” Richardson is one of hundreds of 1199SEIU retirees who are making calls, passing out literature and knocking on doors for the Obama-Biden ticket. Another is Tillie Miller of Palm Beach, who retired from Albert Einstein Hospital in the Bronx 31 years ago.

Miller stays young by remaining active in her senior complex, including teaching line dancing and campaigning for Pres. Obama.

“If it’s not broken, don’t fix it,” Miller declares. “If the

President is re-elected, we’ll be able to save Social Security and Medicare. If Romney wins, we’re in trouble,” she warns. “I also want to keep Michelle in the White House. She’s a phenomenal woman.”

Miller notes that Romney and Ryan would reverse 47 years of Medicare success by cutting benefits, delaying retirees’ eligibility, and pushing seniors toward expensive, inadequate coverage from private health insurance companies.

Further, they would privatize Social Security and allow Wall Street to profit off a risky system that would provide lower benefits to workers forced to stay longer on the job.

“And I’m not just worried about seniors,” Miller says. “I have grandchildren and great grandchildren who will be left behind.

I don’t want to jeopardize their future.”

“We now have retirees in many states who are helping to make a difference,” says Lena Hayes, a retired registered nurse and president of the 1199SEIU Retirees Division. One of those is Nonnie Perry, a former 1199 staffer, who returned to Sumter, South Carolina in 1995 and in 2003 helped to establish the Carolinas’ Retirees Local.

“After being an 1199 member, you can’t just go someplace and sit

down,” Perry says. “We have over 1,300 retired 1199ers in North and South Carolina.” Two busloads of those members took part in a Labor Day service in Raleigh, North Carolina, just before the opening of the Democratic Party convention.

A comparable number attend monthly membership meetings.

“Some of our members drive three hours to make the meetings,” Perry says. “It’s true that things are changing down here, although not fast enough. We still have the Union spirit and 1199ers still know how to mobilize voters.” Although South Carolina is not in play, 1199ers in North Carolina are committed to helping deliver the state for the president.

“Although we focus on issues that most affect seniors, we also are concerned about all the other issues,” Hayes says. She also took aim at Paul Ryan, who she says lies about the Obama record simply to scare seniors. One of those lies is that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is bad for seniors.

The ACA has already improved Medicare’s financial outlook by extending the program’s expected lifespan by an additional eight years. It does so by eliminating waste, fraud and abuse, reducing overpayments to private insurance companies, and through innovative policies that will reduce

“After being an 1199 member, you can’t just go someplace and sit down.” preventable hospitalizations, and not by shifting costs onto low- and middle-income seniors and their families, as Romney and Ryan have claimed. The ACA also improves the Medicaid program by expanding coverage, controlling costs and improving services.

The Alliance for Retired Americans, of which 1199SEIU is a member, makes the same claim. In a statement after Pres. Obama and Paul Ryan addressed the American Association of Retired Persons, Alliance Exec. Dir. Edward F. Coyle said, “For Barack Obama, Medicare and Social Security are two of America’s greatest success stories. For Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan, they are two more public goods that can be sold off for private gain.”

October/November • Our Life And Times

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CULTURE

Pride and Pageantry We celebrate our heritage and unity at New York City West Indian, Puerto Rican, Dominican, and African American Day parades.

This year, as in many years past, scores of 1199SEIU members participated in four annual New York City parades. Hundreds of members — including a large contingent of Maryland/DC region 1199ers — worked on and marched in Brooklyn’s 44th Annual West Indian Day on Labor Day. The parade was attended by more than three million people and is by far New York City’s largest cultural festival. On June 10, at the 55th annual Puerto Rican Day Parade in Manhattan, which was attended by more than two million people, 1199ers marched in hoodies and handed out Skittles to honor Trayvon Martin and call for an end the brutal NYPD tactic of Stop and Frisk. At the 43rd Annual African American Day Parade in Harlem on Sept. 16 the 1199SEIU contingent’s theme was “Our Children Are Our Future” and many members marched with their children and grandchildren. They also wore t-shirts reminding community members to vote for President Barack Obama on Nov. 6.

And at two Dominican Day Parades on July 29 in the Bronx and August 12 in Manhattan members in traditional dress danced down Manhattan’s Sixth Avenue and the Grand Concourse in the Bronx to bachata and merengue music.

Our Delegate Leaders

“WE HAVE TO MAKE SURE THAT FLORIDA IS A BLUE STATE” Jerry Depeine (pronounced De-PINE, like the tree) has been a delegate at Palm Gardens Nursing Home in West Palm Beach, FL for two years. Depeine, 28, has worked in the dietary department at Palm Gardens since he was 18 years old.

He became an activist when he saw his cousin fired from her job at a hotel after working there for more than 20 years.

“She lost everything. She had no pension and no benefits. I wondered how they could do that to her. She has three sons who live out of state and were going through their own things. Her house ended up going into foreclosure. I didn’t know what to do for her. I was only 22 at the time,” says Depeine.

Depeine says his cousin’s experience made him think about his own job and the time he’d invested, even though he was still pretty young. (His cousin eventually got back on her feet and was able to keep her house.)

been at this job for 10 years now, and time’s flown by.”

Today Depeine is not only an active delegate on the job, but he’s also working for the first time as a Member Political Organizer. He’s part of a team in Palm Beach County that’s working to get out the vote for President Obama in numerous ways including helping to organize participants in the Union’s Weekend Warrior program and other voter mobilization efforts. Depeine also canvasses neighborhoods, going door-to-door and talking with people about the issues that most concern them.

“Then I realized I was in the Union and we can fight for things and we have rights. We can fight for things like our pensions and our benefits,” he says. “So I started going to meetings and conventions. I have

“When people take the time to let me know what’s going on in their communities — what you hear from people in three minutes talking to them can blow you away,” he says. “I’m hearing a lot about health care. We also need help with education. We need to get our kids off the streets.”

With Florida arguably the most vital swing state, every ounce of effort counts in this election, says Depeine.

“We have to make sure that Florida is a blue state. We cannot let the one percent take over,” he

NYC MEMBER FINDS JOY IN ORGANIZING

Aileen Li, a Chinese American Planning Council home attendant, believes in sharing what she’s learned. She began working for the Council in 2004 and although her Englishlanguage skills were limited, she enthusiastically volunteered for 1199 SEIU leadership classes organized

says emphatically. “We cannot let this election slip through the cracks. If we don’t stand up as a state and make sure we put the right president in office there will be more kids on the street and we will lose everything we have worked for. We won’t have anything – Medicare, healthcare, education. It will all be gone. We will be set back five years and we will lose everything President Obama has done.”

by the Homecare Division.

“After getting my job, I needed to know what my benefits and rights were and how my Union could help me do my best work,” Li says. She was not a stranger to activism. She was an elementary school teacher and an activist in the Quangdong province of China before immigrating to New York in 1997.

“I believe that those of us who have knowledge or experience have a responsibility to share that knowledge with others,” Li says.

“I don’t see helping other members and mobilizing them to fight for our rights and benefits as a burden. To me, it’s more of a responsibility.”

“Li is a great example of the effectiveness of our Chinese-language leadership classes,” says David Ho, one of the 1199SEIU Homecare Division VPs. “The classes have helped us recruit more than 100 delegates.”

Since homecare members work in clients’ homes, they often feel isolated from their fellow members and other Union activities. To help

Home Attendant Aileen Li, a delegate from New York City’s Chinese American Planning Council

Florida delegate and Member Political Organizer Jerry Depeine

Seeing a family member fired spurred delegate Jerry Depeine to activism. address that, Li and other homecare members hold weekly cultural Friday evenings at the Union’s Manhattan headquarters.

“We use those gatherings to exchange notes and help support each other,” she says. “And we don’t just discuss Union issues.”

Li says that she takes calls and answers questions from other members just about every day. Lately, she’s been calling members about the importance of re-electing Pres.

Obama. “I tell my coworkers that voting and being active will help us save our benefits and help our community,” she says. “I’m very busy, but I see that as a responsibility of a delegate. It’s also very rewarding.”

“I tell my co-workers that voting and being active will help us save our benefits and help our community.”

October/November • Our Life And Times

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ELECTIONS 2012

“Romney Would Just Totally Repeal All Immigration Reform” Member activists are working to re-elect President Obama to protect gains and build on progress.

I

n June, President Obama announced the initiation of the DREAM Act, which grants some young, undocumented immigrants conditional work permits and legal status. Many saw it as the vital first step in U.S. immigration policy reform. In a September interview on the Spanish-language television network Univision, Pres. Obama’s opponent Mitt Romney promised that as president he wouldn’t “round up and deport illegal aliens.”

“I’m no political expert, but I know that they’re planning to deport kids my age,” says Melissa Doherty, a delegate and activist from Oak Hill Hospital in Tampa Bay, FL., of Romney and his advisors. “I have a friend who goes to Florida International University, and she’s has been here since she was small.

These kids don’t know anything different. What they need to do is make the citizenship process easier.

It’s just blatant racism.”

Doherty is one of scores of 1199SEIU’s Florida Region members who have been working throughout the pivotal state to make sure that it swings blue in this year’s election.

“[Romney] would just totally repeal all immigration reform,” says Doherty. “It was such hard work to win what little we’ve got. He doesn’t care about our best interests. It’s all the one percent. If he wins, the next day they could just knock on our doors and take people away.”

Doherty has been canvassing, helping Floridians register to vote and talking to community members in Hernando County, where she grew up and became engaged in the struggle for immigration reform after seeing her Hispanic friends and neighbors’ disenfranchisement and unfair treatment at the hands of the law.

“All this stuff about carrying ID’s is just ridiculous. I don’t need an ID. It’s like when they had people wearing gold stars. It’s such racism,” she says. “I decided to get involved because it has to stop somewhere.”

M

ichelle Guzman, an administrative assistant at Lynn Community Health in Lynn, MA., is a longtime immigration reform activist and became active in the labor movement when she went to work at Lynn Community Health five years

“The thing that Americans need to understand is that people who come here want the American Dream.”

ROSE LINCOLN PHOTO

— Michelle Guzman

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October/November • Our Life And Times

ago. She participates in the activities of numerous organizations, including the North Shore Labor Council and the Civic and Cultural Central American Alliance.

“When [President Obama] was elected he had to make a choice about which issues he would work on first and he chose health care. He had to then. I believe in this second term it will be immigration reform.

It has to be. It’s such a huge issue.

The first step in that direction was deferred action (The DREAM Act).

Now he will be able to show that deferred action was beneficial for the U.S.,” says Guzman.

G

uzman is the single mother of a four-yearold son, but with her schedule she’s signed up to be a Weekend Warrior and will be making trips to New Hampshire to work on the election campaign. She says talking about immigration policy with voters isn’t always easy — especially in communities it most affects.

“Immigration is such a sensitive issue because of Pres. Obama’s record and the number of deportations. The best thing he has

done is deferred action, so when I talk to people [about who they’re voting for] I ask them who they think will really better address the needs of the immigrant communities,” says Guzman.

Guzman believes she has a unique perspective on the immigrant experience. She was born in the U.S. Her family went back to their homeland of Guatemala when she was five. She didn’t come back to the U.S until she was 20.

“The thing that Americans need to understand is that people who come here want the American Dream. They want to pay taxes and put money into programs that help people like Medicaid and Medicare,” she says. “But immigration is such a broad issue and touches so many other issues in people’s lives — their healthcare, their identity — it’s very complex. It will take a lot of input from different organizations to address it. And the thing about President Obama is that he’s open to hearing all of those ideas.”

Lynn Community Health administrative assistant Michelle Guzman with her son Emmanuel, 4.

ELECTIONS 2012

“He Can Relate To Our Struggle” Members say LGBT issues have made major advances under President Obama.

T

he Obama administration has arguably done more than any in the history of the Presidency to advance LGBT rights — from enacting the repeal of the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy to saying he is personally unopposed to same-sex marriage, President Obama is singularly progressive on LGBT issues.

“I believe that this country was built on a base of equal rights for everyone and anyone who has anything negative to say about equality has no place at the podium of leadership,” says Sara Cusumano, a dietary worker at Archcare at Ferncliff, a nursing home in Rhinebeck, NY. “President Obama talks about hope and leadership for us all.

He doesn’t look down on the topic [of LGBT issues]. He has made it clear that he’s here for us.”

At press time, Cusumano was preparing to participate in her first door-to-door canvass to help get out the vote for Pres. Obama in New York State’s Capital Region.

She has been out since she was 14 and is a natural advocate, she says.

“I will absolutely be willing to engage people around the topic of LGBT rights if they want to talk about things in a respectful way,” she says.

L

MINDY BERMAN PHOTO

Member political organizer Sara Cusumano, a dietary worker at Archcare at Ferncliff in Rhinebeck, NY.

ourita Shegog, a retiree from New York City’s Partners in Care homecare agency and a member of 1199SEIU’s LGBT Caucus, has been volunteering as a Weekend Warrior in Pennsylvania. In addition, she’s made trips with other Caucus members to Maine and Maryland to work for the passage of Marriage Equality in both of those states.

“We were talking with some of our straight allies about how different President Obama is from other presidents,” says Shegog.

“How we feel we can just sit down and have a conversation with him and he will understand what it’s like for us. He can relate to our struggle. It’s a human rights issue, and he understands that. He is the first president that felt it was the

“He put a lot of hope into my heart.

Now we have to continue those efforts.”

right thing to do and actually had the courage to do it.”

However, there is still work to be done, even after President Obama is re-elected, says Shegog.

“DOMA (the Defense of Marriage Act) needs to be repealed,” says Shegog. “That’s what we’re fighting for now. We just want the same benefits as everyone else. We are no different.

We have kids in college. We have houses to pay for. It’s things like that we’re talking about.”

(DOMA is the federal statute that defines marriage as a union of one man and one woman and doesn’t recognize same-sex marriage for federal purposes including joint tax returns, government health insurance and Social Security survivor benefits.)

Cusumano agrees, but stressed that things have changed a lot in three years.

“When I came out to my parents, it did not go well,” she says. “But now people can talk about more things. I feel that on a personal level [President Obama] did that. He put a lot of hope into my heart. Now we have to continue those efforts. I can go out and say ‘I’m a lesbian, and I have a partner. How can I help you understand?’ ” “It is really awesome to have a president that relates to us, and it’s not a religious struggle or a personal issue,” agrees Shegog “It’s also really wonderful when you’re on the doors and people encourage you to keep doing what you’re doing.”

October/November • Our Life And Times

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Around the Union PurpleGold ➽NJ Nursing Homes ➽Massachusetts Victory

PurpleGold Weekend Warriors Young voters played a critical role in electing President Obama in 2008. With young people facing a host of new challenges in today’s economy, members of 1199SEIU’s PurpleGold program — the Union’s initiative for members aged 18 to 35 — are helping to keep that momentum going.

They’re volunteering as Weekend Warriors, in voter registration and get out the vote efforts to mobilize their peers and keep President Obama in the White House. On Oct. 6 PurpleGold members held a dance party and voter registration drive.

“In 2008 a lot of the people that got behind President Obama were just getting into their 20’s,” says PurpleGold member Victor Freytas, 35, a senior accounting representative in Montefiore Medical Center’s Health Services Receivables Area. “Now those same people are out of college, and one of our biggest issues is student debt. We need to make the case that something has to be done for them or else people will not be able to move forward. I can be critical of President Obama, but with Romney in the White House, he won’t even listen to us and nothing will be done.”

Many young people today are faced with high student debt, unemployment, and a tight housing market. PurpleGold members are talking to their peers about their issues.

“President Obama will help young people move up. As a registrar I see a lot of young people don’t have health care,” says Roberta Kenner, 34, a registrar at Wyckoff Heights Medical Center in Brooklyn. “When I talk to people I tell them about that and I tell them that this is our time. It’s time to

make ourselves heard about these things because if we don’t elect the right people no one is going to do anything for us.”

Freytas says PurpleGold members and young voters have a unique opportunity. They mobilized in 2008 in ways never before seen — meetups, on the Internet, through local events like concerts and art galleries.

“I don’t think there has ever been a time in history when there have been so many social networking opportunities,” says Freytas. “Ten years ago we would have needed to hire an advertising agency to take advantage of this kind of communication. Today we need to be on Facebook and Twitter getting the word out there.”

“My generation is very talented, gifted and smart and in a lot of cases in the past we just weren’t being utilized,” says Kenner. “Sometimes it takes a young person to communicate with another young person.”

Kenner has been a delegate at Wyckoff for eight years and has been volunteering as a Weekend Warrior since the program kicked off for this election in June. She’s made a number of trips to Philadelphia. Over Labor Day weekend Kenner helped neighbors register to vote at a barbeque held at the dialysis center in Queens, NY where her mother is a patient.

Even with a new baby at home, PurpleGold member Victor Freytas, a senior accounting representative at Montefiore Hospital in the Bronx, is finding time to volunteer as a Weekend Warrior in Pennsylvania.

Strike Averted as 1199 Caregivers Win Contract at Three NJ Nursing Homes At August Executive Council meeting, bargaining committee member Carmen Mattura from Manhattan View NH in Union City, NJ asked 1199 brothers and sisters for support in contract struggle. At right is NJ region EVP Milly Silva.

After months of stalled negotiations with their employer, Michael Konig, more than 300 New Jersey 1199SEIU nursing home workers won a new contract in September The workers at Manhattan View Nursing Home in Union City, Teaneck Nursing Center in Teaneck and Amboy Care in Perth Amboy say that they were not asking for anything unreasonable, but simply the resources to enable them to do their jobs well and deliver quality care, while they also provide for their own families.

Highlights of the agreement include two percent annual wage increases for 2012-2014 and employer-funded health and pension benefits.

“I am relieved because I have student loans to pay,” says

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October/November • Our Life And Times

Highlights of the agreement include two percent annual wage increases for 2012-2014 and employer-funded health and pension benefits.

Manhattanview CNA Gina GonzalezDiaz. “Fair wages and benefits for the work we do is not a lot to ask for the quality care we give.”

“I feel relieved that we didn’t have to strike and leave our residents not knowing who will be taking care of them,” says Teaneck CNA Geraldine Ballantine. “We’ve developed such a close relationship and I want to be sure they are being properly taken care of.”

Some of New Jersey’s most prominent elected officials supported the workers and signed on to a letter encouraging the employer to “do all that you can to reach a fair settlement, that takes into consideration the critically important work your employees do, not just for your company, but for the community as well.”

They included U.S. Senators Robert Menendez and Frank Lautenberg, U.S. Representatives Frank Pallone and Albio Sires, State Senate President Steve Sweeney, State Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg, Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver and Assembly Majority Leader Lou Greenwald.

Members and leaders of the NJ Division addressed the Union’s executive council in August to ask for strike authorization and the support of the other regions. At the meeting, Union officers from Massachusetts noted that they also had battled and won a victory against nursing home owner Konig. They returned to another executive council meeting after their win where they stressed the importance of the leadership support in their victory.

Massachusetts Quality Care Victory In August, a final payment reform bill was passed in the Massachusetts legislature that included a new $20 million training fund for healthcare workers, improved Medicaid rates, a seat for healthcare workers on the boards that would oversee the law’s implementation and incentives for joint labormanagement work.

For more than a year, 1199SEIU members from hospitals and health centers across the state had been engaged in the Voices of Quality Care campaign to ensure that the reforms protected jobs and care at the worksites. A key turning point in the campaign was a huge rally by 1199SEIU members at the State House in June.

The campaign followed the 2011 announcement by Gov. Deval Patrick and the legislature that they would be making major reforms to how hospitals and health centers are paid for public care.

1199ers wanted to ensure that the payment reforms protected jobs and care at worksites.

The $20 million fund will help workers retain jobs and train for changes in the healthcare system that could accompany the new payment reform.

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