Our Life & Times | September / October 2016

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NYU ATTACKS MEMBER BENEFITS

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1199ERS SPARKLE IN BROOKLYN’S WEST INDIAN DAY PARADE

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RITE AID IS WRONG

A JOURNAL OF 1199SEIU September/October 2016

VOTE NOV.8 Please send address changes to addresschange@1199.org 1

September/October 2016 • Our Life And Times

Helen Lau, a clerical worker at NY Community Hospital in Brooklyn, at the first deployment of Weekend Warriors to Pennsylvania, Sept. 24, prepping to register voters and volunteers for Hillary Clinton.

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President’s Column

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In The Regions Youth Mentoring Program Celebration, Bronx Collaborative takes the field at Yankee Stadium, Florida members fight for their nursing home, AristaCare contract win and more.

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NYU Attacks Member Benefits Hospital giant exits employer association to assault union strength.

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Eastern Parkway’s Splendid Garden 1199ers Sparkle in Brooklyn’s West Indian Day Parade.

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Weekend Warriors Weekend warriors GOTV to Dump Trump.

Voter info for your region. This election is about winning on our issues.

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Rite Aid is Wrong Members at the pharmacy retailer are fighting for a fair contract.

The corporate giant is millions in arrears for members’ health care.

Editorial

Our Life and Times September/October 2016

“THIS IS NOT JUST ANOTHER ELECTION YEAR” Our future is at stake in this election as it has been in no other.

In the first presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump on Sept. 26, Sec. Clinton spent the better part of the evening fending off halftruths and lies. Instead of debating the facts of his platform, Donald Trump resorted to bullying, yelling and personal insults. This was no surprise. Delivered in his bluster was a self-serving platform designed to benefit already-thriving multi-national corporations and the one percent. His positions would set working people back decades and endanger international relations.

That’s why on Sept. 24 thousands of 1199SEIU members fanned out across critical swing states including Pennsylvania, Virginia and New Hampshire as Weekend Warriors. They were registering voters and recruiting volunteers and make sure Hillary Clinton is elected as our next President. Massachusetts members got a sendoff from Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who joined them for their kickoff in Manchester, New Hampshire.

In Pennsylvania, hundreds of NYC members fanned out across Philadelphia. Leah Holland, an LPN from Brooklyn Gardens NH brought her four kids for the GOTV effort.

“This is not just another election year,” she explained.

“This election is about protecting our children and our voting rights. It’s about getting the right person in office so we can protect the future for all of us.” Protecting

voting rights, immigrant rights and economic and racial justice are all in the front of people’s minds as Election Day draws closer. “Donald Trump is bringing back the old ways of hate to the U.S. when we should be as one,” says Beverley Miller, a CNA at Rosewood Gardens in Rensselear, N.Y. Mr. Trump’s description of the nation’s borders as revolving doors for illegal immigration and corporations fleeing torturous tax burdens becomes all the more laughable when companies like Rite Aid boast of billions in profits as they try to gut our members’ health benefits. When he casts cities as more dangerous than Afghanistan war zones, it’s hard to weigh the greater insult: to our veterans and active-duty armed forces or to cities and their residents for his continuing dog whistle descriptions of urban life.

So as members continue the vital work of the Union over the next weeks and months—negotiating and enforcing our contracts and new organizing – they’ll also be making sure the right candidates win and lose on Election Day. Members understand there’s too much at stake on every front. “We can’t let Trump win. He tells too many lies,” said home health aide Xue Shen Ren, as she canvassed in Philadelphia’s Chinatown Sept. 26. “He tries to sound brilliant, but he’s not saying anything. It’s just too dangerous for the country.”

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Chase Brexton Workers at critical Maryland LGBTQ service organization overcame firings and harassment and won a union.

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The NBF Home Mortgage Program The program is opening the door to the American dream to scores of union members every year.

Our Life And Times, September/October 2016 ISSN 1080-3089 Vol 34, No 5 Published by 1199SEIU, United Healthcare Workers East 310 West 43rd St. New York, NY 10036 Telephone (212) 582-1890 www.1199seiu.org president

George Gresham secretary treasurer

Maria Castaneda executive vice presidents

Jacqueline Alleyne Norma Amsterdam Yvonne Armstrong Lisa Brown George Kennedy Steve Kramer Joyce Neil Monica Russo Rona Shapiro Milly Silva Gregory Speller Veronica Turner-Biggs Laurie Vallone Estela Vazquez

editor

Patricia Kenney director of photography

Jim Tynan photographer

Belinda Gallegos art direction & design

Maiarelli Studio

contributors

Regina Heimbruch Bryn Lloyd Bollard JJ Johnson Sarah Wilson Our Life And Times is published six times a year—January/February, March/April, May/June, July/August, September/ October, November/ December—for $15.00 per year by 1199SEIU, United Healthcare Workers East, 310 W.43 St, New York, NY 10036.

Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY and at additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: send address changes to Our Life And Times, 301 W.43 St., New York, NY 10036.

LUBA LUKOVA

@1199seiu www.1199seiu.org September/October 2016 • Our Life And Times

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THE PRESIDENT’S COLUMN

Letters REPUBLICAN MEMBERS WANT THEIR VOICES HEARD hile I am proud to be in my Union as a professional who holds a doctorate degree in the health profession and I have written many letters of thanks for their professional advocacy over the years, I expect my Union to also support my political decisions as a registered Republican. While I can understand that the Democratic candidates are heavily in favor of unions, I was appalled to read in the first page of the magazine how the editorial piece implied that voting Republican “would indicate that [I] had opted for . . . racist populism.” That is very upsetting to me as I am a huge advocate for equality and equal rights.

The piece in the magazine is inaccurate and purely propaganda and it excludes not just me, but all of the SEIU members who value conservative beliefs. In this Union, we should all stand as one and be represented fairly regardless of our ethnic or political affiliation.

I am very upset that the union has overstepped its bounds and has blatantly misrepresented me and what I feel is most important to keep our nation strong. The concept of fair representation is exactly why I appreciate the unions, but this magazine is pushing an agenda that is not well received by all its members.

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DR. CATHERINE HOELL, PT, DPT, OCS Cape Cod Hospital Hyannis, MA Editor’s Note: Dr. Hoell’s letter refers to a quote from SEIU Secretary Treasurer Gerry Hudson in the July/August magazine. The quote referred to Donald Trump’s campaign rhetoric, not Conservative principles or the Republican Party. In fact, 1199 supports Republicans and Democrats who promote policies that help working people, working families and build our healthcare system. The pages of our publication throughout the years have reflected this. It is 1199’s steadfast belief that we are all entitled to our diverse political beliefs; our differences are the key to our strength. However, we are also constitutionally bound to speak out against divisive, intolerant speech like Donald Trump’s.

We will never accept any kind of bigotry or discrimination in our society.

UNION SHOULD FOCUS MORE ON WORKERS AND LESS ON POLITICS s a Member of 1199, I find it infuriating to learn that the Union not only endorses candidates, but on top of this makes the endorsements front page news. It is not right that the Union would not remain neutral in elections. It has no business being involved in over-reaching politics outside the realm of Union business.

I do not endorse Hillary Clinton. The Union does not speak for me, and I am not one of the “We’re With Her,” as printed on the front page of the current journal. I do not think she will fight for us. I resent being forced to be identified with supporting her.

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DOLORES PELUSO MidHudson Regional Hospital Poughkeepsie, NY Let’s hear from you. Send your letters to: 1199SEIU’s Our Life And Times, 330 W. 42nd St, 7th Fl., New York, NY 10036 Attn: Patricia Kenney, Editor, or email them to Patriciak@1199.org and please put Letters in the subject of your email.

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September/October 2016 • Our Life And Times

George Gresham

Rite Aid Pharmacies Wants To Break Our Union 1199 was founded by drugstore workers fighting for union right and dignity. This struggle is in our DNA .

Rite Aid wants to split our pharmacists off from the rest of the workers and weaken everyone.

Eighty-four years ago, 1199’s late President Leon Davis and a group of his fellow pharmacists and drugstore workers came together to form what became Local 1199. The union grew to about 5,000 members, all in New York City. Then, 27 years after its founding, Davis and his comrades made a visionary decision: to organize the city’s hospital workers.

The decision was bold and courageous; bold, because this small, mostly Jewish, overwhelmingly male union would become overwhelmingly female and primarily African-American and Latina, and courageous, because at the time it was illegal to unionize New York’s hospital workers.

Those fearless drugstore employees of half a century ago provided the scaffolding on which our 400,000 proud sisters and brothers of 1199SEIU stand today. The mighty oak that is our modern Union grew from the acorn planted by Leon Davis and his co-workers decades ago, and now stretches from the Canadian border to the Caribbean among hospitals, nursing homes, the homecare industry and every other sector of the healthcare industry.

But now a powerful employer, Rite-Aid Pharmacies, is out to smash the acorn—our 6,100 pharmacists, pharmacy techs and workers in over 300 Rite Aid stores in New York and New Jersey who have had contracts with the company for some 40 years.

1199ers and Rite Aid have been in collective bargaining for the past 19 months, and it has become clear that the company wants to bust the union. It stopped paying into the debt to the Fund several months ago and is more than $8,000,000 in debt to the fund—a debt it wants our Union to waive. Rite Aid also wants to bar from the Union any pharmacists it may hire in the future.

On its website, Rite Aid’s mission statement reads, in part, “We provide an environment that inspires and motivates the best people to choose to work here…where they can reach their fullest potential. We dedicate ourselves to creating an experience for all of our associates that is easy, exciting and engaging.”

Easy, exciting and engaging? Nearly half the members of the bargaining unit work at minimum wage and 85 percent earn less than $15 an hour. Pharmacy techs earn $13.01 an hour. Rite Aid wants to split our pharmacists off from the rest of the workers and weaken everyone.

Keep in mind that Rite Aid is the largest drugstore chain on the East Coast and third-largest in the country, with 4,000 stores and 89,000 employees nationwide, and the company is now in negotiations to merge with Walgreen’s drugstores. In May, Rite Aid CEO John Stanley wrote to investors: “Fiscal 2016 was a successful, transformational and historic year for Rite Aid…We increased revenue by nearly 16 percent – from $26.5 billion in fiscal 2015 to $30.7 billion this past year.”

Stanley himself was paid over $22 million last year. It would take half of Rite Aid’s workers 1,500 years to make that much money. So we’re talking about a clear case of corporate greed here.

In our bargaining, an arbitrator has ruled in our favor that Rite Aid is engaged in Unfair Labor Practices. And a court has upheld the arbitrator’s ruling. Still, the company refuses to bargain in good faith.

Tensions are rising, but our members—pharmacists and store workers alike—are holding firm and holding together. Now it’s up to the rest of us to join them in the fight to secure their benefits and to safeguard our union in the retail drug industry. If the employer won’t bargain fairly, we have no option but to take it to the streets. At press time, contract talks were ongoing. Members were keeping the pressure on for a fair contract.

“We are not going to give away our members,” says Laurie Vallone, our executive vice president in charge of the negotiations. “1199 was started by pharmacists. They are the foundation of who we are.”

Amen to that.

InTheRegions

April info picket at NJ AristaCare facilities drew resident support for workers’ contract fight.

“ It was hard work and a long night, but it was worth every step of the struggle.” ­— AristaCare CNA Ruby Waller

NEW JERSEY

NJ Nursing Home Members Avert Strike & Win Contract Just before midnight on Monday, Sept. 12, after hours of lastminute negotiations, 1199SEIU members at Cedar Oaks nursing home in South Plainfield, NJ, and Norwood Terrace nursing home in Plainfield, NJ, reached a contract settlement with AristaCare Health Services. The agreement was ratified by an overwhelming majority of the membership in a vote on Wednesday, Sept. 14.

Some 300 members of 1199SEIU, including CNAs, LPNs, housekeepers and dietary and recreation aides had been in negotiations with AristaCare for nearly two years. With little movement at the bargaining table, members voted for a 24-hour strike slated to begin Sept. 14.

But a breakthrough during bargaining averted the strike a little more than a day before its scheduled start. The new agreement provides

immediate and yearly wage increases for all employees, protects workers’ pensions, and secures high-quality health insurance.

“It was hard work and a long night, but it was worth every step of the struggle,” said Ruby Waller, a member of the bargaining committee who works as a certified nursing assistant at Norwood Terrace. “Our main concern was getting good medical coverage and we got it!

This contract means that I can go to

the doctor and not have to worry about being unable to afford it.”

Workers also had the support of many residents who joined them at several one-day pickets at AristaCare facilities. Patients described their caregivers as family who deserve fair treatment from the employers.

“They break their backs taking care of us,” said Ms. Nina Douglass who has lived at AristaCare’s Cedar Oaks nursing home for two years. “They come out in the winter time in the snow, working double shifts. Give them what they deserve, what they work for. This is what I’m asking.”

Princess Stevens, an LPN at Cedar Oaks and bargaining team member, attributed the victory to the sense of unity in the shops.

“People were ready to go on strike, and that really moved management at the table,” said Stevens. “At first they thought we were a joke, but when we all came together as a team and we got closer to the strike, we were able to get the company to settle.”

NEW YORK

Lawrence Workers to NY Presbyterian: “We Will Stay in the Street as Long as it Takes.”

Scores of 1199SEIU members, their families and local supporters held an informational picket at Lawrence Hospital in Bronxville, NY on Aug. 23 to demand a fair contract and speak up for quality care in the Westchester community.

Lawrence workers have been in negotiations with the NY Presbyterian Health System since October, 2015.

Contending that Lawrence is an outlier in the New York Presbyterian network, management has refused to negotiate a contract that provides the same wages and pensions to other NY metro area Presby workers.

“We’ve been at this for nine months. We have been sitting at the table for nine months,” says negotiating committee member Andra Prince, a unit clerk/ phlebotomist at Lawrence. “The people at this hospital care for this community. They are worth the same compensation as the Presbyterian members system-wide. We don’t understand why they don’t believe we should be treated the same way as the rest of the Presbyterian family.”

1199ers held a candlelight vigil Aug. 5 that was followed by a fruitless Aug. 8 bargaining session. Presby management continues to frustrate workers with its

Con Edison worker Steve Rodgers with his daughter Hero at Aug. 23 picket at Lawrence Hospital in Bronxville NY. His partner and Hero’s mom, Jessica Paige, is one of hundreds of Lawrence workers fighting for a contract with a fair wage at Lawrence. treatment of patients and the Bronxville community.

“They keep saying we’re not like other NYP institutions,” says Samantha Pirazzi, a secretary at the hospital for 21 years. “Then why did they put their name all over everything? If that’s true, then it’s just a façade. They’re giving our patients a false impression, and it’s wrong.”

Members are vowing to keep Presby’s feet to the fire in the fight for parity. And Lawrence 1199ers have a proud

history of staying the course to victory: Lawrence is the site of a historic 1965 strike that led to collective bargaining rights for New York State’s non-profit hospital workers.

“It makes me feel bad that they don’t want to compensate us for the hard work that we do,” says Marcia Griffiths, an ambassador at Lawrence for 10 years. “But this fight has been going on for a long while now, and we will stay in the street as long as it takes.”

September/October 2016 • Our Life And Times

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Montefiore Medical Center’s Jeanette Garcia is one of the 1199ers who teamed up with the Bronx Bombers Sept. 14 to show their support for improving healthcare in the Bronx, NY.

1199ers March in NYC Labor Day Parade Members of 1199SEIU joined thousands of New York City’s working people in the city’s annual Labor Day Parade. The event was organized by the NYC Central Labor Council.

The parade’s theme this year was “Union Made.” Scores of union contingents donned their colors, transforming

Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue into a rainbow that represented every sector of industry. The bright swath also reminded the public of labor’s long and proud heritage in New York City; hardworking women and men build and maintain the City and the services its residents rely on.

“I’m here to support 1199 and celebrate our victories,” said Cathy Reid, a home health aide with the People Care Agency.

“We won $15 an hour this year, and of course, it’s about Labor Day today. We have to come out and support our people who work so hard all year ‘round.”

NEW YORK

1199ers & The New York Yankees Team Up for a Healthier Bronx

1199SEIU’s Training and Employment Funds (TEF) and the New York Yankees teamed up on Sept. 14 to raise money to train bilingual healthcare workers and improve the quality of health care in the Bronx.

The Yankees are supporting the TEF’s Bronx Healthcare Learning Collaborative Program, a strategic partnership of Bronx healthcare employers, unions, the City University of New York and other organizations. The Collaborative’s mission is to give Spanish-speaking Bronx workers greater access to education programs that lead to healthcare careers. The program also offers enrolled students support to achieve their educational goals. Sixty percent of the patients treated at Bronx healthcare institutions are Spanish-speaking, yet only ten percent of direct caregivers can speak the language fluently. Raising the level of cultural competence among caregivers has a direct impact on the level of patient care.

Maria Lugo, a Collaborative Program participant from Mt. Sinai West in Manhattan, is working towards becoming an RN. “Often patients don’t know they have a right to ask for an interpreter or they feel embarrassed so they just agree with doctors and nurses even if they don’t understand,” says Lugo, who says as a child she sometimes translated for her own mother. “I try to let patients know I’m here if they need me so they can make themselves understood and get the services they need.”

Central to the program is a colloquium designed to meet the unique needs of adult students. The program is free of charge to eligible members who can attend courses toward career goals in the healthcare field.

Montefiore Medical Center housekeeper Jeanette Garcia is studying healthcare administration at Lehmann College.

“I really wanted to go back to school.

Healthcare is always changing and it’s important for people to have opportunities for growth,” she says. “Programs like this are especially important in medium- and lowincome areas. They provide opportunities for growth and for us to help our borough.

There’s such a high number of Spanishspeaking families.”

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September/October 2016 • Our Life And Times

InTheRegions

Caregiver workloads at the hospital have increased; members are logging millions of dollars in overtime, yet management has been refusing to acknowledge the need for more staff.

Workers from Vassar Brothers Medical Center got out the word about short staffing with an Aug. 25 car caravan.

Vassar Members Keep Their Staffing Fight Rolling Members at Vassar Brothers Medical Center in Poughkeepsie, NY, took their safe staffing fight on the road Aug. 25 with a mobile billboard that called attention to their ongoing struggle to improve staffing levels and

patient safety at their institution.

1199ers and NYSNA members joined the mobile billboard-led car caravan over 65 miles through the Poughkeepsie region letting area residents know that the hospital’s management has been unresponsive

to workers’ concerns about staffing levels at their hospital. The miles-long car-train also made stops along the way to discuss the untenable situation with trustees of Heath Quest, Vassar’s hospital system.

Caregiver workloads at the hospital have increased; members are logging millions of dollars in overtime, yet management refuses to acknowledge the need for more staff, preferring instead to rely on an exhausted workforce stretched to the bone. Vassar workers were doubly insulted when

bosses instituted a punitive sick time “dependability” policy. The hospital publicly touts its growing census and number of visitors, while ignoring the voices of concerned caregivers.

“Every department from nurses to patient care technicians is short staffed,” PCT John Rodriguez told the Poughkeepsie Journal. “We want to give the right amount of care. How can we do it without the support? And, with this new dependability policy, if we call out a certain amount of days, we’re afraid we’re going to get fired.”

Youth Mentoring Program Celebration

University Village members are fighting for a contract and to keep their facility open.

Tampa Members Fight For Their Nursing Home University Village, a Tampa, FL nursing home, has made the news several times over the past couple of years for not paying its bills for basic items like food service and pharmaceuticals for residents, and for allegations of failing to pay refunds owed to residents, their estates and prospective residents. And 1199SEIU members are demanding changes from owner John Bartles.

In a May 2016 a judge fined University Village’s management $10,000 and recommended that the state take away the nursing home’s license citing financial insolvency.

The nursing home has distributed paychecks that bounced, causing financial problems to the home’s caregivers. The home has appealed the judge’s order.

University Village workers have

been fighting on two fronts: to keep the home’s doors open and back management off a pay for performance proposal.

Members have taken the fight for their residents public and were joined by community supporters and public officials at a Sept. 8 rally. On leafleting days leading up to the rally they asked the public and officials to sign onto a letter voicing concerns for University Village residents.

“Our concern is for our residents.

This is their home, and they shouldn’t be made to suffer uncertainty because of all this,” says Shirley Lyons, an LPN at University Village.

Participants in this year’s Youth Mentoring Program (YMP) celebrated their growth and achievement with a celebration held Aug. 18 at Manhattan’s New York Academy of Medicine. The program, which is administered by the 1199SEIU/Employer Child Care Fund, was started two decades ago to give teenagers summer jobs that also provide experience in the healthcare workplace.

YMP participants are placed in jobs at the same institutions where their parents are employed.

For part of the day they work alongside hospital or nursing home worker.

The program also includes a module which gives students the opportunity to share their experiences through art and in group settings.

September/October 2016 • Our Life And Times

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Our Benefits

Workers to NYU:

Hands off Our Benefits!

“It took us over 50 years to win the benefits we have. Not a single thing was given to us.”

Hundreds of 1199SEIU members at two NYU-Langone Medical Center facilities in New York City held informational pickets Aug. 31 to protest the hospital giant’s recent decision to leave League of Voluntary Hospitals and Nursing Homes, an association of hospitals and nursing homes formed in 1968 to conduct joint bargaining with 1199.

Management at the healthcare mega-system maintains the move is simply a prudent business decision, but 1199SEIU members charge it’s the first volley in NYU’s larger war on the Union and their benefits under the 1199 National Benefit Fund.

Since its founding, the League of Voluntary Hospitals has grown to include 109 non-profit medical centers, nursing homes and related healthcare facilities.

Over the years, members at those institutions have fought for and won model healthcare, education and childcare benefits for themselves and their families.

At an Aug. 16 chapter meeting of members and delegates, 1199SEIU Pres. George Gresham urged every worker to stand up for their rights during the struggle with NYU. He reminded members of the Union’s history at the institution and called on them to be fearless as leaders and in the show of collective strength.

“It took us over 50 years to win the benefits we have. Not a single thing was given to us,” he said.

“And remember—other hospitals are watching what happens here with NYU. What we have is what we fight for; what we fight for is what we keep.”

“I’m so angry,” said building services worker Marcia Morrison.

“I once worked in an institution where we had no contract for 10 years. I want our members to understand that they have to be there for the picket.”

NYU workers repeatedly affirmed their benefits as peace of mind as they work on the front lines of healthcare.

“We get so caught up in our jobs. It’s like being in the water up to your knees—you don’t realize how fast it’s rising until you’re drowning,” said Kerry McGee, a cardiac stress lab associate. “I’m the single parent of a 14-year-old daughter. Without my benefits I’d have to take her to the ER for her school physical every year or worry

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about losing my home because of a medical bill. Now I don’t have to do that. What’s going on really concerns me and so I’m doing what I can to help.”

“WE’RE OUT HERE TO LET THEM KNOW WE MATTER.” At the Aug. 31 picket, patient unit associate Lisa Porter coordinated one of three picket lines at the doors of the hospital’s main site on First Ave. in Manhattan. Porter spoke over whistles, horns, singing and chants of “No Justice! No Peace!” and “If We Don’t Get It, Shut It Down!”

“They think we are not important,” she said as she encouraged her sisters and brothers to raise their voices by waving her arms and blowing her own whistle. “I’ve been here since 1988. I take home $1,120.00 every two weeks after taxes. They fight us for every penny we earn. They think the people who take care of

the patients in the hospital don’t matter. We’re out here to let them know that we do matter.”

Workers were joined by numerous community supporters, members of other unions who stopped by on lunch hours to show solidarity. Several elected officials joined the lines, including New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer and Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer. Both called on NYU to do the right thing by dedicated caregivers.

At NYU-Langone’s Hospital For Joint Diseases in Lower Manhattan, Bridget Duncan, a patient care technician since 1986, marched the picket line on her day off.

“I’m getting ready to retire and I’ve put in my papers, but I’m worried about the people who’ll come after me,” she said. “What about the next generation? Once they’re out of the League we don’t know what they will do, so we need to make sure they stay in.”

“ What about the next generation?

Once they’re [NYU] out of the League we don’t know what they will do, so we need to make sure they stay in.” ­— Bridget Duncan, patient care tech

NYU Medical Center recently left the League of Voluntary Hospitals. Hundreds of 1199ers took to the streets Aug. 31 to show the healthcare giant that the union won’t be divided by the move.

September/October 2016 • Our Life And Times

Our Members

1199ers Enchant at NYC West Indian Day Parade Prize-winning contingent dazzles with costumes that are truly a labor of love.

This year on Sept. 5 hundreds of 1199SEIU members once again shared in the annual splendor on Brooklyn’s Eastern Parkway that is the West Indian Day Parade.

The “Enchanted Garden” themed contingent of some 400 members marched in the 49th annual Carnival Parade, a festival held every Labor Day that lights up Central Brooklyn.

The event drew more than 2 million revelers who danced, marched, sang and proudly displayed the colors of Caribbean nations.

1199’s Enchanted Garden transformed New York, Maryland and Massachusetts 1199ers into flowers, trees and other beings from a magical garden. The gorgeous and intricate costumes are the creations of retired

Interfaith Medical Center housekeeping worker Clyde Bascomb, who called the garden a new twist on a classic theme.

This year, giving the Parade Committee an even greater challenge, production time was cut to just six weeks from its usual twelve or more. As usual, members of the Social and Cultural Committee worked tirelessly to create dozens of elaborate costumes for the parade. This year’s theme required a new craft to build the dazzling suits: bending wire forms to build flower petals and leaves. Committee members also spent hours on traditional bead work and sewing.

And as usual, says Bascomb, there was sewing, gluing, tucking and pinning going on right up until the

parade kicked off.

“We’d have 20 people working through the night sometimes. We’d even have kids and teach them how to bend the wires for the costumes.

That’s one of the wonderful things about this. We are passing on the culture through working together,” he says. “I love sharing this with other people because it’s something you can’t do by yourself. Our group gets really involved.”

The parade is also more than a celebration, with contingents judged in a variety of categories. The 1199 Enchanted Garden took first place in Best Medium Band. On Sept. 3 at the annual Children’s Parade, 1199’s kids won first place for the third year in a row.

September/October 2016 • Our Life And Times

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Our Members

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September/October 2016 • Our Life And Times

More than 2 million revelers danced, marched and proudly displayed the colors of Caribbean nations.

Election 2016

ELECTION DAY IS NOVEMBER 8 WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW NEW YORK – Polls open from 6:00 a.m. -9pm • Voter registration deadline for the general election: Oct. 14.

• Absentee ballots must be completed and mailed to your county elections board no later than the seventh day before the election or delivered in person no later than one day before the election.

• In New York State, workers who do not have 4 consecutive non-working hours between polls opening and closing, and who do not have sufficient time to vote, are entitled to up to 2 hours paid leave to vote.

questions & more info on voting in NY: Contact the State Board of Elections: For 518-474-6220 or log on to www.elections.ny.gov/VotingRegister.html.

NEW JERSEY – Polls open from 7:00 a.m.-7:00 p.m.

• Voter registration deadline for the general election: Oct. 18.

• Last day to request absentee ballot by mail: October 9.

• Deadline to apply for mail-in absentee ballot for general election: Nov. 1.

• In-person absentee ballot request deadline is 3:00 p.m. on Nov 7.

• Absentee Ballot return deadline: 8:00 p.m. on Nov. 8.

• If you are in line at 7:00 p.m. you must be given the right to vote.

For questions & more info on voting in NJ: Contact the NJ Division of Elections at 609-292-3760 or log on to www.njelections.org/ FLORIDA – Polls open from 7:00 a.m.-7:00 p.m.

• Voter registration deadline for general election: Oct. 11.

• By-mail absentee ballot request deadline: Last day election officials can send absentee ballots to domestic voters: Oct. 11 • Absentee Ballot return deadline: Nov. 8.

• Early voting period: Oct. 29 to Nov. 5.

• If you do not bring proper ID you can still vote on a provisional ballot in your registered precinct.

For more information contact the FL Department of State Division of Elections: 850-245-6200 or log on to www.dos.myflorida.com/elections/ MARYLAND –Polls open from 7:00 a.m. - 8:00 p.m.

• Voter registration deadline by mail and on line for the general election: Oct 18.

• Voter registration deadline in person: Nov. 3.

• For the first election cycle ever, Marylanders can register to vote during early voting.

For more information visit this link: www.elections.state.md.us/voter_registration/index.html • Early voting in the general election is from Oct. 27 through Nov. 3 from 8:00 a.m. until 8:00 p.m. Not every poll is open early. Find locations here: www.elections.state.md.us/voting/early_voting_sites/2016_EARLY_VOTING_SITES.pdf Find poll sites for the general election here: www.voterservices.elections.maryland.gov/votersearch • To vote early or on Election Day at the polls you will only be asked to provide identification at the polling place if you are: voting for the first time in Maryland; You registered to vote by mail on or after January 1, 2003; You have not previously met the identification requirements.

• Marylanders may vote by absentee ballot without a reason. You must request an absentee ballot by Nov. 1.

• Visit www.voterservices.elections.maryland.gov/OnlineVoterRegistration to request one online or www.elections.state.md.us/voting/ absentee.html to download and print a ballot.

For more information log on to www.elections.state.md.us or call 410-269-2840.

MASSACHUSETTS - Polls open from 7:00 a.m.-8:00 p.m.

• Voter registration deadline for the general election: Oct. 19.

• Absentee ballot request deadline: Nov. 7.

• Absentee ballot return deadline: Nov. 8.

• Employers must legally provide two hours to vote.

or questions & more information on voting Contact the Massachusetts Secretary of the Common Wealth 800-392-6090 or log on F to www.sec.state.ma.us/.

WASHINGTON D.C. – Polls open 7:00 a.m.-8:00 p.m.

Voter registration deadline for the general election: Nov. 8.

Absentee ballot request deadline: 15 days before the election.

Absentee ballot return deadline: no later than seven days before the election.

Early voting begins Oct. 22 at One Judiciary Sq. and Oct. 29 at other locations.

For questions and more information on voting log on to www.dcboee.org or call 202-727-2525.

To find important election dates, information and opportunities you can also log on to www.1199seiu.org/vote2016.

September/October 2016 • Our Life And Times

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✂

• • • • •

Weekend Warriors

Weekend Warriors Get Out the Vote

to Dump Trump

Home Health Aides Aileen Li, left, and Pei Rong Yan Cao, ready to canvass during the Autumn Festival in Philadelphia’s Chinatown Sept. 26.

“ I feel that Donald Trump is bringing back the old ways of hate to the US. He is dividing us when we should be as one” It was the Fight for $15 campaign that first attracted Beverly Miller to political action.

She saw how effective activism could be.

Miller now works at the Rosewood Gardens Rehabilitation Center in Rensselaer, NY. It’s her fear of a Donald Trump presidency that motivated her to sign up as a Weekend Warrior and get out the vote for Hillary Clinton.

Miller lost her father to a gun violence when she was just two years old; he was killed in a robbery. Closing gun control loopholes is a very important to her.

“Hillary Clinton cares about the country as

delegate. Criswell has been an active member of the Fight For15 campaign in Florida. Miami Beach’s minimum wage went up in June.

“We still have a long way to go in Florida, but it is a good start,” says Criswell of the victory. It is very important that people vote for Hillary Clinton in the general election, says Criswell, to build on these accomplishments.

“Donald Trump thinks the minimum wage is too high,” he says incredulously.

In New York City, Stephanie Alleyne a longtime delegate at Mount Sinai Medical Center has seen the power of 1199SEIU members’

activism. Alleyne, who has worked as a Mental Health Associate at Mount Sinai for 28 years.

A delegate for the past 15 years, Alleyne signed up to be a Weekend Warrior for the first time in since the year 2000, when Al Gore ran for President. Last week she took the 1199SEIU bus to Ohio to knock on doors for Hillary Clinton.

“I came to the U.S. from Trinidad and immigration reform is really important to me,” says Alleyne, “There are some people who are here so long and never get a chance to get their papers. I know that Clinton is going to finish what Obama started. This is one of the many reasons I love Hillary.”

“ I know that Clinton is going to finish what Obama started.” ­— Bridget Duncan, patient care tech a whole, not just one group of people. I feel that Donald Trump is bringing back the old ways of hate to the US. He is dividing us when we should be as one,” she says. Miller also dislikes Trump’s rhetoric about immigrants.

“The US is a melting pot,” she said, “That is what makes us great. How can he say he wants to get rid of immigrants when the country is built on immigrants?”

Mark Criswell, who works as a CNA at the Palmetto General Hospital in Florida, comes from a non-union family. But once 1199SEIU organized his hospital he began to recognize the value of political action and became a union

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September/October 2016 • Our Life And Times

Sunnyside Homecare Home Health Aide Blanca Doro Osorio registers a Philadelphia resident to vote during a Sept. 26 Weekend Warrior canvass.

Contracts

MEMBERS STAND FIRM AGAINST RITE AID ASSAULT 1199SEIU members are standing firm against attempts by Rite Aid, one of the largest drugstore chains in the nation, to win major contract concessions from workers and severely weaken the Union’s bargaining unit. The fight for 6,100 Rite Aid members in New York and New Jersey has emerged as a major 1199SEIU campaign against corporate greed and economic inequality.

Tensions have been rising since March when negotiations began. That’s when Rite Aid poisoned talks by discontinuing payments to the National Benefit Fund (NBF) and demanding exclusion from the Union all employees of any planned clinics and facilities in which prescriptions are filled. Rite Aid also proposed to exclude from the bargaining unit all new pharmacists. The Union agreed, as long as members maintain NBF healthcare coverage and pharmacists and interns maintain 1199 membership. The negotiating committee also agreed to consider the proposal for clinics and prescription facilities. Yet, the company refused to move on workers’ healthcare or maintenance of union membership for pharmacists.

“We’ve been willing to work with management, but they continue to lie and flip flop,” said Jamie Peters, an Astoria, Queens, Rite Aid front-end sales worker and member of the negotiating committee, after a September bargaining session. “We will not give up our benefits. We’ll continue to organize and educate.”

Members are insulted by Rite Aid’s concessionary demands, particularly in light of the company’s financial health. In a May 2016 letter to investors, Rite Aid CEO John Stanley wrote: “Fiscal 2016 was a successful, transformational and historic year for Rite Aid…. We increased revenue by nearly 16 percent – from $26.5 billion in fiscal 2015 to $30.7 billion this past year.”

Members contrast those profits to their paltry wages. More than 2,500 of them earn minimum wage. And more than 5,000 earn less than the $15 per hour low-wage workers have been demanding

around the nation. Members also want to know why a company that is proudly reporting record profits to investors is at least $8 million in arrears to the 1199SEIU National Benefit Fund.

“If we accept Rite Aid’s terms, I could see our collective power weakened dramatically,” says Bryan Tong, a Fresh Meadows pharmacy intern and recent graduate of St. John’s University.

Tong says he’s concerned with what leaving the bargaining unit would mean for his future benefits, working conditions and pension. Tong notes management’s attempts to sow divisions between older workers and younger workers like him.

“It’s important for young workers like me to get involved,” he stresses. “We represent the bridge to the future we’re trying to protect.”

Carlos Villalba, a cashier at a Rite Aid in midtown Manhattan, is another one of those delegates building bridges. He has compiled a list of more than 400 members he contacts regularly about contract developments and campaign issues.

“Management tries to convince members that the Union is not cooperating and is responsible for the potential loss of our benefits,” Villalba says.

“I let them know that our problem is Rite Aid’s corporate greed,” Villalba notes that Rite Aid’s strategy is to weaken the bargaining unit as a step towards eventually busting the Union.

“If they can bring in non-Union pharmacists, why would they continue to keep senior pharmacists to whom they have to pay more,” he says. “Their goal is to divide and conquer.”

September/October 2016 • Our Life And Times

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An Aug. 16 picket at a midtown Manhattan Rite Aid location drew scores demanding a fair contract now.

Drug Store Organizing is in Our DNA Long before 1199 became the major East Coast healthcare workers union, it was a small, combative union of New York City drugstore workers.

The Union was formed in 1932 in the midst of the Great Depression and radical activism.

1199 was the product of three left-wing groups: The New York Drug Clerks Association, the Pharmacists Union of Greater New York and Local 1199, Retail Drug Employees Union. Early on, organizer and former pharmacy student, Leon Davis, rose to president of the merged unions. The Union—conscious of the need to strengthen itself by uniting the entire industry—quickly brought drugstore porters and stockmen into its ranks.

Many of the activists had chosen pharmacy work because anti-Semitism limited the number of Jewish students who were admitted into medical schools. As frontline fighters against racism and bigotry, 1199 campaigned in the 1930s for the hiring of African American pharmacists and the promotion of Black porters to sodamen.

Its militancy and broad unity helped 1199 to withstand attacks from industry, government and others within labor. That very spirit guided the historic hospital organizing victories a generation later.

Most of the drugstore workers who led those organizing drives are no longer with us, but we continue to be guided by their stirring legacy.

Villalba has helped lead Union picket lines at his store, which is the busiest Rite Aid store in the nation. Picketing continues at other selected sites, where members are appealing to shoppers and others to contact Rite Aide management.

The Union also has won court victories; federal judges have upheld Unfair Labor Practices charges brought against Rite Aid. But the battle for members’ benefits and preservation of the bargaining unit will be won in the streets, Union leaders say. At press time contract talks were ongoing. 1199SEIU members were continuing to pressure Rite Aid to settle a fair contract, to stop coming after Union jobs, and do the right thing.

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September/October 2016 • Our Life And Times

“ We will not give up our benefits. We’ll continue to organize and educate.” ­— J amie Peters, Rite Aid sales worker and contract negotiating committee member

JAY MALLIN PHOTO

New Organizing

Chase Brexton Workers Win Their Fight for a Union

Even firings couldn’t sway determined workers at Baltimore LGBTQ services organization.

After a fraught organizing campaign that involved firings and unfair labor practice charges, and drew a passionate community rally and at least one on line petition, workers at Maryland’s Chase Brexton Health Care on Aug. 25 voted overwhelmingly in favor of representation by 1199SEIU. The vote was 87-9.

Baltimore-based Chase Brexton opened in 1978 as a clinic for gay men and has since grown to be the cornerstone provider of LGBTQ health services in Maryland. The institution’s Baltimore site is one of a handful of safety net clinics in the city and with the inception of Obamacare has seen a major increase in volume. The transgender community has long depended on the institution’s workers’ insightful and sensitive care; the Trans community is vastly underserved by medical services.

“My patients, especially my transgender ones, need a place where they can get proper care with dignity and without fear,” staff psychiatrist Ariel Vitali said at a rally days ahead of the vote. “I stand with my patients and with my colleagues. I stand with 1199SEIU.” As Chase Brexton caseloads have grown and workers were stretched thinner on just about every front, administrators announced in July a move to a volume-based salary model—in certain classifications of workers’

pay would be based on the volume of patients they could process. Workers pointed this out as a formula for disaster. The workforce was already struggling with burn-out. Patient care would surely suffer. So that’s when about 140 workers at Chase Brexton decided to unionize.

Management tried to kill the drive by firing several well-respected supervisors.

SOLIDARITY WITH CHASE BREXTON WORKERS The move was a miscalculation. Chase Brexton’s action drew swift and firm rebuke from within the progressive community and a broad spectrum of the workers’ allies. Advocacy groups including the Pride Foundation of Maryland and a group of law students at the University of Maryland Law School condemned the organization for interfering with the right to organize. Patients started an on-line petition that garnered over 1,700 signatures.

An Aug. 19 rally at Chase Brexton’s Mt. Vernon headquarters organized by patients, 1199SEIU and the Baltimore Transgender Alliance drew more than 200 workers. Patients and allies who called on the organization to do the right thing for workers and their patients.

Demonstrators rallied with signs reading “An Attack on Chase Brexton Workers Is an Attack

Chase Brexton workers and their allies rallied Aug. 19 in Baltimore for union rights and patient care.

“ My patients, especially my transgender ones, need a place where they can get proper care with dignity and without fear.” on Us” and “Support Queer Patients.” Clients expressed grave concern about changes at the clinics.

“They had been kind of conveyor-belting the system of care already, and then they fired workers who understood how to care for us,” Ava Pipitone, told the Baltimore Sun. Pipitone is Executive Director of the Alliance and a Chase Brexton patient.

WORKERS VOTE YES After a weeks-long media storm and continuing management finger pointing, workers held their Union vote on Aug. 25. At press time, the Chase Brexton workers were preparing for contract negotiations and looking forward to bringing back the fired workers to the patients and jobs they love.

“I stand by the idea of a union and the opportunity to provide quality, lasting comprehensive care for our patients who need it most,” says Dr. Erekda Derouen, one of the clinic’s family medicine physicians.

September/October 2016 • Our Life And Times

14

Our Members

Opening the Door to

the American Dream Benefit Fund programs help members pave the way to a solid financial future.

The economic crisis of 20072008 was precipitated largely by a collapse of the sub-prime home mortgage market; these loans were peddled disproportionately to lowincome home buyers who were issued unfavorable terms—often by unscrupulous lenders. Many of these affected borrowers were eligible for standard, prime-rate mortgages, but because of lack of buyer education and lender oversight, the industry was rife with abuse.

New York 1199ers should have no such worries. The 1199SEIU Benefit and Pension Funds (NBF), through its Home Mortgage and Financial Wellness Programs, have helped scores of members create sound financial futures, repair their credit and purchase new homes. In 2015 alone, close to 1,200 members attended seminars, workshops and individual counseling sessions offered by the coordinating programs.

“When I arrived in New York from Nigeria in 1997, one of my goals was to eventually own my own home,” says Eghosa Ijiogbe, a CNA at Brooklyn United Methodist nursing home. “My Union came to my rescue and made my dream come true.”

Ijiogbe, who lives alone, considered a condo and a coop but decided she wanted her own land and backyard. In August, she moved into a three-bedroom home in Cambria Heights, Queens.

“Through the Program I found out that I could take out a low-interest loan against my pension to help with my down payment or closing costs,” she notes.

“I began the home-buying process by attending a seminar at the Union last year,” says Anthony Cardona, a housekeeper at Bronx Lebanon Hospital. He and his wife, Karen Cardona, a Bronx Lebanon phlebotomist, closed on their Middletown, NY, home in July. They commute each day from Orange County to the Bronx, along with their teenage son who’s in his last year of high school in New York City.

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Cardona says that he was impressed with Mortgage and Financial Wellness Programs; they help members understand what documents and how much money it really takes to become a homeowner.

“We have a relative in Middletown, so he put us in touch with an agent,” Cardona notes. “The Mortgage Program also helped with the paper work and with answers to questions we had.”

Available to members are extensive support resources including a Homebuyer Education Course which covers a variety of topics critical for home ownership such as their readiness to buy a home, understanding credit, the loan process, down-payment assistance, insurance, fair housing laws and managing finances as a homeowner. The Home Mortgage Program also partners with community-based and reputable housing organizations such as the New York Mortgage Coalition (NYMC) and Neighborhood Housing Services, New York City neighborhood-based nonprofits focused on expanding opportunities for homeownership to and low- and moderate-income members. There’s also a loan available for eligible, vested members with $2000 or more accrued in either the Health Care Employees or Greater New York Pension Funds.

“I’ve been telling other members that they should attend the workshops to see what they need to do,” Ijiogbe says. “They may be closer to their dream than they know.”

While every day the programs help 1199ers realize the American Dream of homeownership, establishing financial literacy among working people is their central aim. Those with higher incomes can find a broad array of financial services, but low—and moderate—income working people are often stuck in debt or pay more for financial products. The

September/October 2016 • Our Life And Times

Top: Jamaica Hospital member Yvan Louizaire with his wife Stephanie at Sept. 17 mortgage fair. Above: Members at the event discuss financial wellness tips.

NBF program helps members get and keep their finances on track with effective debt-management strategies, credit rebuilding and ways to budget and save money.

Members learn that financial wellness gives them choices, whether it’s in the form of a house or peace of mind.

“The Mortgage Program helped enormously. And its representatives were expeditious and efficient,” says Robert Lewis Armstead, a housekeeper in Einstein Hospital in the Bronx, who closed on his house in the Bronx this spring. Armstead was able to pay part of the closing costs with his pension loan.

“Our Union benefits do not end when members leave the workplace at the end of the workday,” he says. “There is nothing like being able to pull into your own driveway.”

Home Buying Assistance & A Sound Future Is Just a Phone Call Away The 1199SEIU Home Mortgage and Financial Wellness Department offers workshops about budgeting, credit, saving and money management. There are also fairs, forums and seminars for prospective homebuyers.

Interested in learning more about the home-buying process?

Call 646-473-6484 or email HomeMortgage@1199SEIUFunds.org.

See the full calendar of events at www.1199SEIUFunds.org.

THE BACK PAGE

Rite Aid Is All Wrong Members at Rite Aid Pharmacies are fighting for a fair contract. The giant drug retailer is millions in arrears for members’ health benefits while boasting about making billions in profits. “I’ve been here for 4 years and make only $9.00 an hour so our benefits are the most important thing and now they want to take those away,” said Marty Castro, a clerk at store #3120. Castro was among the scores of members who picketed the store on Aug. 16 demanding a fair contract. See pages 12-13 for story.

Photo by Jim Tynan