Our Life & Times | June / July 2014

A JOURNAL OF 1199SEIU May/June 2014

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FIGHTING FOR NORTH ADAMS REGIONAL

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2014 ELECTIONS: THE HOUSE & SENATE FAREWELL BASIL PATERSON

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May/June 2014 • Our Life And Times

ONE UNION 1199SEIU members from every region are supporting workers at Johns Hopkins Medical Center in Baltimore in their fight against the institution’s poverty wages. See pages 8-9.

3 President’s Column

Editorial

Our Life and Times May/June 2014

ONE UNION 4 THOUGH WE ARE MANY, WE SPEAK WITH ONE VOICE.

In The Regions

EITC Roundup, May Day rallies, NH owner Straus leaves NYU board, Florida member fights governor’s voter purge attempt & more.

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League Contract Fight

With management’s proposals off the table, members are mobilized and strong.

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Hardship at Hopkins

Thousands of 1199ers marched and rallied in Baltimore on Mother’s Day weekend, demanding an end to the institution‘s poverty pay.

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Standing Tall at Tallwoods

In March organizing victory, workers at NJ nursing home put patients first and won.

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Critical Elections Nationwide

A look at the upcoming House and Senate mid-term races.

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The Language of Care

Training Fund program is working to increase the number of bilingual healthcare workers.

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Farewell Basil Paterson

Our family has lost one of our true giants.

This Our Life And Times speaks to our unity. 1199ers are together carrying the mantle for working people across the nation and for everyone who’s resisting the oppressive right wing tide or a legacy of oppression and indignity. Our members ensure that the world sees it’s still possible for workers to win better standards of living for ourselves and our families.

But no one does it alone. Our Union is and has always been a courageous, hard fighting collective. 1199SEIU is many who speak as one. We Are One Union. As this is going to press, there are members in just about every region fighting together to maintain hard-won standards: Workers in nursing homes, hospitals, pharmacies, and homecare­—all classifications, in every healthcare setting.

In the New York City metropolitan area, members are negotiating for a contract that protects patients and workers with the League of Voluntary Hospitals and Homes in some of the toughest bargaining in Union history.

1199ers have refused to allow divisive tactics to take root in their shops.

“There will be no dividing us. We are one union. Our forefathers fought for all of us and we will do the same,” said Anna Ruiz, cashier at Rite Aide #572 in Richmond Hill, Queens.

Members at Johns Hopkins Medical Center in Maryland are fighting to raise the poverty wages paid by the institution. On Mother’s Day weekend, thousands of 1199ers traveled hundreds of miles from up and down the northeast to rally in Baltimore to demand justice for

Hopkins workers.

“Listening to those members from Hopkins really inspired me,” said League negotiating committee member Darlene Williams Smith, a social worker from Center Light Rehab in New York. “Hearing about our members in Baltimore who have to live in homeless shelters renewed me afresh. I’m fired up.”

Workers from Tallwoods Nursing Home in Bayville, NJ, stuck to their conviction that patient care comes before profits. In March they won their election­—in spite of vicious anti-union campaign by the boss.

“I just love this Union, to be honest. I can fight for dietary and make sure workers get what they need. I would tell anyone not to be afraid. Just go for it. You can make a dramatic change between workers and management,” says Tallwoods dishwasher Michael Smith, Jr. Members are also shoulder-to-shoulder in the streets, demanding change in governmental policies; in the classroom, helping each other accomplish the deferred goal of a college degree; and in activities and mobilizations in our Retired Members’ Division, which is our fastest growing division.

That unity is the essence of 1199SEIU, says Rite Aid’s Ruiz.

“People have worked too long and hard for what we have and we shouldn’t have to worry about falling backwards­—none of us should,” she says. “This isn’t just about me. It’s about all of us. We have to make it a fight for all of us.”

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The Last Word: Inequality

Economist Robert Reich debunks right wing lies.

Our Life And Times, May/June 2014 Vol 32, No 3 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

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

acting editor

Patricia Kenney director of photography

Jim Tynan photographer

Belinda Gallegos art direction & design

Maiarelli Studio

cover photograph

Jim Tynan contributors

Mindy Berman Kimberly Diehl Esther Iverem JJ Johnson Michael Myerson Amanda Torres-Price 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.facebook.com/SEIU www.1199seiu.org May/June 2014 • Our Life And Times

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THE PRESIDENT’S COLUMN

Letters

George Gresham

STOP CAPITAL PUNISHMENT NOW! he recent outrageously cruel execution in Oklahoma has thrust the issue of the death penalty back into focus. As healthcare workers, it is our obligation to take the lead in asking why the United States is the only industrial democracy in the world that still employs this barbaric form of punishment. It too often results in the execution of innocent people.

Why do have we have the world’s largest prison population, with 80,000 people in solitary confinement and why do we have the largest number of people in the world incarcerated? With private prisons creating a financial incentive to keep people in jail? Our role as caregivers puts us in the position to pose these questions of our society and demand change.

I believe the evil triplet of racism, militarism and greed that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. warned us about has been allowed to dominate our society.

We have the greatest disparity in wealth distribution of any advanced democracy, our military spending is almost as much as the rest of the world combined, and in spite of electing our first African-American president, racism is pervasive.

It’s reflected in the fact that the vastly disproportionate percentages of the general prison population and the death row prisoner population are comprised of people of color. It is also reflected in the racist enterprise of the war on terror where we murder ‘suspected militants’ and untold numbers of civilians by remotely piloted drones controlled by operators 10,000 miles away.

In 1967, Dr. King spoke eloquently and courageously against our war in Vietnam. He referred to the fact that the United States government was the greatest perpetrator of violence in the world. Tragically, that’s still the case today—our continued use of the barbaric death penalty is one symptom of a terrible disease infecting our society—a disease caused by the germs of greed, racism, and militarism. After that horrible event in Oklahoma we have to use our leadership skills and organize. We have to push people in this country to work together to find the cure.

T

JEFF VOGEL Retiree, New York City 3

May/June 2014 • Our Life And Times

THANK YOU TO OUR 1199 FAMILY ’ve never seen anything like it. That’s what I was thinking as I stepped on stage at the Mothers’ March & Rally for Justice at Johns Hopkins in early May. There, in the middle of Baltimore, more than 3,500 1199SEIU members from Hopkins, from New York and from up and down the East Coast had joined with our supporters to fill the city’s Inner Harbor.

I was there with my Hopkins co-worker Alyssha Jacobs to help start the chants to get us revved up for the march.

And I got to thinking I’ve been in front of a couple hundred people but never anything like this. But my nerves left me almost immediately.

Looking out at the crowd, I was calmed and energized. I saw so many of our brothers and sisters from Baltimore and beyond.

I knew they had taken time out of their busy lives to be there with us and help correct the injustice being done at Hopkins, and I realized I wasn’t just with friends, I was with family.

I’ve been a member of 1199 at Hopkins for seven years, but that rally showed me just how powerful our union really is— and made me so grateful for all the support we’ve gotten from our 1199 family.

Since that day, there have been a lot of questions from patients and visitors who saw our rally and want to know what they can do support us. People see pictures of the rally and there’s a look of disbelief.

What we did together in Baltimore was amazing. And it has put us on the path to winning a fair contract—and winning justice—at Johns Hopkins.

I

CRAIG PERLIE Johns Hopkins Hospital Baltimore, MD Let’s Hear From You Our Life And Times welcomes your letters. Please email them to PatriciaK@1199.org or mail them to Patricia Kenney, 1199SEIU OLAT, 330 West 42nd St., 7th floor, New York, NY 10036. Please include your telephone number and place of work. Letters may be edited for brevity and clarity.

We’re Battling on Every Front We are united and ready to fight.

Two years ago, Occupy Wall Street put income inequality front-and-center on the national agenda. Since then, leading political figures, best-selling books and innumerable talk-show sessions have “discovered” that the rich are getting a whole lot richer and the rest of us are barely holding our own or falling behind.

Of course, this comes as no surprise to us healthcare workers, or to working people in general. Since the economic collapse of 2008, bankers, hedge fund managers, and CEOs have made out like bandits. Millionaires became multimillionaires. Billionaires became multibillionaires. Most up-to-date figures have corporate profits up 53 percent since the economic collapse, while median household income has fallen four percent. In New York City—the wealthiest city in the country and home to Wall Street—nearly half the population lives in or near poverty, and there are more homeless than ever before. This disparity between the wealthy and working people is bound to grow if the right-wing U.S. Supreme Court succeeds in stacking the political deck in favor of those with unlimited amounts of money to buy elected officials at every level.

Healthcare workers are on the receiving end of brute-force income disparity. The changing structure of care delivery from acute care to ambulatory care is largely due to cost. While our 1199SEIU homecare workers have protections and benefits their non-union counterparts don’t enjoy, these hardworking, dedicated workers are living in or near poverty. Caregivers in the homes of the frail and elderly receive no more compensation than those who serve French fries at fast-food counters. Where are the politicians who campaign on “family values” when it comes to home healthcare?

Right now—these words are being written in mid-May—we are engaged in major campaigns to protect our members and our families in every region of our union: Massachusetts. At Lexington Care nursing home, management told our members they would have to pay more for their own healthcare benefits. And the boss at Lexington—which was just taken over by the NY-based Zenith Healthcare corporation—announced wage cuts of as much as 40 percent for some members. A CNA with 14 years seniority now making almost $19 an hour would make less than $12 an hour.

Florida. At 19 hospitals belonging to Hospital Corporation of America (HCA), the largest for-profit hospital corporation in the country, some 10,000 members are negotiating for an increase in minimum wages and lifting wage caps for experienced employees. HCA, where CEO Richard Bracken received $48 million in compensation in 2012, argues that it can’t afford to pay its caregivers a decent wage.

Maryland. Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore promotes itself as the “number one” hospital in the country if not the world. It is certainly one of the wealthiest. It recently built two new 12-story towers at a cost of $1.2 billion, with major gifts from former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, and Sheikh Kalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, ruler of the United Arab Emirates. Yet, 70 percent of Hopkins caregivers make less than the $14.92 hourly wage that qualifies a single parent and child for food stamps. The workers are proposing to lift pay immediately to $15 an hour for all those with at least 15 years of experience, and guarantee those with less seniority at least $14 an hour by the end of a fouryear contract. The hospital, whose profits were $94 million for the first half of the current fiscal year, is offering a $1.75 wage increase.

New York. The League of Voluntary Hospitals and Homes, representing dozens of not-for-profit hospitals and nursing homes that employ over 160,000 of our members, re-opened the contract earlier this year. The five largest health systems had revenues over $20 billion last year. Hospital executives, with skyrocketing incomes, are asking us to eviscerate our hard-won worldclass healthcare benefits, meantime putting no money on the table for wage increases. With a July 15 contract expiration, members in the institutions are conducting walk-ins on the boss, voting for informational picketing, and telling the employers, “We don’t want to strike, but we will if we have to.”

Life has never been easy for working people. But 1199SEIU members know that we—400,000 strong—have each other. Those who have never been through a fight are fast learning what a union is. “Power concedes nothing without a struggle. It never has and it never will,” said Frederick Douglass.

We 1199ers will win what we rightfully deserve to the extent that we—all of us—are ready to fight for it.

InTheRegions

NEW YORK

Care One CEO Daniel Straus to Leave NYU Law School Board

On the same day The New York Times reported that two activist NYU Law School students had been subpoenaed by nursing home owner Daniel Straus, CEO of Care One Management, NYU students learned that Straus was stepping down from the school’s Board of Trustees. In addition, the Times article reported that the Law School’s Straus Institute for the Advanced Study of Law and Justice will close at the end of this academic year.

Though the subpoenas issued to the students, Leo Gertner and Luke Herine, currently remain in effect, their attorneys have filed a motion to quash, arguing that they infringe on Gertner and Herine’s free speech rights. The New Jersey ACLU has filed a brief in support.

Straus runs the Care One and HealthBridge nursing home chains.

The companies have violated federal labor law 41 times. Some nursing homes run by these companies have cut healthcare benefits, staffing and wages for caregivers. They’ve also unlawfully fired workers for trying to form a union or have refused to recognize their workers’ legally protected right to form a union. Despite decisions from the National Labor Relations Board and administrative law judges, these cases largely remain unresolved.

In recent years, a growing number of NYU students have started demanding that the school hold its trustees accountable to the moral

values of the institution. Gertner and Herine were subpoenaed by Care One Management on March 20 in connection with an ongoing civil RICO lawsuit the company has initiated against two local unions of the SEIU. The subpoenas seek, among other documents, communications between members of the Law Students for Economic Justice group and NYU Law School Dean Trevor Morrison. The timing and content of the subpoenas raise the issue of whether they are an attempt to intimidate and harass students for exercising their right of free speech.

Approximately two weeks prior to the issuance of the subpoenas, students began circulating a petition to Morrison requesting a discussion about the issue of trustee accountability with him.

This isn’t the first time NYU students have felt harassed by Care One Management for expressing their free speech rights on campus.

In September 2012, students and 1199SEIU caregivers participated in a peaceful rally at the Straus Institute for the Advanced Study of Law and Justice. They were met by a group of counter-protestors, whose purpose appeared to be to intimidate and harass them, including hurling homophobic slurs and threatening physical violence. The Villager reported that it was later discovered that these counter-protestors were “indirectly” hired as “security” by Care One. To learn more or take action visit CareOneWatch.org.

Illinois & Indiana, SEIU Local 73, and AFSCME District 31, arguing that their first amendment rights under the constitution are violated by this arrangement because IP home care workers should be considered simply as the employees of individual recipients Even though every lower court that examined their theory has rejected it, the Harris plaintiffs argue that the state has an insufficient interest in collective bargaining for these workers to justify agency fee arrangements.

Historically, the Supreme Court has recognized the legitimacy of agency shop agreements, within limits in the private and public sectors. The Court has held that unions may compel non-union employee contributions only for the costs of negotiating and administering collective bargaining agreements. The costs of all other union activity—new organizing, lobbying, public education, elections, etc.—are deemed “non-chargeable,” meaning that they are paid by nonunion employees at their discretion.

The plaintiffs in Harris are groups of non-union Illinois home care workers employed by the state. They argue that all public sector agency shops should be declared unconstitutional on the grounds that they violate the First Amendment’s prohibition against state compulsion of political speech; if public sector bargaining is a kind

of political speech, no state can order anyone to pay for it.

Arguments like this one have already persuaded legislatures in 24 states, most recently Michigan, to incorporate this “right” in their private sector labor laws. In Harris, opponents argue that it aims, in one fell swoop, to misuse the First Amendment to nationalize this success for the whole public sector.

“It’s going for the ‘kill shot,’” wrote Joel Rogers in The Nation.

Interestingly, Justice Antonin Scalia, known for his anti-worker stances, actually rejected the NRTWC’s current argument 25 years ago. In an opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part with the Court’s decision in Lehnert v.

Ferris Faculty Association (1991) Scalia affirmed the logic of agency shop agreements, even in the public sector and in light of the First Amendment.

Having required unions to serve non-union employees alongside their members, Scalia argued, the state had to support at least limited agency fees, since not doing so would make the basic unfairness of free-riding “not incidental, but calculated, not imposed by circumstances, but mandated by government decree.”

Harris v. Quinn arguments were heard by the Supreme Court in January.

At press time, a decision was expected to be handed down in late June.

September 2012 demonstration against NYU Law School board member and nursing home CEO Daniel Straus.

Supreme Court Decision Threatens Public Workers

By the conclusion of its present term, the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to hand down a decision in Harris v.

Quinn, which is considered the most important labor law case the Court has considered in decades.

Harris threatens the existence of the agency shop, a foundation of labor law as we know it today. In an agency shop, the employer can hire union or non-union workers, who are not required to join the union. However, all workers contribute equally to the costs of collective bargaining. These fees are known as agency fees.

The Harris case is a challenge to those fees by a group of anti-union employees who are represented by the National Right to Work Committee Legal Defense Foundation (NRTWC).

They argue that charging fees in a non-traditional collective bargaining arrangement, such as contracts for Individual Provider (IP) home care workers, is unconstitutional and violates the First Amendment rights of non-members. The case is a direct challenge to the collective bargaining models of SEIU and other unions that represent over half a million home care workers. The only states where this is not a threat are where home care workers are employed by agencies, such as in New York.

The plaintiffs in Harris sued the State of Illinois, SEIU Health Care

Massachusetts PCA Ariane Martin with consumer Nick. A case currently before the U.S. Supreme Court challenges the collective bargaining models of SEIU and other unions that represent over a half million home health workers.

May/June 2014 • Our Life And Times

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Tax Breaks Aren’t Just for the Rich: 2014 EITC Program Garnered Over $9 Million in Refunds Thousands of 1199SEIU members took advantage of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) in 2014 with the help of 1199SEIU’s Tax Prep program. The EITC is a refundable income tax credit for low-income workers, The program was available in seven areas in the New York, Massachusetts and Maryland/DC regions. In 2014 alone, the program helped 2,248 members of 1199SEIU claim $5.8 million in tax refunds.

For over a decade, the Union has partnered with employers, community groups and coalition partners to encourage members to apply for the EITC. The 1199SEIU Program is also open to nonmembers, and this year with the help of EITC program partners, more than 1,600 (non-member) working people got back over $3 million in refunds.

“The program is simply a blessing,” said Olphia Barnes, who had her taxes completed at the Rochester site. “So many people are not able to afford to get their taxes prepared and this service is a tremendous help to many. My hat is off to everyone who volunteers their time.”

For more information about the EITC program and its guidelines, click on www.1199seiubenefitfunds.org.

FLORIDA

1199er Stands Up for Voting Rights in Florida In the winter of 2012 RN Melande Antoine and her husband received an intimidating letter from the State of Florida: the validity of their citizenship was challenged and they were informed that they would be stripped of their right to vote. Antoine and her husband were among the thousands of eligible Florida voters placed on the state’s controversial voter purge list.

The list sought to keep some 2,800 mostly minority Floridians off the

state’s voter rolls. Most of those included were legal U.S. citizens.

Antoine, who works at North Shore Medical Center in Miami, refused to give up her rights and joined a class-action lawsuit against the voter purge program. She and other plaintiffs challenged the effort and on April 1 the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit ruled that Florida’s program violated the Voting Rights Act. The victory is a helpful precedent for halting future

North Shore Medical Center RN Melande Antoine was a plaintiff in a class action suit challenging Florida’s voter purge program.

purges in Florida and other states. It’s a huge victory for 1199SEIU members and Florida voters.

“I am happy that justice has prevailed,” said Antoine. “My family was very intimidated to receive the letter of notice, but I felt that I needed to stand up for my voting rights and those of all citizens.

No American citizen should be discriminated because of their last names or their country of birth.”

MARYLAND

Dimensions Contract Fight Escalates New charges of unfair labor practices have been filed against Dimensions Healthcare System for its intimidation and coercive tactics against employees on April 16, the day that nurses and caregivers picketed outside of Prince George’s Hospital Center, Laurel Regional Hospital and Glen Ridge Medical Center.

The charges, filed on May 8, are that Dimensions “interfered with, restrained and coerced employees” in a manner that violated their rights under Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act. That section stipulates that employees have the right to engage in acts, such as an informational picket, “for the purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid or protection.”

The picketing action took place after nearly a year of contract negotiations and after Dimensions made a final proposal that would continue to put safe staffing at risk, take away the voices of caregivers by destroying the collective bargaining agreement with 1199SEIU, and offer 5

May/June 2014 • Our Life And Times

only a one percent wage increase.

1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, which represents 1,400 nurses and caregivers at Dimensions facilities, charges that Dimensions violated employee’s labor rights with several actions on April 16, including: • Designating employees in the Facilities Department as emergency workers so they could not leave the premises to participate in picketing during their break or lunch.

• Attempting to have police remove picketers at the Glen Ridge Medical Center.

• Imposing a rule that employees had to punch out if they left the building for breaks on lunches.

The new charges were added to previous charges against Dimensions, of not bargaining in good faith. The two sides met at the bargaining table with a mediator on May 13 but there still is no contract agreement. Learn more by visiting www.DimensionsCanDoBetter.org.

Workers at Maryland’s Dimensions Healthcare System picketed in April for a fair contract.

InTheRegions

Labor History Prize for 1199SEIU Historian Leon Fink, who together with co-author Brian Greenberg wrote “Upheaval in the Quiet Zone: 1199SEIU and the Politics of Healthcare Unionism,” was this year’s recipient of the Sol Stetin Award for Labor History from the Sidney Hillman Foundation.

The Stetin Award, named for the late labor leader and co-founder of the American Labor Museum, is presented annually to a scholar who has contributed to greater public knowledge of the labor movement and working people in America.

The Hillman Foundation, named for the founder of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers Union, honors contributors to the daily, periodical, and labor press, as well as authors and broadcasters.

University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) Professor Emeritus Fink, a specialist in the modern American labor movement, immigration history, and the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, was honored May 6 during the foundation’s annual dinner and ceremony in New York City.

“Sol Stetin, like Sidney Hillman for whom the foundation is named, dedicated himself not only to building a strong union but a larger political movement that would join workers, intellectuals and other professionals in a search for social justice,” said Fink, a Distinguished Professor of History at UIC. “For its work in supporting scholarly and journalistic work that advances progressive change, I am delighted to be identified with the Sidney Hillman Foundation.”

Fink has written, co-authored, or co-edited nine books in addition to “Upheaval in the Quiet Zone” including his most recent publications, “Workers in Hard Times: A Long View of Economic Crises” (2014), “Sweatshops at Sea: Merchant Seamen in the World’s First Globalized Industry, from 1812 to the Present” (2011), and “Workers Across the Americas: The Transnational Turn in Labor History” (2011).

He has also been involved with national efforts to link public history and K-12 history education.

Fink is founding editor of the quarterly journal “Labor: Studies in Working-Class History of the Americas.” At UIC he established a doctoral concentration in the history of work, race and gender in the urban world.

NEW YORK & FLORIDA

Members March for May Day NYC May Day march The workers of New York City united in Manhattan May 1 for a May Day march and rally.

“I’m a union member. So many people in this city make next to nothing. Everybody deserves a living wage.

That’s why I’m here,” said Erica Small, a home health aide with Manhattan’s Personal Touch agency.

The event, which was sponsored by Labor Rights, Immigrant Rights and Jobs for All and endorsed by numerous unions and community groups, kicked off with a rally held in the streets just south of City Hall. The program included numerous speakers that represented the vast diversity of New York’s working class.

“We salute each and every worker on our day—May Day— workers’ day,” said 1199SEIU Exec. VP Estela Vazquez. “Today and for the last six years we have shown the 1% that we don’t need them to give us a holiday. We will take our own holiday.”

Vazquez called on Congress to repair the country’s broken immigration system and stop the inhumane deportation of undocumented immigrants.

After the rally marchers made their way down Broadway. Colorful banners and flags, representing scores of unions, community groups and progressive organizations waved and fluttered under the perfect spring evening sky.

Placards called for an end to deportations, an increase in the minimum wage and economic justice for working people.

“It’s very hard right now,” said Merite Santilien, a CNA at Manhattan’s Terence Cardinal Cooke Healthcare Center. She cheered speakers as she stood among union brothers and sisters. “But on days like this it feels like things are changing.”

1199ers throughout the regions participated in May Day marches and rallies, including fifty Florida members who held a May Day picket at Lodge Health and Rehabilitation Center in Ocala. It was the third picket at the home in six weeks.

Workers are frustrated with stalled negotiations and lack of respect for their needs in providing quality patient care.

“I worked here as a CNA for 36 years, providing the best care possible to the residents, but these people only know how to push and push without paying you good,” said Diana Rivera, a Retired CNA who worked at The Lodge for 36 years. “I’m out here to support the Union because it was good to me and I want to help the workers out.”

The United States is one of the few nations that fails to recognize May 1 as International Workers’ Day; around the world demonstrations and marches drew tens of thousands of people—including a first since the end of the Soviet era in Moscow’s Red Square and May Day protests in Turkey in spite of a 32-year ban on the holiday.

MASSACHUSETTS

Members Lobby to Reopen Hospital Western Massachusetts residents and healthcare workers won a major victory on May 19 with the opening of a satellite emergency room on the site of the shuttered North Adams Regional Hospital (NARH).

Members of 1199SEIU Massachusetts had been struggling mightily to win the reopening of NARH, a cornerstone for Western Massachusetts residents for 129 years. The owners, Northern Berkshires Healthcare, abruptly closed the facility on March 28, leaving some 38,000 residents of Northern Berkshire County without a hospital.

NARH is located in an area with a poverty rate above 22 percent. Many of those residents, lacking reliable transportation, would have had to drive as much as a full hour to the nearest emergency room. The closure also threw some 530 workers onto the streets. Almost 200 of those are 1199SEIU LPNS, techs and service workers.

“The opening of the emergency room is a positive for us and a real victory,” says Lisa Pisano, an NARH

medical imaging scheduler. “But we still have to keep the pressure up until we are able to reopen the full hospital.”

To that end Pisano, a 27-year veteran of NARH, has been lobbying and taking part in community meetings to build support for the full restitution of services.

She was among hundreds of 11999ers who lobbied May 15 at the Massachusetts statehouse in Boston.

That action followed an earlier lobby day by members on April 15. During both visits and in the Union’s advertising and public outreach campaign, the workers cited poor executive management and unwise investments as reasons for NAARH’s closure. 1199SEIU also released a statement days before the May 15 action stating its support of a report

by Massachusetts Nursing Association (MNA) regarding executive mismanagement at the hospital.

The MNA report found that between 2000 and 2012, NARH “patient services revenues grew by 78 percent, while expenses rose by only 29 percent.

The surplus derived from patient services made the system a $23 million profit in 2012, up from $4.3 million in 2000—a 435 percent increase. While the profits from patient services fluctuated from year to year, they never fell below $4.3 million, and the average profit was over $9 million,” the report stated.

1199SEIU’s support statement said in part: “The disastrous management missteps that have thwarted NARH also point

to the need for additional transparency and a stronger community voice within the facility’s governance structure moving forward. Disparities in government and private insurer payments to community and Disproportionate Share Hospitals remain a significant statewide threat to quality care that must be addressed.”

The ER services in the satellite facility, now owned by Berkshire Medical Center (BMC), include CT scans, x-rays, and lab testing. Severely injured patients will also be stabilized in the emergency room before being transferred to another hospital. Berkshire Health Systems, the parent company of BMC, has reached a $4 million agreement to buy North Adams Regional Hospital in its entirety.

Until the hospital is back on its feet, members like Pisano will continue to scrape by with Union support. “It’s tough, but we support each other,” Pisano says.

The NARH members were joined at the May 15 lobby day by hundreds of 1199ers from across the Massachusetts Commonwealth, including nursing home and homecare workers. Members also rallied at the State House Grand Staircase.

Caregivers called on legislators to protect and strengthen healthcare funding during this year’s budget process. They promoted various legislative priorities including a bill to raise the state’s minimum wage, a bill to regulate the sale and closure of nursing homes, and a budget amendment to increase funding for safety net and community hospitals.

Hundreds of 1199ers lobbied May 15 at the Massachusetts Statehouse in Boston to save North Adams Regional Hospital.

May/June 2014 • Our Life And Times

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ONE UNION League members united as they mobilize for negotiations.

The overwhelming majority of 1199SEIU hospital and nursing home members are engaged in an unprecedented struggle to win a fair contract that protects patients and workers.

In downstate New York, negotiations for the contract that expires July 15 began March 5 between 1199SEIU and the League of Voluntary Hospitals and Homes.

The 1199SEIU bargaining committee represents about 110,000 members in over 100 facilities with League or League-patterned contracts in New York City and surrounding regions.

Both sides have called the talks the most difficult in decades.

Workers are mobilizing in their workplaces—holding walk-ins, sticker days and “purple” days. Key issues that are mobilizing members are wages, job security, education and training and pensions. But no issue topped health coverage.

“Every benefit we enjoy has always been won through our strength and unity; employers have never given us anything for free,” cautions James Adams, a Brooklyn Maimonides Hospital hemotechnologist.

Members have focused on protecting health care because it’s sharply in managements’ crosshairs.

Arguing that the cost of healthcare benefits has become too onerous for some employers, Bruce McIver, president of the League, proposed during negotiations to replace the current percentage of payroll contribution to the members’ Benefit Fund with a flat dollar contribution.

He also proposed members pay a monthly healthcare premium between $50 and $100.

“The cost of my son’s surgery for the curvature of his spine was $60,000,” stresses Shirley Young, a CNA at Isabella Nursing Home in Manhattan for over two decades. “My health benefits paid for it. I don’t have that kind of money.”

“My kids are five and three.

I drive from Brooklyn to the Bronx every day not for the pay, but for our benefits,” says Ana Garcia, a registered vascular technologist at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx.

McIver’s proposal threatened the benefits for over 55,000 lower-paid members and opened the door to future cuts for all 1199SEIU members.

But 1199ers are steadfast in their determination to protect health care for generations of workers to come and make sure that the healthcare profession supports good, quality jobs.

“It’s upsetting that hospitals that are making millions would threaten the health benefits of healthcare

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PHOTOS CAROLINA KROON

Hundreds of workers signed Medigrams at May 15 walk-in at Beth Israel Medical Center in Manhattan. workers,” said Montefiore RN Margaret Courtney-Tierney after hearing the League proposal.

The members expressed their opposition to the proposal by signing petitions and staging walk-ins on management at their facilities. So effective were their actions that at the May 16 negotiating session, McIver withdrew his health benefits proposal.

The withdrawal was met with loud applause and as the League negotiating committee members exited the hall after McIver’s announcement, 1199ers held up placards and chanted in unison: “One Union!”

Many also wore small signs on the end of lanyards that said “We Care for NY. United for Our Patients.

Our Families and Our Future.” The expressions of unity are a response to the League’s contention that members working in for-profit nursing homes and pharmacies should not have the same benefits as members working in League institutions.

Union negotiators have countered that the major League institutions are

swimming in cash and that too many of them pay exorbitant executive salaries and employ excessive numbers of executives and managers.

“What we’re asking for us is fair,” says Darryl McCants, a professional billing department member at Manhattan’s Beth Israel hospital.

“We just want to be able to take care of our families. If we have to go out to achieve it, we will. Our members are ready.”

Between now and July 15, members will engage in various actions, including leafleting, walk-ins, sticker and button days, informational picketing and rallies. If those actions don’t lead to a fair contract, members say they are willing to use their ultimate weapon—a strike.

Members are encouraged to get active in the League fight. To learn more, talk to your organizer or delegate or text 1199unity to 30644 to receive action updates. (Standard text messaging rates apply.) You can also log on to www.1199seiu.org, like us on Facebook/1199SEIU, or follow us on Twitter@1199SEIU.

“ It’s upsetting that hospitals that are making millions would threaten the health benefits of healthcare workers.”

— Montefiore RN Margaret Courtney-Tierney

Our Union

Thousands join fight against poverty wages at Johns Hopkins Medical Center.

Shame On Hopkins

“ This is a Mother’s Day, and we appropriately named this the Mother’s March because we know the role mothers play,” — Danny Glover

Billionaires put their names on the buildings at Johns Hopkins Medical Center in Maryland, but the workers don’t make enough to pay their rent.

1199SEIU members are determined to change that, so more than 3,500 strong rallied in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor May 10 calling for an end to the poverty wages paid by the illustrious institution. Some 2,000 members from Hopkins were joined at the Mother’s March and Rally for Justice by thousands of New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts 1199ers and their families. They traveled to Maryland to make sure Hopkins workers know their Union sisters and brothers have their backs; 1199SEIU is one Union.

A sizable contingent from New York Presbyterian Hospital made the trip. Delegate Theresa Collins, a CAT Tech at Presby for 10 years, was compelled to go by the continuing inequity between the powerful and working people, she said.

“I feel disgusted,” said Collins. “These powerful institutions aren’t extending any compassion to their workers. This situation makes me really angry. Johns Hopkins gets all kinds of accolades because of the hard work of the people who work there. Those accolades translate into extra grants and benefits and they don’t share that money with the workers and that’s wrong.”

Workers at Hopkins have been locked in a contract struggle since early March. Nearly 70% of the hospital’s workers make less than $14.92 an hour, the qualifying wage for a single parent of one child for food stamps. Starting pay at the hospital is as low as $10.71 per hour. The latest Union proposal would lift pay to $15 an hour for all those with at least 15 years of experience and guarantee those with at least one year of service $14 an hour by the end of the four-year contract.

At the Mother’s March, several Hopkins workers told of trying to get by on their low pay.

Among them was Simone Hicks, a floor tech who lives in a shelter.

“Yes that’s right, shame on Hopkins, because with the money we make I can’t afford to move out.

I can’t afford to leave, so I’m still in the shelter. I’ve been there two years,” said Hicks, as the crowd gasped, booed and hissed. “Now tell me Hopkins shouldn’t be ashamed of themselves. What they

don’t understand and what they don’t realize is we are Hopkins. We made Hopkins this wonderful institution that it is. There’s no reason at all for us to be getting food stamps and not have enough to take care of our children. There’s no excuse for that. We have to change that. We are going to change that.

We are the voice. We make a difference.”

A brief, but earnest downpour dampened bodies not spirits and the crowd remained energized under a canopy of grey clouds. The program of speakers highlighted a broad coalition of support for Hopkins workers, and included clergy, representatives from Maryland’s AFL-CIO State Federation, students at Hopkins’ Bloomberg School of Public Health (former NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg is an alumnus of Johns Hopkins University), and leadership from New York’s SEIU Local 32BJ and the New York State Nurses Association. Pledges of support and determination were met with chants and cheers.

The rally crowd saved its loudest roars for actors Danny Glover and TV star Wendell Pierce of “The Wire.” Glover is a long-time friend of 1199SEIU and both are outspoken progressives. In his remarks, Glover recalled Coretta Scott King’s 1969 work in helping Hopkins workers organize and her profound commitment justice.

“This is a Mother’s Day, and we appropriately named this the Mother’s March because we know the role mothers play,” said Glover. “We know they are imperiled right now. We know they cannot live on the wages they are receiving here. We know they cannot afford to have healthcare from the largest and the greatest hospital in the world. It’s unconscionable. It doesn’t make sense.”

1199SEIU Pres. George Gresham closed out the rally, leading the crowd in a chorus of “No Justice!

No Peace!” and “They say cut back! We say fight back!” He vowed the full resources of the Union in winning a fair contract.

“If it takes time after time that we come and disturb the peace in Baltimore until we get a contract that is fair, we will be back,” said Gresham. “Johns Hopkins you can run, but you can’t hide. Justice is on our side.” To learn more about the struggle at Johns Hopkins log on to www.hardshipathopkins.org.

May/June 2014 • Our Life And Times

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POLITICS

Justice rained down at Mother’s March and Rally for Johns Hopkins workers on May 10 in Baltimore.

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Organizing

Tallwoods workers were fed up with caring for their residents short staffed and without adequate or proper supplies.

STANDING TALL AT TALLWOODS Safe staffing and quality care drive NJ organizing victory.

At Tallwoods Care Center in Bayville, NJ on March 28, caregivers put patients first and voted 80-50 for representation by 1199SEIU. The new bargaining unit covers a total of 205 workers and includes CNAs, LPNs, housekeepers, receptionists and dietary, laundry and recreational workers.

To win their election, Tallwoods workers overcame a vicious management anti-worker campaign.

Dietary worker Kathryn Jenkins says the campaign pushed workers even harder to organize.

“We couldn’t do what we need to do for our residents,” says Jenkins.

“We don’t have supplies. I’m running up and down trying to serve meals in the dining room. I’m trying to help the aides because they’re short staffed.

God forbid something happens.”

Tallwoods workers were fed up with caring for their residents short staffed and without adequate or proper supplies. Tallwoods workers were also having an increasingly difficult time caring for themselves; the facility is located in an area that is just beginning to recover after the devastation of Hurricane Sandy, yet management had no problem cutting holiday and other time off to the bare bone. They also offered workers health benefit plans so expensive that some were putting in up to 70 hours a week just to pay for their healthcare, says dishwasher Michael J. Smith, Jr. “We needed a union. Things were rough. It’s not just the lack of pay, but it’s the hectic work,” says Smith, Jr.

Top to bottom: Workers at Tallwoods Care Center in NJ celebrate their Mar. 28 organizing victory; dishwasher Michael Smith, Jr. with vote tally; unit secretary Barbara Marlow gives the yes vote the thumbs up and LPN Michele Bidar raises her arms in victory.

“I make $8.35 an hour and have no health benefits. They won’t let me sign the full-time paperwork so I can get healthcare. I work 40 hours a week. If it wasn’t for my family helping me I don’t know what I’d do.”

During the organizing campaign, which began in December, management tried everything it could to intimidate workers, including captive audience meetings, surveillance, hiring paid union busters, attempted public humiliation of organizing committee members, intimidating workers’ family members and finally the unjust termination of several workers.

Unit secretary Barbara Marlow, who was among the original organizing committee members, says workers hung tough in spite of everything because they knew their residents depended on them.

“The cuts the owners were making were taking away from the residents as well. They were cutting budgets for everything,” she says. “They were cutting back on the quality of basics like food and diapers. When those things break down it affects everyone.”

Marlow was later targeted for her activism by the anti-labor consultants and fired. Her case is currently before the National Labor Relations Board. In spite of what she went through, she says she would do it all over again: “It was hard to go through, but 10 or 15 years down the road I know that having the Union in that place will really help the people who work there,” says Marlow.

Tallwoods’ workers are currently preparing to negotiate their first contract. Smith, Jr., who had no union experience until he came to Tallwoods, says he’s looking forward to negotiations and building solidarity at the institution.

“I just love this Union, to be honest. I can fight for dietary and make sure workers get what they need. I would tell anyone not to be afraid. Just go for it,” he says.

“You can make a dramatic change between workers and management.”

May/June 2014 • Our Life And Times

10

Different Jobs,

One Union “We’ve won what we have because we’re all in one union.”

Bernadette Tucker is a therapeutic recreational specialist at Center Light Rehab in the Bronx, NY.

At a chapter meeting not too long ago, a young member stood up and asked why, because they had degrees and certifications as well as profession-specific issues, didn’t he and his coworkers have their own division in the Union?

Laboratory technologist Elvis Gonzalez, a delegate at NY Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan, says he’s heard this a lot over the years and has one answer for members when that conversation starts: divide and conquer.

“We need everybody in one union,” he says. “That’s a management strategy. They try to divide drug store workers from nursing home workers from hospital workers. It’s like they chop off our arms, then our legs and then they go for our whole body. It comes down to one

thing: if we’re not united, we’re divided.”

Gonzalez has worked at Presby for 25 years and recently became a delegate, though he’s always been active in the Union. He started as a clerk and eventually became a lab tech through the Training and Upgrading Fund.

“Sometimes people think if they have a problem in their field they need a separate division, but they don’t realize that we’ve won what we have because we’re all in the Union,” he says. “Our health care, education benefits, child care—all of that. It may be because people are young and they haven’t used them yet.”

“We delegates do what we can to educate people. We hold chapter meetings and invite people to talk to us,” says Gonzalez. “I go

around and talk to people at lunch. You see people start to come around.”

A strong sense of teamwork on the job builds a strong bond between Union brothers and sisters, says Bernadette Tucker, a therapeutic recreational specialist at Center Light Rehab in the Bronx.

“In the nursing home setting, it’s not just one profession that touches the life of a resident. Our floors are neighborhoods, and we all work together on the care of our residents,” she says. “Social workers make decisions about care plans, dietary knows about likes and dislikes of food, housekeeping makes sure their rooms are clean. We all work together for one purpose and that purpose is the care and well-being of our residents.”

Tucker, a delegate and current member of the League negotiating committee, also feels it’s incumbent upon her to pass along the Union’s traditions to the members in her shop, she says.

“People need to know where we came from—that 50 years ago, this Union was built upon the backs of our service employees,” she says “If we don’t do that, our legacy will break down.

Education is the key to maintaining all the things we’ve fought for over the years, so people don’t lose sight of from whence they come.”

“ It comes down to one thing: if we’re not united, we’re divided.”

— Laboratory technologist Elvis Gonzalez, a delegate at NY Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan.

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May/June 2014 • Our Life And Times

2014 Elections:

THE HOUSE & SENATE Democrats face critical races in Florida, New York and North Carolina.

Some pundits are calling the 2014 elections a referendum on the Affordable Care Act (ACA), while others are calling them a challenge to the vast economic inequality in the country. Still others, like wealthy environmentalist Tom Steyer, say opinion on the approval of the completion of the Keystone XL pipeline will sway election decisions.

But for the country’s working families, all of these things matter.

In the 2014 midterm election year, all 435 seats in the United States House of Representatives and 33 of the 100 seats in the United States Senate will be contested; along with 38 governorships, 46 state legislatures (except Louisiana, Mississippi, New Jersey and Virginia), four territorial legislatures and numerous state and local races.

In the U.S. Congress, Democrats have held the majority in the Senate for almost eight years, but as Election Day 2014 approaches, some Republicans believe that this time, math and history are on their side.

Democrats head into the election with a 55-45 advantage. Republicans need a net gain of six seats to win a majority. Unfortunately, Democrats have to defend 21 of the 36 seats up for grabs this year. Making matters worse, seven of the Democratic seats are up in states carried by Republican Mitt Romney in the 2012 presidential election.

Critical contests for Democrats in the U.S. Senate are in Alaska,

Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, North Carolina, Iowa, Montana and West Virginia. No one is predicting that Democrats have a shot at retaking the House of Representatives, where Republicans have a 233-199 seat advantage.

But Democrats are trying to hold their ground. According to CNN, a total of 12 Democratic seats are at risk in the Senate. There are vulnerable Democrats running in Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Louisiana, Montana and North Carolina.

Republicans have an edge in West Virginia, and South Dakota’s open Democratic seat is already virtually conceded to the Republicans.

The Democrats’ biggest strategic challenge in maintaining control of the U.S. Senate involves motivating the party’s base and at the same time attracting swing and Republican voters in more conservative states.

Incumbents such as Mary Landrieu in Louisiana, Mark Pryor in Arkansas, Mark Begich in Alaska and Kay Hagan in North Carolina can’t win with the Democratic base alone.

North Carolina is one of several battleground states. Senator Kay Hagan, who defeated Elizabeth Dole in the 2008 election, is being targeted by right-wing, anti-labor forces. Hagan’s 2014 race is seen as important for determining future control of the Senate. She has been endorsed by the AFL-CIO and many of its affiliate unions. Representing a right-to-work state, Hagan continues

to be an advocate for the Employee Free Choice Act. On that legislation she says, “I’m looking forward to the day when a bill passes—one that levels the playing field for workers and ensures fair contracts.” She is a co-sponsor of legislation raising the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour. For her courage in supporting these positions, she is the target of negative ads paid for by the rightwing Americans for Prosperity, who spent over $7 million on this election as of the end of March 2014.

Hagan is facing Republican General Assembly Speaker Thom Tillis in the general election.

Florida is well known for its reputation as a political battlefield.

Because of the state’s 29 electoral votes and importance in presidential politics, this Governor’s race is sure to be one of the most-watched this year.

Incumbent Republican Governor Rick Scott is running for re-election to a second term in office. Given his poll numbers, he remains one of the most vulnerable governors in the country facing re-election in 2014. A March Quinnipiac University poll found that Democratic gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist, a former Republican governor, would crush Scott among registered voters 50 percent to 34 percent. Scott is a multi-millionaire and former CEO of the private giant hospital chain, Columbia/HCA. He maintains a steadfast opposition to the Affordable Care Act, and refuses to expand Medicaid in Florida.

There are three vulnerable New York Democrats in this year’s Congressional elections: Tim Bishop on Long Island, Sean Patrick Maloney in the Hudson Valley and Dan Maffei in Syracuse.

Steve Israel, a New York Democrat, who is chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign, says: “New York is the pivot state.”

“In New York, we have three on defense, three on offense, and so that is a true pivot state,” he said in an interview at Bloomberg News in New York. Israel also noted that other pivotal states include California, Illinois and Florida.

History is on Republicans’ side for the 2014 election season, at least generally, because the president’s party almost always loses seats in Congress during midterm elections.

Another of the factors shadowing every Democrat running in 2014 is President Obama’s approval ratings.

They’re particularly low in the red states with tough Senate races. In the House, mid-term elections are traditionally heavily influenced by presidential approval and the economy, with less-popular presidents tending to lose more seats. Obama’s disapproval rating has exceeded 50 percent in most recent polls.

A Washington Post-ABC News poll released in late April indicated 53 percent of voters prefer Republicans to control Congress to act as a check on the White House, while only 39 percent preferred a Democratic-run Congress to implement the president’s priorities. Since the Civil War, only three presidents have seen their party make gains in midterm elections: Democrat Franklin Roosevelt in 1934, Democrat Bill Clinton in 1998 and Republican George W. Bush in 2002.

Only Clinton picked up five House seats in his second term, which was viewed as voter backlash against his impeachment by an overreaching Republican controlled House.

Both Republicans and Democrats are approaching the election season with caution and confidence. Some Republicans worry the Tea Party will impede victory by nominating Senate candidates who are too conservative to win the general election. Many traditional Republicans blame recent Tea Party candidates like Sharron Angle in Nevada, Christine O’Donnell in Delaware, and Todd Akin in Missouri for losing races that could have been won and put the Senate under Republican control.

According to CNN, Colorado, Iowa, Michigan, New Hampshire and Virginia are currently tilting towards Democratic candidates, while Georgia and West Virginia tilt Republican.

Up for grabs are Alaska, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Montana, and North Carolina.

In the 2014 midterm election year, all 435 seats in the United States House of Representatives and 33 of the 100 seats in the United States Senate will be contested.

Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney is running for re-election in New York’s 18th district.

May/June 2014 • Our Life And Times

12

Education

Montefiore ER tech Johana Rivera-Rodriguez (right) and BronxLebanon registrar Miriam Flores (far right) are participating in a new program to increase the number of bilingual Bronx healthcare workers.

Speaking

THE LANGUAGE OF CARE Training Fund program offers bilingual healthcare workers a bridge to college.

Imagine not understanding a doctor talking to you about your sick child. Or missing treatment for a chronic disease because your appointment was made in a language you don’t speak.

In some places this happens too often.

Like in the Bronx, for instance. Latinos are more than 53% of the borough’s residents, and for a big chunk of that population, English is their second language. Grave health conditions like asthma, hypertension and heart disease disproportionately affect Latinos in the Bronx. And even though health care is the borough’s largest employer, Latinos are seriously underrepresented in the profession.

A program recently introduced by the 1199SEIU Training and Upgrading Fund (TUF) and The Bronx Healthcare Learning Collaborative is addressing these disparities and is part of an effort to increase the number of bilingual healthcare workers in the Bronx. A one-year Colloquium Series is preparing Spanish-speaking workers for college programs in professional healthcare careers including radiology, physical therapy, social work and nursing.

The Colloquium is conducted at TUF’s Fordham Road site in the Bronx in conjunction with CUNY’s Lehman College and offers eligible students special help for adult learners, preparation for the CUNY entrance exam, and opportunity to earn up nine college credits. Students who previously thought it too late or that college wasn’t an option are finding their niche.

Miriam Flores, who is originally from Mexico City, is a registrar at Bronx Lebanon Hospital. She says the program gave her the jumpstart she needed to return to school after leaving college to have her kids.

“I always liked school, but life gets in 13

May/June 2014 • Our Life And Times

the way. I knew I wanted go back. I want to be a role model for my children. This is why my family came to this country, so we could have a better education. I want my family to be proud,” she says.

Flores this spring finished her first semester at Bronx Community College and is now in the pre-clinical phase of study to become an x-ray technologist.

“One of the things that drew me to the program is working here at Bronx Lebanon.

I see parents here and how they struggle.

They don’t understand certain kinds of specialists. They miss appointments,” she says. “I even see my parents. They’ve been here a long time, but they’re still not fluent.

We need bilingual people in all of our professions.”

In addition to the immediate benefit of moving working people up the career ladder, the Collaborative program is a major step in the implementation guidelines of the Affordable Care Act, many of which focus on reducing hospitalizations. Culturally competent caregivers keep people out of the hospital by providing more effective disease management and wellness services.

They also help build a sense of community by keeping people healthy who might otherwise have fallen through the cracks of the healthcare system.

“Being able to someone understand what’s happening medically is so important. It’s helping someone take care of themselves,” says program participant Johana Rivera-Rodriguez, an ER tech at Montefiore Medical Center, who just finished her first semester in Lehman College’s pre-clinical RN program.

Rivera-Rodriguez, who was born and still lives in the Bronx, sees the program as a way to improve the overall quality of life in

her home borough.

“People just end up coming right back to our emergency room when they can’t take care of themselves. I see it all the time. They just nod their heads when the doctor is talking to them,” she says. “So many of our patients get medical care, but they don’t know about basic health care— obesity, the effects of pollution—they ignore things that are big problems when English is a second language. Hopefully we can stop some of that.”

Grave health conditions like asthma, hypertension and heart disease disproportionately affect Latinos in the Bronx. And even though health care is the borough’s largest employer, Latinos are seriously underrepresented in the profession.

Flores thinks the Colloquium program would be helpful if it were expanded for adult learners who speak other languages, too.

“This would be a great help with everything—medications, instructions, appointments,” she says. “This problem affects so many people; even automated services are only in English. It would change things for the better for a lot of people.”

For more information about the Colloquium Series call Milca S. UrenaRodriguez at (718) 568-3667, ext. 8215 or email milca.urena @1199funds.org.

FAREWELL TO OUR BELOVED BASIL PATERSON Civil rights giant was a longtime leader, advisor and friend to our Union.

Working people of the world lost a great defender this spring. And New York lost an icon of its civil and political life.

Basil Paterson, who dedicated his life to the struggle for civil and labor rights, died April 16 at Mt. Sinai Medical Center in New York City. He was 87. His wife, Portia, his sons, Daniel and David, and five grandchildren survive him.

Paterson was an unwavering supporter of 1199SEIU members. At various times in the 1970s and ‘80s, he served in a neutral role as mediator for the city and state of New York and helped negotiate several 1199 contracts with the League of Voluntary Hospitals and Homes. He later joined the law firm of Meyer, Suozzi, English & Klein, P.C., where he was co-chair of labor practice and served as the Union’s chief negotiator in talks with the League. In 1988, Paterson was also instrumental in the historic campaign that increased minimum wages for some 60,000 New York City homecare workers by nearly 42 percent.

1199SEIU Pres. George Gresham invoked Paterson’s memory at a recent League bargaining session.

“Basil would usually be with me now,” said Gresham solemnly.

He went on to assure strong contracts in the League and at Johns Hopkins (where members are also in contract negotiations) to honor Paterson’s memory.

In negotiations Paterson was a known as a genius strategist and communicator of workers’ concerns. He spoke plainly and got to the bottom line for both sides. Courageous and principled, Paterson unfailingly stood up for working people and the powerless. But he was also famous for his wit, possessing an infectious warmth that naturally brought people together.

His bond with 1199SEIU members was familial and enduring.

“Basil was the nicest guy in New York City.

He was smart, capable and a truly good person,” says 1199SEIU General Counsel Dan Ratner, who worked regularly with Paterson since the 1980’s.

“The members were just in awe of him. He was enormously respected by the bosses as well.

People would listen to what he had to say.”

Basil Alexander Paterson was born on April 27, 1926 in Harlem, N.Y. to West Indian immigrant parents. He would go on to be lionized for his leadership in New York’s civic and political life.

In addition to advising more than 40 unions over the course of his legal career, Paterson served as New York State’s first African American Secretary of State under Gov. Hugh Carey, Deputy Mayor for Labor Relations and Personnel under NYC Mayor Ed Koch, and as a Commissioner of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, where he oversaw critical reforms. He was also a key advisor to his son David, who was New York State’s first African American governor from 2008 until 2010. He was also reported to be a fierce adversary on the basketball court.

Paterson attended DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx and then enrolled at St. John’s University, which was then in Brooklyn. He left St. John’s after two years to serve in World War II. Upon his return from the war, Paterson completed degrees in biology and law and in 1953 married his wife, Portia, to whom he would be married for over 60 years. With his Harlem law practice up and running, Paterson’s political star began to rise. In 1964 he was elected as president of the NAACP and in 1965, was elected to the New York State Senate, where he advocated for progressive political causes like a woman’s right to choose and special education.

Though his successes were many, Paterson made it clear that they didn’t come without trial and indignity. Several years ago he spoke with Bob Herbert of The New York Times about how he and other African-American packers at his first

Working people of the world lost a great defender this spring.

And New York lost an icon of its civil and political life. job, a Manhattan wholesale house, had been paid not to attend the company Christmas party so the celebration could remain segregated.

The experiences formed Paterson. They didn’t leave him bitter. He inspired and taught people who worked with him with his gentle, unapologetic fearlessness. In June 2013, 1199SEIU helped establish The Basil Paterson Scholarship Fund for the Union’s homecare workers in honor of his years of dedication to those workers.

Paterson was memorialized at a May 29 service at Manhattan’s Riverside Church.

Hundreds of New Yorkers gathered to pay tribute including New York State Gov. Andrew Cuomo, NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio and Paterson’s longtime friends and allies former NYC Mayor David Dinkins and Rep. Charles Rangel. A large contingent representing 1199SEIU was also present.

In a column that appeared in The Amsterdam News, just after The Paterson Scholarship Fund was established, Pres. Gresham wrote that Paterson was one of the most beloved members of the 1199SEIU family. “To paraphrase” Gresham wrote. “If we have been able to see far, it’s because we have stood on the shoulder of giants.

Basil A. Paterson is our giant.”

May/June 2014 • Our Life And Times

14

The Last Word: INEQUALITY

Robert B. Reich Debunks The Four Biggest Right-Wing Lies About Inequality.

Robert B. Reich is Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley and Senior Fellow at the Blum Center for Developing Economies, was Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration. Time Magazine named him one of the ten most effective cabinet secretaries of the twentieth century. He has written thirteen books, including the best sellers “Aftershock” and “The Work of Nations.” His latest, “Beyond Outrage,” is now out in paperback. He is also a founding editor of the American Prospect magazine and chairman of Common Cause. His new film, “Inequality for All,” is now available on Netflix, iTunes, DVD, and On Demand. This post appeared in May on his website www.robertreich.org.

Even though French economist Thomas Piketty has made an air-tight case that we’re heading toward levels of inequality not seen since the days of the nineteenthcentury robber barons, right-wing conservatives haven’t stopped lying about what’s happening and what to do about it. Herewith, the four biggest right-wing lies about inequality, followed by the truth.

Lie #1:

The rich and CEOs are America’s job creators.

So we dare not tax them.

The truth is the middle class and poor are the job creators through their purchases of goods and services. If they don’t have enough purchasing power because they’re not paid enough, companies won’t create more jobs, and the economy won’t grow.

We’ve endured the most anemic recovery on record because most Americans don’t have enough money to get the economy out of first gear. The economy is barely growing and real wages continue to drop.

We keep having false dawns. An average of 200,000 jobs were created in the United States over the last three months, but huge numbers of Americans continue to drop out of the labor force.

Lie #2: People are paid what they’re worth in the market.

So we shouldn’t tamper with pay.

The facts contradict this. CEOs, who got 30 times the pay of typical workers 40 years ago, now get 300 times their pay—not because they’ve done such a great job but because they control their compensation committees and their stock options have ballooned.

Meanwhile, most American workers earn less today than they did 40 years ago, adjusted for inflation, not because they’re working less hard now but because they don’t have strong unions bargaining for them.

More than a third of all workers in the private sector were unionized 40 years ago; now, fewer than seven percent belong to a union.

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May/June 2014 • Our Life And Times

Lie #3:

Anyone can make it in America with enough guts, gumption, and intelligence.

So we don’t need to do anything for poor and lower-middle class kids.

The truth is we do less than nothing for poor and lowermiddle class kids. Their schools don’t have enough teachers or staff, their textbooks are outdated, they lack science labs, and their school buildings are falling apart.

We’re the only rich nation to spend less educating poor kids than we do educating kids from wealthy families.

All told, 42 percent of children born to poor families will still be in poverty as adults—a higher percent than in any other advanced nation.

Lie #4:

Increasing the minimum wage will result in fewer jobs.

So we shouldn’t raise it.

In fact, studies show that increases in the minimum wage put more money in the pockets of people who will spend it—resulting in more jobs, and counteracting any negative employment effects of an increase in the minimum. Three of my colleagues here at the University of California at Berkeley—Arindrajit Dube, T. William Lester, and Michael Reich—have compared adjacent counties and communities across the United States, some with higher minimum wages than others but similar in every other way.

They found no loss of jobs in those with the higher minimums.

The truth is, America’s lurch toward widening inequality can be reversed. But doing so will require bold political steps.

At the least, the rich must pay higher taxes in order to pay for better-quality education for kids from poor and middle-class families. Labor unions must be strengthened, especially in lower-wage occupations, in order to give workers the bargaining power they need to get better pay.

And the minimum wage must be raised.

Don’t listen to the right-wing lies about inequality.

Know the truth, and act on it.

The truth is the middle class and poor are the job creators through their purchases of goods and services. If they don’t have enough purchasing power because they’re not paid enough, companies won’t create more jobs and the economy won’t grow.

THE BACK PAGE

Our Patients.

Our Families.

Our Future.

Solidarity: Some of the caregivers from NY Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan who are standing together with their 1199SEIU sisters and brothers in the fight for a fair contract with the League of Voluntary Hospitals. See page 7.