OLAT Fall 2013

A JOURNAL OF 1199SEIU Fall 2013

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NYC MAYORAL: 1199ERS SUPPORT DE BLASIO

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THE COST OF THE SEQUESTER

THE MARCH ON WASHINGTON

We Are Fighting For

OUR FUTURE And We Won’t Back Down

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Fall 2013 • Our Life And Times

Bright Ufele, 9, is one of the 300 1199 kids who went to Camp Vacamas in West Milford, NJ this summer. Ufele’s mother Juliet Egwuatu works at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Manhattan. Every summer since 1965 1199SEIU’s Anne Shore Camp Program has been sending hundreds of kids of eligible members to sleepaway camps throughout the Northeast.

See story on page 7.

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Editorial

Our Life and Times Fall 2013

“ WE REFUSE TO BELIEVE THE 4 BANK OF JUSTICE IN THE REGIONS IS BANKRUPT.”

PRESIDENT’S COLUMN

1199ers endorse de Blasio in NYC mayoral, NJ EVP Milly Silva runs for NJ Lt. Gov., Boston 1199ers interview mayoral candidates, former EVP Patrick Gaspard confirmed as Ambassador to South Africa.

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OUR KIDS

Camp and Youth Mentoring programs are among our most valuable benefits, and the ones we have fight to protect.

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COMMEMORATING THE MARCH ON WASHINGTON

Thousands of 1199ers were in Washington, DC and at echo events around the regions.

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THE SOUTH IS NOT SO SOLID 1199ers are bringing change below the Mason-Dixon.

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THE WORK WE DO

Cohen Children’s Medical Center of New York.

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THE LAST WORD

1199SEIU’s Director of Politics and Legislation Kevin Finnegan discusses the sequester.

Our Life And Times, Fall 2013, Vol 31, 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

We will never back down.

Sometimes

it’s hard to believe the conversations we’re having today. Or what we witness.

Five decades after the March on Washington, at what Dr. King called “the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation“ and where he delivered his iconic “I Have a Dream“ speech, an innocent teenaged boy is shot to death in Florida, carrying only candy and iced tea, and the perpetrator—claiming selfdefense—walks free. In North Carolina, where recent Moral Mondays protests have called attention to the inherent viciousness of the right wing’s fiscal policies, legislators cut by a third benefits to the state’s long-term unemployed. In Texas, Rep. Wendy Davis filibustered for nearly 13 hours in an unsuccessful effort to prevent the passage of anti-choice legislation that jeopardizes the majority of her state’s women’s healthcare clinics. And in Brooklyn, NY, workers at Long Island College Hospital fight to keep open their institution, so they can continue serving some of the city’s poorest neighborhoods, while Mayor Michael Bloomberg and other elected officials sit idly by.

“It’s surreal. There are more conversations that need to be had. It’s not just Trayvon. It’s been happening all along and now everything is out in the open. People of color are held to different standards in this country and we are treated differently,“ says Pat Diaz, an RN at University Hospital in Tamarac, FL. There are many moments when it seems near impossible to believe, as Dr. King asked us to do Aug. 28, 1963, that the bank of justice is not bankrupt or that there aren’t “insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation.“ Across the United States ultra-conservative forces—backed by groups like ALEC and Americans for Prosperity—are working with blatant disregard for the

will of the people to chip away at our hard won liberties.

They’ve infected our legislatures and courts, virally weakening our voting rights, workers’ rights, educational equality, criminal justice system and many other gains for which we’ve fought over the years. They’re trying to dismantle the programs we’ve help build to provide for the most vulnerable among us. Essentially they’re after everything that helps poor people, working people, women and people of color move ahead in the world and take care of their families.

But

they won’t win—because of who we have on our front lines: members like Kim Rivera, a residential aide from Springfield, MA, who this June helped elect Ed Markey to fill the U.S. Senate seat vacated by John Kerry when he accepted the position of U.S. Secretary of State.

“It’s really important that everyone has the opportunity to get their voices heard and that we have people in office who will help every day people,“ says Rivera.

Consuelo Mora-McLaughlin, a biomedical researcher and delegate at Columbia University, was planning to take her teenage daughter to Washington, DC for the August 24 commemoration of the March for Jobs and Freedom. “We are the ones who can take up these issues because they are human rights issues, and this is who we are and this is how 1199 grew,“ she says. “We can mobilize thousands of people for change.“ We won’t back down. The thousands of brothers and sisters in our Union standing together with our friends and allies in communities across our country will make sure of it. And now is the time. For Trayvon. And all the Trayvons across our nation. And their families. We cannot abandon Dr. King’s entreaty: Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy.

acting editor

Patricia Kenney director of photography

Jim Tynan photographer

Belinda Gallegos art direction

& design Maiarelli Studio cover photograph

Jim Tynan contributors

Mike Givens JJ Johnson Bryn Lloyd-Bollard Our Life And Times is published 5 times a year: Dec/Jan, Feb/ Mar, Spring, Summer, and Fall by 1199SEIU, 310 West 43rd St., New York, NY 10036.

Subscriptions $15 per year. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY and additional mailing offices.

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Postmaster: Send address changes to Our Life And Times, 310 West 43rd St., New York, NY 10036.

LUBA LUKOVA

www.1199seiu.org Fall 2013 • Our Life And Times

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THE PRESIDENT’S COLUMN

Letters

George Gresham

Workers make change through sacrifice and struggle.

Nothing is ever handed to us.

WE NEED A NEW VOICE s a retiree delegate of Local 1199 I attended the June 12th meeting in New York City where Rev. Dr. William Barber, who leads the Moral Mondays movement in North Carolina delivered a powerful and passionate keynote speech, which included high praise of President Obama.

I voted for Obama in 2008 with great enthusiasm, holding my breath until the final results were in, making it crystal clear that the people of this country had finally and magnificently come together to elect our first African-American president.

Many of us thought we would never live to see this momentous accomplishment, which we fervently believe heralded the dawn of a new age for our country.

Very sadly, this has turned into a dawn delayed. Pres.

Obama has embraced Wall Street. He is the first Democratic president in history to advocate cutting Social Security. He has embraced Bush’s racist global war on terror and vastly escalated the nightmarish remote control drone killing.

His administration has deported more illegal immigrants than Bush and continues the war on drugs which has created mass incarceration and a new form of the racist Jim Crow laws.

Yet, I voted for Obama again in 2012—recognizing that Mitt Romney and the racist right-wing forces that he represented would be disastrous.

As Dr. King’s favorite union it is essential that we follow his powerful example of speaking truth to power, if not, our movement for peace and justice will be crippled. So let us build upon that monumental victory of 2008. If we could come together to elect our first African American president, then surely we can come together to end the curse of greed that pollutes our nation’s soul. Actions like Moral Mondays will help us create a new voice, outside of the two party system controlled by Wall Street, that will truly represent the interests of the 99%. As Rev.

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Fall 2013 • Our Life And Times

Barber said, “Wall Street doesn’t care about the Blacking and Browning of America as long as they can keep all the green.”

JEFF VOGEL Retiree, New York City MORE WORK TO DO ’m writing because your last issue was such a wonderful reminder of what our Union does throughout our country. It also reminded me of how much we still have to do. As I write this, I’m in the middle of helping our Retirees Division get ready to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington, where Dr. King gave his “I Have a Dream” speech. I was there. I want to remind every reader and member of 1199 that we can’t ever forget that Dr. King died during a labor struggle.

The simple fact that today we still have people making minimum wage who can’t support their families, that our right to vote is under attack, that young Black men don’t feel safe in their own neighborhoods, and that people aren’t treated with dignity because they are immigrants shows us that we have a lot of Dr. King’s work to do.

It’s very important for all of us to be involved—retirees and young people. The Tea Party feels very comfortable trying to take away the hard-earned Social Security of me and my fellow retirees. We must bring back the energy from 1963. We cannot ever take our rights for granted.

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VICKIE OWENS Retiree, New York City Let’s Hear From You Our Life And Times welcomes your letters. Please email them to PatriciaK@1199.org or snail 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 hope you and your loved ones enjoyed a wonderful Labor Day. Millions of Americans celebrate that day with outdoor barbecues, back-to-school shopping bargains, or the last beach or pool party of the summer.

But few Americans know—or even think about—the meaning of Labor Day: that it exists to let folks remember and honor the struggles for decent wages and working conditions, for respect and dignity for those of us who do the work and produce the goods and services that make our country livable.

It is important for us in 1199SEIU, and for working people in general, to know the meaning of Labor Day, especially in these times of mass unemployment and under-employment, when workers’ hardearned pensions and health benefits are under attack, most new jobs being created are part-time and low-wage, and when the disparity continues to grow between the one and the ninety-nine percent.

In 1882, Matthew Maguire, a machinist and secretary of the New York labor council first proposed celebrating Labor Day, and thousands of workers converged on Union Square in Manhattan to do so.

Two years later, 250,000 members of the American Railway Union that represented members in 27 states called a strike against the Pullman Company, which shut down most of the nation’s freight and passenger traffic in the Midwest and West. President Grover Cleveland sent in 12,000 federal troops to break the strike, in the course of which 30 strikers were killed, 57 wounded and their leader, Eugene V. Debs, was imprisoned.

In an effort to calm public opinion and conciliate organized labor, the President and Congress designated Labor Day as a federal holiday in 1894. Every American kid in school knows about the Boston Tea Party but almost none know about the Pullman Strike. We learn about our presidents and kings but not about Eugene V. Debs and Mother Jones and John L. Lewis and Leon Davis and Cesar Chavez. We are taught that history is made by people in power—as if pharaohs built the pyramids, kings built the castles, popes built the cathedrals and CEOs build automobiles.

Even today, in the institutions where we work, hospital and nursing home and homecare administrators are spoken of as “healthcare providers,” as if nurses, nurses’ aides, techs, and dietary workers are not the true caregivers to the sick, frail and disabled.

One of the most dangerous and widespread problems in our country is historical amnesia. Most Americans don’t know that it was labor unions that gave us the 8-hour workday, weekends off, sick days, vacations, Social Security, unemployment compensation, pensions and healthcare benefits. All of those things were won through great sacrifice, much bloodshed, and even the loss of lives by now-forgotten heroes and heroines.

Unfortunately, many unions and union members also forget our history, or never knew it. And if we forget it, how do we expect our employers, elected officials and school boards to know it?

I emphasize this point about Labor Day because it is important for us in 1199SEIU to know and remember that everything we have—our jobs, our wages and working conditions, our pensions, our benefits, our Funds—was won by us or our union elders. Nothing has been given to us by our employers. We’ve fought for and won what we’ve gained.

Keep that in mind as we renew ourselves in strengthening our chapters. Every 1199er has a contract fight coming up, if not this year or next, then the year after. We’re going to have to be informed, strong, united and ready to fight for what is rightfully ours.

It has always been that way. That’s the lesson we should take away every year on the first Monday of September, Labor Day, and every other day of the year.

InTheRegions

NEW YORK

“Bill de Blasio Will Help Us Make Sure That Everyone Can Live Here” Members get out the vote for mayoral bid.

Bill de Blasio (center) and his wife Chirlane McCray (left) talk with 1199ers Norman and Sandra Lawrence as they canvassed in Brooklyn in mid-July. Norman works at Brooklyn’s Interfaith Medical Center; Sandra at Brookdale Medical Center.

Bronx Lebanon cook Charles Weston (left) and St. Barnabas laboratory technologist Tom Cloutier door knocking for Bill de Blasio in the Bronx this summer.

Members of 1199SEIU volunteered and worked as member political organizers throughout New York City this summer to help ensure victory for Bill de Blasio in New York City’s Sept. 10 Democratic Mayoral Primary.

De Blasio has been a long-time friend of 1199SEIU. He has unwaveringly stood with the Union’s homecare workers and more recently workers at Brooklyn’s Long Island College Hospital (LICH) and Interfaith Medical Center. De Blasio was among those who participated in a July 10 civil disobedience action, where he was among the members of 1199SEIU and the New York State Nurses Association who were arrested at the State University of New York’s (SUNY’s) Manhattan offices while protesting SUNY’s attempts to close LICH. De Blasio has also been a vocal proponent of 1199SEIUsupported legislation, which includes bills to end the NYPD’s discriminatory policing practices in New York City’s neighborhoods and requiring paid sick time for New York City workers.

Charles Weston, a cook at Bronx Lebanon Hospital, volunteered to canvass the Bronx neighborhood of Castle Hill on a hot and muggy “Super Saturday” in July. He didn’t mind the temperature.

“It’s worth it,” he says. “It’s important for our Union and the people of our City to know we have politicians in office who aren’t just working for themselves.”

Weston’s canvassing was Tom Cloutier, a lab technologist and long-time delegate from the Bronx’s St. Barnabas.

“We’re door-knocking and handing out literature to people. When we meet people who are undecided we talk to them,” says Cloutier. “That’s what makes this such important work for us.”

As Cloutier and Weston continued through the big, pre-war apartment buildings of Castle Hill they met many families with children going about their Saturday routines.

Weston was reminded of why he was out canvassing for a few hours before his shift at Bronx Lebanon.

“My son is 27, but I’m still concerned about our schools and our economy. I have grandkids,” he says. “Our system has produced some great people, but we need to take care of it for everyone.”

In Manhattan, Yudelka Peralta, a home health aide with Home Health Management, was among the team of members who signed on in late July as member political organizers.

Her team’s phone banking and canvassing operation focused on 1199SEIU members who live in the neighborhoods of Morningside Heights, Harlem and Washington Heights.

Peralta joined the effort to help make New York City livable for regular people, she says.

“I live in public housing. I see a lot of people in my district going through terrible things,” she says. “Rents are going up. They’re converting buildings. If you don’t make at least $40,000 or $50,000 you can’t afford to live here. Bill de Blasio will help us make sure everyone can live here.”

Fall 2013 • Our Life And Times

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Patrick Gaspard Named South African Ambassador NEW JERSEY

Barbara Buono Taps EVP Milly Silva in NJ Governor’s Race

1199SEIU EVP Milly Silva (left) is running for lieutenant governor in New Jersey, seen here with Senator Barbara Buono.

administration. Gaspard has a long history in politics and social justice, getting his start in the 1989 campaign of New York City Mayor David Dinkins and numerous issues in New York City’s Haitian community. Gaspard, who was born in the Democratic Republic of Congo, said he is “ecstatic and deeply humbled“ at being chosen for the ambassadorship.

Former 1199SEIU EVP Patrick Gaspard is now U.S. Ambassador to South Africa.

At a press conference on July 29, Democratic candidate for New Jersey governor, Sen. Barbara Buono, announced her choice of 1199SEIU Exec. Vice Pres. Milly Silva as her pick for lieutenant governor in her campaign against the Republican incumbent, Gov. Chris Christie.

“This is a woman whose fundamental beliefs align with the campaign’s guiding principle—that a strong and vibrant New Jersey doesn’t come from the top down, but from a strong and vibrant middle class,” said Buono of Silva, who has deep roots in the labor movement and community organizing.

Buono is the first woman to run for New Jersey governor on the Democratic ticket and this is only the third allwoman ticket nationwide. Paulette Johnson, a CNA at Regency Heritage Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in

Somerset, praised Buono’s choice.

“Milly has been through it all with us—she’s walked in our shoes and she’s felt our pain,” said Johnson. “Her mother was a caregiver and she knows exactly what it’s like to struggle to get by. Making sure that she’s our next lieutenant governor will be a huge victory for working families.”

In her remarks, delivered in Spanish and English at the July 29 press conference, Silva reminded the audience of how Gov. Christie had failed so many New Jerseyans.

“I’m honored to stand with Senator Buono today as we embark on this journey to restore New Jersey,” said Silva. “Senator Buono has always been a strong advocate for our middle class and our working people, our women and our children and seniors—and I am proud to be on the ticket with a woman who shares my values.”

MASSACHUSETTS

NEW YORK

Massachusetts Democrat Ed Markey was sworn in to the U.S. Senate July 16 after handily winning a June 25 special election. Markey’s victory was ensured by 1199SEIU members who battled soaring temperatures as well as low voter turnout and helped Markey beat his Republican opponent, Gabriel Gomez, by more than 10 points.

“We needed to make sure that people knew that they had a voice in this and that they didn’t stay home,” said Kim Rivera, a residential aide from Springfield. “They don’t think they can get involved in politics or their communities, but we were there to say we were with them. We wanted them to know that.”

Markey, who served in the U.S. Congress for more than 20 years, fills the Senate seat vacated by Sen. John Kerry with Kerry’s January confirmation as U.S. Secretary of State. Scores of 1199SEIU member volunteers and political organizers were active in helping Markey win not only the June 25 special election but also a primary election on April 30.

They door-knocked, phone banked and handed out literature to voters across Massachusetts.

“We could not afford to lose,” says Rivera, of the get-out-the vote effort. “We cannot let programs like Medicare get cut. Too many people would lose services. Our PCAs would suffer. That’s how they get paid. People would lose their jobs. This is really an important win.”

Anthony Sanders, a personal care attendant from Peabody, spent four months as a member political organizer in Lynn, and was a fierce advocate for Markey and his support of unions and healthcare workers.

“It was a great election,” said Sanders. “It was worthwhile. I was never unsure Ed Markey was going to win. His win proves we did our jobs.”

At Southampton Hospital in Southampton, NY, Registered Nurses voted 95 to 15 this July to ratify a three-year agreement covering 200 nurses that includes significant wage increases, on-call pay, floating language, self-scheduling and for the first time, inclusion in the 1199SEIU Registered Nurse Training and Job Security Fund. It’s the second 1199SEIU RN contact at Southampton. 1199SEIU’s bargaining unit is “wall-towall” at Southampton, and RN negotiating committee members say support from workers in other classifications was critical to the successful negotiations. Long-time delegate Nance Doering, a radiology technologist, often sat with the nurses during talks. “The idea is that there’s power in numbers.

During negotiations we took turns going in and out of the room, which is our right,” she says. “We are all one big happy family here. We work closely together. It’s a small, community hospital and we help each other whenever we can. We just wanted to do what’s best for the RNs, the Union and the hospital.”

Markey Victory: Bay State Members Turned Up the Heat

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Solidarity Wins Contract at Southampton Hospital

BRANDON MCCARTHY PHOTO

WASHINGTON DC

The U.S. Senate on Aug. 1 confirmed Patrick Gaspard, former 1199SEIU executive vice president and political director, as U.S. Ambassador to South Africa.

Gaspard has been the executive director of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) since 2011. He came to the DNC after playing key roles in the President Obama’s 2008 campaign and

Southampton Hospital RNs at July ratification vote for their new contract. It was an overwhelming “yes” at 95 to 15.

InTheRegions

NJ Assembly Majority leader Lou Greenwald serves a meal with CNA Aja Dunham-Beckett at Voorhees Center, Voorhees, NJ.

NEW JERSEY

New Jersey Members Win Budget Victory The efforts of 1199SEIU’s New Jersey members paid off big when it came time for legislators to draft the state 2014 budget. On June 24 elected officials moved to include language in the state budget that raised nursing home funding by $10.3 million. That amount will receive a federal match, for a total increase of $20.6 million.

Members of 1199SEIU made the budget a priority and advocated for more Medicaid nursing home funding with a vigorous campaign that included lobby days, leafleting and legislators spending time working in nursing homes. On June 6, a group of 35 members held

a lobby day in Trenton to speak directly with elected leaders. In a busy Statehouse hallway, members set up signs, passed out leaflets, and struck up conversations with dozens of legislators. Effie Gregory, a CNA from Lodi, NJ, explained how lack of funding for her facility puts both patients and caregivers at risk.

“The staff is always short and there’s hardly any linen to work with,” says Gregory. “Sometimes we get patients who have certain conditions or diseases, but we don’t have the supplies we need to take the proper precautions.”

Aja Dunham-Beckett, a CNA

MASSACHUSETTS

Boston Members Interview Candidates at July Mayoral Forum With the Boston mayoral race heating up, members of 1199SEIU’s Massachusetts region held a twohour forum on July 11 during which they interviewed eight of the candidates running for office.

Meeting at the Union’s headquarters in Dorchester, union members spoke with mayoral hopefuls John Barros, Bill Walczak, Mike Ross, Charlotte Golar-Richie, Felix Arroyo, John Connolly, Marty Walsh, and Rob Consalvo. All the candidates are running on the Democratic ticket.

Whoever wins the seat will have tremendous shoes to fill. Boston Mayor Tom Menino has been in office for two decades and he has been a faithful ally of 1199SEIU and working people. As mayor, Menino set a high standard in Massachusetts and national politics with his

support for anti-violence programs in Boston communities, gay rights, healthcare funding and unionized workers. He attended 1199SEIUsponsored events and supported 1199SEIU organizing campaigns in Boston-area hospitals.

At the forum candidates discussed with members a range of issues, from protecting and revitalizing Boston public schools to the organizing rights of workers to public safety.

“I loved the interviewing process. Because of 1199SEIU, I have learned so much about the political process and how to look into the profiles of the candidates and not just take their word for it,” said Boston personal care attendant Romella Tucker. “I look into their history and what they’ve done. That’s very empowering

from Voorhees, NJ, testified at state budget hearings about the critical need to increase nursing home funding in New Jersey.

“As a CNA working full time in a nursing home, I strive to provide quality care to my residents,“ she testified before the committee hearings, which were held last March. “Aside from performing the essential tasks of bathing, dressing, and feeding, it is most important to build a relationship with them based upon dependability. With acuity in facilities constantly rising, it is imperative that nursing home funding increases as well.”

The concerns of Gregory, Dunham-Beckett, and other 1199SEIU caregivers were made all the more real for legislators during several “Walk a Day in Our Shoes” events held over the last few months. During “Walk a Day” legislators mop floors, serve food, lead recreational activities, and do other work that is essential for providing for the needs of residents. Members show politicians what’s at stake when they make decisions on the budget, says Elaine Marks, a CNA from Cranbury, NJ. “It’s important that our elected officials see what really goes on behind the scenes,” says Marks. “We don’t consider our residents as ‘patients,’ we think of them as part of our own family.”

to be a part of that process. As union members, we have wisdom and knowledge. We can make a mature decision and listen to the candidates and really engage in the process. I loved it.”

After the conversation 1199SEIU members filled out scorecards rating the candidates and giving feedback on their positions. Several members noted the critical role the forum played in ensuring the voices of working people are heard in politics.

“It was great. The night was excellent,” said Babrah Mugandani, an 1199SEIU member and delegate at Westside House Nursing Home.

“I enjoyed the candidate interviews very much.”

Though many of the candidates share the values of 1199SEIU, union members had at press time decided not to endorse a candidate for the Sept. 24 primary. However, members expect to make an endorsement in the November general election and a tremendous impact on that race.

NEW YORK

NYC Members Hail Passage of Community Safety Act

The long campaign against New York City Police Department’s (NYPD) discriminatory practices won a major victory June 27 with the passage of two New York City Council bills collectively known as the Community Safety Act (CSA). Both bills passed with a veto-proof majority.

The victory is credited to the hard work of a coalition of some 60 groups, including 1199SEIU. Days before the City Council vote, 1199SEIU Pres. George Gresham, NAACP Pres. Benjamin Jealous and National Action Network Pres.

Al Sharpton co-signed a New York Daily News article calling for passage of the bills. The article emphasized that close to 90 percent of police stops are of Black and Latino youth and that more than 90 percent of those stopped were innocent of any crime or infraction.

The first of the bills, the NYPD Oversight Act (Int. 1079), will create an office of inspector general to independently investigate the conduct of the NYPD. The second, NYPD End Discriminatory Profiling Act (Int. 1080), will strengthen the provisions against biasbased policing and expand the categories of protected individuals to include one’s sexual orientation and housing status.

Sheldon Hoyte, a 32-year-old dialysis technician at Manhattan’s Beth Israel Medical Center, believes CSA is overdue.

“In my 16 years of living in the U.S. I believe I have been the victim of every type of racial profiling,” he says. “Most of my stops have been in Brooklyn where I live. They include being pulled over and having a gun pointed to my head, being called a thief because the officer who stopped me didn’t believe I was the owner of my car and being told at another time that I fit the description of a suspect.”

Parents also hope that CSA will help ease their anxieties.

“I have two sons and both have been profiled,” says Fernanda Stewart, a discharge planner at Brookdale Hospital in Brooklyn. “My younger son is in a mentoring program which helps him avoid problems, but that’s no guarantee against his being stopped. I just hope with good supervision and with the grace of God I can help keep him safe.”

Fall 2013 • Our Life And Times

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COVER STORY

OUR KIDS: THIS IS WHO WE’RE FIGHTING FOR

Members of 1199SEIU know very well that some of their most valuable benefits are the programs and Funds that help them take care of their children. Through benefits won over the years with creativity and determination, 1199SEIU’s Child Care Fund Corporation and National Benefit Fund help members send their kids to camp, pay for college, and gain life experience through summer jobs. In late July, Our Life And Times spent time with our kids in two programs — Summer Camp and the Youth Mentoring Program to meet our next generation of leaders and hear first-hand what these opportunities mean to a kid from a working family.

Photo: Jim Tynan 7

Fall 2013 • Our Life And Times

: P M A C WIM, S

HIKE, , E Z A G R A ST W E N E K A M S D N E I R F

S

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ince its inception in 1965, 1199SEIU’s Anne Shore Camp Program has been giving eligible members the opportunity to send their kids on three-to-four week visits to sleep-away camps throughout the Northeast. The program includes camps for kids with special needs, camps that allow kids to go home on weekends and programs geared towards a specific interest, like nature studies or drama. The program, which is free and open to eligible members of the 1199SEIU National Benefit Fund and the Greater New York Child Care Fund, serves close to 800 kids every summer. In late July, Our Life And Times visited Camp Vacamas in West Milford, NJ, where over three sessions, 300 1199SEIU campers bunked this summer.

For more information, log on to www.1199seiubenefits.org/CCF

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1. Deron McKay, 13, gets a swimming lesson from counselor Albert Tran, who got his start as an 1199 camper.

2. Lauren Parker, 14, gets a swimming lesson.

3. Campers practice a teamwork exercise.

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4. Esperanza Humphrey-Grant, 18, is another counselor who started as an 1199 camper. “I cherish every moment at this camp,” says HumphreyGrant, shown with some of her campers.

“City kids do the same old things in the summer. Once you come to camp you always have something new to try.”

5. Drama program participants put on a show that included scenes from “Peter Pan” and “The Wiz.” 6. Counselor Aldwin James, age 17, (wearing striped tank top) started at Vacamas as an 1199 camper at 7.

He’s shown looking for salamanders with his group.

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7. Campers show off camp-themed mobiles made during a session of arts-and-crafts.

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Gaining An Appreciation For The Human Experience Maksym Sanogo, participated in this summer’s Youth Mentoring Program.

Oksana Sanogo is a pharmacist at NY Presbyterian Medical Center in New York City. Her son Maksym, 17, spent the summer working at a long term care facility about a mile away from Presby, Jewish Home Lifecare.

Maksym was among the 17 1199SEIU kids who worked this summer at Jewish Home as part of the Union’s

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Fall 2013 • Our Life And Times

Youth Mentoring Program (YMP).

The YMP is a six-week program for 15-to-17-year-olds that places them in a job (usually within their parent’s workplace) and provides guidance through daily seminars on topics like resume writing, money management, leadership skills and team building.

About 500 kids participate each summer and it’s designed to give them a sense of working in healthcare and to begin focusing them on their career and educational goals. “He gets to see what the reality of life is like—when people are old, in need and with healthcare workers who are taking care of them. He sees the doctors and the nurses and what they do every day,” says Oksana Sanogo of Maksym’s experience in the YMP. “He’s gaining an appreciation for the human experience.”

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Youth Mentoring Program participant Maksym Sanogo, 17, assisting during a music therapy session at Jewish Home Lifecare in New York City.

Continuing and Commemorating

THE STRUGGLE Thousands of 1199ers headed to Washington, DC to mark the 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington.

“I Want My Daughter to Know She Was Part of This” The National Mall in Washington, DC was alive on August 24 with reverence, remembrance, longing, and frustration as an estimated 100,000 people gathered there from around the nation to mark the 50th anniversary 1963’s historic March on Washington where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered of his iconic “I Have a Dream” speech.

Among them were 3,000 active and retired members of 1199SEIU and their families who traveled by bus from the Union’s New York, New Jersey and Maryland/DC regions, as well as the Union’s Retiree Divisions in North and South Carolina.

Era Joseph, a retiree from St. Luke’s Hospital in New York City, brought her son Joseph, her daughter-in-law Alexandra, her granddaughter Taylor, 16, and her grandson, Joseph, 11.

“1199 is the Martin Luther King, Jr. Union and they didn’t get to experience the first speech so this is history for them,” said Joseph motioning to her family, as she stood with them at Fordham Plaza in the Bronx, NY waiting to board a bus for Washington, DC. “We need to remember also that we are still struggling. It’s a beautiful thing to me when the younger generation takes part and to see them here. Our voting and civil rights are still under attack.

What we saw with the Supreme Court decision. Everyone still has to be involved and that’s why we’re here.”

Groups representing the nation’s breadth and diversity began arriving on the Mall before sunrise and

AT LEFT: 1199ers at 1963 March on Washington. ABOVE: the March’s 50th anniversary on Aug 24, 2013. poured in throughout the day. People carried banners and signs and wore every hue of message-emblazoned t-shirt. Represented in some way was the full spectrum of grinding problems that continue to plague the nation and comprise the gulf of racial and economic disparity that Dr. King had by now hoped to see bridged: Justice for Trayvon Martin, the restoration of Voting Rights Act, fair education policies, and an end to the prison-industrial complex, labor organizing rights and women’s rights.

“I feel it’s a privilege for me to be here,” said Shalonda Maples, a CNA at Burnt Tavern Nursing and Rehabilitation in Brick, NJ, who came with husband Justin and six-year-old daughter, Constance. “I wanted to come and show our family’s support.

I’m hoping this march can lead to a change in the stand your ground laws.

And when it does I want my daughter to know that she was a part of this.”

“Somebody’s Coming up the Other Side of the Mountain” “It’s a very emotional day for me,” said Bill Pigford, a clinical specialist at Prince Georges Hospital Center in Cheverly, MD. Pigford, who spoke with Our Life and Times a few days

before the march’s anniversary, was a member of CORE (the Congress of Racial Equality), one of the nation’s seminal Civil Rights groups and which helped organize the first March on Washington.

“My life at that time was sit ins and marches and we were registering people to vote,” he says. “My mother was afraid. She thought I was going to get killed. I told her that I was already dead. Our life in Mississippi under those conditions was no life.

It was very hard. White people could tell you to get off the sidewalk and use the N word. I saw Black men beat down. They’d drive through our neighborhood yelling obscenities.

Schwerner, Cheyney and Goodman were killed right up the road from where I’m from. We had lynchings. I worked at the charity hospital in my town and we couldn’t even sit down to eat. We had to go out in the back.”

Pigford, now 71, recalled traveling to Washington, DC during that blistering 1963 August.

“We had a police escort and we didn’t stop anywhere,” he says. “That rally was very inspirational. It gave us the inspiration to turn up the heat in our work - which we did.”

“Today I’m worried that a lot of

people think it will all just work out fine. It’s not fine,” he continues. “We need to stand up now and we’ll need to stand up in the future. The same problems that existed 50 years ago exist today.”

Pigford is pained, but not defeated, by the impediment and slow arrival of justice and equality.

“Look how they changed our voting rights with the stroke of a pen,” he says, referring to the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision. “It hurts me. In Mississippi we were denied our vote and subjected to poll taxes and forced to recite part of the Constitution in order to vote. I feel cheated by what’s going on. All of the people who died and who had their homes and cars burned and fire bombed - all of that was wasted with the stroke of a pen and we need to remember that.”

Yet Pigford cautions against malice, lest we poison our future.

“In spite of everything that has happened I have refused to let them turn me into what they would have me be,” he says. “I choose not to hate because I know that somebody’s coming up the other side of the mountain to right what has been done wrong.”

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“We Have To Fight For Our Children” Speakers at the rally – which was followed by a march past Dr. King’s Memorial to the Washington Monument – included Attorney General Eric Holder; Rep. John L. Lewis of Georgia, an organizer of the 1963 March; Myrlie EversWilliams, activist, author and widow of slain leader Medgar Evers; Rev. Al Sharpton; 1199SEIU Pres. George Gresham; and Sybrina Fulton, Trayvon Martin’s mother.

“Trayvon Martin was my son, but he’s not just my son, he’s all of our son and we have to fight for our children,” said Fulton, who was greeted by roars of cheers and applause. Many held high posters of Trayvon’s image and listened reverently his mother made her brief remarks.

While 1199ers from the Union’s Florida region didn’t travel in a group to Washington, DC for the March anniversary, several and staff members helped plan and participated in a Youth Empowerment Summit that was held in Sanford, the city where Trayvon Martin was killed. The Summit included age-specific workshops for kids to discuss their feelings about Martin’s murder; conversations with parents, a conversation with a retired City of Miami police officer about responding to police stops, and organizing for the repeal of stand your ground laws.

Staffer Monique Walker helped organize the Summit and would have liked to have been in Washington DC, but she felt it was vital to be in Florida during the weekend.

“I believe that we are the dream that Dr. King was talking about. We are the manifestation of his dream,” she says. “This wasn’t the time for me to be getting on the bus or to celebrate. I needed to be here and to step up here like never before.”

Immediately after Trayvon Martin’s murder, Florida region members and staff formed a Social Justice Committee and were among the leaders in organizing demonstrations, marches and promoting ongoing community dialogue.

“After the verdict some of my co-workers said they didn’t want to talk about it, but I said ‘No, we have to talk about this’,” says Pat Diaz, an RN at University Hospital in Tamarac, FL. “This has been our experience for so long. And now that this anniversary is here it means so much because of all we have gone through with Trayvon. It just shows us how much work we have to do to continue our movement.”

Hope for the Future Radcliffe McPherson, a cook at Hudson Park Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Albany, NY was watching his eight-year-old son Kenyon’s blithe enjoyment of a Popsicle on a hot summer day. Over the loudspeaker Martin Luther King lll passionately extolled the audience that “we can and must do more.”

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“ We need to stand up now and we’ll need to stand up in the future.”

– Bill Pigford Prince George’s Hospital Center, Cheverly, MD. CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: Hudson Park Rehab cook Radcliffe McPherson and his son Kenyon; marchers carried signs representing the full spectrum of problems plaguing the nation; homecare worker Vernette Mahon a member of SEIU Healthcare Michigan.

As the day wound down McPherson thought for a moment about entreaties for vigilance and remembrance and glanced down and the little boy standing beside him.

“This very important anniversary is more for my son than for me. It gives him insight into how Black people have to struggle to be equal and respected,” said McPherson.

“Maybe being here will help him growing up to succeed in today’s world as a Black man. One day when I’m not around he can say he experienced this with his dad.”

The South is

Not So Solid 1199ers are spearheading change.

Throughout our nation’s history, the southern states have served as a brake on social progress. And that has had a profound effect on the labor movement. From the days of slavery to the present, the South has been the nation’s primary antiunion haven.

But change is in the air. “In 1199SEIU, we’re not divided by race or gender or job classification,” says Steve Sikora, a respiratory therapist for the past 31 years at Blake Medical Center in Bradenton, FL. “In fact, we view it as a civic duty to learn how the Union works and about its advantages.”

Florida 1199ers began organizing in earnest in the late 1990s with the founding of Unite for Dignity, the 1199SEIU Florida region’s predecessor. They did this in spite of the limitations of right-towork (for less) laws, which prohibit union shops and increase the difficulty of organizing.

The labor movement learned this in 1953 with the defeat of its ambitious Operation Dixie organizing campaign and the simultaneous purging of progressive and left-wing labor leaders. 1199 experienced the shackles of right-to-work in 1969 when it attempted to organize hospital workers in Charleston, S.C. The Charleston campaign was not a total defeat. It was the springboard for 1199’s growth into a national union and the organizing of Johns Hopkins Hospital and other institutions in Maryland.

“Johns Hopkins was like a plantation before the Union,” says Annie Henry, an instrument processor who marched with Coretta Scott King during the 1969 Baltimore organizing campaign.

Today, the Md-DC region of 1199SEIU is helping to transform the region. Members were instrumental in winning a state bill that makes children of undocumented immigrants eligible for state aid.

1199SEIU also was out front in the campaign to make Maryland the first Southern state to recognize same-sex marriage.

During the 2012 presidential election campaign, with the state safely in Pres. Obama’s camp, Md-DC 1199ers made regular visits to nearby Virginia to help deliver the state for the president.

The region also has helped launch two major economic initiatives. The Heart of Baltimore campaign seeks to create livingwage jobs for healthcare workers,

Coretta Scott King with workers and their families during historic 1969 organizing campaign at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, MD. Standing behind Mrs. King is Ray Scott of the now-defunct pro basketball team the Baltimore Bullets.

who comprise more than 20 percent of the city’s work force.

Good Jobs Better Baltimore is a broad coalition that’s standing up for good jobs, a stronger local economy, and corporate accountability. “It’s a win-win situation for patients and workers,” Henry says.

1199SEIU retirees also are helping to break the grip of conservatism in other states. Members in the Carolinas regularly took part in the weekly spring and summer Moral Mondays protests this year in Raleigh, NC, against state government attacks on social, economic and political rights.

1199SEIU retirees in Florida also have long records of political and social activism. But they now have a powerful beachhead in the state.

More than 24,000 healthcare workers at more than 100 facilities now have 1199SEIU representation in Florida. Between the middle of 2010 and the end of 2011, the Florida region won the largest private-sector organizing drive in the history of the South. The region has emerged in recent years as one of the most dependable and respected progressive forces in the state.

“1199 is a good fit for me, says Verna Pearson, an activist and an LPN at University Village Nursing Center in Tampa. I do it from the heart. I want to help save lives.

That’s why I became a nurse.”

Pearson, whose father was a paraplegic, has lost count of the number of times she has been to Tallahassee, the state’s capital, to lobby for patients’ and workers’ issues. “I’ve lobbied for Medicaid funding and safe staffing and have fought for voters’ rights and election reform, she says.

Pearson says she especially appreciates 1199SEIU’s effectiveness in working with other progressive and community-based organizations. “We know that we can’t do it alone and we also know that our problems aren’t just at the workplace,” she emphasizes.

She and others in the region have helped win victories in the areas of staffing, voting and immigrant rights. The region also has been on the frontlines of the fight against racial profiling and for justice for Trayvon Martin.

“I’m an immigrant and I like that my Union has worked so hard for immigrant rights,” says Veilla Sevigne, a PCA at Miami’s

North Shore Medical Center. “I have nephews who are excellent students but weren’t able to further their studies or get certain jobs because of their status.”

Being a member of 1199 makes a big difference, Sevigne says.

“Before we had a union, we had no voice,” she stresses. “Now we have a voice in the state and on many other issues.”

“1199SEIU has made a difference at the workplace and in society at large,” says Steve Sikora.

“I don’t believe there is a single worker in my institution who hasn’t profited from the Union. For example, in the last contract we got a raise while workers at other hospitals were laid off.”

Sikora believes that the Union has also helped change people’s consciousness, a prerequisite for helping to change the South.

“Professional and technical workers, for example, are willing to take leadership from nurses’ aides,” he says. “We’ve come to understand the importance of contributing to our political action fund. Most important, we know the importance of sticking together and of united action.”

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Lauren Jukofsky (left) is a pediatric social worker in Cohen’s hematology and oncology department. “When it my job comes up people say to me ‘That’s so sad. That’s such a depressing job. How do you do that?’ I tell the truth. I do it for the children and the families,” says Jukofsky, shown here with patient Sunshine Benjamin, 13, (far right) his mom Michelle Abbey and little brother Jeremy, 7.

THE W RK WE DO O

COHEN CHILDREN’S MEDICAL CENTER OF NEW YORK It’s something most of us don’t like to think about: a sick or hurt child. At Cohen Children’s Medical Center of New York in New Hyde Park, NY, 417 members of 1199SEIU dedicate themselves to the care of really sick kids, like kids with brain or spinal tumors.

They also help kids who aren’t sick—kids with developmental disabilities or autism.

Our members also help parents, teaching new moms and dads how to care for their premature babies. Whether it’s caring for tiny infants in the neo-natal intensive care unit or teenagers in the emergency department, 1199SEIU members at Cohen Children’s bring a special strength and pride to their work because of their very special patients.

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RK O W E TH DO WE

2

1

“ My job is to make it a little easier for them. I can’t change what’s happening. I can’t fix what’s happening, but I can at least help them emotionally.”

— Lauren Jukofsky

3

1. Lead dietary worker Bilkis Ali is responsible for the VIP trays. “I do the nut-free and allergy trays – gluten free – that kind of thing; all the ones that go separately and special, I make sure they go up and get there on time.

People like to see that and it makes me happy.” Ali’s daughter, Shamma Ali, 15, was volunteering at Cohen for the summer. “Ever since I was little I wanted to be a pediatrician,” says Shamma, a student at the Bronx High School of Science. “And I think volunteering in the medical environment will help me in the future.”

2. Environmental service worker Roxanne Ramos was volunteering as a blood drive captain on the day Our Life And Times visited. “It will save lives. It’s exciting to see people wanting to help and I love to help,” she says. During her regular schedule Ramos cleans Cohen’s lobby and every other weekend she’s responsible for cleaning the bone marrow transplant area, which has to be “immaculate,” she says.

4 3. Emergency department technician Martha Stewart worked on a New York City ambulance before coming to Cohen’s. She still volunteers as a paramedic during her off-time. “Being out in the ambulance, getting a sick child is your worst fear – getting a child in cardiac arrest, a child in respiratory failure, a child that’s really, really sick – you just want to get that child healthy and alive to the ER. I’ve overcome that fear here,” says Stewart.

4. “All the time I think about my nephews, my kids, my friends’ kids because you’re dealing with kids when you come into the rooms,” says lead housekeeper Juan Diaz. “You think of your family especially when you see who’s there and you see the families and their friends.”

5 5. Infant care tech Maureen Bell gave birth to one of her sons at 28 weeks, so she knows the worries of a “preemie” parent. “When I talk to them it really helps put their fears to rest,” she says. “My son is actually graduating from Stonybrook University this year, so I’m proof that you can get through it.”

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The Last Word: Sequestration 1199SEIU Director of Politics and Legislation Kevin Finnegan discusses the spending cuts and their impact.

Sequestration:

Automatic reduction to federal spending in a given fiscal year. $55 billion = amount to be cut every year for 10 years from domestic and defense spending. $1.2 trillion = total amount to be cut over 10 years from the federal budget cuts under the current sequester requirements.

Here are just a few areas impacted by the sequester.

What is sequestration, aka the sequester? Where did it come from? A couple of years ago when Congress was fighting over lifting the debt ceiling the Republicans were coming under a lot of pressure to raise the debt ceiling because government was going to stop if they didn’t. They agreed to do it if both sides would agree that the national debt had to come down. In order to force Congress to act they adopted this sequestration legislation, which has across the board cuts to military and domestic programs, with a few exceptions. Everyone thought at the time the plan would not be palatable to Congress and it would force the two sides to come together after the election and agree to reduce the debt in a rational way. Cuts across the board are irrational. There are reductions in military spending of 8% and domestic spending cuts of nearly 5%. When the time for sequestration came around the Tea Party had become much stronger in Congress. They were willing to allow the cuts. They felt it was a good thing and better than any compromise that could be reached.

To my knowledge nothing like this has ever be done before.

What are some of the cuts that most impact our members and their families? The first big cuts that went into effect over the summer are the cuts to the Head Start Program for preschoolers; about 70,000 children are going to be taken out of the Head Start Program even though they’re eligible. Members who receive any federal housing aid, either through Section 8 or other programs, will be impacted. If our members use our national parks they’ll see the effects of cuts there; just out on the Rockaway Peninsula in Queens, where a lot of our members live, there’s a national park that’s closed because of the cuts. Institutions that have research grants through the National Institutes of Health (NIH) are all seeing reductions of grant moneys, which will mean layoffs to our members who do research. We have a substantial number New York City, Maryland and Massachusetts as well as at the University of Florida. They’re cutting 20% of the NIH grants. Research funding for the rest of this year will be reduced by about 10%. There were also cuts to Medicare, starting in April and that’s beginning to have effects all over the country. Cancer clinics are starting to cut back on care. They’ve been turning away patients in a number of areas and we can expect to see the same thing in our jurisdictions.

How have 1199SEIU and the larger labor movement responded to the sequester and its effects? The labor movement and 1199SEIU in particular have been very much in the conversation about

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deficit reduction. SEIU has been at the center of this debate, fighting off the Republican tendencies to cut government at a time when we really should be stimulating the economy by growing government spending.

We’ve had two large delegations of members go to Washington, DC and lobby members of Congress on cuts —specifically healthcare cuts—and we and others managed to spare Medicaid, one of the few programs that were unaffected by the sequestration cuts.

Who are some of the culprits in allowing the sequester’s enactment? What, if anything, could President Obama have done to stop the cuts? There are some real deficit hawks in places like Florida. They’re to blame. [Speaker of the House] John Boehner let it happen. He’s got really radical conservatives in there that are stopping all sorts of legislation. At the moment they’re holding up immigration reform. He’s in a very bad position, but he’s supposed to be a leader and he should have led. The president was pretty aggressive with the Republicans and was ready to shut down the government if they didn’t negotiate.

EDUCATION

MEALS ON WHEELS

DEFENSE/VETERANS AFFAIRS THE NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH MEDICARE

$2.6 Billion cut to the U.S. Department of Education. $406 Million cut to Head Start program. 70,000 Slots for eligible kids eliminated. $9 Million for rural education programs lost.

70% of programs nationwide have had to reduce the number of meals they serve.

One in 6 - closed home meal programs or congregated meal sites. $41 million in federal funding cut.

680,000 defense industry workers were furloughed in July 2012 and their pay is reduced by 20%. The U.S. military’s Tuition Assistance Program is no longer available.

The program served 201,000 soldiers in 2012 $1.55 billion 2013 funding cut. In jeopardy: Research and the development of life-saving drugs and vaccines and delay progress in the development of treatments for chronic diseases and conditions.

2% cut is forcing elderly cancer patients to pay more for chemotherapy or go without it altogether. Local cancer clinics are turning Medicare patients away. Some clinics are closing.

NATIONAL PARKS

900 fewer permanent staff. 1,000 fewer seasonal staff.

Visitor centers with fewer workers. Fewer rangers to monitor recreation areas and oversee conservation efforts.

DISASTER RELIEF

FEMA — $900 million in total cuts. $500 million cut from disaster relief services. $10 million cut from emergency food and shelter programs

SOURCES: National Association of Elementary School Principals, National Institutes of Health, Center for American Progress, U.S. Dept. of Defense, Meals on Wheels, National Parks Conservation Association, Federal Emergency Management Association, BiPartisan Policy Center.

What’s the involvement of the far right wing and the Tea Party?

The right wing has a very vigorous grassroots and lobbying arm. There are a number of Tea Party groups that are extremely well funded and that have used their resources to publicly push for deficit reduction and cuts in social programs.

How does sequestration affect the rollout of the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare? Obamacare is one of the reasons that Congressional Democrats were so receptive to keeping Medicaid out of the sequestration cuts; it would endanger funding for the Affordable Care Act (ACA). One of the ACA’s foundations is the expansion of Medicaid. And it would be very difficult to accomplish everything in the ACA if we allowed them to cut Medicaid.

Did the some legislators try to protect themselves or their districts from the cuts? That’s happened. The one place where it’s happened most famously is with the Federal Aviation Administration. They were going to cut air traffic controllers, which was going to cause substantial delays at airports and cancellations of flights and general disruption in the air transportation system. But most of Congress uses that system to go back and forth to their districts, so money was restored. There was also money restored for meat inspections. They were going to have to cut back at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which undoubtedly would result in

people being sold tainted meat and Congress restored money for that.

There are bills to restore funding for specific cancer clinics in the districts of powerful Congress members, but none of those have passed at this point.

Is there an end to sequestration?

It’s permanent until they restore the cuts in the budget process. Congress won’t compound these cuts, but they now become the baseline for the next budget conversation. I don’t think we can change this until the Democrats win back the House of Representatives and start adopting more rational budgets which fully fund federal programs. When Congress starts debating the next budget in the fall we will undoubtedly be active in pushing for restorations.

THE BACK PAGE

“HE CAN RELATE TO US” MEMBERS GET OUT THE VOTE FOR DE BLASIO NYC Mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio with 1199SEIU members Noemi Rodriguez (left) and Margarita Pillot (right) at this year’s Dominican Day Parade on July 28 in the Bronx. At far right is NYS Assembly member Luis Sepulveda. Rodriguez and Pillot are homecare workers with the Cooperative Agency in the Bronx. “The most important thing is when people see him in our communities,” says Pillot of de Blasio. “They see he is with us. They know he can relate to us.” See story on page 4.