Our Life & Times

A Journal of 1199SEIU

Our Life And Times

March/April 2008

40 YEARS LATER:

HE REMAINS OUR BEACON

Contents A Union in Dr. King’s Image “I’ve been inspired by the unity he forged.”

President’s Column Honoring the Real Dr. King.

1199ers Stump for Sen. Obama ‘History is being made and I want to be part of it.’

Immigrants’ Struggle Mirrors Fight for Civil Rights For Dr. King, the American Dream meant a unified society.

Labor’s Debt to Dr. King He was key to 1199’s hospital organizing.

Two Generations Discuss Dr. King “I think Dr. King would be proud of our Union.”

Economic Justice We are our brothers’ keeper.

Dr. King’s Teachings on War “We are going to wipe out an entire generation.”

Confronting Detours on the Road to Freedom Progress has been uneven.

The Lessons of Faith These members find guidance in Dr. King’s message of unity and love.

Learn More About Dr. King A wealth of resources is available for every age group.

Dr. King Quiz How much do you know?

Around Our Union Over 1,200 vote yes for 1199SEIU in one month.

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Our Life And Times, March/April 2008, Vol. 26, No. 2 Published by 1199SEIU, United Healthcare Workers East 310 West 43rd St. New York, NY 10036 Telephone (212) 582-1890 www.1199seiu.org PR E S I DE NT: George Gresham S E C R E TA RY T R E A S U R E R :

Maria Castaneda EXEC UTIVE VIC E PR E S I DE NTS:

Norma Amsterdam Yvonne Armstrong Marshall Blake Angela Doyle Mike Fadel Aida Garcia Patrick Gaspard Steve Kramer Patrick Lindsay Joyce Neil John Reid Bruce Richard Mike Rifkin Neva Shillingford Estela Vasquez

Respiratory Therapist Celeste Chase

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E D I TO R : J.J. Johnson S TA F F W R I T E R : Patricia Kenney P H OTO G RA P H E R :

Jim Tynan P H OTO G RA P H Y A S S I S TA N T :

Belinda Gallegos A RT D I R E CT I O N & maiarelli studio C OV E R P H OTO : Bettman/Corbis

DE S IG N:

Our Life And Times is published 6 times a year 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.

ISSN 1090-3089.

USPS 000-392.

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

ROBERT KIRKHAM PHOTO

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OUR UNION

1199SEIU members struck Kingsbridge Heights Rehabilitation Center in the Bronx on Feb. 20 after issuing a strike notice on Jan. 15, Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday. Late last year, home owner Helen Sieger took away employee health benefits—leaving members and their children without health care. At press time, 1199ers were mobilizing strike support.

“I’ve been inspired by the unity he forged.”

A UNION IN DR. KING’S IMAGE

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pril 4 marks the 40th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination.

Dr. King will be eulogized across the country and across the world.

This issue of Our Life And Times recalls Dr. King’s incomparable contributions and his special relationship with our Union. It also seeks to apply his rich legacy to today’s most challenging issues.

1199’s relationship with Dr. King went as far back as 1956 when the leadership solicited funds from union members to support the Montgomery, Alabama, boycott against segregated buses.

“The bullet that struck him down was aimed at us and at all people who work to put an end to injustice in our society,” wrote former 1199 Pres. Leon Davis in the April 1968 commemorative issue of 1199 Drug and Hospital News.

“We will pass no pious resolutions,” Davis wrote. “We will build our union in his image.

We will raise high the banner of struggle in the fight against poverty, discrimination, ignorance, hate and war.” r. King was also featured in the April issue of the Union magazine because he was the principal speaker at the 1199 Salute To Freedom celebration in Manhattan just three weeks before his death.

Just as 1199ers stood with Dr. King and the civil rights movement, so did Dr. King stand with 1199 and labor. Many young 1199ers and others born after Dr. King’s death do not know that the martyred leader was in Memphis to aid a strike of sanitation workers when he was gunned down.

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nd 1199 held a special place for Dr. King within the house of labor.

“Local 1199 represents the authentic conscience of the labor movement,” Dr. King said at the Salute to Freedom event. He added, “I’m often disenchanted with some segments of the power structure of the labor movement. But then I think of 1199 and this gives me renewed courage and vigor to carry on.”

And 1199 has carried on treading Dr. King’s path in the struggles for racial justice and gender equality, for economic justice and for peace and solidarity. Our Union’s growth has gone a long way towards helping to bring dignity and economic security to tens of thousands.

This issue features members, active and retired, young and old,

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who are inspired by Dr. King’s example and teachings. Some, like Bronx Montefiore retiree Monnie Callan, were among the 250,000 at the historic 1963 March on Washington.

Several, like Rochester’s Strong Hospital stock keeper Don Marthage and Baltimore’s Johns

Hopkins retiree Alethia Boone, worked tirelessly for the King Holiday.

Said Callan “I brought my children with me to the 1963 March on Washington and I’ve returned often since then. Much has changed since then, but much is still left to be done.”

“I consider myself a fellow 1199er.”

— Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at 1199’s “Salute to Freedom” celebration in Manhattan March 10, 1968.

THE PRESIDENT’S COLUMN George Gresham

Honoring the Real Dr. King We can help realize his dream.

I urge every 1199SEIU member to read this issue of Our Life And Times from cover to cover.

It is one of the most important we have ever published.

Dr. King was killed on April 4, 1968. For the tens of millions of schoolchildren who have been born since then, he has become little more than a “dreamer” who led a very famous march in Washington, D.C. Of course, Dr. King was far more than a dreamer. He was a religious leader, the preeminent leader of African-American people and the civil rights movement that dismantled American apartheid, a political strategist and tactician of the highest order, a guiding light for the movement against the Vietnam War, a great friend and crucial ally of the labor movement— and of 1199, above all. It is hard to believe that he led us on a national stage for what was barely more than 12 years, from the Montgomery Bus Boycott to the Memphis sanitation workers’ strike in which he was killed.

Moreover, he was a social revolutionary. Nobody argued more eloquently and passionately for an equitable redistribution of wealth to eliminate poverty and restrict corporate greed. No one spoke more movingly on behalf of those without power and without treasure, not only in the United States but around the world. In his time, his was the rare voice to speak up in opposition to U.S. support of South African apartheid and U.S.-backed military dictatorships in Latin America. He understood that there could be no serious “war on poverty” while the entire federal budget is focused, in the first place, on preparing for war or making war.

Certainly, Dr. King was so much more than a brilliant voice.

He organized and mobilized hundreds, and then hundreds of thousands, to march and rally and go to jail, braving police batons and police dogs, to make America live up to its promises.

He not only talked the talk, but he walked the walk, earning the enmity not only of the Klan and the White Citizens Councils, not only of local police chiefs and sheriffs, but of powerful forces in Washington.

Exactly one year to the day before his murder, Dr. King came to speak at Riverside Church, on the banks of the Hudson River in uptown Manhattan, because as he said, “A time comes when silence is betrayal.” It was here that he made his clarion call against the Vietnam War and brought the wrath of official Washington and the news media down upon his head.

“The bombs of Vietnam explode at home,” Dr. King told 1199ers at a New York City Salute To Freedom celebration three weeks before his death. “They destroy the dreams and possibilities for a decent America.”

The same can be said today of the war in Iraq and Washington policies that amount to a war on working people.

But, fortunately, the spirit and teaching of Dr. King are alive today and hope is in the air. A former community organizer (the son of a black Kenyan immigrant and a white Midwest woman) has a legitimate chance of becoming the 44th president of the United States.

As I write this column, more that 200 of our members are canvassing in Texas, Ohio and Rhode Island for Sen. Obama.

That senators Obama and Hillary Clinton were the last two standing in a crowded field of Democratic candidates is a testament to Dr. King’s work and those who have advanced his legacy. We are among those who have continued on his path.

Dr. King’s alliance with our Union and the labor movement as a whole was based on his belief that, despite our different colors, ages, genders and sexual preferences, we have much more in common as workers.

Black people are justly proud of this great African-American leader. But he was more: Dr. King was a great American leader and hero. For that, we are all proud to claim him.

Letters CLINTON ENDORSEMENT QUESTIONED s a member of 1199SEIU, I admire the Union’s longstanding fight against war, for democratic rights and for a strong national healthcare program. It is in view of this strong tradition that I question the local leadership’s announced support of Sen. Hillary Clinton for president.

In President Gresham’s letter announcing the endorsement, the choice is posed as being between the three main candidates, Senators Clinton, Obama and Edwards. It is often the custom after the primaries for organized labor to throw its support to the winner of the primaries, but this letter came to us before the primaries. It is thus worthwhile considering the positions of Clinton.

Sen. Clinton voted for the Patriot Act, which sharply curtails democratic rights. She voted for the Iraq War Resolution, and has subsequently persistently refused to apologize for that vote. Her national health care plan requires, like the present Massachusetts plan, that all families not covered by insurance buy a health plan from the profitoriented private sector.

Two prominent professors of medicine at Harvard, Drs. David Himmelstein and Steffie Woolhandler, have likened the healthcare plans of Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards to a flawed and failed model proposed by President Richard Nixon in 1971. They point out that “The mandate model for reform rests on impeccable political logic: avoid challenging insurance firms stranglehold on health care. But it is economic nonsense. The reliance on private insurers makes universal coverage unaffordable.”

Starkly absent from President Gresham’s letter was mention of another Democrat nominee, Congressman Dennis Kucinich, who has steadfastly opposed the Iraq war and has called for a true, government-funded national health plan.

If we members of 1199SEIU are sincere about our historic mission to fight for peace, democratic rights and national health care, we need to question the choice of supporting Sen. Clinton that our leadership has made.

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ROBERT SCHWAB Fordham-Tremont CMHC, Bronx, NY

Editor’s note: In February, SEIU, 1199SEIU’s national union, endorsed Sen. Barack Obama for president, nulli-

fying our endorsement of Sen. Clinton.

Since then, more than 200 members of our union have canvassed for Sen. Obama

TO VOTE IS NOT ENOUGH t is well known that after politicians get elected, they forget the people who put them in office. They forget about the people—the poor, and the majority. Instead, they work for the big fat cat that helped to finance the campaign.

This is why I think we have to consider the following points.

Recognize the problem and look for its causes. Don’t ignore them and attempt to avoid responsibility. You are part of the problem or part of the solution.

Denounce the politicians to the authorities and demand solutions.

You should also offer solutions and suggestions. You don’t have to do it by yourself; remember that two brains are better that one.

Help raise consciousness. Talk to people and wake them up. Help them to realize that we are human beings who are makers of our own destiny and who deserve the best.

We can make changes with political willingness and participation.

Organize your community and yourself. Take time to vote and to fight for change, for a better world with love, peace and justice. Don’t think that somebody else is going to do the work for you. You have to make it happen.

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ISAEL GALINDO Bronx-Lebanon Hospital, Bronx, NY

A NOTE OF THANKS have been a proud union member for 29 years.

I helped bring the Union into my place of work.

Weeks ago I was told I have cancer. It was like my world was coming to an end. I write this letter to say that with the help of God and the many prayers of my co-workers I am now past the bad part in my treatment and look forward to going back to work soon.

It was when I began to treat my cancer that I realized how blessed I am to have my union coverage. I feel I would not be alive today without it. I got the best of care.

I would also like to thank my Union delegates Gloria Beasley and Artie Rushforth, and my organizer Mr. Dan Calise. I’d also like to thank Ms. Lizabeth Pompey, my 1199SEIU Benefit Fund disability counselor.

All of them have been with me every step of the way. Bless them for all of their efforts, not only with me, but also with so many others. With the help of God and my Union – our Union – I know better days will soon be here.

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BILLY DEPACE South Oaks Hospital, Amityville, NY

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OUR UNION

1199ERS STUMP FOR SEN. OBAMA “This is about building for the next generation of America.”

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e also dreams of a new America,” says 1199SEIU retiree Arthur Young about Illinois Sen. Barack Obama.

Young, who worked at Methodist Hospital in Brooklyn before retiring in 2000, says Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream has not been fulfilled, but the Obama candidacy for president carries forward that dream. “Obama is giving people hope just as Dr. King did,” says Young.

Young has worked for Obama in Wisconsin and Texas with scores of other 1199ers as well as SEIU and Change To Win (CTW) members. CTW is a coalition of seven national unions representing six million members. 1199SEIU’s national union, SEIU, is the largest of the CTW unions.

Last year, the leadership of SEIU voted not to endorse a presidential candidate, but instead, gave SEIU locals the authority to make their own endorsements. All locals within each state had to agree on a candidate. The majority of SEIU locals endorsed former North Carolina senator, John Edwards.

Five states went for Sen. Obama. New York alone voted to endorse its U.S. senator, Hillary Clinton.

After Edwards dropped out of the race, many SEIU locals switched their endorsement to Sen. Obama and pressed national SEIU to follow suit. SEIU responded to the groundswell within the locals and among the electorate and voted to endorse Sen. Obama.

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he leadership of 1199SEIU voted to commit resources to whomever SEIU endorsed, and right after that vote by the SEIU Executive Council, dispatched staffers and members to Wisconsin to assist in the Obama primary campaign.

“Wisconsin was my first experience door-knocking for a political candidate,” says Michael Lyn, a Long Island Jewish

Last fall, Sen. Obama outlined his platform for SEIU members from around the nation at SEIU’s Member Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C.

Hospital electrician in the Hillside, Queens, division. “The response was overwhelming. Everywhere we went there seemed to be interest in Obama.”

1199ers and other SEIU members have noted the same interest and excitement in other primary states. By the March 4 primaries, hundreds of members had gone door to door. Canvassers were telling voters about Obama’s stance on the war in Iraq, the rights of union to organize, the unfair tax system, pro-corporate trade policies and the lack of access to affordable health care. hey also stressed Sen. Obama’s experience as a community organizer, his belief that power should flow from the bottom up and not top down and his evoking of Dr. King, who dared to transform dreams into reality.

“This is about more than one election.

It’s about building for the next generation of America,” said SEIU Pres. Andy Stern on Feb. 15 when he announced SEIU’s decision to make an endorsement.

“Barack Obama is creating the broadest and deepest coalition of voters we’ve ever seen,” says Stern.

1199ers say the same. “I’ve never seen so much excitement for any candidate,” says Beverly Wells, a homecare attendant for All Metro Health Care in Manhattan. Wells canvassed for Sen. Obama in Wisconsin and Texas. She says that she was ready to work for Sen. Clinton, but understands the shift to Sen. Obama.

“I’ve worked on many political campaigns, including the 2000 and 2004 presidential election and New York City and State campaigns, and I’ve worked for Hillary,” Wells says. “But this is different.

I even see children who aren’t old enough to vote urging adults to go vote for Obama.

“History is being made and I want to be part of it.”

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1199SEIU retiree Arthur Young canvassed for Sen. Obama in Texas.

Bettina McLean, a political action captain from Nassau Extended Care NH on Long Island at last fall’s SEIU Member Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C.

“History is being made and I want to be part of it.”

— Beverly Wells, Homecare Attendant for All Metro Health Care in Manhattan.

Gale Martell, a technical specialist at Quincy (Mass.)

Medical Center, believes that respect, as Dr. King taught, is not reserved just for people who look like her.

IMMIGRANT STRUGGLE MIRRORS FIGHT FOR CIVIL RIGHTS For Dr. King, the American Dream meant a unified society.

Francine Gopaul, an LPN at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, N.Y., is about to become a registered nurse. She came to the U.S. from Guyana in 1998 with little else but a dream and some staunch determination.

Gopaul says even when she was working as a private home attendant making very little money, others saw her as a threat.

“But immigrants don’t take anyone’s jobs,” says Gopaul, who recently became a U.S. citizen through 1199SEIU’s Citizenship Program. “Coming from a struggling place, we know the value of a dollar. We sacrifice for the demands made on us.”

Gale Martell is a technical specialist at Quincy Medical Center in Quincy, Mass. just outside Boston. She grew up in Quincy and feels it’s vital that the U.S continue to welcome people like Gopaul and her family so they can share the American dream.

and a daughter, 19.

“I’m grateful to Dr. King. He was sent from God. I tell my children that because of him they can be whatever they want to be and we insist on their education,” Gopaul says. “We try to keep a little of our culture in their lives, but you know kids—they want to blend into mainstream culture.”

“I worry about them [having black skin],” she adds. “Especially the boys. There are people who will kill you just for being a different race.”

Martell says she’s angry that that so many in our society have to live with such fear.

“We have taken so many steps forward, but there have been many backward. A lot of politicians are fanning that fever of fear in people like ‘they are “Everyone is looking for a taking things away from better life,” says Martell. “Why YOUR children’,” she should we keep anyone out of this says. “They try to make country? I feel very strongly about us concentrate on petty it because our parents and things instead of the big grandparents were immigrants. things like poverty, What’s the difference?”

— From Dr. King’s sermon health care, and the At the 1961 AFL-CIO “Remaining Awake Through billions that are being convention, Dr. King spoke of a A Great Revolution,” taken out of this country society “when all who work for delivered at the National for the war in Iraq.” a living will be one, with no Cathedral on March 16, 1968 Still, Gopaul’s thought to their separateness as cautiously optimistic Negroes, Jews, Italians, or any about the future. other distinctions.”

Today, the debate about immigrants in the “I became a citizen at just the right time,” United States in many ways echoes the civil she says. “We’re getting to vote for a woman or rights struggle of five decades ago: heated a black man. Maybe we’ll look at things in a rhetoric, racism, and unlikely alliances. more open minded way. It’s awesome to know Gopaul says her main concerns are that I can be part of that.” her children, two sons, ages 22 and 14,

“We must learn to live together as brothers or we will all perish together as fools.”

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OUR UNION

He was key to 1199’s hospital organizing.

LABOR’S DEBT TO DR. KING he emergence of 1199 as the Hospital and Charleston County Hospital. foremost hospital union in the Although the strike brought wage increases nation and Dr. King as the preand improved conditions, 1199 fell short of eminent civil rights leader was winning union recognition for the Charleston no accident of history. workers.

Dr. King, who was an early The same year service and maintenance admirer of A. Philip Randolph, workers at Johns Hopkins Hospital in the pioneer labor leader and Baltimore voted for 1199. That’s when the founder of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car young Alethia Boone became a food service Porters, saw early on the community of worker at Johns Hopkins. interests between the fights against racial “Dr. King and Mrs. King helped us to injustice and against learn that we had economic exploitation. to stand up for “As I have said many ourselves,” Boone times, and believe with says. “I was all my heart, the coalition pumped up when that can have the greatest we won the impact in the struggle for union. Because human dignity here in we were together, America is that of the we weren’t Negro and the forces of afraid.” labor, because their Boone retired fortunes are so closely last year after 38 intertwined,” Dr. King years at Johns wrote to the AmalgaHopkins, but mated Laundry Workers in January 1962.

—From Dr. King’s remarks The 1960s saw Dr. at 1199’s Salute to Freedom King address countless celebration in 1968. labor gatherings. But he did not confine his support to speechmaking. He joined many picketlines, the last in Memphis, Tennessee.

The leaders of 1199, many of whom were christened in the labor and progressive battles of the 1930s, had allied the union with the black freedom movement early on. 1199 in 1956 provided financial support to the Montgomery, Alabama, bus boycott, establishing a lasting relationship with Dr. King.

When the 1199 drive to organize New York City’s voluntary hospitals began, Dr. King was called upon often to lend support.

He called New York Gov. Nelson Rockefeller in 1962 urging the governor to support collective bargaining legislation.

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“Local 1199 represents the authentic conscience of the labor movement.”

ust two months after Dr. King’s death in 1968, 1199 hospital workers won the historic $100 per week minimum wage. And on the heels of that victory, Coretta Scott King, Dr. King’s widow, agreed to serve as honorary chairperson of the 1199 National Organizing Committee.

Charleston, South Carolina, notorious for its segregation and anti-labor venom, was the first battleground in the organizing campaign. 1199 led a 100-day strike in the spring of 1969 for 400 black women at the University of South Carolina Medical College

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Johns Hopkins University Medical Center retiree Alethia Boone says, “It’s important that our younger members know that what we have wasn’t just given to us.”

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March/April • Our Life And Times

over the years, she took her children and grandchildren to every King birthday event.

“I made sure they knew that Dr. King died for us, so that we could vote and have dignity at the workplace. It’s important that our younger members know that what we have wasn’t just given to us,” she says. nionists across the nation have drawn strength from Dr. King.

“His dedication to the rights of the workers who are so often exploited by the forces of greed has profoundly touched my life and guided my struggle,” said the late Cesar Chavez, founder of the United Farmworkers of America and an icon in the labor and rights movements.

“During my first fast in 1968, Dr. King reminded me that our struggle was his struggle too. He sent me a telegram, which said, ‘Our separate struggles are really one. A struggle for freedom, for dignity, and for humanity.’”

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OUR UNION

Two Generations Discuss Dr. King

Q. HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR CHILDHOOD? Fant: I was born in Youngsville, North Carolina, and raised in Hampton, Virginia. I was the last of 14 children. My parents were sharecroppers. I grew up in the segregated South. Everything was separate — our neighborhoods, school, church, swimming pools, movies. I didn’t have a white teacher until I came to New York in my teens and went to high school.

Holmes: My reality was much different. I was born and bred in Brooklyn, New York. I first lived in Sunset Park, where the majority of my neighbors and classmates were Latino. I later moved to East New York, and there most of the kids were African American. When I got to high school, whites and Asians were the majority. That was a new experience for me, so I felt kind of strange.

Q. HOW DID YOU FIRST LEARN ABOUT DR. KING? Fant: I heard my parents talk about Dr. King, my mother especially. At that time, people in my community were impressed by Dr. King, but I didn’t hear a lot of talk outside of my home because I think people were afraid of the repercussions if white people knew they supported the civil rights movement.

David Holmes, a 29-year-old patient account representative at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, talks with Barbara Fant, a Holter technician at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx for nearly four decades.

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N February, Black History Month, Our Life And Times brought a veteran and a young 1199SEIU delegate into its office for an exchange about Dr. King’s legacy.

Barbara Fant, a Holter tech at Montefiore Hospital in the Bronx, was born in 1948, eight years before the Montgomery bus boycott that brought Dr. King to prominence. She has worked at Montefiore for 38 years and is a member of 1199SEIU’s Executive Council.

David Holmes was born in 1979 and has lived in Brooklyn all his life.

He is a patient account representative at Brooklyn’s Maimonides Hospital and an active member in 1199SEIU’s Young Worker Program.

Holmes: The first time I heard about Dr. King was in school.

I knew that he was an important and famous man, but basically what he represented to me and I guess the other kids was a homework assignment and a day off. It wasn’t until I was in high school and later at work by speaking to older co-workers that I learned about how great he was.

Q. HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE DR. KING’S LEGACY? Fant: It took me a long time to focus on him. When I think of him, I think that he was a Godfearing man. God played a major role in his life and I believe that relationship to God is what gave him the strength to work so hard, to lead and to sacrifice. And that’s why people wanted to follow him. He gave his life for us, all of us. Also I wouldn’t be here were it not for Dr. King and Coretta Scott King’s support of our Union.

Holmes: I feel exactly the

same way. I didn’t realize where all his greatness was coming from. I think it came from his strong beliefs. I know we have many people today talk about God and religion, but I think many of them are hypocrites.

Dr. King was a man of peace.

He believed that we’re all God’s children. And I don’t think any religion in the world condones killing people.

Q. WHAT’S YOUR OPINION ABOUT DR. KING’S TREATMENT BY THE MEDIA AND OTHER LEADERS? Fant: In a sense, I think they gave us his holiday to kind of shut us up. You know, you’ve got the holiday, so go away.

I’ve taken my children to the courthouse steps in Hampton, where when I was child there were two painted signs on the building. One read “colored” and the other read “white.”

And over the years, they’ve painted over the signs, but if you look carefully, you can still read the words colored and white. Instead of removing the offensive bricks, they’ve just painted over them. A lot of people think that because we’ve made progress, everything is fine. We’ve come a long way, but we still have so much further to go.

Holmes: Giving Dr. King a 30-second clip on the evening news is shameful. They just give us little pieces of him, but not all aspects. I never hear anything about Dr. King’s fight for economic justice. I was recently watching a speech by Dr. King on YouTube about the Vietnam War. The more I listened to it, the more it sounded like he was talking about Iraq. You don’t get enough stuff like that. You don’t get anything about his fight for unions, because the corporations don’t want us to see that.

Q. CAN YOU THINK OF ANY INDIVIDUAL OR ORGANIZATION THAT IS ADVANCING DR. KING’S LEGACY TODAY? Fant: I know one —1199SEIU. I’ve been a delegate under every president of this Union.

I see it in all our programs.

How many unions give a mother a stipend so that she can have her child cared for while she goes to work. We have a Training and Upgrading Fund and many other benefits.

Holmes: I agree with that. Our Young Workers Program is the reason I’m sitting here now.

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Dr. King was a man of peace.

He believed that we’re all God’s children.

—David Holmes, Maimonides Hospital patient account representative.

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March/April • Our Life And Times

Delegate Donna McBean, an RN at Albany County NH, believes her Union work follows the path of Dr. King.

“This is what Dr. King was talking about,” says James Crosby, a Johns Hopkins Medical Center patient transporter. Crosby and wife Patricia, left, recently purchased a home in Baltimore.

WE ARE OUR BROTHERS’ KEEPER Dr. King taught that economic justice would only come from standing in struggle together. r. King fought not only for civil rights but also for economic rights. With the Southern Christian Leadership Conference he organized a Poor People’s Campaign that would raise a multiracial “army of the poor” to nonviolently fight for economic justice for all people.

King believed that human rights include civil rights, labor rights and a society that meets the basic needs of its citizens. But the gulf between the haves and the have nots is at its widest point ever. In the U.S., 20 percent of the population controls 80 percent of the wealth.

The chronic “disease” of poverty is exacerbated by a home mortgage crisis shot through with racism, the continual neglect of the poor, underserved by those in power, and the erosion of workers’ rights. But there are many doing their part to fight this tide.

Darlene Gates, a CNA at Buffalo, N.Y.’s Weinberg Campus, recently spent time in Massachusetts helping organize 40,000 Personal Care Attendants.

“When I went to people’s homes they were really poor and they were taking care of their family members. There was one consumer who had been beaten and left for dead on the road for two days.

His mother took care of him. They lived together in this little apartment,” says Gates.

“It was shocking. Massachusetts is right here in our own backyard. How can we go out there and spend so much money on war when we have so many people who needit here?”

D “We are neither technologically advanced nor socially enlightened if we witness this disaster for tens of thousands without finding a solution. . . .

The society that performs miracles with machinery has the capacity to make some miracles for men—if it values men as highly as it values machines.”

—Dr. King at UAW 25th anniversary dinner, April 27, 1961

ates went to Massachusetts because she was taught from a very early age the importance of helping others.

It was at Albany County Nursing Home that Registered Nurse Donna McBean found her voice in the fight for justice in her role as a delegate. McBean represents not only RNs but also service workers, such as CNAs.

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“If it wasn’t for me they might not be able to speak up for themselves,” she says “I’ll make sure they won’t be unjustly treated.”

In their work, Gates and McBean say they are following the direction Dr. King’s reminder from his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance lecture of Dec. 11, 1964 that “...We are inevitably our brothers’ keeper.”

If he were here today, Dr. King might think those words fell on deaf ears. Some six years after Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans’ Ninth Ward, once one of the largest black middle class neighborhoods in the U.S., is still largely a wasteland. Subprime mortgage loans, made overwhelmingly to black borrowers, have triggered over $164 billion in home foreclosures to date.

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ames Crosby is a patient transporter at Johns Hopkins University Medical Center in Baltimore. He recently bought a home in Baltimore, where the foreclosure rate for blacks is quadruple the rate for whites.

Crosby’s saddened at the state of his adopted hometown.

“Now we have a lot of speculators coming in and it’s causing havoc,” says Crosby.

“When the housing market was good they were improving neighborhoods, but now things are going backwards and longtime residents can’t afford houses in Baltimore.”

At a Jan. 22 press conference at the U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the Rev. Jesse Jackson invoked Dr. King in calling upon state attorneys general, governors, city mayors and other officials to file litigation against lenders for abusive and predatory practices. Jackson and a host of community representatives, clergy and elected officials demanded a moratorium on foreclosures and government intervention to restructure loans and stop the repossession of homes.

Crosby believes unscrupulous lenders deserve punishment. “This is America and it’s all about the dollar,” he says.

Crosby says purchasing his home was an act of faith in his community.

“This is what Dr. King was talking about,” says Crosby. “You have to educate yourself.

You can’t just sit around and mope about what’s wrong. We have to use the tools that are available to us. This will be an example to other families.”

March/April • Our Life And Times

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OUR UNION

“WE ARE GOING TO WIPE OUT AN ENTIRE GENERATION” Members say we must heed Dr. King’s call to put an end to war.

“WE AREN’T SEEING THE SAME kind of outrage against Iraq as we did against Vietnam because you spell America a-m-n-e-s-i-a,” says Roxanne Fagan, a social worker at Brooklyn, N.Y.’s Schachne Institute. “You also don’t have time to protest when you have to work two and three jobs just to put food on the table.”

According to a recent report in The New York Times, the Iraq war is costing the U.S. $200 billion annually. The Bush administration has been funding this record defense spending with budget cuts to state funds for programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, foster care, and subsidized housing.

1199SEIU was among the first unions to denounce the Iraq War and 1199ers For Peace and Justice continues to lead the Union’s antiwar efforts. In March 1199ers were scheduled to join thousands at events commemorating the fifth year anniversary of the Iraq War. COMMUNITIES ARE SUFFERING under the burden of paying for the war. Working people such as Mamunie Dennis, a Laboratory Outreach Phlebotomy Coordinator at Melrose Wakefield

Hospital in Massachusetts, say they see every day the growing evidence in their hometowns. Dennis lives in Lynn, Mass.

“A lot of houses around my neighborhood have gone up for foreclosure. I live next to a school that used to have an afterschool program. It was cut.

Now the kids are running up and down,” Denis says.

“They are fighting a war over there and it’s killing us here.”

Fagan agrees with Dennis and adds that poverty, unemployment, and poor housing and education are the wages of America’s obsession with strength and domination.

“A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.”

— From Dr. King’s 1967 book

JENNY BAUER PHOTO

Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?

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March/April • Our Life And Times

“LOOK AT HOW WE TREATED the Native Americans,” she says.

Fagan believes people are seeking a unifying leader to create a groundswell of energy in the anti-war movement.

“With Dr. King, when he stopped talking about Selma and started talking about Saigon, people listened,” says Fagan.

Dennis, a devout Baptist, believes we must heed Dr. King’s warning.

“We are killing our own people. How many future presidents have we killed?” she asks. “Eventually we are going to wipe out an entire generation if we don’t stop this.”

Mamunie Dennis, an outreach coordinator from Melrose Wakefield Hospital in Massachusetts.

“You don’t hear a lot about his Poor People’s Campaign,” says Don Marthage, a stock keeper at Rochester’s Strong Memorial Hospital.

“Dr. King broke down barriers for me and all people, for my children and grandchildren.

Now there are no barriers we can’t cross.” on Marthage, a stock keeper at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, also has drawn inspiration from Dr. King’s life. He was among the 1199ers who marched and petitioned in the late 1970s to establish the King holiday. Marthage also helped to negotiate the first Strong contract that included Dr. King’s birthday as a paid holiday.

“I cringe each year around his birthday,” Marthage says. “I know that there are many out there who try to use his legacy for their own ends.” Marthage notes that these individuals, though they might cite King’s personal virtues, tend to ignore his strong connection to labor and working people. “You don’t hear a lot about his Poor People’s Campaign,” says Don Marthage, a stock keeper at Rochester’s Strong Memorial Hospital.

“Let me say to you tonight that whenever you are engaged in work that serves humanity and is for the building of humanity, it has dignity and it has worth,” Dr. King told Memphis sanitation workers the night before his death. Dr. King believed in the strength of the labor movement to improve conditions for working people.

And it is the decline of the organized labor movement that is perhaps the single most important factor that has stalled the advancement of racial equality. During Dr. King’s lifetime, education and a union job were tickets to the middle class. In recent years, educational opportunities have diminished and the percentage of union jobs has plummeted.

African American men are more than twice as likely to be unemployed as white males and earn only 75 percent as much a year, according to U.S. government statistics. For African American and Latino youth, the picture is bleaker. They are seven times more likely to be incarcerated than white youth.

Pay discrepancies and the undervaluing of women’s work continue. Immigrant workers are scapegoated and severely exploited.

“It’s important to commemorate Dr. King’s legacy,” says Marthage, “because even though we’ve made progress, there’s still much work to do.”

KRIS J. MURANTE PHOTO

D

CONFRONTING DETOURS ON THE ROAD TO FREEDOM Progress has been uneven.

I

t would be difficult to argue that attitudes about race, gender, ethnicity and sexual orientation have not changed since the Dr. King’s assassination.

People of color, women, gays and lesbians, and disabled persons are found in positions of leadership in politics, the media, popular culture and

other arenas.

Barriers have long fallen in the entertainment arena. Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Venus and Serena Williams are household names. Will Smith is the number one movie box-office draw in the world. Oprah Winfrey is the most powerful and influential woman in entertainment. And even Pres. George W. Bush has appointed two African Americans— one a woman—as secretary of state.

The two remaining Democratic presidential candidates are often cited as evidence of how far we’ve traveled on the road to full equality. Barring some highly unlikely development, the Democratic Party in August will nominate the first African American or woman for president of the United States.

“It’s no longer a dream,” says retiree Carol Thompson, who now lives in Warner Robins, Georgia. “We have the reality a woman (running) for president. Hillary will now open the door for you and me and for our daughters and granddaughters to take this lead.”

ther veteran 1199ers interviewed for this issue spoke of the great strides they’ve made since Dr. King’s death. They have benefited, they say, from the union’s enormous growth and influence, which translates into contracts that provide regular pay increases, improvements at the workplace, quality health insurance and livable pensions.

“Growing up in Brooklyn in the 1940s and 1950s I felt as if I didn’t belong,” says 1199SEIU retiree Joaquina Vazquez.

O

“When you get right down to it, no labor is really menial.

What makes it menial is the income, the wages.”

—Dr. King at the 1199 Salute To Freedom celebration in Manhattan on March 10, 1968.

March/April • Our Life And Times

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OUR UNION

In today’s world, religion is often used as a wedge to drive people apart, but Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. saw religion as a powerful uniting force. King’s faith guided his leadership in the civil rights movement and his life as a flawed human being striving to spread a message of love.

Celeste Chase, a respiratory therapist at Women and Children’s Hospital in Buffalo, N.Y., says it is vital that we keep an open heart to others. She and her husband chose to attend a church that preaches a message of love and tolerance.

“We try to bring what we learn home and share it with our kids. We make sure they have diverse connections in what they see and hear,” says Chase. “I really believe that’s what Dr. King’s vision was for us.”

Though Dr. King’s Christian faith was embedded in his character, he refrained from proselytizing. From King’s deep belief in God emerged his radical philosophy of nonviolence, peace and acceptance of others.

“It didn’t matter what faith or color you were,” says David Marks, a substance abuse counselor at Beth Israel Hospital’s Methadone Maintenance Treatment Program in New York City. “He was speaking to every single one of us and in doing so he brought a nation together.”

Marks says his parents instilled in him his admiration for King. His commitment to King’s ideals extended to working on the campaign to federalize the King holiday.

Though Marks is not religious, he says he often looks to Dr. King’s convictions for inspiration.

“When people are afraid — people of all faiths — they can find peace in those words because there’s a belief system in place,” says Marks.

Some have said such inspiration was Dr. King’s intention, to create a “spiritual democracy” in which people of all backgrounds would come together to help the poor, do good deeds, and give voice to the powerless through their work in the civil rights movement.

Chase, who teaches bible school at her church, says she and her husband continue to be inspired and to live Dr. King’s vision by their church community.

“The boys have learned so much about God and his following and his children. It’s great to hear them say, ‘take care of our friends and our family ’ when they say their prayers,” says Chase.

“It makes you feel as if you are doing something right as a parent.”

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March/April • Our Life And Times

ROBERT KIRKHAM PHOTO

THE LESSONS OF FAITH THESE MEMBERS FIND GUIDANCE IN DR. KING’S MESSAGE OF LOVE AND UNITY.

Buffalo Women’s and Children’s Hospital respiratory therapist Celeste Chase attends a church with her family that teaches Dr. King’s philosophy of love and tolerance.

“Love builds up and unites; hate tears down and destroys…Physical force can repress, restrain, coerce, destroy, but it cannot create and organize anything permanent; only love can do that. Yes love - which means understanding, creative, redemptive goodwill, even for one’s enemies - is the solution to the race problem. Often love is crucified and buried in a grave, but in the long run it rises up and redeems even that which crucifies it.”

— From Dr. King’s “Advice For Living” column in Ebony Magazine, November 1967

Beth Israel substance abuse counselor David Marks finds peace in Dr. King’s words.

1) How old was Dr. King when he was entered Morehouse College? a. 15 years old b. 18 years old c. 21 years old 2) What was Dr. King’s baptized name? a. Michael Luther King b. Michael King, Jr. c. Martin King Scott 3) How did Dr. King and Coretta Scott King meet? a. They were childhood sweethearts. b. They were introduced by family friends at a party.

4) How many times was Dr. King arrested? a. Two times b. Upwards of twenty times c. Ten times 5) How old was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. when he was assassinated? a. 42 years old b. 39 years old c. 35 years old 6) In 1964 Dr. King became the youngest person to receive this prize? a. Presidential Medal of Freedom b. Nobel Peace Prize c. Man of the Year by Time magazine 7) What were the names of Dr. King’s parents? a. Marvin Luther King and Alberta Williams King b. Martin Luther King, Sr. and Alethia Williams c. Martin Luther King, Sr. and Alberta Williams King

8) What historic event led by Dr. King on August 28, 1963 brought 250,00 people together? a. Alabama Bus Boycott b. Protest in Birmingham c. March on Washington 9) What is the name of Dr. King’s most famous speech? a. “How Long, Not Long” b. “I Have a Dream” c. “Strive toward Freedom” 10) When did Dr. King’s birthday become a national holiday? a. 1968 b. 1986 c. 2000 11) Where and when was Dr. King born? a. Alabama, January 15, 1929 b. South Carolina, April 4, 1929 c. Atlanta, January 15, 1929 12) What brought Dr. King to Memphis, Tenn., when he was assassinated? a. A local desegregation march b. To support the strike of sanitation workers

c. To support the “Poor People’s Campaign” 13) What stance led the mainstream media and elected officials to criticize Dr. King? a. Support for Pres. Lyndon Johnson b. Opposition to other leaders c. Opposition to war in Vietnam.

14) Which of these days became known as Bloody Sunday? a. Attempt to march from Selma, Alabama to the state capital of Montgomery on March 7, 1965 b. Chicago March, April 4, 1968 c. Montgomery Bus Boycott, 1955 15) What is the name of the motel where Dr. King was assassinated? a. Lorraine b. Memphis Inn c. Motel 6 1) a 2) b 3) c 4) b 5) b 6) b 7) c 8) c 9) b 10) b 11) c 12) b 13) c 14) a 15) a

TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE ABOUT DR. KING

c. At the founding convention of the Progressive Political Party.

MLK Quiz Answers

Learn More About Dr. King A wealth of resources is available for every age group Books Dr. King wrote numerous articles, papers and speeches and also six books. They are: The Measure of a Man, (Philadelphia: Pilgrim Press, 1959) and Strength to Love, (New York: Harper & Row, 1963), collections of selected sermons; Stride Toward Freedom, (New York: Harper & Row, 1958), the story of the Montgomery Bus Boycott; Why We Can’t Wait, (New York: Harper & Row, 1963) the story of the Birmingham Campaign; Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community? (New York: Harper & Row, 1967), Dr. King’s reflections on the problems of today’s world, the nuclear arms race, etc.; and The Trumpet of Conscience, (New York: Harper & Row, 1968) a volume of The Massey Lectures which was sponsored by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and published posthumously.

Parting The Waters: America In The King Years 1954 –1963 (New York, Simon & Schuster, 1989), Pillar of Fire: America in The King Years 1963-1965 (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1998) and At Canaan’s Edge: America During The King Years 1965-1968 (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2007) by Taylor Branch.

This three-volume set won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. It is a biography of Dr. King and a history of the civil rights movement and its important figures and an examination of the social, political and economic conditions that made the movement possible.

I May Not Get There With You: The True Martin Luther King, Jr. by Michael Eric Dyson. (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2000). This biography of Dr. King stirred controversy with its frank discussion of his flaws, including his infidelities and patriarchal view of women. Still, Dyson concludes that King is “the greatest American in our history.”

One City: A Declaration of Interdependence

by Ethan Nichtern. (Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2007) Nichtern, a Buddhist who lives in Brooklyn, explores how we can live together as a society—no matter where we live or who we are. The book is premised upon Dr. King’s message that “Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”

Martin’s Big Words: The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (New York: Hyperion, 2001) This award-winning biography of Dr. King by illustrator Bryan Collier and writer Doreen Rappaport is geared towards younger children Rosa (New York: Henry Holt and Co., 2005) written by Nikki Giovanni and illustrated by Brian Collier. This young children’s book was honored for the captivating prose and striking images that tell the story of Rosa Parks and the historic Montgomery Bus Boycott.

TV, Plays, Movies An Amazing Grace (1978) – Broadcast on public affairs program “Like It Is,” this documentary profiles Dr. King’s life from the Montgomery Boycott movement to his assassination.

Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. (1993) – An investigative report of his assassination, the documentary includes interviews with people who were with Martin Luther King during his last hours. 90 minutes, VHS. Boycott ( 2001) – This HBO TV drama chronicles the action by Rosa Parks that thrust Dr. King into the leadership of a new stage in the civil

rights movement. 112 minutes, DVD. King: Montgomery to Memphis (1970) – The biography of a movement from the Montgomery bus boycott to the assassination of Dr. King. Newsreel and television footage reveal the civil rights campaigns as they actually happened (1955-1968).

Songs by Mahalia Jackson, Odetta, and Nina Simone. 103 minutes, VHS. Legacy of a Dream (1970) – Narrated

by James Earl Jones, the film conveys the drama and historical perspective of the 1950s and 1960s and shows the influence of those events on today. 29 minutes, 16mm/3/4” U-Matic/VHS. Martin Luther King: The Man and the March (1968) – Records the history of the late Dr. Martin Luther King’s “Poor People’s March.” Shows him conferring with aides, traveling to solicit support and developing the operational details of the march held in Washington D.C. 84 minutes, 16mm.

Selma, Lord, Selma (1999) – This madefor-television movie is based on the memories of two little girls who experienced the infamous 1964 Bloody Sunday in Selma, Alabama.

88 minutes, DVD. The Boondocks “Return of the King” (2006) – In this episode of Kalvin Lee and Aaron McGruder’s animated series, Dr. King comes out of a 32-year coma and is faced with having to adjust to the modern world. He quickly learns there is no place for him and his teachings of non-violence and tolerance in a post-9/11 society.

The Meeting (1987) – This one-act play by Jeff Stetson explores what would have happened if Dr. King and Malcolm X had met and discussed their philosophies and contrasting approaches to gaining equal rights for African Americans during the Civil Rights Movement.

Eyes on the Prize (1987) – This 14-hour documentary series about the American Civil Rights Movement aired in two parts: Eyes on the Prize:

America’s Civil Rights Years (1954–1965) and Eyes on the Prize II: America at the Racial Crossroads (1965–1985). Clayborne Carson, a Stanford University history professor and editor of the published papers of Martin Luther King, Jr., remarked that “it is the principal film account of the most important American social justice movement of the 20th century.”

Cultural Centers, Websites and Other Places of Interest The Martin Luther King, Jr. Historic Site: 501 Auburn Ave in Atlanta, Ga. is the birthplace of Dr. King.

The King family home is open for tours that are operated by the U.S. National Park Service.

For more information log onto www.nps.gov/malu. www.MLKDAY.gov: The official government website of the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday that includes a portal to help individuals search for MLK day service projects in their area and also helps organizations to promote their MLK day projects. There is also a “Pledge of Nonviolence” from the King Center available on the site, which is downloadable or can be signed on line.

The King Center: Established in 1968

by Coretta Scott King, The King Center is the official, living memorial dedicated to the advancement of Dr. King’s legacy, the movement for nonviolence, justice, equality and peace. More than 650,000 visitors are drawn annually to the King Center, located in Atlanta, Ga. Find out more at www.TheKingCenter.org.

YouTube: This video-streaming website contains many short videos and speeches by Dr. King, including Dr. King’s last speech to 1199ers at the March 10, 1968 Salute to Freedom celebration in Manhattan. Go to www.youtube.com and type in search box “Martin Luther King at Local 1199.”

March/April • Our Life And Times

14

OUR UNION

Around Our Union OVER 1,200 HEALTHCARE WORKERS JOIN 1199SEIU IN ONE MONTH The 1199SEIU family grew by more than 1,200 members from midJanuary to mid-February, as healthcare workers from Buffalo, N.Y., to Washington, D.C., voted yes for 1199SEIU. At Lenox Hill hospital in Manhattan, more than 80 paramedics voted Feb. 4 to join 1199SEIU. Those workers were among the last remaining non-union paramedics in the New York City area.

Many Lenox Hill paramedics were persuaded by a letter they received from 1199SEIU member Marvin Bethea, who (Top) VMT homecare member Stephanie was a first Johnson; Absolute NH responder on 9/11 and worker Cassie Wendt and son Isaac. became disabled as a result.

With the help of 1199SEIU’s work in the New York legislature, Bethea fought for and won greatly improved disability benefits for 9/11 voluntary hospital responders.

On Feb. 8, ballots were counted in the second Washington, D.C. homecare election in history. Despite an intense intimidation campaign by management, 125 workers at VMT Home Care voted overwhelmingly to join 1199SEIU. “I voted yes for 1199 because I’m a healthcare worker without health insurance,” says Stephanie Johnson, a VMT homecare worker. “I have Graves Disease, and I have to take medication daily. Now we have a voice to win affordable health insurance and a better future.”

In Upstate New York, over 1,000 nursing home workers joined 1199SEIU in a whirlwind of nine consecutive votes.

Most of the votes were at homes owned by the Absolut Nursing Home chain in towns from Buffalo, in western New York, to Endicott, in the central part of the state.

“I’ve been paying $90 a week for a terrible healthcare plan,” says Nancy Clark, a certified nurse assistant at the Absolut home in Houghton.

“I voted yes for affordable health care.”

HUDSON VALLEY CONTRACT VICTORY

NYC HOMECARE MEMBERS SEEK FIRST CONTRACT

After several months of negotiations, 1,300 New York State members at Orange Regional Medical Center’s Hudson Valley campuses in Middletown and Goshen overwhelmingly ratified an outstanding contract during the first week in February. The bargaining unit includes service, technical, clerical and professional employees. The new agreement takes effect retroactively as of Jan. 1, 2008 and runs through Dec. 31, 2011.

1199SEIU also represents the registered nurses at the hospital, under a different contract.

Through several actions of solidarity, the RNs played an important supporting role with their co-workers in helping to settle the contract.

The contract includes annual wage increases, no-cost health benefits and a guaranteed pension. Also, within 10 business days of July 1, 2008, 1199SEIU employees in this bargaining unit will receive a one-time lump sum bonus equal to three percent of the employee’s regular straight time wages paid during the 26 consecutive pay periods beginning on or about July 1, 2007 and ending on or about June 20, 2008.

Effective July 1, 2009 and extends to July 1, 2011, all minimum wage rates will be increased by three percent each year.

Angry and frustrated after working nearly three years without a union contract, home attendants employed by New York City’s All Seasons Agency held an informational picket Feb. 4 to demand that the agency negotiate a first contract.

Management has refused to sign a contract that provides workers benefits through the 1199SEIU Homecare Benefit Fund.

The All Seasons workers braved frigid temperatures to march and chant their frustration with their unfair treatment.

Currently, All Seasons home attendants earn $9.75 per hour after working 2,100 hours. All Seasons, a Medicaid-funded forprofit agency, also offers workers an expensive health plan.

CONTRACT FIGHT AT WESTCHESTER’S LAWRENCE HOSPITAL Lawrence Hospital, where 1199SEIU won a union contract in 2002 after a 37-year struggle, seems to remain stuck in the civil-right era of the 20th century.

Management at the Bronxville, N.Y., institution has refused to bargain a new contract in good faith. Management has rejected most of the 1199SEIU members’ contract proposals, including the NBF pension fund, overtime pay and Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday as a paid holiday.

The 1965 Lawrence organizing campaign attracted civil-rights figures, including the late artists-activists Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee. Then Exec. VP Moe Foner said of Lawrence: “It is an enclave of the Deep South that happens to be in the North.”

Negotiations began in October 2007 for a successor agreement to the contract that expired in September 2007.

BROOKLYN PAs WIN WAGE HIKES Brooklyn’s Lutheran Medical Center physician assistants in February negotiated a contract that provides starting salaries of $75,000 per year. PAs with 10 years experience will earn over $101,000 per year.

The PAs also won over-night shift differentials that will earn them an additional $14,400 per year. The PAs say they were able to win these substantial increases because of their unity during the contract campaign as well as shortages within the industry. PAs at Wyckoff Heights Hospital in Brooklyn also recently negotiated a contract that by June 2008 will bring them to the $75,00 starting level and that will provide additional compensation for roughly each three to five years of experience through 20 years of service.

STACEY MINK PHOTO

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March/April • Our Life And Times

Newly hired PAs in both hospitals also will receive compensation based on prior experience in other healthcare institutions.

In addition to trying to raise industry wage standards consistently across the Union, a committee of PAs is working on a contract survey to address other workplace issues such as shift differentials, additional experience steps, overtime, access to paid Continuing Medical Educations days and supplemental funding.

MARYLAND 1199ERS CELEBRATE HISTORIC CONGRESSIONAL VICTORY 1199SEIU members in Maryland are celebrating an historic win in Maryland’s 4th Congressional district, where Union-supported Donna Edwards soundly beat well-funded 16-year incumbent Rep. Albert Wynn for the Democratic nomination. Edwards is expected to win in the heavily Democratic district to become the first African American woman to represent Maryland in Congress.

1199SEIU’s grassroots campaign brought Edwards’ message to every doorstep in the district. Along with 12,000 pieces of member mail, Union activists made 10,000 calls and knocked on 5,000 doors.

“I was thrilled to campaign for Donna, even in the foulest weather,” said Linda Bock, an 1199SEIU member and a registered nurse at the Senior Health Center. “She will solve problems in our community like the financial crisis at hospitals in Prince George’s County.”

1199ers helped Donna Edwards, left, win her recent Maryland Congressional primary race.

THE BACK PAGE Dr. King taught that for a society to be truly advanced, it must find solutions for the problems of those in need.

The Rainbow/Push Coalition, led by Rev. Jesse Jackson, held a rally Jan. 22 at the Washington, D.C. headquarters of the U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Together with clergy, community members, and elected officials, Jackson and Rainbow/Push called on HUD to help those losing their homes in the sub-prime mortgage crisis.

See page 10.