“They Don’t Scare Me Anymore!”

[Omaha Steve]

http://afscmeblog.org/?p=34

AFSCME in Chicago – “They Don’t Scare Me Anymore!”

By Shirley Brown, Westlake Hospial Housekeeper, Chicago, IL

My name is Shirley Brown. For the last 10 years, I’ve been a housekeeper at Westlake Hospital, one of the eight hospitals in the Resurrection Health Care chain. I speak for my fellow employees when I say that it warmed our hearts to see all our AFSCME brothers and sisters out there supporting us in our struggle to form a union with AFSCME Council 31.

Let me tell you why I want to form a union. I’m a housekeeper. My colleagues and I keep the hospital clean. We make sure that infections don’t spread. A clean hospital gives our patients confidence that they’re in good hands. Without us, the best doctors and the fanciest equipment could not heal our patients.

But at Resurrection, while they spend money to put marble floors in the lobbies, they skimp on basic supplies for us to do our job. And while our CEO Joseph Toomey gets paid millions of dollars, housekeepers start off at $8 per hour. If we want our families covered on health insurance, we pay nearly $200 a month.

I have co-workers that have taken their children off of their insurance because they can’t afford it. Imagine that… full-time employees of a Catholic hospital whose children don’t have health insurance. So we decided to form our union.

The Catholic Church says that all workers should be allowed to form unions, free from fear and intimidation. Resurrection knows that.

But instead of following the Church’s teachings, they responded immediately with a union-busting campaign. Because of this campaign, my co-workers often tell me they want a union, but they’re afraid.

Why are my co-workers so afraid? Here are a few things that Resurrection and their union busters have done in my department:

They are constantly sending out anti-union letters that try to make us feel like there’s no point in organizing with AFSCME.

They’ve even fired 4 of my co-workers who are union supporters. All this at a Catholic Hospital.

Sometimes in our struggle I feel lonely. They try to scare me. They try to isolate me. They want me to feel like there’s no hope.

But when I looked out and saw a sea of green today, I didn’t feel lonely. I felt like I have every single member of AFSCME right there with me, telling me to never give up.

The theme of our rally today was “It’s Time.” And I knew by looking at my brothers and sisters what time it is….IT’S AFSCME TIME!

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 10th, 2006 at 9:22 am and is filed under Workers' rights, Convention/21st Century Initiative.

[proud patriot]

1. Very inspiring

:-)

[Greyhound]

2. K & R for your efforts.

Keep fighting the good fight. :kick:

[G2099]

3. Fear NOT, I GOD AM with thee . . .