Dozens of 1199 members and their supporters held informational pickets yesterday at four locations of the New York Blood Center (NYBC) to demand a fair contract.



NYCB members have been without a contract since December, when the last agreement expired. Negotiations for a new contract began in June, but have been fruitless. Management is demanding givebacks and refusing to move on even modest proposals form workers.



“They basically want to take everything back that we've negotiated over the years. They want us to pay co-payments. They don't want to give us raises. It's so unfair. What we do is important. We save lives every day,” says Tamara Scarlett, a donor specialist I-III at NYCB in Manhattan for 17 years. “The blood we process goes to people who need it everywhere – whether its newborns or gunshot victims. What we do is valuable and without us people will die.”



The Union represents members at 10 sites throughout Long Island, New York City, Westchester New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Pickets were at locations in Manhattan, Elmsford, New Brunswick and Melville on Long Island.



Negotiating committee member Shanna James marched on the Manhattan picket line. “We do a very specialized kind of work and our contract addresses the needs of the work we do. It’s very intricate. We don’t want to them to take away the things we need to do our jobs,” says James. “We dedicate ourselves to saving lives every day in this work and we bend over backwards to make sure this company stays viable. We just want them to have respect for us.”