Community Support Swells for Kingsbridge Strikers
“We are not alone,” says striking Kingsbridge NH housekeeper Pablo Santiago. “ Politicians, community people, other nursing home members and 1199ers have all joined us on the picket line. They know it’s not just about us. It’s about the right to have a union and union benefits”
Santiago says that he and the other strikers have been encouraged by the many new faces they see on the picket line each day. These allies will be among the thousands of New Yorker 1199ers who will rally with their striking sisters and brothers outside the home on Saturday, March 15.
Just days after the members struck, The Fort Independence Park Neighborhood Association (FIPNA), which represents homeowners, tenants, and cooperators in the Kingsbridge NH neighborhood, took action. FIPNA issued a written appeal to the area’s local elected officials asking them to use their influence to help the members obtain a contract.
FIPNA’s website calendar prominently displays the March 15 rally, and it’s president Phil McDonnell has used his personal blog to plead the case of the strikers.
Local politicians also have urged Kingsbridge owner Helen Sieger to negotiate, citing her failure to sign a contract since 2002, and her hefty profits that come mainly from public Medicaid funds.
NY Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz, chair of the Assembly Aging Committee, secured the offices of the Benjamin Franklin Reform Democratic Club in nearby Riverdale as strike headquarters. Assemblywoman Naomi Rivera, City Councilman J. Oliver Koppell and Congressman Eliot Engel are using the power of their offices in an attempt to settle the strike.
The print media has helped to expose Sieger’s abuses: “The last time the workers there had a contract was 2000, the year The News investigation cited aides' complaints that due to short-staffing some patients lost weight because staffers didn't have adequate time to monitor their food intake,” read a Feb. 21 Daily News article.
The Riverdale News and nowy dziennik, the Polish Daily News, also have covered the strike.
Among labor supporters are members of Local 32BJ, the East Coast building service workers. Some 4,000 members of 32BJ are involved in a contract fight with Bronx building owners, and many have joined Kingsbridge members on the picket line
Most importantly, Kingsbridge patients and their family members have called for Sieger to come to the bargaining table, restore the members’ health benefits and negotiate a fair contract. “I removed my father from Kingsbridge and I won’t bring him back until the strike is settled,” says Maria Rodriguez, whose dad, Leonardo Rodriguez was a Kingsbridge patient for more than four years.
“We never had problems before,” Maria Rodriguez, says, “but after the strike began, the home assigned workers to my dad who didn’t know what they were doing. I had to take him out of there.”
Rodriguez said she was trying to arrange her schedule so she could attend the March 15 rally to support the Kingsbridge caregivers.