Florida members and delegates were among the first to join new 1199SEIU national leadership in a conversation about our union’s future when President Yvonne Armstrong hosted a multi-day listening tour in numerous locations in the state.

The tour included site visits to nursing homes and hospitals in South Florida and Central Florida where healthcare workers on the job could share and show their daily work experiences providing quality care to patients despite short-staffing, supply shortages, insufficient pay and other issues.

In large gatherings of 1199SEIU Florida delegates at the Coral Springs Marriott and Orlando Airport Marriott, the sessions kicked off with President Armstrong introducing herself, her experiences as a caregiver and her new leadership’s “100 Day Plan” to:  Listen & Unite; Strengthen Our Foundation; Rebuild Communications & Structure; Reclaim our Political Power. “We’re committed to restore trust and return our union to the members,” she pledged to the dozens in attendance. “That starts by listening deeply to what you’ve experienced, what you need, and what you dream for our union.”

Florida Executive Vice President Roxey Nelson also provided a “State of Our Region” address that covered priorities and the positive union difference for workers in Florida, despite great political challenges of “the Trump Administration and Tallahassee coddling billionaires while cutting our most essential care.”

But mainly, the gatherings were for delegates to speak up, ask questions, share their own valuable perspectives, meet their fellow leaders face to face and have fun.

New delegate Virginia Kondas, an APRN at UHealth Tower in Miami, was working on the day of the South Florida session, so she traveled from Miami to Orlando to be sworn in and join her fellow member leaders and union officers. “It’s important that we participate, speak up and stand together as a union,” she said. “The meeting and listening tour was a great exchange of ideas, and connecting face to face made it even more enjoyable and productive.”