Vol. 71/No. 13      April 2, 2007

That union organized the march. Chanting, “No more cuts,” protesters carried signs saying “Patients are our special interest,” “Save our community hospitals,” and “Stop the Bush cuts.”

“Our hospital is responsible for many Medicare and Medicaid patients,” Maureen Meier, a registered nurse for 22 years at Southside Hospital, told the Militant. “These cuts will cause us to cut back on services. You can’t help people without supplies, without enough staff.”

The march up Manhattan’s Third Avenue was also part of a response to a high-profile campaign against the union. New York governor Eliot Spitzer has called the union “crybabies,” “guardians of the status quo,” and a “special interest group.”

Also speaking at the rally was Transport Workers Union Local 100 president Roger Toussaint. He promised to stand with the SEIU the same way they stood by the transit workers during their December 2005 strike.

—Eddie Beck

Gas explosion in Russian coal
mine kills more than 100 miners
A March 19 methane gas explosion in a coal mine in Siberia, Russia, killed at least 107 of the 200 miners working there. As of March 21, three miners were still trapped underground, with rescue efforts impeded by flooding and gas. At least five of the rescued miners were injured, reported mine officials. The explosion occurred at the Ulyanovskaya mine in Novokuznetsk, a city located 1,850 miles east of Moscow.

—Brian Williams
 
 
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