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Vol. 72/No. 12      March 24, 2008

 
N.Y. health workers strike for benefits
 
BY DAN FEIN  
NEW YORK—“Up, up, up with the union—Down, down, down with the bosses!” chanted some 30 striking members of Service Employees International Union 1199 outside the Kingsbridge Heights Rehabilitation Center on March 9. Some 220 health-care workers have been on strike since February 20 over health-care benefits.

According a union fact sheet the workers have not had a contract since 2002. They lost their health benefits last November. Helen Sieger, the owner of the nursing home, made payments late to the workers’ health benefit fund, resulting in being $2.7 million in arrears and the termination of benefits.

Jeffrey Wojciechowski, a kitchen worker, said, “We are fighting for a contract. [Sieger] got very greedy and also stopped paying for vacations and holidays for the kitchen workers. A temporary agency is bringing in unqualified scabs to care of the patients.”

David Thomas, a union member with 20 years seniority said, “We are fighting for benefits and a contract. We have to win this. We’ll stay out as long as it takes. She is trying to push the union out.”

A solidarity rally is planned for March 15 at 10 a.m. at the picket line.  
 
 
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