Vol. 72/No. 40      October 13, 2008

For many of the meat-packing workers the main issue in the first proposal was an increase of more than 20 percent in their contribution to health insurance.

Union member Milagro Perez said, “If we accepted it, it would have meant we were going to help the company pay for our own insurance. We would have paid for our own insurance and were not going to see any money.”

Almost 1,000 union members voted September 21 to reject the company’s original offer.

Leo Kanne, secretary-treasurer of the union, told the daily Bulletin Review that the company’s offer included five wage increases over nearly five years amounting to a total of $1.50 per hour.

But Kanne pointed out that in the first year of the contract the increase in health-care contributions would have taken 13 cents an hour out of the workers’ paychecks.

“That doesn’t take into account the higher deductible and the out-of-pocket maximum,” Kanne said.

The new four-year contract proposal increased health insurance costs by $6 per week immediately, but then froze the costs for the next four years. It also includes five paid sick days per year.

The new contract proposal passed 842 to 98.

—Sam Manuel

N.Y. health-care workers
win first union contract
Workers at Prestige Care won their first contract September 22. For months, home health aids held rallies in front of the company’s offices in Manhattan and the owner’s home in Hicksville, Long Island. The contract expires Dec. 31, 2009.

The health-care workers union 1199 SEIU had been trying to win contracts at Prestige Care and other home health-care agencies.

“What do we want? Union power!” chanted thousands of health-care workers September 16 as they marched through downtown Manhattan. The union was targeting Prestige and two other home care agencies Bestcare and People Care. Union officials had said a strike was possible starting September 24 if the companies continued to refuse contract negotiations with the union.

Carol Ettinne, a home health aide with Premier Home Health Care Services who joined the march, said, “I hope that I get a better salary and better health care.”

This struggle is part of a broader union campaign to win higher wages, health care, and vacations for more than 30,000 home health aides in New York City. Many of these workers earn minimum wage without health-care benefits or vacation.

—Willie Cotton  
 
 
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