Ray Medina
by e-mail
[See front-page article in last week’ issue “Middle-class contempt for workers fuels liberal panic over U.S. elections.”—Editor]
Philadelphia schools
A union of school employees in Philadelphia—the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers—won a partial victory in the contract agreement with the Philadelphia School District and the School “Reform” Commission (SRC).
After the state takeover of our schools, teachers have been forbidden to strike. If we had struck, teachers’ certification could have been taken away. Since we were willing to strike anyway, we got much of what we had wanted—some pay increases, only a slight increase in our health coverage, no longer school day, a counselor in every school, and an increase in supply allotment. Unfortunately, instead of selecting schools by seniority, some teachers will be selected by principals—a system that can result in principals favoring friends and relatives.
However, our four-year contract is a partial victory in a school system that spends among the least per child in the Philadelphia area.
Chuck Wolfsteld
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Chinese and Mandarin
I am writing in regards to your article in the November 16 issue, “Meat packers strike in Toronto, demand reversal of wage cuts,” which I especially liked.
It is not possible to “translate into Mandarin,” as the article said. You must translate into “Chinese.” All Chinese share the same written language, there is only one. There are, however, hundreds of spoken Chinese languages. Mandarin is such a dialect, the main one. In Chinese it is rendered “guo yu” (national [spoken] language) or “pu tong hua” (common tongue). Other spoken languages, or dialects, are Cantonese, Fukienese, Fuzhou, Toisanese, Shanghainese, etc.
It is also not correct to interpret into “Chinese,” as you can see. Therefore we translate into Chinese, or interpret into the spoken language.
We are all proud of the Militant’s accuracy. And I suspect the authors of the article and others are meeting a growing number of workers of Chinese origin. So it would be wonderful for the Militant to get this right. It would help educate other worker-correspondents.
Marty Anderson
New York, New York
Fight over trauma center
A fight is brewing in Los Angeles over County Board of Supervisors plans to close the trauma center at King-Drew hospital in Watts. The hospital was established in the years immediately following the uprising in Watts in 1965. Prior to that, there was no hospital equipped and staffed to provide trauma care in the entire south side of Los Angeles.
Saturday meetings are held to build a demonstration called for November 15 at a county Board of Supervisors meeting to protest plans to close the center. Politicians, religious figures, community activists, former patients of King-Drew and workers at the hospital have all spoken out on the necessity of keeping the trauma center open. Over 30,000 signatures have been collected to date on petitions to keep the trauma center open.
Workers at the hospital are organized in Local 660 of the Service Employees International Union. According to Christine Koundakjian, a nurse at the hospital involved in nurse hiring and training, the entire county hospital system is understaffed by about 1,200 nurses. She pointed out that the pay rate is about 30 percent under the average for nurses in southern California.
Derrick Evans, a worker in the pharmacy at the hospital and a union steward for Local 660, said that trauma patients are already being diverted from King-Drew. He explained that when they have both trauma operating rooms filled, they are considered closed and patients are sent to other trauma centers. Evans said that ambulances are now being diverted to other hospitals even though space and staff exist to treat them at King-Drew.
Chris Remple
Los Angeles, California
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