My name is John Brady and I am Executive Vice President of AFT Connecticut. Prior to this, I was a nurse in the emergency department of Backus Hospital in Norwich.
Soon you will have an important decision that will effect your lives, the lives of your families, and the lives of your patients and community.
For perhaps the first time, you have a vote about what happens at your workplace.
Think about that.
YOU have a vote.
Has that ever happened at work before?
In 2012 we had the same vote at Backus.
Backus had changed.
It wasn't the community hospital that it once was.
Our opinion wasn't appreciated as it once was.
We were no longer caregivers, we had become an "operating expense."
Our neighbors were no longer our patients, they were "stakeholders."
"Efficiency experts" had come through like a tornado and left a shell of a hospital in their wake.
I'll never forget sitting in the living room of an oncology nurse's home, with her and her husband on the couch.
We spoke about our common frustrations with the way things had become in OUR hospital and how, if we stood together, we could change that. As her eyes started filling with tears her husband took her hand.
She said, "John, they took away the peanut butter from MY kitchenette to save money. Peanut butter that I would give on crackers to my patients if I could get their nausea to subside after chemo. When they did that, I said to my husband, ‘I have no hope."
"Today," she said, "you have given me hope."
Are things perfect today at Backus?
No.
But today, our members speak freely and advocate for ourselves, our patients, our community, and our hospital without fear.
When you vote UNION YES, you will join the nearly 10,000 AFT healthcare workers in Connecticut, 31,000 AFT Connecticut members, and 1.7 million AFT national members in having a voice in the workplace.
It is your decision, for maybe the first time in your working lives, your decision.
Better than hope, I promise that never again will you stand alone.
In Solidarity,
John
John Brady RN
Executive Vice President
AFT Connecticut
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