Thank you Local Union Leaders

Imagine being a nurse, finishing a full shift, having babies at home and a partner who needs to hand them off to you so they can get to work, and being told you have no replacement and could be disciplined and even fired if you don’t stay an extra shift.
This happens at hospitals all the time.

I want to give a shout out to the #union leaders who advocate for their coworkers on this and so many other vital issues.

Yesterday, Backus Nurses Prez Sherri Dayton Calixte and VP Jessica Harris faced just such a scenario.

Backus Hospital had been unable to fill all the open spots during this holiday season. Their solution was to mandate.

Sherri and Jess asked for an emergency meeting with management and within a couple of hours had worked out an incentive program to decrease the need to mandate.

We owe a big debt of gratitude to all our AFT Nurses & Health Professionals.

We owe an additional debt of gratitude to the AFT Connecticut Local Leaders and AFT - American Federation of Teachers Local Leaders in all the states and territories who advocate for their union members who care for patients, educate students , and serve the public.

Dedication means working Christmas

This is a picture of some very fine Backus Nurses and their labor and delivery coworkers who spent Christmas Day bringing life into the world. 

This scene was repeated in other departments throughout the hospital and at hospitals across this country. 

AFT Nurses & Health Professionals were there to help babies be born, to help sick patients get well, to help injured survive and heal, and when they could not do that, they were there to help families grieve. 

It’s what they do, not only on Christmas, but every hour of every day of the year.  

They work all hours of the day and night. 

They work through breaks and lunches and stay late when needed. 

They are verbally assaulted, spit at, punched and kicked. 

And yet, they ask little in return, just a voice in their practice, respect and safety in the workplace, and the freedom to care for their patients. 

Like our AFT Connecticut educators and public employees, our healthcare professionals have dedicated themselves to the people they serve, their patients, students and public.

The real Truth-Tellers

In a recent article titled “Listen to the truth-tellers,” AFT President Randi Weingarten writes about being grateful to the educators, healthcare professionals, and public employees in our lives but goes on to say,  “Let’s also listen to the teachers and nurses in our lives. They are the truth-tellers who can reveal things we need to know about our country”

I thought about that this week as I sat in a labor management meeting at my home local, Backus Nurses, as Sherri and Jessica so passionately and eloquently advocated for our members. 

At one point, the discussion turned to the fact that Hartford Healthcare management (Hartford Healthcare owns Backus Hospital) was going around the floors and telling nurses that the reason they were not getting the year end bonus was “because of the union!”

Sherri called it what it is,

UNION BUSTING!

The truth of the matter is that Hartford Healthcare gives a bonus to non-union employees, and in the past has given it to union members. The bonus amount is totally at the discretion of management and can be changed or eliminated at any time.

The truth is also that management is free to give the bonus to the hardworking union nurses, who deserve it as much as anyone, certainly more than the UNION BUSTING management.

They just don’t want to.

Last year, Hartford Healthcare offered the bonus to the union nurses, but only if they gave away their right to bargain healthcare. 

It was a nonsense offer.

And the nurses rightful rejected it.

Giving away the right to have a say in their healthcare plan for a few hundred dollars that can be eliminated at Hartford Healthcare’s whim wasn’t a real offer,

It was an insult.

Sherri didn’t argue that Hartford Healthcare was required to give the bonus. (that’s an argument for another day) She argued that management’s attempt to paint “the union” as the bad guy was a blatant attempt to BUST THE UNION and was an insult to every nurse. 

The nurses are Backus not idiots, although Hartford Healthcare seems to think they are.

They are intelligent and gifted caregivers who have dedicated their lives to the care of others and deserve our upmost respect and certainly, as Randi said in her article, to be listened to.

Hartford Healthcare likes to talk about it’s “core values” of Caring, Safety, Excellence and Integrity.

I’m sorry,

I don’t see it.

I don’t see it in how they treat our nurses at Backus hospital.

I don’t see it in how they treat our therapists, our nurses, our teachers, our teacher assistants at Natchaug Hospital.

I don’t see it in how they treat our nurses, our technicians and technologists, and out Healthcare Workers at Windham Hospital.

I wish I did see it.

I hear it when I talk to HR people or the Hartford Healthcare regional President.

I just don’t see it.

You know what I do see?

I see what AFT president Randi Weingarten sees.

I see what AFT CT President Jan Hochadel sees.

I see what the 30,000 AFT CT and 1.7 million AFT members see.

I see what our grateful patients and students see.

I see incredibly intelligent and dedicated educators and healthcare providers who are not respected by Hartford Healthcare.

Our members who work in healthcare, in education, and in public service….

They are the truth-tellers.

Thank you

Thank you members of AFT Connecticut for allowing me to do what I do.

Thank you teachers, PSRPs, and those in higher education for the dedication you have to future generations. 

Thank you public employees for the safety and services you provide us all, often without any recognition.

Please know that you are appreciated.

Also, please allow me a moment of personal privilege to address our sisters and brothers that are nurses and healthcare professions, especially those still laboring at the bedside.

While I was enjoying turkey and stuffing, many of you were at work.

True, I put in my years of doing it, but that only makes my gratitude to you deeper.

Recently, nurses and healthcare professionals were recognized for heroic work at a Gala at one of our hospitals.

This week came not one, but two articles, from two of our other hospitals, of heroic work by our Healthcare members to deliver a baby in the parking lot and to care for people with compassion in the ED.

But also came the story of yet another one of our nurses being viscously assaulted.

Nurses and healthcare professionals will go out of their way to stop and help a patient (even after they have clocked out) and consider it just a part of the job.

They will be threatened and assaulted daily and just consider it part of the job.

They will be late getting home to family on a regular basis because all hell is breaking out at work and they just can’t in good conscious leave, and consider it part of the job.

Unfortunately, almost daily our nurses and heath professionals are also berated and disciplined by managers for the smallest of things, like punching a time clock 1 minute late, like briefly speaking to each other at the nurses station about an upcoming union meeting, like standing up for themselves, their colleagues, and their patients.

This cannot be part of the job.

Your dedication and commitment to our profession and our patients comes from deep within. If they take that from us, they have taken everything.

We deserve, and we must demand, the respect we are owed. 

Mostly, we must demand it of ourselves.

As nurses, we often cite the Nightingale Pledge. Others in healthcare cite similar pledges or creeds.

In them, we pledge to do everything in our power to elevate our professions and to be dedicated to our work and the welfare of those in our care.

At the core of this, at the core of safe staffing levels, of safety in the workplace, of the freedom to care, is a moral code that demands that we demand respect.

It will not be given to us freely, experience teaches us this.

We must and we will take it. 

In solidarity and love I thank you for your dedication my sisters and brothers.

HR 1309 Workplace Violence Protection for Healthcare and Social Service Workers passed US House!

Back when I was a kid, Saturday morning was a time to longe in our PJs and watch cartoons. Between cartoons was a thing called “Schoolhouse Rock,” which put educational lessons to video. One of them was a short video called “I’m just a bill.” Where a bill describes the process to become a law.

This week, in the United Staes House of.Representatives, HR 1309 Workplace Violence Protection for Healthcare Workers and Social Workers Act took a big step on that journey.

What started as an idea among healthcare and social service workers, based on the violence we face on the job daily, based on our co-workers and ourselves being victims of such violence, based on a lack of adequate response from employers and a lack of jurisdictional authority by OSHA, HR 1309 passed the House on a 250-159 vote!

What started as an idea from many sources, but particularly from AFT nurses and healthcare workers, was picked up and championed by my Congressman, Joe Courtney, of eastern Connecticut’s 2nd district. Our members were joined by AFT members from across the country, and by members of other unions and advocacy groups, who spoke to their congressmen and senators, who wrote, who testified, who visited them in DC and in their home districts, who helped them understand the importance of this legislation. Now, just like in School House Rock, our bill moves to the Senate, where Senator Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin it’s championing S 851, it’s companion bill which awaits action. That bill has 29 cosponsors, including both of Connecticut’s Senators.
What can you do?
Check the list on the link of cosponsors. Check the list of who voted in favor in the House.
If your Senator is a cosponsor, thank them.
If not, ask them why not.
If your Representaitve voted in favor, thank them.
If not, ask them why not.
At a time when so much is partisan in DC, this bill received bipartisan support with 33 republican votes.
It took 7 years to get our bill this far (and its still just a Bill) but the work of Congressman Courtney and the advocacy of AFT members and others works!
This bill will establish mandatory training in deescalation and self protection techniques, worksite rules, physical barriers, etc that will make a difference in the lives of caregivers and patients.
The day of the House vote I contacted Joe Courtney’s office to thank them. I also sent them some information on a similar and growing  problem of violence in classrooms that we need to work on.
I told them, “I know, the work never ends.”
But Government works when we engage.
It worked this week.

A Voice

As usual, it was an interesting week at AFT Connecticut.

Jan was in Chicago most of the week for the AFT State Presidents Conference, where she made not one, but three presentations to the group.

CT State Comptroller, Kevin Lembo was in the office for the AFT CT Retiree Division Council meeting. 

He is an incredibly intelligent man and yet, he can explain complex financial concepts in a way any layperson can understand. He also sees and can relay the “big picture,” how one decision in government affects all others.  Mostly, above all else, he cares about the state residents he serves, not some special interests. Because of his background as the State Healthcare Advocate, his knowledge of insurance and healthcare are both wide ranging and invaluable. 

The Retiree members peppered him with questions (they are a very engaged group of members and a valuable asset to us all) and he answered them all with clarity.

It’s always good to see Kevin, and an honor to have him in the building.

I sat in for Jan at a roundtable discussion for the Partnership Program. That’s the program where the Dailio Foundation has given $100,000,000 to the state, the state has matched this money, and they are seeking attritional donations to add up to a total of $300 million, which will be used in Connecticut Public Schools, specifically to help students who are at risk of not finishing their education.

The board of this newly formed foundation is having roundtable discussions to hear from community members and community groups, in order to develop a strategy to best address its mission.

Jan is a member of the Partnership board and we are lucky to have her voice at the table. Since she was out of state, she asked me to attend in her absence.

The discussion was far reaching and if I had to say what I thought was most important to me, it was to hear the experiences of those who live in communities where the worry to a student might be will they have a warm place to sleep and where their next meal is coming from. Under such conditions, it’s no wonder completing school and thereby finding a job that pays a living wage is difficult.

These are things that I cannot completely understand, because I have never had these worries. Sure, I’ve struggled to pay bills, but that’s a long way from being hungry and homeless.

That’s why its important to have roundtables like this one. We have to hear the voices to understand, and we have to understand if we want to make a difference.

It’s why its so important that Jan is on the Partnership board.

She brings the voice of our teachers, our PSRPs, and their students and student’s families to the table. 

Hearing all the voices and dealing with this in a holistic way that incorporates the issues of poverty, of race, of a need for teacher diversity, of all the issues, can guide the Partnership board and give it the best chance to make a positive difference.

I was also back at my home local this week, attending the Delegate meeting of the Backus Nurses. I’m proud of the work they are doing, let by Sheri and Jess, their president and VP. While I remain a full dues paying member, and a constitutional delegate, they, and Michelle who followed me as president, have taken the local to places I couldn’t have dreamed of when we started.  Yes, there are struggles every day, but the Backus Nurses are a voice, and we were not before we organized 8 years ago. 

It’s exciting to watch as a group becomes a voice of change and advocacy. 

That’s what the members of AFT are doing every day, being a voice for each other, for our patients, our students, and the public we serve.

That’s our mission in fact.

And that brings me to my last bit of news this week.

We received word from Congressman Joe Courtney’s office that H R 1309 is scheduled for a vote in the House of Representatives this coming week.

Yes, in spite of what you hear that the impeachment inquiry is preventing any “work” from getting done, progress is being made on many important issues.

H R 1309 is the Workplace Violence bill that would call for OSHA to develop a Standard on Workplace Violence in healthcare and social services.  Currently, there are voluntary guidelines which OSHA cannot enforce.

A Standard is enforceable. 

Such a Standard exists for other hazards in the workplace, such as chemicals and safety precautions.

In fact, today, if a nurse or other healthcare worker, or a social work, slips on a wet floor and falls, it must be reported and steps must be taken to prevent another accident, but if they are attacked and severely injured, no report, no training, no steps to prevent, no enforcement is possible.

H R 1309 would change this.

Representaitve Courtney has championed this in the House. 

AFT leadership has made it a priority.

AFT members are campaigning for it.

That is a voice for advocacy.

That is what a union is.

Montgomery and DC

It’s good to be back home, be with Michelle, and sleep in my own bed after 8 days on the road.

We went to Montgomery, Alabama last weekend for the AFT Civil, Human, and Women’s Rights Conference. Hope Coles, Shellye Davis, and Stephanie Johnson, and I joined members from around the country. Stephanie moderated a panel on Healthcare inequities as part of a task force she serve on.
We rallied for Justice on the steps of the capitol, the same place the Selma to Montgomery Civil Rights marches ended.
We made two emotional visits to The Legacy Museum which traces history from slavery to mass incarceration and The National Memorial for Peace and Justice which honors more than 4400 African American men, women, and children who were hanged, burned alive, shot, drowned, and beaten to death by white mobs between 1877 and 1950.

Both visits were profoundly moving.

After Montgomery, it was on to DC for the AFT Planning and Policy Committee and meetings with the American Nurses Association on safe staffing and with my Congressman, Joe Courtney.
Joe has worked hard for the people of Connecticut and the nation. He has also championed workplace safety measures for healthcare and social workers.

Planning meetings are work, but work that needs to be done.
Advocating for safety at work, for safe levels of staffing, for equality in healthcare, for social justice, for the right to teach and the right to care, and for union leadership development takes planning, and supporting the work of our members is important, because our patients, our students and the public and community we serve need us to advocate.

My recent trips to the border and to Montgomery have reinforced this to me.

Angie

My friend Angie Parkinson, is running for town council in East Hartford. The Connecticut AFL-CIO door knocked for her this morning.

l met Angie when we were both delegates to the 2016 Democratic National Convention.
I was a Hilary delegate and she was for Bernie.
As a delegate from a state, you spend the week together and I made a special effort to reach out to Angie because we are both AFT Connecticut members, Angie being a social science teacher with the Colchester Teachers.
Angie was disappointed when Bernie withdrew and I encouraged her to stay involved.

Angie now co-chairs the AFT CT Legislative Action Committee, is a champion for flipping DTCs to the left, serves on town committees, and will soon be a town councilwoman.
She brings energy, passion, and honesty to everything she does. She understands that this is HER town, HER state, HER nation, HER union, HER social movement.
I am proud to call her friend.

Connecticut Blitz 2019

This week I had the privilege to participate in the AFT Public Employees weeklong #ConnecticutBlitz2019. Although we couldn’t be there every minute due to schedules, Jan and I spent as much time as we could in the training and door knocking because AFT Connecticut believes we are only as strong as our members are engaged.

This week activists in #AndRUnion, Save Vo-Tech Schools, UHP University Health Professionals Local 3837, APEA-Alaska Public Employees Association, KOSE - Kansas Organization of State Employees signed up over 60 managerial & exempt #CTStateWorkers in #MandEUnited

I want to thank every who participated and shared their time, their knowledge, and their friendship. It was great to meet new friends from Alaska, Illinois and Kansas and deepen friendships with old friends.
These weeklong mobilizations that start on Saturday and run straight though Friday are grueling. Days start at sunrise and end after sunset. Teams leaflet buildings, hold site meetings, receive training on mapping the workplace, charting, the “organizing conversation” and other aspects of building worker power and finish the day with house visits and a debrief.
Yeah, it’s a lot of work.
Yeah, it’s intense.
But hear this.
It’s life changing.

Being in a union isn’t about wages, benefits and working conditions.
It’s about respect.
Being in a union isn’t about a contract.
It’s about a voice and worker’s power.
And a union isn’t the elected leadership or staff.
It’s the members.

Thank you to my sisters and brothers of the mobilization. Solidarity.

Happy Labor Day, the struggle continues.

Is it too much to ask that is a person works hard that they be able to provide for their family; have a roof over their head, food on their table, quality education for their children, and quality, affordable, and accessible healthcare?
Is it too much to ask that people not be burdened with crippling debt from housing, healthcare, or education?
Is it too much to ask that these things not depend or our zip code, the color of our skin, our religious beliefs, our gender, who we love, or the many other things that drive discrimination?

I don’t think it is.

In fact, I believe most people would agree with me.
So what stands in the way?

In our ecconomy, money is power. They more money you have, the more power you have. The richer you become, the bigger your corporation becomes, the more power you have.
Occasionally, a big corporation believes as we do about the questions we ask.
More often, they do not.
That’s why we have owners of charter schools, of big Pharma, of hospital corporations, making such outlandish incomes while those doing the work and those receiving the services, suffer.

The balance to all this is workers standing together.
Corporations know this.
That’s why they opposed the right to form unions.
Through laws, regulations, and intimidation they do everything within their power to resist the power that comes when workers stand together for positive change.

That is the essence of the Labor Movement.
That is why our struggle continues.

Happy Labor Day my sisters and brothers.

Deporting Children and Families Seeking Medical Treatment

For Release: 

Thursday, August 29, 2019

Contact:

Sarah Hager

202-393-5684 

shager@aft.org 

WASHINGTON—Statement of American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten, Ohio Nurses Association CEO Kelly Trautner, AFT Connecticut Vice President and registered nurse John Brady, and United University Professions President Frederick E. Kowal, following reports that the Trump administration is unfairly deporting foreign-born children who have been granted special immigration status for medical treatment:

The AFT’s Weingarten said: “First, he separated families. Then he threw children in cages without food, water or showers. And now, in his cruelest move yet, Donald Trump is signing death sentences by deporting children with cancer and other illnesses, and in some cases deporting the parents of their sick and dying kids, leaving children alone in their most vulnerable hour. Just when you thought the callousness couldn’t get worse, Trump rose to the occasion and proposed the unimaginable. 

The long-standing legal practice of medical deferred action has been used by this country to show compassion and humanity, keeping families together when children are critically ill and will die if they are deported. Sadly, as we have come to find out, humanity is not in Trump’s lexicon. As the families of these sick children look desperately for answers to keep those children alive, let the history books show that Trump led the charge to promote this depraved indifference to children’s lives.”

The Ohio Nurses Association’s Trautner said: “As a union of nurses and other health professionals, every day we see firsthand the toll terminal illness takes on families. At their lowest and most vulnerable time, families look for compassion and care. But with Trump’s new policy to deport sick immigrant children, we are adding insult to injury, isolating and abandoning the very children we signed up to protect. He should be ashamed.”

AFT Connecticut’s Brady said: “I recently visited McAllen, Texas, where union leaders, community members and clergy were barred from seeing the children in detention. As a nurse who has spent 21 years at the bedside caring for sick children, I was ashamed then, but this news takes my shame to another level. This is a horrendous act that goes against our ethics as healthcare professionals, public employees and educators. We cannot tolerate this inhumanity.”

United University Professions’ Kowal said: “This latest Trump administration edict is heinous, hateful and inhumane. These critically ill children—we’re talking about kids with diseases like cancer, leukemia and muscular dystrophy—will certainly perish if they are deported because in many cases, the lifesaving healthcare they so desperately need isn’t available outside the United States. This heartless action must not be allowed to stand, and UUP members will do all we can to challenge and defeat it.”

# # # #

The AFT represents 1.7 million pre-K through 12th-grade teachers; paraprofessionals and other school-related personnel; higher education faculty and professional staff; federal, state and local government employees; nurses and healthcare workers; and early childhood educators.

Asylum seekers

While I was in church last night my thoughts drifted to the father and son I met in the airport last week in McAllen Texas.
I wonder how they are.
I like to believe that they made it to Dallas and were united with family.
If so, then their lives must be remarkably changed and better.

Some of the stories we heard are almost impossible to comprehend.
Such as a mother and little daughter walking for 3 months to reach the border.
Who does that?
Certainly not someone looking for the streets of gold or hoping to make a higher wage in the U.S.
The people who do that fear for their children’s lives.

I’m reminder of what Matthew writes about.
Shortly after the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem, having been warned in a dream by an angle of God, Joseph took Mary and his infant son and fled to Egypt.
They were asylum seeks, fearful that King Harold would kill Jesus, because he saw him as a threat to his crown.

My prayers are with the father I met, the mother who’s story we heard, and all those who fear for there children’s safety.

My prayers are also with those who do not understand.
Why is it so hard for people who identify as followers to see the similarity between Joseph and the father I met in the McAllen airport?

72 hours at the border

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday.
3 days……72 hours.
Such a short time in a person’s life.
And yet…….

On Tuesday I flew to McAllan, Texas.
When I was asked why I was going, I said it was simple, Randi and Jan asked me to go.
What I would find I did not know.
I was meeting nurses from HPAE in New Jersey and Teachers from UFT in New York.
Our goal was to visit a juvenile detention centers at the southern border and report back to AFT members on whether the children’s health and education needs were being adequately met.

Tuesday evening we gathered with teachers from Texas Locals (PJSA AFT, Edinburg AFT, McAllen AFT, La Joya AFT and Texas AFT). We each introduced ourselves and the Texas teachers told us what a teacher’s life is like at the border. It is a combination of the challenges teachers everywhere face and the special challenges of immigrant families. They spoke of the trials and reasons many of these families had left their home countries and made the dangerous journey here.

It was a powerful evening of love……and tears.

Wednesday morning we met with local students who have formed “Beyond The  Border” to work with immigrant children. These high school students who started volunteering at the local Catholic Charities respite center as part of a public service graduation requirement. They were so moved by the families, and especially the young children, that they took on a commitment to visit the center 3 days a week to read to the children, color with them, play with them, befriend them. Their stories of love were inspiring.They have reached out to classmates and students from surrounding districts and formed Beyond the Borders, because “Education and love shouldn’t have any borders to it.”
They were inspirational, in the work they are doing, in there ability to bring others into this work, and in there ability to convey their story to others. We would see them later in the day at the center.

We were denied entry at the federal detention center that houses children. We had worked though a United States Congressperson on our request. Last Friday the request was denied because “AFT doesn’t have ‘standing” even though we are the country’s second largest teachers and nurses union and the welfare of children is at the core of our mission. We were told to re-write our request on that basis, which was done, and we were denied again. One of our party approached the door of the building to see if maybe they had reconsidered, while the rest of us stood on the sidewalk, roughly 100 feet in front of the building. After being denied entry once again, she returned to us and informed us at the sidewalk, where AFT president Randi Weingarten and Executive Vice President Evelyn DeJesus spoke to us.
Border patrol agents approached us and told us we must leave because, “you are on personal property.”
The truth is, we were on federal property, we were all U.S. citizens, and were 100 feet from the building doing no harm.
But to avoid a conflict we moved to the roadside, putting us probably 300 feet from the building.
At this location, we held hands and prayed, for the children, for the families, and for our country.
The agents followed us and attempted to interrupt our praying. They threatened us with arrest and local police and a tow truck arrived. (The local police never approached or spoke to us and our cars were parked in a parking lot marked Visitors’ Parking, which had no gate or signs of restrictions upon entering.)
We were a group of United States teachers and nurses, who had gone through the proper channels not once but twice, seeking to insure the safety and well-being of children. We were on federal property, not private property. We never posed a threat, never even approached the building.
When asked to move, we did.
And we were threatened with arrest.

One has to ask Why?

We decided against arrest today and left. We went instead to a place where we were welcomed, a respite center run by Catholic Charities.
We met up with our new high school friends who were volunteering there today.
The center is for families who have been processed by Immigration, given a court date, and have families in the U. S. who will take them in. They get dropped off at the bus station across the street, volunteers greet them, and they are welcomed in, given soup as a first meal because many have not eaten well and their stomachs may not handle something heavier, get to shower for the first time in perhaps months, and get help making arrangements with family. The children can color and play and just be kids.
One little boy, maybe 4 years old, had pimples on his nose and near one eyebrow. Through an interpreter, his mom said they had all been badly sunburned, especially their faces on their journey. They were given “cream” to put on their faces but being 4, he wouldn’t keep it on. At this point I realized I was looking at what was left of blisters from a full thickness third degree burn.

These families risk their lives not because they want to, they do so because they must. They are fleeing horrible, dangerous conditions, something all of us would do. Many walking miles and miles over the course of 3-4 months. It was 102 degrees outside.
They are detained by border patrol and treated as criminals. One of the needs of the center is shoelaces and belts. I saw many people without shoelaces.
Shoelaces and belts are taken away from criminals.

He was 3 or 4 years old.

We must be better than this.

We brought boxes of supplies with us, we toured the center and we spent time with the families. We saw were they play, were they eat, where they sleep. Most spend about 24 hours here. Social workers help them make calls to their families and arrangements for bus or airline tickets to get to them. They are given rides to the airport (the bus station is nearby) and given a grocery bag with a few supplies such as granola bars for their trip. They are penniless and their only clothes are on their backs.

We left changed people, we teachers and nurses from the northeast.
Back at the hotel we gathered in the lounge and listened to a guy play the guitar and sing before heading to bed.
I think we just needed to be together.

I got to the airport early the next day and I guess there was a reason. Shortly after clearing security a man with a very small boy stopped me. He showed me a Manila envelope and pointed to a  sheet of paper that was attached to the envelope. The sheet read, “I don’t speak English, please help me. I have a bus or airline ticket.” He showed me a ticket and said "Dallas." I walked him over to the status board and showed him how to find his flight and gate number. Then we walked around the corner to find gate 6. As we walked I recognized the white plastic rosary beads around his neck. I saw several people wearing them yesterday at Catholic Charities. Then I saw the blue shopping bag he carried, from where he had pulled the envelope. Catholic Charities had told us they give people a bag with a few things they might need on their bus or plane, and just such a Manila envelope. I said “Catholic Charities” but he didn’t understand. I showed him the pictures of the building I took yesterday. He smiled and said “Honduras.”  As we arrived at his gate, I gave him a thumbs up, we smiled and he said "gracias.

2 fathers at an airport in Texas.

The only difference is the country we were born in, the color of our skin, and our native language. I even suspect we share the same Catholic faith.
God is calling us to be better. To love our sisters and brothers.

Thank you AFT Connecticut, AFT Nurses & Health Professional, AFT - American Federation of Teachers, Evelyn DeJesus, Randi Weingarten, Jan Hochadel for this opportunity.
#TearsFlowingInTexas


If you want to help, you can go to the McAllen Catholic Charities Respite Center’s page at https://www.catholiccharitiesrgv.org/Donations.aspx
Or to their Amazon Wish List at https://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/wishlist/JJVAJFS3VIIQ/

Time for action

Last weekends horrendous attacks in Texas and Ohio were a tragedy.
The mass killing in El Paso was racially motivated.

And these events are becoming more and more common.
It is a national disaster and emergency.

What is our response?

Walmart, who sell so many guns, is removing some of its in-store advertising for “violent” video games.
ICE raided food processing plants in Mississippi, ripping apart families who’s only crime was they wanted to work hard so their children could have a better future. Meanwhile the owners of those businesses remain free.
The United States Senate took a vacation, because one man, Mitch McConnell, refuses to allow a debate on anything that might bring common sense solutions.

Many people blame Trump for his hateful rhetoric.
But we elected him!
Nearly half of those who voted- voted for him.
Yes, he’s part of the problem.
But he’s also a result of the problem.

I’m sorry folks but a big part of this is on us.

We like to complain about everything.
That’s a good start.
But complaining without action is meaningless.

Protest
Register and vote.
Run for office.
Help with a campaign
Join an advocacy group.
Join or form a union.
Boycott businesses who’s actions do not align with your beliefs.

Or do nothing but send prayers.

It’s up to us.

Prayers and candles.

Thoughts and prayers are important.
But without action they are hypocritical.

50 years ago we put a man on the moon and returned him safely because a young man from Massachusetts set that as our goal.
It didn’t mater that the engineering and the science didn’t exist to make it so.
It didn’t matter that computers at the time were not much more than simple calculators.
It didn’t matter that cell phones didn’t exist, let alone smart phones.
It didn’t matter the internet didn’t exist.
No one questioned our ability to figure this out.
No one questioned our ability to fund this unprecedented endeavor.

I understand Senator Warren’s frustration. I too don’t understand why someone would put all the work into running for president only to say what we can’t do.

The truth is……
There are things we MUST do.

I believe we can protect the rights of hunters and gun enthusiasts AND protect our children from mass shootings and drive by killings
I believe we can protect ourselves from terrorists AND welcome immigrants with love.
I believe we can provide affordable, high quality healthcare to everyone.
I believe we can have quality, fully funded public education that doesn’t saddle young people with unreasonable debt.
I believe we can become better stewards of this planet.
I believe we can promote freedom around the world without sending our children off to endless wars.
I believe that people of all colors, races, religions, and sexual orientation and identity can live together in love.

But we must have the resolve to work towards these goals.
We must commit ourselves to the tasks.
Senator Sanders is correct.
When we become involved we can change the world.

So pray and light candles and mourn.
But after that….
Go to rallies.
Write and call your representatives.
Register AND vote.
Knock on doors.
Run for office.
Join a union or other social advocacy group.

Become involved.

Care of migrants

We will have to answer for the care or lack of care we give migrants at our borders, for it is written,

"And I tell you, ask and you will receive;

seek and you will find;

knock and the door will be opened to you. 

For everyone who asks, receives;

and the one who seeks, finds;

and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. 

I didn’t sign up for Violence

“In an emergency they are our lifeline”

Healthcare Workers and Social Workers.

But these caregivers are in danger.

According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the incidences of serious workplace violence are 5 times Higher in Healthcare Workers than in other industries.

But as Connecticut Congressman Joe Courtney says, “They’re the good guys.”  We need to protect them.

Courtney has introduces H.R, 1309 in the U.S.  Congress. It would take the “voluntary” OSHA guidelines which have been in place for several years and make them mandatory.  It would require healthcare institutions to have workplace violence prevention programs and to report incidences of workplace violence, much as they must now do for an exposure to chemicals or a slip and fall.

It would offer Healthcare and Social Workers a measure of protection. Protection they deserve.

AFT unions across this country have joined other unions and advocacy groups to push for such protection and this week, several AFT Connecticut members took to the airways to tell their stories and ask for support.

NBC Connecticut  aired this in two parts.
Part 1 details the dangers facing workers.
Part 2 explores what is being done and whether it is enough.

I want to thank Dan Corcoran and all of NBC Connecticut for helping us bring this to light. Thank you to our members who participated and everyone who has been working on this.
Special thank you to Congressman Joe Courtney for championing this critical issue and the entire Connecticut Congressional Delegation for co-sponsoring H.R. 1309 and it's companion bill in the senate, S.B. 851.
H.R. 1309 has over 200 co-sponsors now.

These dedicated workers aren't asking for anything crazy.
Just the ability to do their work and return home safely. 

The Ideals of America

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

These are the words of our declaration.
More importantly, they are the words that set on paper the ideals that this nation has declared it stands for.

To be certain, we have not always lived up to those ideals.
The genocide of the native peoples of this continent, the use of slavery and the suppression of people of color, the unfair treatment of women, the internment of Japanese Americans, the treatment of immigrants who were not like "us" since the 1800s that continues today, the treatment of the LGBTQ community, the exploitation of workers and children, and more.

At other times we have been at our best.
When our brave men and women stormed the beaches of Normandy and Okinawa, they did so to stop two nations intent of dominating other peoples and using genocide to do so.
More than any nation, when we have won military battles, we have rebuilt instead of occupied.

The ideals stated in our declaration have not failed us.
We have at times failed our ideals.
We must rededicate ourselves to those ideals.
Over and over again.

We must resist those voices who tell us (sometimes very subtlety) that others are not our equals.
That others somehow are not worthy of the same inalienable rights as us.
We must resist the urge to become tribal, white vs of color, gay vs straight, US born vs foreign born, conservative vs liberal, pro issue vs anti issue, ………

The Statue of Liberty stands as a symbol that speaks to a nation of immigrants who first came to this country over an artic land bridge from Asia, over an ocean from Europe, in slave ships from Africa, in cargo ships from China, over thousands of miles from South and Central America.

"Give me your tired your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be free."

I will close with a reminder that the struggle to live up to our ideals has never been easy and we need to constantly rededicate ourselves to this mission. John Kennedy explained both the difficulty and the reason we must try in his speech on January 9, 1961 to the Joint Convention of the General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, echoing the thoughts spoken by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount.

During the last sixty days, I have been at the task of constructing an administration. It has been a long and deliberate process. Some have counseled greater speed. Others have counseled more expedient tests. 

But I have been guided by the standard John Winthrop set before his shipmates on the flagship Arbella three hundred and thirty-one years ago, as they, too, faced the task of building a new government on a perilous frontier. 

"We must always consider," he said, "that we shall be as a city upon a hill--the eyes of all people are upon us." 

Today the eyes of all people are truly upon us--and our governments, in every branch, at every level, national, state and local, must be as a city upon a hill--constructed and inhabited by men aware of their great trust and their great responsibilities. 

For we are setting out upon a voyage in 1961 no less hazardous than that undertaken by the Arabella in 1630. We are committing ourselves to tasks of statecraft no less awesome than that of governing the Massachusetts Bay Colony, beset as it was then by terror without and disorder within. 

The ideals of this country are what should make us proud to be Americans, they are what we should celebrate on the 4th of July. 

In spite of our failures, we remain a beacon on light to the world.

With that comes a responsibility to live up to it's ideals.

Congratulations Jan

Earlier this week, delegates to #IAMRECON2019 unanimously elected AFT Connecticut prez Jan Hochadel to serve as Co-chair of the Americas for ISP Interamérica PSI - Public Services International.
Public Services International is a global federation of 700 affiliated unions from 163 countries with 30 million members. In this role Jan will advocate as a voice for public services and the workers and union which deliver them.
Jan’s election is not only a well deserved honor for her, it is another opportunity for he to further her advocacy for public services for all people and for the dedicated workers who provide those services.
She is a great choice for this position.

Thanks Ed Leavy

As we end June and enter July, I want to welcome David Hayes as the new Secretary/Treasurer of AFT Connecticut. David has served as President of the Bristol Federation of Teachers and an AFT Connecticut at large Vice President.

I also want to thank SVFT President Ed Leavy for the many years of service he gave while serving in this important role.
Secretary/Treasurer is one of the most demanding roles in the union movement. Serving as a state federation secretary/treasurer means you oversee the work of 90+ locals, including giving trainings and advice.
Ed has performed this role better than any of us could have asked.
I didn’t know Ed well before being elected to my current position. He has been an invaluable adviser to me. More than that, he has become my brother.
He will do well in his new role as AFT Connecticut Public Employee Division Vice President (as well as continue as SVFT president)

Most of all, I am grateful that he will continue to be an adviser, friend and brother.
Thanks Ed.

Meeting Nancy Pelosi

I had the opportunity to meet the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, the Honorable Nancy Pelosi the other night.
It was a great honor.
But the biggest honor was to be there representing the 30,000 hardworking members of AFT Connecticut.

Workplace violence protection

Quick overnight to Washington to support my U S Representative Joe Courtney.
He has worked tirelessly to champion the Workplace Violence Prevention for Health Care and Social Service Workers Act, which will give Healthcare and Social Workers OSHA protections from workplace violence.
Tomorrow is the Committee Markup and it is an honor to join him on this important day.
Thank you to the members of AFT Nurses & Health Professionals AFT Connecticut and the leadership of Randi Weingarten and Jan Hochadel for the work you have done to get us here.
Thank you to the entire Connecticut Congressional delegation for being co-sponsors.
#WorkShouldntHurt.

Convention thank you

I know I’m a little late, but I want to thank the delegates to the AFT Connecticut Convention and the members they represent for their support.
It is very inspiring to serve as your Vice President.
Congratulations to David Hayes on his election as Secretary/Treasurer and thank you to Ed Leavy for serving in this roll as he now transitions to Divisional Vice President of Public Employees.
Congratulations to the rest of our Executive Committee and welcome to our new members, Joshua Hall, Heather Howlett, and Krista Vermeal.
Thank you also to Jean Morningstar and Erin Benham for your years of dedicated service.

Last, but certainly not least, congratulations to our President, Jan Hochadel.
Under your leadership we have embraced the organizing model of unionism, based on member engagement and empowerment.
Thank you for your leadership, your friendship and your patience.

We have much work ahead of us.
But the 30,000 members of AFT Connecticut are ready.  

Pinning Ceremony

Yesterday I was privileged to be asked to celebrate with the graduating Nursing Class of my Alma Mater, Three Rivers Community College. These were my words to them and the link to the video.

First, I want to thank you for the honor of speaking to you on this important day in your lives. 

It is an honor to celebrate with you, especially as a graduate of this program

So thank you for this opportunity.

Thank you also to your instructors for the dedication they have to the future of nursing.

And thank you to your family and friends for the support they have given

When you get a chance to speak, you want to be inspirational.

But the reality is, there’s no need for me to be inspirational today because YOU are the inspiration.

You have worked your tails off and you have succeeded! And although you will be lifelong learners, today you mark a milestone.

Today you enter the sisterhood and brotherhood of nursing.

I’d like to tell you about a few nurses I have worked with and what they have taught me and how that has formed my love for nursing. 

We are taught in school that being a patient advocate is the greatest role of a nurse, and it is.

Lesa Hanson is one of the best all round nurses that I have ever had the pleasure to work with. Lesa and I are about the same age, but she attended St Francis School of Nursing right out of high school and I entered the profession when I was 39. We worked together in the emergency room and she was one of my many mentors.

She told me that at one time she thought advocating for her patient meant advocating at the bedside and that is certainly true.  But as time went on, she realized that advocating meant advocating at the bedside, in the boardroom, and at the capitol. 

I think that is truer today than ever. In this day when technology is changing so rapidly and effecting our time with our patients, when the entire healthcare system is changing with consolidations and privatization of healthcare systems and insurance companies, in this time of incredible CEO pay and income inequality, not just in healthcare, A time when student debt and hospital debt bankrupt some families, we MUST be advocates for our patients.

Because if not us...........who?

And we must advocate in every setting.

Nurses have been ranked as the most honest and ethical profession in a gallop poll for the last 17 years!

People trust us. 

We have a voice if we use it.

And we have a responsibility to use it.

When Lesa and others realized this, we started speaking to fellow nurses. 

We visited many of these nurses in their homes.

We sat with an oncology nurse in her living room and we talked about the changes that the cost cutting consultant had started at the hospital.

We talked about the pension that was now gone, we talked about the decreases in weekend and shift differentials. These things concerned her, but they didn’t move her.

At one point she stopped talking and looked at the floor.

We waited.

When she lifted her head, she looked me right in the eye.

Her eyes were filled with tears.

She said, “John, they took away my peanut butter. They took away my peanut butter.”

They had removed the peanut butter from the kitchenettes on the floors to save a few bucks. She would give the peanut butter on crackers to her chemo patients if they had a brief window where they felt they could tolerate food. By taking it off her floor, it forced her to call downstairs and by the time it arrived, there window had passed.

It wasn’t the pensions or the differentials that moved her, it was the inability to advocate for her patients.

That is the heart of a nurse. 

It why we’ll work short staffed, with inadequate supplies, without breaks, and for double shifts.

To us, this isn’t just a profession, its a vocation.

It’s what makes us special.

It’s what allows us to fulfill our missions.

It’s also what can burn us out.

Wendy Dean and Simon Talbot have written about this, and Dr Z (Z Dogg) has a video about it.  Deem and Talbot say our 

moral instincts drive us to do the best we can for our patients and when we come up against a system that asks more and more, we give more and more. We adapt and adapt and adapt until we break.

They call it Moral Injury.

It was first use in combat veterans and is closely related to PTSD. It happens when a person’s moral instinct comes into conflict with their reality.

In nurses and healthcare professionals it is being unable to provide high-quality care and healing that we feel morally obligated to do.

So, what a nurse to do?

We must do what we have been taught, we must stay true to our moral code, we must be advocates for our patients and each other.

I was precepting a young nurse in the emergency room. She was recently graduated and in her early 20s.

We worked a trauma and we stabilized the patient.

We transferred the patient to the Life Star stretcher and I walked them to the door of the trauma room as was my costume as I felt the edge of the room was where I handed off their care. I said “safe flight” to the crew as I always did.

When I tuned to look back into the room, I saw this young nurse.

She was standing in the middle of the room by herself. They’re s blood on the stretcher, the floor and her protective gown. There were wrappings from IV bags, IV tubing and other supplies all around her. It looked like a bomb had gone off.

She stood in the middle of that mess and she was crying.

I walked over, gave her a hug, and told her, “You did good. You saved a life today.”

She was able to hold it together and finish her work during the trauma because, like you, she was prepared.

And when it was over, she broke down because, like you and me and all nurses, we are caring people. It is that ability to care which allows us to do our work.

You will be both of those nurses.

On some days you will need the hug.

On some days you will need to give that hug.

Be there for each other.

I’ll tell you one more story.

When I was with you recently, I think I spoke about a mission to the US Virgin Islands where 14 Connecticut nurses and other healthcare professionals were joining a team of 45 from around the country to do vision and hearing screenings in the schools.

St Croix, St Thomas and St John were devastated by the same hurricanes that hit Puerto Rico and are still recovering. The school children are not getting their screenings done in a timely manner and problems are getting missed which cause their schools work to suffer.

I was asked to join the team at the last minute because a few people had to drop off.

It was an extremely inspirational mission. Over the course of 2 weeks, the team screened over 10,000 children.

One of the nurses we met was from Ohio, her name was Deanna Miller. She was an energetic, positive person who was a pleasure to get to know. 

Deanna post on Face Book at the end of the week:

I can’t say enough about the past week.  Two teams of AFT healthcare professionals, teachers, and hearing specialists from all over the country were invited to screen students for hearing and vision in all the public schools in St. Croix, VI. 

I had a notable experience I kept to myself.  “A little girl asked me, “Oh, please don’t tell me I didn’t pass.”

I said, “Do u have trouble seeing the board?”

She said, “I do.”  

I hugged her and whispered, “This is our gift to you.  We are to hear to help.  Make it easier for you to learn.” 

She whispered back, “Thank you so much...” ❤️❤️

A huge thanks to AFT Nurses & Health Professionals and Ohio Nurses Association for entrusting me in this mission and the continued support in living my BEST LIFE.  

Now let me ask you... what motivates you to live your best life ? 

We Care.  We Showed Up.  Mission Accomplished.  #AFT #ONA #USVIRelief

If Deanna were here she would want us to ask ourselves the same question.

What motivates you to live your best lives?

Lesa Hanson, my oncology nurse, my young nurse in the ER, and Deanna are all nurses.

They advocate for their patients, at the bedside, in the boardroom, at the capitol, and in a warm school on St Croix, 

because their moral code demands that they do so.

And they support her sister and brother nurses (and their little patients) by giving and receiving hugs.

These are the things that motivate them to live their best lives and it is what motivates you and I also.

Because we are nurses.

Congratulations and thank you for this opportunity to celebrate with you.