BROOKLYN, NY, February 4 —
Today a group of black female lab workers at a hospital here went on the offensive and demanded that the hospital bosses hire more workers. A meeting was arranged between the supervisor and the 1199 SEIU union delegate, who suggested that everyone should attend the meeting, since they all work in the department together. Perhaps unknowingly, the union delegate illustrated that, whatever the fight, when workers are united victory is possible. In this case, the reform fight was for more workers and not the revolutionary fight for communism. This fight also exposes the racist and sexist nature of the system. Black women are the most exploited section of the working class in the U.S., where being overworked with too little staff and paid very low wages is common.
Under capitalism hospitals prioritize profits over the health of the working class and so departments are short-staffed. Blood samples are left sitting for hours before they are analyzed, which leads to inaccurate test results. Other medical staff rely on these results to treat patients, resulting in potentially life-threatening errors. The lab workers look upon this matter seriously, taking into consideration that it is the health of working-class families that is at stake. Again, the racist nature of the system is laid bare: a large percentage of the patients receiving poor care at this hospital are black and Latino.
The doctors, on many occasions, blame the lab workers for the blood tests not being done in a timely fashion. This attitude is encouraged by the bosses, yet another way to divide the working class and weaken us. Most of the doctors do not see the contradiction between the hospital bosses and workers who are pushed to do more with less staff, creating unsafe conditions for patient care. We should strive to show our coworkers and friends how doctors and other hospital workers have a common interest in destroying capitalism and its rotten health care system and replacing it with communism and true workers’ health.
Surprisingly, at the end of the meeting, the bosses stated that the lab workers would get additional staffing. However, this small reform victory should not create the illusion about the racist, capitalist-run health care system. Too often in the hospital, the workers have seen the bosses hire more workers and then suddenly shut down the department. (We saw a similar example in the Stella d’Oro struggle where the workers “won” the strike only to have the factory immediately shut down and sold.) As recently as last year the laundry department was subcontracted to an outside vendor, just after the bosses had hired more workers.
Like all capitalists, the ones who run this hospital are only in business for profit. Under capitalism, the needs of workers and patients in a racist health care system cannot be met. The workers’ vision is for a better health care system that exists to improve the quality of life, not to make profits. This can only be achieved by many workers joining the fight for a communist society and building the PLP.