“Run, Bruce, Run! You can run but you can’t hide!” sang hundreds of spirited Brookdale Hospital workers about CEO Bruce Flanz as they picketed outside of the hospital’s main entrance on June 15th. PLP brought support and CHALLENGEs to these workers, who lost their insurance coverage when Brookdale violated the labor contract and stopped paying into their insurance benefits fund six months ago. This forced the workers onto a more expensive plan under Blue Cross Blue Shield (see CHALLENGE, 6/22). More than that, their very jobs are at stake, as the workers face union decertification, bankruptcy and possible closure. Brookdale workers are mostly black and Latino, and all together over 1,000 workers picketed at some point during the day as workers came out in uniform on their lunch break from almost every department.
We distributed our CHALLENGEs quickly, and realized we had not brought nearly enough. At the same time, some hospital workers and members of the main hospital union 1199-SEIU (Service Employees International Union), distributed 400 leaflets that exposed the attack on Brookdale workers as a racist ploy to increase profits on the backs of the majority black and Latino workers that live in the Brookdale community. The anti-racist leaflet called on workers, patients and community residents to unite and called on the Brookdale bosses to pay up. Both CHALLENGE and the leaflets were greeted with positive responses from the workers. On a couple of occasions, PL’ers were asked for more copies of the paper. We made several contacts, and will bring more literature next time.
The conversations we had with workers described a hospital that has been sucked dry by the bosses for years. A nurse who worked there since 1982 told us: “We serve the poor but the bosses don’t give us anything! We never have supplies or nearly enough staff. We’re gonna have to take the hospital back!” Under-staffing was the unanimous complaint with every worker in every department, especially among the janitors and food and nutrition workers.
This is also a sexist attack on the Brookdale workers, who are mostly female, not to mention gambling with the health and lives of women workers who live in the Brownsville community. They depend on Brookdale for OB/GYN and pre- and post- natal care, in addition to emergency care for pregnancies, obstetric emergencies, and complications.
Union Official Wants to Save the Bosses
Local 1199’s president, George Gresham, made an appearance and shared his disappointment that the bosses weren’t playing fair: “Two years ago we saw that times were tough, so we offered to forgo our pay raises to keep our benefits...Management must come to its senses! We’ll help them save money if they would listen to us!” Gresham’s argument was ‘if only’ the bosses would listen to reason, everything could be resolved at the bargaining table.
Workers shouldn’t look to the 1199 leadership for solutions! Every hospital that Gresham has “vowed” to keep open has shut down. But the problem isn’t just bad union leadership; under capitalism, no deal, contract, treaty or law is worth anything when profitability is at stake. Union misleaders like Gresham serve the bosses’ interests by controlling the rank-and-file through empty promises and symbolic gestures.
The Progressive Labor Party is fighting for a society run by the workers worldwide. PL’ers are in the struggle building support for the Brookdale workers from the majority black and Latino workers in Brownsville, and spreading their fighting example to other hospitals and communities experiencing similar struggles. By making contacts and building hospital worker-community unity, PLP is building a mass Party to serve the workers’ interests and, instead of relying on misleaders like Gresham, encourages every worker to become a leader.
PLP calls on the Brookdale workers to go all the way in defending their contract through job actions, like sit-downs and strikes. Maximizing profits at all costs is what the capitalists want, and job actions like strikes can temporarily deny them their profits. The 1199 leadership is surely terrified of the prospect of thousands of angry black and Latino workers shutting down a major hospital.
Win or lose, contracts can still be taken away. In Greece, the waves of heroic general strikes have frustrated the bosses there attempting to carry out massive cutbacks. However, getting off the treadmill of reforms and ending wage slavery requires a revolutionary party that can ultimately lead an armed struggle for state power. The sharpening struggle at Brookdale can be a step in that direction.
Local 1199 announced a chartered bus trip to the home of Brookdale CEO Bruce Flanz in New City, NY on Sunday, June 26th, to hold a picket line. We invite all PL’ers and friends to meet at the main entrance of Brookdale Hospital (corner of Linden Blvd and Rockaway Pkwy) at 11:30 AM to board the bus and continue the struggle!