Sinai workers fight to unionize; needs communism

CHICAGO, July 17 – Workers from Mount Sinai Hospital continue to sharpen the class struggle against their racist and sexist bosses. Today, a multiracial delegation of workers, including comrades from Progressive Labor Party (PLP), marched in the building to interrupt the hospital bosses’ phony “town hall” meeting.
By taking the offensive and regularly engaging in bold direct actions, we are collectively deepening our understanding of our power as a united working class. Those of us in PLP are proud to be giving and receiving leadership from our class sisters and brothers in this struggle for an improved worker and patient environment.
With each step forward, we push the call for a communist society–one without racism, sexism, borders, exploitation or profits–as the only real solution to overcome the failures of capitalism and build the egalitarian world that we truly need and deserve.
Class struggle at Sinai
Mount Sinai is a community hospital in the mostly-Black North Lawndale neighborhood on the city’s west side. It is a safety-net hospital, meaning that the majority of the patients served there are uninsured or underinsured workers and their families. The overwhelming majority of these patients are Black and Latin immigrant workers, and the staff is primarily Black, Latin, and Asian women.
The racist and sexist hospital bosses prioritize their money and profits over the well-being of the workers and patients. They routinely understaff departments in the name of “productivity” and neglect broken equipment and building repairs until the problems become too big to ignore. They regularly use intimidation and harassment against workers who speak up against them or make demands for better conditions.
But the hospital workers have not been taking these capitalist attacks lying down. In recent months, they have been engaging in direct actions against the bosses, many of which are organized through the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) healthcare local. These include marching on the bosses (see CHALLENGE 6/26) as well as holding a mass rally in front of the hospital on Juneteenth, tracing the racist legacy of capitalism from the era of chattel slavery to the present day.
The workers who are already formally recognized by the union, including nurse aides, dietary staff, and housekeepers just recently had their contract expire, and during recent negotiation sessions the bosses have only offered a pathetic 1.5 percent wage increase. On June 6th, the hospital nurses presented the bosses with a majority of signed cards stating that they too wanted to be official union members, a demand that was quickly shot down.
Learning of the nurses’ desire to become unionized sent the bosses into panic mode. They quickly brought in union-busting consultants and launched a counter-campaign of misinformation and manipulation. They systematically pulled nurses into one-on-one meetings with managers. The new chief operating officer (COO), Airica Steed, has released a series of insincere letters, using identity politics and elitism to confuse and mislead nurses from uniting with other workers. They have hosted luncheons, a monthly system-wide town hall meeting, and even a ridiculous “transformation hotline” to try to convince workers that they suddenly care about the racist, sexist, and anti-worker conditions in the hospital.
Don’t take a racist attack sitting down
But the working class is smart, and the majority of the workers see through their crap. We remain committed to the fight! So with this in mind, a PL comrade made the suggestion that for the town hall scheduled on this day, we sharpen the struggle by marching as a delegation to the event, delivering a petition of unity signed by hundreds of Sinai workers, and putting the bosses on the spot.
Over a dozen of us, multiracial women and men workers, entered the main hospital auditorium as the bosses babbled on near the front stage. A few corporate stooges and security tried to usher us into seats, but we collectively insisted on remaining  together, facing the bosses in a show of defiance.
When the bosses paused to address the audience for questions, a comrade raised his hand and our group marched closer to the front of the stage. The comrade took the microphone, handed the COO the petitions and reinforced the demand that the bosses recognize the nurses as part of the union and that they stop disrespecting workers both on the job and at the negotiation table. Another comrade then took the microphone and sharply scolded the bosses, in front of over a hundred people, to end their campaign of wasting resources and dividing workers.
The bosses stuttered and quickly gave a meek response, barely addressing the statements made. We then marched out of the auditorium as a group, noting the smiles and raised thumbs given to us by our coworkers along the way.
Communist revolution must be the goal
As satisfying as this action was, we know as communists that the core of our struggle is to connect, bold, anti-racist fightback with revolutionary communist politics. Each time we push the limits with our fellow workers, we must be winning more of them to the reality that we need to ultimately run society after destroying capitalism by means of a mass international PLP.
We are making modest gains. More of our coworkers are getting CHALLENGE and some are coming to marches and study groups. We are ready for the next steps of this struggle, shoulder to shoulder with the working class!J