Politicians join rally to support striking nursing home workers

Thousands of union members crowded into Fort Independence Park on Saturday to hear their own leaders and elected officials speak in support of strikers at the Kingsbridge Heights Rehabilitation Center. Photo by Joshua Bright

By N. Clark Judd

The chanting was faint at first.

It echoed past the Kingsbridge Heights Rehabilitation Center around noon on Saturday, bouncing off the houses on Giles Place - "Hey hey, ho ho, Helen Sieger's got to go!"

About two dozen police officers, joking with one another as they idled behind waist-high metal barricades that surrounded the Cannon Place nursing home, became more alert as the march grew closer.

Then they were there: Thousands of members of 1199 SEIU, a gaggle of elected officials, and many supporters, all yelling their displeasure for Helen Sieger, the embattled owner of the nursing home that is now the centerpiece in a labor battle that has stretched on for years and a strike that's continued since February.

The march, and a subsequent rally, delivered on a promise made at another rally in March at which union officials vowed to return in numbers should the strike at the nursing home stretch on. The union ceased providing health benefits to the workers in November because - according to union officials - seven months earlier Ms. Sieger had stopped contributing to the benefits funds that paid for them.

An attorney for the nursing home, David Jasinski, has said Ms. Sieger is satisfied with the quality of care provided by replacement workers. Last Saturday, a few white-coated people wearing identification cards could be seen peeking out at the rally from the windows of the home.

The rehabilitation center has continued to pass state inspections, but did not pass muster with the elected officials represented at a march after the rally.

U.S. Sen. Barack Obama contributed a recorded phone message, saying, "Just remember that you're fighting not just for yourselves, but for everybody."

Before a cheering crowd, U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer said the workers' fight was a fight "to keep America from going back to the bad old days" before union labor.

A veritable Who's Who of big political players in the state, the city and the Bronx - including Rep. Anthony Weiner, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, Councilman Bill de Blasio, Councilwomen Annabel Palma and Melissa Mark-Viverito, Assemblymen Jeffrey Dinowitz, Jose Rivera and Ruben Diaz Jr., Assemblywomen Naomi Rivera and Aurelia Greene, and state Senators Eric Schneiderman and Efrain González Jr. - also spoke, attended the rally or marched with the workers. City Councilman Oliver Koppell sent his counsel, Jamin Sewell, who used to work for 1199 SEIU.

The last contract for union work at the nursing home expired in 2005. Between 2005 and when the home stopped making contributions to the benefits funds, the contributions made were at a lower level than the union required, union officials said in February. They added that the difference between what was paid and what was required was about $3 million.

This is part of the May 8, 2008 online edition of The Riverdale Press.

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