NAGE Members Join Organizing Rally in Baltimore
July 6, 2010
Members of NAGE Local R3-19 recently joined more than 800 healthcare workers and supporters at a rally in Mount Vernon Square Park in Baltimore to hear actor Danny Glover, Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, and labor leaders call for free and fair union elections for health care workers in Baltimore.
"It was exciting and encouraging from start to finish," said Local R3-19 Vice President Joyce Flayhan. "It was so encouraging to see the unity and to know that our struggle is also the struggle of so many in Baltimore and around the country. For many years workers have been intimidated and harassed by the boss to prevent them from forming a union, and now it seems like the tide is turning."
According to Flayhan, Mayor Rawlings-Blake at the rally reported that 1 in 5 workers in Baltimore is a health care worker, making it ever more important that health care providers have access to representation and to the collective bargaining it provides.
"Free and fair union formation in this industry will raise the standard of living and economic outlook for Baltimore,” she said.
Flayhan said the mayor's sentiment was repeated over and over as workers from Sinai Hospital, University of Maryland Medical System, Johns Hopkins Hospital, and other local hospitals told their personal stories of struggles to care for patients in the midst of the fight for a living wage.
"It was very encouraging to see the diversity of those at the rally demanding free and fair elections," Flayhan said. "Families of health care providers attended in support. SEIU brothers and sisters from New York, New Jersey, and Washington, D.C. were present. Church leaders spoke out in support of the healthcare workers' fight.
"NAGE R3-19 was very proud to stand in solidarity with such good company in support of this important issue."