Listen: Columbia Students Press Divestment! Dying on the Job! 1199’s Safe Staffing Fight!
1199SEIU members at Phelps Hospital in Sleepy Hallow, NY are still fighting for a good contract and safe staffing. Photo courtesy of 1199SEIU
By Bob Hennelly
On this episode of the Tuesday Stuck Nation Labor Radio Hour, we’re talking about what’s happening at the Columbia University protest; people of color dying on the job; and 1199SEIU waking up Sleepy Hallow Hospital.
Dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters demanding Columbia University divest from Israeli-linkled firms occupied Hamilton Hall at about 1:40 a.m. on Tuesday and unfurled a banner reading “Hind’s Hall,” referncing a six-year-old Palestinian girl who was killed by the Israeli military in Gaza on Jan. 29.
The building occupation came nearly two weeks after the University called on the NYPD to sweep the “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” on April 18, leading to the largest mass arrest on campus since 1968.
After the arrests earlier this month, top NYPD brass told reporters, "The students that were arrested were peaceful, offered no resistance whatsoever, and were saying what they wanted to say in a peaceful manner."
After the breaking news update, we spoke with Rebecca Reindel, the Safety and Health director for the AFL-CIO, the lead author of an alarming new report finding workers of color are dying on the job at increasingly higher rates — and fatalities for Black workers hit the highest level in nearly 15 years.
In its 33rd annual report, Death on the Job: The Toll of Neglect, the national union also documented how Latino workers continue to face “the greatest risk of dying on the job than all other workers.” In the interview, Reindel discusses how non-union contractors exploit the precarity of undocumented workers who are often put in hazardous situations that may or may not be on the radar of state and federal regulators.
The AFL-CIO's leading workplace safety expert also warns that after the heavy toll exacted on essential workers during the COVID pandemic, state and federal regulators need to be vigilant about an outbreak of the H5N1 (Avian bird flu) that has migrated from wild birds into the U.S. dairy herd population, infecting at least one Texas-based dairy worker in the process.
In the second half of the show, we get an update from members of 1199SEIU who work at Phelps Hospital in Sleepy Hollow, New York who have been trying for 18 months to get a contract with the hospital that was taken over by Northwell in 2014. Anne Greene, a patient care associate and Ross Stephens, a registered nurse, explain the day in and day out challenges of inadequate staffing and its impact on patient care and staff morale.
Greene and Stephens say that Phelps continued resistance to settling on a fair contract is difficult to understand considering that tens of thousands of 1199SEIU members at other Northwell facilities–including nearby Northern Westchester Hospital, already have strong contracts. Those deals include no-cost family health insurance, guaranteed pensions, education funds, and competitive wages.
Listen to the entire show below: