The New York Times today proclaims: "Throughout the country, businesses grappling with declining fortunes are cutting hours for those on their payrolls. Self-employed people are suffering a drop in demand for their services, like music lessons, catering and management consulting. "
The article continues..."At the end of last month, more than 4.9 million people were working part time, either because they could not find full time jobs or because their companies had cut hours in the face of slack business, according to a Labor Departmeny survey. That represented an increase of 400,000 since November." Peter S. Goodman NY Times
...and last week's St.Petersburg Times in Florida said this: "Income inequality is on the rise in Florida, and likely to grow wider as the economy falters."-- Scott Barancik April 8.
This is news?
We, the wage slaves in retail establishments across the USA have known this for awhile...check out Starbuck's workers struggles at http://www.iww.org/ And WalMart's battles with its workers has been national news for a long time.
As the IWW says, it's time to abolish this unjust wage system that sets a minimum wage that nobody can survive on, and that ties hourly workers' wages to the number of hours worked--making them slaves to the time clock.
Check out my post on 1-13-08 re: Recession?
Yesterday I spotted a young shopper in a well known retail chain wearing a t-shirt I admired. It was dark grey and featured a photograph of President Bush in a circle with a slash through the center. The caption under it read: "You're Fired!"
Meanwhile the workers in this store--especially the workers over age 50--(hmm?) have been getting their hours slashed since January '08. Some are and have been scheduled for as few as one or two days a week. How the $@*# are people supposed to pay their bills when their incomes get involuntarily cut in half--or less? Let them eat food stamps! (Food stamps don't pay the rent.)
The short answer is: The bosses don't care. The corporate bosses don't care. The bosses on WallStreet don't care. The party bosses in Washingtoon (as one of my favorite bloggers http://clapso.wordpress.com calls our nation's capitol) don't care, the pie in the sky preachers don't care. So it's time to fire 'em all. Fire them today, fire them next week, fire them in November. Storm the presidential palace as the Haitians did recently. They fired their prime minister.
And speaking of palaces, the current resident of the Vatican could sell some of that company's treasures and feed a lot of hungry people. How committed are these followers of Jesus to feeding the poor, healing the sick? Show us the money!
Mud pies is what they eat in Haiti. Yeah you heard right. Mud mixed with oil and sugar. And I thought spaghetti and ketchup was bad enough...
New York Times, April 18. "In Haiti, where three-quarters of the population earns less than $2 a day and one in five children is chronically malnourished the one business booming amid all the gloom is the selling of patties made of mud, oil and sugar, typically consumed only by the most destitute." by Marc Lacey.
I've known a lot of Haitian people. Hard working, devoted to family. They stick together. We could learn a thing or two from them. In the fish processing plant where I worked with mostly Haitian co workers on the night shift, a line leader slapped a Haitian worker. Within minutes of the incident, all Haitians in the plant were assembled, and they were angry. The next day, police were called to the plant-- not by company bosses, but by the Haitian worker's country men and women. The line leader was eventually fired. She had "friends" in high places, but it didn't matter. With the outrage stirred up by her behavior there was no alternative. To keep the peace, she had to go.
There are a lot of so called "leaders" who have to go. They're abusing the people, exploiting the workers. They're not worthy to lead.
Outrage is a good thing, properly channeled. It means you're awake. As someone's bumper sticker said: If You're Not Outraged, You're Not paying Attention."
Just in case the five readers of this blog think this post is about poverty in other countries...chew on this:
"47 million people make less than $10.50 an hour, six and a half, seven, eight dollars an hour before deductions; 45 million people without health care, 18,000 of whom die every year, according to the National Academy of Sciences, because they can't afford health care; 13 million children who go to bed hungry every night; 45 million people in dire poverty; 58,000 people who die from workplace connected diseases and trauma every year, according to OSHA; 65,000 people who can't breathe, and die because of air pollution."
The foregoing statistics were provided by Ralph Nader in a March 24, 2008 Newsweek article as his motivation for running for president.
"I have a very deep well of empathy," Mr. Nader said, citing the above.
Could this be why the major news networks won't let him debate?
Showing posts with label health care. Show all posts
Showing posts with label health care. Show all posts
4.18.2008
2.20.2008
An Unholy Alliance
February 10 was a dreadful day in the great Tundra Land of upstate New York. It started out sunny but cold. Then it started to snow, then it stopped for awhile, then it started up again. It was windy, and the wind was icy. The dry powdery white stuff deposited a thin and deceptive dusting over the treacherous ice. Which inspires me to ask:
Why the hell don't you businesses, property owners and YEAH--churches (!) clean the @#$%^&$#@%^&* sidewalks in front of your properties? Do you want people to slip and fall and sue you???? Do you find it acceptable that mothers are pushing their babies in strollers in the streets all winter long because the sidewalks are treacherous??? Do you find it acceptable that disabled folks on scooters are riding those scooters down the streets instead of on sidewalks????
As I said, February 10 was a dreadful day. I had to buy something at the dollar store, so out I went into the frozen mess. As I hurried along the dry covered walkway in front of the shops, I saw a tall young man slip on the ice and fall in the parking lot. I watched him as he got up and I thought: I have to be careful out there. I didn't find what I was looking for at the dollar store, so I headed home. As I stood on the sidewalk waiting for cars to pass, I saw one of them do an S-shape on the slippery surface of the parking lot. This is the parking lot I had to cross to get home. About halfway across, I slipped and fell. The pain was immediate, in my hand, elbow, and tailbone. I got up and walked; limping to the sidewalk on the outside of the shopping center parking lot. I made my way home, three or four blocks away. I thawed out.
Two hours later, the pain had ramped up, way up; and when the owner of the building came home, I asked her if her daughter, an RN, was home so I could call her and get some free advice. When my friend saw how much pain I was in, she insisted on driving me to the emergency room. She'd have to leave me there, she said, but told me to call her when I was ready to go home.
I got to St. Elizabeth Medical Center at 6 PM. I was finally released at 10 PM or later. I walked through the doors on the emergency room with one sleeve on, one sleeve off. My boots, which my friend had shoved onto my feet, were untied. The pain in my elbow was off the charts, screaming out loud pain. On the smiley face scale of 1-10, it was a twelve. The techs x rayed my back and elbow but didn't bother with my hand. Ten days after the fall, it's my hand/wrist that hurts most, when I open a door or try to pick up something with that hand, or lean on it.
The nurse at St. Elizabeth wheeled me to the doors and sent me on my way with a sling, two Motrins--after I'd asked for them five times from five different staffers--and some folded up sheets to prop up my sprained elbow. The diagnosis: sprained joint/tear in ligaments.
Discharge instructions : Arrange for a follow-up appointment with my doctor in 3-5 days. St. Elizabeth's warm and friendly scheduler at the clinic gave me an appointment for the 21st--11 days later. Thanks a lot! You know who you are, Miss Friendly.
Other instructions: severe sprains often need 3-6 weeks of immobilization to heal completely.
I need both hands to do my job so this puts me out of work and out of money. A fall on the ice brings my already low income to zero. That was an expensive trip to the dollar store.
Now I don't know how much those white hospital sheets are worth, but I sure as hell wasn't expecting the bill that arrived promptly on February 20th, even before the pain has faded away. St. Elizabeth is a non profit Catholic hospital, and in 2006 it got a nice little chunk o' change--$350,000-- from the government, according to a Senator Chuck Schumer news release.
Brother, can you spare $74.63???
With no choice in the matter, I was born into a Catholic family, raised in the Catholic religion, well schooled in the life and times of Jesus, the man who dispensed free health care to the poor, who distributed free food, and said: "Whatever you do to the least of my brothers, you do it to me."
This unholy alliance between a profiteering wealth care industry and a Catholic hospital bears no resemblance whatsoever to the Jesus I was schooled in, and I'll tell you this:
Get behind me, Catholic wealth care pretenders. You sent me a letter threatening to turn my $74.63 bill over to a collection agency, abill that started out $37.32, that you doubled after the fact! What was it that Jesus said to the loan sharks in the temple? Get the #$!! outa here, or words to that effect.
To the faithless, loveless Catholic religion I say: I rebuke you.
To my next of kin, and friends I say: when I'm dying, and breathing my last breaths, keep me OUT of hospitals, especially Catholic ones. Keep those black clad Catholic priests away--far away-- from me. The only religious figure I want anywhere near me as I prepare to leave this world is a genuine saffron or maroon robed Buddhist monk or nun. They don't need to speak English. Compassion is a universally understood language.
Unfortunately, so is greed!
In 1992, as I began my VISTA ( Volunteers in Service To America) year here in Tundra Land, Bill Clinton was running for president. In 1992, this upstate city was economically depressed, with a manufacturing base on life support, a large population of poor people, and a lot of low wage jobs.
It's now 2008, the manufacturing jobs are almost non existent, the boarded up buildings are many, the service and retail jobs pay minimum wage to formerly well paid factory workers. The county office building is crowded every day with poor people lined up for Food Stamps, Medicaid, and cash assistance-- most of whom work for their poverty level incomes.
How in%#!! can a full time worker be poor enough to qualify for Food Stamp?? Follow the money trail. There are tax breaks for companies that hire the poor--and keep them poor.
Here's a thought: pay all workers a LIVING WAGE, tied to the cost of utilities, housing, medical care, day care, and groceries in the region they live in. Then they could buy what they need directly with their own money, and not have to go through third party poverty pimps to access health care, affordable housing, food, day care, heating fuel. Poor people in upstate NY stand in more lines than the folks in the former USSR.
This city, and my country are in a recession, whether BushCorp cares to admit it or not.
Things haven't changed much in 16 years; they just got worse.
You know you're living in tough times when WalMart, the "low price leader," jacks up its prices.
Bottled water is 74 cents this week, up from 68.
But, as a sign on a Teamster picket line said: "Tough Times Don't Last, Tough People Do."
"Go with your gut," said a young co worker.
I'm going with my gut (and the Teamsters). My gut tells me CHANGE is long overdue.
Why the hell don't you businesses, property owners and YEAH--churches (!) clean the @#$%^&$#@%^&* sidewalks in front of your properties? Do you want people to slip and fall and sue you???? Do you find it acceptable that mothers are pushing their babies in strollers in the streets all winter long because the sidewalks are treacherous??? Do you find it acceptable that disabled folks on scooters are riding those scooters down the streets instead of on sidewalks????
As I said, February 10 was a dreadful day. I had to buy something at the dollar store, so out I went into the frozen mess. As I hurried along the dry covered walkway in front of the shops, I saw a tall young man slip on the ice and fall in the parking lot. I watched him as he got up and I thought: I have to be careful out there. I didn't find what I was looking for at the dollar store, so I headed home. As I stood on the sidewalk waiting for cars to pass, I saw one of them do an S-shape on the slippery surface of the parking lot. This is the parking lot I had to cross to get home. About halfway across, I slipped and fell. The pain was immediate, in my hand, elbow, and tailbone. I got up and walked; limping to the sidewalk on the outside of the shopping center parking lot. I made my way home, three or four blocks away. I thawed out.
Two hours later, the pain had ramped up, way up; and when the owner of the building came home, I asked her if her daughter, an RN, was home so I could call her and get some free advice. When my friend saw how much pain I was in, she insisted on driving me to the emergency room. She'd have to leave me there, she said, but told me to call her when I was ready to go home.
I got to St. Elizabeth Medical Center at 6 PM. I was finally released at 10 PM or later. I walked through the doors on the emergency room with one sleeve on, one sleeve off. My boots, which my friend had shoved onto my feet, were untied. The pain in my elbow was off the charts, screaming out loud pain. On the smiley face scale of 1-10, it was a twelve. The techs x rayed my back and elbow but didn't bother with my hand. Ten days after the fall, it's my hand/wrist that hurts most, when I open a door or try to pick up something with that hand, or lean on it.
The nurse at St. Elizabeth wheeled me to the doors and sent me on my way with a sling, two Motrins--after I'd asked for them five times from five different staffers--and some folded up sheets to prop up my sprained elbow. The diagnosis: sprained joint/tear in ligaments.
Discharge instructions : Arrange for a follow-up appointment with my doctor in 3-5 days. St. Elizabeth's warm and friendly scheduler at the clinic gave me an appointment for the 21st--11 days later. Thanks a lot! You know who you are, Miss Friendly.
Other instructions: severe sprains often need 3-6 weeks of immobilization to heal completely.
I need both hands to do my job so this puts me out of work and out of money. A fall on the ice brings my already low income to zero. That was an expensive trip to the dollar store.
Now I don't know how much those white hospital sheets are worth, but I sure as hell wasn't expecting the bill that arrived promptly on February 20th, even before the pain has faded away. St. Elizabeth is a non profit Catholic hospital, and in 2006 it got a nice little chunk o' change--$350,000-- from the government, according to a Senator Chuck Schumer news release.
Brother, can you spare $74.63???
With no choice in the matter, I was born into a Catholic family, raised in the Catholic religion, well schooled in the life and times of Jesus, the man who dispensed free health care to the poor, who distributed free food, and said: "Whatever you do to the least of my brothers, you do it to me."
This unholy alliance between a profiteering wealth care industry and a Catholic hospital bears no resemblance whatsoever to the Jesus I was schooled in, and I'll tell you this:
Get behind me, Catholic wealth care pretenders. You sent me a letter threatening to turn my $74.63 bill over to a collection agency, abill that started out $37.32, that you doubled after the fact! What was it that Jesus said to the loan sharks in the temple? Get the #$!! outa here, or words to that effect.
To the faithless, loveless Catholic religion I say: I rebuke you.
To my next of kin, and friends I say: when I'm dying, and breathing my last breaths, keep me OUT of hospitals, especially Catholic ones. Keep those black clad Catholic priests away--far away-- from me. The only religious figure I want anywhere near me as I prepare to leave this world is a genuine saffron or maroon robed Buddhist monk or nun. They don't need to speak English. Compassion is a universally understood language.
Unfortunately, so is greed!
In 1992, as I began my VISTA ( Volunteers in Service To America) year here in Tundra Land, Bill Clinton was running for president. In 1992, this upstate city was economically depressed, with a manufacturing base on life support, a large population of poor people, and a lot of low wage jobs.
It's now 2008, the manufacturing jobs are almost non existent, the boarded up buildings are many, the service and retail jobs pay minimum wage to formerly well paid factory workers. The county office building is crowded every day with poor people lined up for Food Stamps, Medicaid, and cash assistance-- most of whom work for their poverty level incomes.
How in%#!! can a full time worker be poor enough to qualify for Food Stamp?? Follow the money trail. There are tax breaks for companies that hire the poor--and keep them poor.
Here's a thought: pay all workers a LIVING WAGE, tied to the cost of utilities, housing, medical care, day care, and groceries in the region they live in. Then they could buy what they need directly with their own money, and not have to go through third party poverty pimps to access health care, affordable housing, food, day care, heating fuel. Poor people in upstate NY stand in more lines than the folks in the former USSR.
This city, and my country are in a recession, whether BushCorp cares to admit it or not.
Things haven't changed much in 16 years; they just got worse.
You know you're living in tough times when WalMart, the "low price leader," jacks up its prices.
Bottled water is 74 cents this week, up from 68.
But, as a sign on a Teamster picket line said: "Tough Times Don't Last, Tough People Do."
"Go with your gut," said a young co worker.
I'm going with my gut (and the Teamsters). My gut tells me CHANGE is long overdue.
1.26.2008
Visualize It!
March 22, 2009
The war is over. In honor of the Spring Solstice and in recognition that spring is the time when life begins anew, the new President elect of USA orders immediate transport of all troops to their homes. The UN passes a unanimous resolution to provide necessary food and medical aid to help rebuild war torn Iraq. The U.S. cancels all contracts with Halliburton and its subsidiaries. Cuba agrees to send doctors to the war torn country.
The new U.S. President signs into law the GI Recovery Act of 2009 mandating free, full, and prompt medical and dental coverage for all veterans for life. In addition Congress introduces a bill that will pay housing subsidies for all veterans to make home ownership affordable regardless of the soldier's financial situation or state of domicile. These benefits are retroactive to the beginning of the Iraq War. The President is expected to sign the bill.
The President issues a Declaration of Native American Sovereign Nation Recognition that recognizes the sovereign status of all American Indian Nations. He pledges to henceforth honor all treaties with American Indians, saying "We should never lose sight of the fact that America has an indigenous people, and everyone who settled here after them are immigrants. In cooperation with them we, as immigrants to this great country, can make it a better and stronger homeland for all of us."
Cindy Sheehan is appointed head of the newly established Department of Peace.
In partnership with Jobs With Justice and other national labor organizations, the President signs into law the New Millenium Sustainable Jobs Program. The new program will create jobs in Green Industries, including Green Construction, Sustainable Agriculture, Organic Farming, Bridge Building and Rehabbing, Building Trades, Windmill and Solar Panel Manufacturing Plants. The government further establishes an Office of Documentary Filmmaking, providing jobs and internships for those interetsed in those fields, and will provide funding for the establishment of independent community radio stations and newspapers. In addition, the government will fund studies on the uses and effects of Traditional Chinese Herbal Medicine, Ayurvedic Medicine, acupuncture, and exercise and physical medicine in the treatment of a wide variety of illnesses and conditions.
This summer the President and the UN will send diplomats to the Middle East to broker a legally binding agreement that will result in the chartering of permanent homelands to both the Israeli and the Palestinian people. The borders of the new nations will establish once and for all the sovereignity and right to self determination of both the Israeli and Palestinian people.
The President establishes the Americans in National Service Initiative. Upon reaching age seventeen, and before reaching age fifty-one, every American will be required to devote a year to civilian service-- either in one's home state, or elsewhere in the country. Al Gore accepts his appointment as head of the Environmental Protection Agency for life.
The President appoints a formerly homeless couple, Juan and Cristina Rojas, as co secretaries of Housing and Urban Development. In his Inaugural Address the president declares that "From this day forward it shall be illegal to evict any citizen of the United States or any non citizen working in gainful employment in the United States, from his or her housing. He directs the governors of every state to appoint local mediation boards to settle landlord tenant disputes free of charge to the tenant.
July, 2009. The U.S. Government establishes universal health care. It will be paid for by a federal sales tax, abolishing state sales taxes. Property tax is abolished. The government establishes a federal Housing Insurance Bureau to issue insurance policies for property owners in all fifty states.
A new amendment to the Constitution permanently establishes the 2009 Federal Fair Wage, and replaces the minimum wage. The new wage is permanently tied to the combined costs of housing, energy, food, and transportation in a given region. Food Stamps are discontinued, as it is no longer necessary to supplement poverty wages.
The president outlaws all predatory businesses, including collection agencies, payday lenders, human trafficking, and poverty pimping. All of the above are upgraded to felonies. Marijuana is legalized, regulated by the FDA, standardized to purity, and taxed. It is sold only to those 18 and older with proof of age. Tax revenues raised from the legal sale of marijuana wipes out the federal debt by the end of 2009.
Hundreds of new federal judges are appointed, and in April 2009, the Social Security Administration announces it will immediately begin testing and hiring thousands of disability analysts in every state. Average wait time for approval of a disability claim drops to six weeks by the end of 2009. With the president's new UniverSal Health, Medicare and Medicaid become a non issue.
The government announced that by the end of the year 2009, it will hire 10,000 new USDA food inspectors. It will increase hiring and training of food inspectors every year until the food supply is 100% safe.
A worldwide boycott of the Olympics in solidarity with the people of Burma brought unprecedented economic devastation to the games. A world wide walkout of all workers on day one of the Olympics threatened to topple stock markets around the globe. The UN quickly passed a resolution declaring all war and exploitation to be hazardous to human health, and in violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Thousands of unarmed Buddhist monks and supporters, including Hollywood stars, former Olympics gold medalists, Sylvester Stallone, a contingent of VietNam War veterans, and political leaders from around the world stormed the guarded compound where pro democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi has been held under house arrest for fourteen years, and pushed down the barbed wire surrounding the freedom fighter's house. As the fence came down, Myanmar soldiers set their weapons on the ground, and stepped aside, saying: "We are tired of this unjust government." A teenager with a camera phone sent images of the liberation to news agencies around the world.
After the elections, Suu Kyi was reinstated as President of newly renamed Democratic Republic of Burma. Gen Than Shwe and his cohorts were assigned permanent duties in work camps rebuilding the long neglected country.
This is a work in progress. I'm still in the idealism stage. I don't have all the answers, or even most of them. I do know, like a lot of other Americans, that CHANGE is needed--and soon. If you have some answers, please comment. Like Bobby Kennedy, one of my childhood heroes, I visualize what could be, and ask: WHY NOT?
P.S. "You might think I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one." (props to John Lennon)
The war is over. In honor of the Spring Solstice and in recognition that spring is the time when life begins anew, the new President elect of USA orders immediate transport of all troops to their homes. The UN passes a unanimous resolution to provide necessary food and medical aid to help rebuild war torn Iraq. The U.S. cancels all contracts with Halliburton and its subsidiaries. Cuba agrees to send doctors to the war torn country.
The new U.S. President signs into law the GI Recovery Act of 2009 mandating free, full, and prompt medical and dental coverage for all veterans for life. In addition Congress introduces a bill that will pay housing subsidies for all veterans to make home ownership affordable regardless of the soldier's financial situation or state of domicile. These benefits are retroactive to the beginning of the Iraq War. The President is expected to sign the bill.
The President issues a Declaration of Native American Sovereign Nation Recognition that recognizes the sovereign status of all American Indian Nations. He pledges to henceforth honor all treaties with American Indians, saying "We should never lose sight of the fact that America has an indigenous people, and everyone who settled here after them are immigrants. In cooperation with them we, as immigrants to this great country, can make it a better and stronger homeland for all of us."
Cindy Sheehan is appointed head of the newly established Department of Peace.
In partnership with Jobs With Justice and other national labor organizations, the President signs into law the New Millenium Sustainable Jobs Program. The new program will create jobs in Green Industries, including Green Construction, Sustainable Agriculture, Organic Farming, Bridge Building and Rehabbing, Building Trades, Windmill and Solar Panel Manufacturing Plants. The government further establishes an Office of Documentary Filmmaking, providing jobs and internships for those interetsed in those fields, and will provide funding for the establishment of independent community radio stations and newspapers. In addition, the government will fund studies on the uses and effects of Traditional Chinese Herbal Medicine, Ayurvedic Medicine, acupuncture, and exercise and physical medicine in the treatment of a wide variety of illnesses and conditions.
This summer the President and the UN will send diplomats to the Middle East to broker a legally binding agreement that will result in the chartering of permanent homelands to both the Israeli and the Palestinian people. The borders of the new nations will establish once and for all the sovereignity and right to self determination of both the Israeli and Palestinian people.
The President establishes the Americans in National Service Initiative. Upon reaching age seventeen, and before reaching age fifty-one, every American will be required to devote a year to civilian service-- either in one's home state, or elsewhere in the country. Al Gore accepts his appointment as head of the Environmental Protection Agency for life.
The President appoints a formerly homeless couple, Juan and Cristina Rojas, as co secretaries of Housing and Urban Development. In his Inaugural Address the president declares that "From this day forward it shall be illegal to evict any citizen of the United States or any non citizen working in gainful employment in the United States, from his or her housing. He directs the governors of every state to appoint local mediation boards to settle landlord tenant disputes free of charge to the tenant.
July, 2009. The U.S. Government establishes universal health care. It will be paid for by a federal sales tax, abolishing state sales taxes. Property tax is abolished. The government establishes a federal Housing Insurance Bureau to issue insurance policies for property owners in all fifty states.
A new amendment to the Constitution permanently establishes the 2009 Federal Fair Wage, and replaces the minimum wage. The new wage is permanently tied to the combined costs of housing, energy, food, and transportation in a given region. Food Stamps are discontinued, as it is no longer necessary to supplement poverty wages.
The president outlaws all predatory businesses, including collection agencies, payday lenders, human trafficking, and poverty pimping. All of the above are upgraded to felonies. Marijuana is legalized, regulated by the FDA, standardized to purity, and taxed. It is sold only to those 18 and older with proof of age. Tax revenues raised from the legal sale of marijuana wipes out the federal debt by the end of 2009.
Hundreds of new federal judges are appointed, and in April 2009, the Social Security Administration announces it will immediately begin testing and hiring thousands of disability analysts in every state. Average wait time for approval of a disability claim drops to six weeks by the end of 2009. With the president's new UniverSal Health, Medicare and Medicaid become a non issue.
The government announced that by the end of the year 2009, it will hire 10,000 new USDA food inspectors. It will increase hiring and training of food inspectors every year until the food supply is 100% safe.
A worldwide boycott of the Olympics in solidarity with the people of Burma brought unprecedented economic devastation to the games. A world wide walkout of all workers on day one of the Olympics threatened to topple stock markets around the globe. The UN quickly passed a resolution declaring all war and exploitation to be hazardous to human health, and in violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Thousands of unarmed Buddhist monks and supporters, including Hollywood stars, former Olympics gold medalists, Sylvester Stallone, a contingent of VietNam War veterans, and political leaders from around the world stormed the guarded compound where pro democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi has been held under house arrest for fourteen years, and pushed down the barbed wire surrounding the freedom fighter's house. As the fence came down, Myanmar soldiers set their weapons on the ground, and stepped aside, saying: "We are tired of this unjust government." A teenager with a camera phone sent images of the liberation to news agencies around the world.
After the elections, Suu Kyi was reinstated as President of newly renamed Democratic Republic of Burma. Gen Than Shwe and his cohorts were assigned permanent duties in work camps rebuilding the long neglected country.
This is a work in progress. I'm still in the idealism stage. I don't have all the answers, or even most of them. I do know, like a lot of other Americans, that CHANGE is needed--and soon. If you have some answers, please comment. Like Bobby Kennedy, one of my childhood heroes, I visualize what could be, and ask: WHY NOT?
P.S. "You might think I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one." (props to John Lennon)
7.24.2007
Disaster Areas
It's August and the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina is upon us. Like September 11, 2001, it's an anniversary we should never forget. It was a disaster we should learn from, and one we should make sure never happens again.
Unfortunately there are other disasters in the making, both large and small in scale. Here are a few: Our health care system, the infrastructure, old apartment buildings with lead paint usually inhabited by poor people, and often those people are children. A federal slave wage of $6.15 an hour; the hi jackings--of our constitutional rights, habeas corpus, ergonomic/health and safety regs and enforcement in the workplace; bankruptcy protection for working class consumers. That's only for airlines and automakers --right? Katrina survivors languishing in formaldehyde riddled trailers, indefinitely, because the N.O. levee wasn't fortified, even though it was known to be deficient (there's that infrastructure problem again).
Bad food. Contaminated, highly processed cheap food. Food scarcity. People who work and yet can't afford food. Small minded local governments that pass ordinances making the free sharing of nutritious food illegal. See http://www.orlandofoodnotbombs.org/
We need: more food co ops so more people can buy healthy fresh produce, and organic foods. More gyms in inner city communities with sliding scale fees, more employers giving discounts to workers who join gyms and can prove regular attendance.
More emphasis on preventive and restorative health care such as: chiropractic, nutrition and exercise counseling, vitamins, prescription strength herbal medicine, acupuncture, acupressure, massage therapy. Less emphasis on surgery, prescription drugs, and invasive procedures. Instead of disaster cleanup after someone's health has fallen apart, restore and build health with proper diet, exercise and stress reduction; and once health has been restored, maintain it.
An RN told me about a man who came into the hospital where she worked with an abscessed tooth. The infection spread to his brain and put him into a coma. Eventually he died. For lack of dental care, he died. Dental plans these days don't cover much. Basic fillings, cleaning, extraction, dentures. They balk at paying for the dental services needed to keep teeth and gums healthy. Many dentists refuse to accept certain well known employer provided dental insurances because they don't get paid.
The way it works is this: Worker Jane pays xx$ outa every pay check for health care. Worker Jane gets sick, goes to Doctor X, and pays xx$ copay for a prescription. The health "provider" sends a bill for xxx$ to Worker Jane for the doctor visit. Worker Jane also pays xx$ to the pharmacy for the prescription drugs prescribed by Doctor X.
Unfortunately the drugs don't make Worker Jane feel better, so back she goes to Doctor X because he is in her health "network." Worker Jane has heard about acupuncture helping people with stress and chronic pain, and she'd like to try it, but--too bad, so sad--there are no acupuncture physicians covered by Worker Jane's health plan. Unless she moves to Europe.
Unfortunately there are other disasters in the making, both large and small in scale. Here are a few: Our health care system, the infrastructure, old apartment buildings with lead paint usually inhabited by poor people, and often those people are children. A federal slave wage of $6.15 an hour; the hi jackings--of our constitutional rights, habeas corpus, ergonomic/health and safety regs and enforcement in the workplace; bankruptcy protection for working class consumers. That's only for airlines and automakers --right? Katrina survivors languishing in formaldehyde riddled trailers, indefinitely, because the N.O. levee wasn't fortified, even though it was known to be deficient (there's that infrastructure problem again).
Bad food. Contaminated, highly processed cheap food. Food scarcity. People who work and yet can't afford food. Small minded local governments that pass ordinances making the free sharing of nutritious food illegal. See http://www.orlandofoodnotbombs.org/
We need: more food co ops so more people can buy healthy fresh produce, and organic foods. More gyms in inner city communities with sliding scale fees, more employers giving discounts to workers who join gyms and can prove regular attendance.
More emphasis on preventive and restorative health care such as: chiropractic, nutrition and exercise counseling, vitamins, prescription strength herbal medicine, acupuncture, acupressure, massage therapy. Less emphasis on surgery, prescription drugs, and invasive procedures. Instead of disaster cleanup after someone's health has fallen apart, restore and build health with proper diet, exercise and stress reduction; and once health has been restored, maintain it.
An RN told me about a man who came into the hospital where she worked with an abscessed tooth. The infection spread to his brain and put him into a coma. Eventually he died. For lack of dental care, he died. Dental plans these days don't cover much. Basic fillings, cleaning, extraction, dentures. They balk at paying for the dental services needed to keep teeth and gums healthy. Many dentists refuse to accept certain well known employer provided dental insurances because they don't get paid.
The way it works is this: Worker Jane pays xx$ outa every pay check for health care. Worker Jane gets sick, goes to Doctor X, and pays xx$ copay for a prescription. The health "provider" sends a bill for xxx$ to Worker Jane for the doctor visit. Worker Jane also pays xx$ to the pharmacy for the prescription drugs prescribed by Doctor X.
Unfortunately the drugs don't make Worker Jane feel better, so back she goes to Doctor X because he is in her health "network." Worker Jane has heard about acupuncture helping people with stress and chronic pain, and she'd like to try it, but--too bad, so sad--there are no acupuncture physicians covered by Worker Jane's health plan. Unless she moves to Europe.
Got frequent flyer miles?
7.22.2007
Not a Political Blog (not)
A few dozen posts back I said this is not a political blog. It's about health care and workers' rights, poverty and homelessness, and ultimately, it's about people. But people's lives are directly affected by politics, so as distasteful as politics are (is?) to me, maybe this blog and the issues I wrote/write about are political after all. And, looking at my backward Bush counter hanging on my wall, (547 days left of the Bush presidency) I'm reminded that we are closing in on a presidential election year.
This may be one of the most important ones in America's history.
8:00 A.M. Overheard on a bus in upstate New York: African American teen girl to another: "Well, have fun at work."
"I never have fun at work."
9:00 A.M. Overheard in women's locker room at gym: Thirty something white woman to another woman:
"They're paying $20,000 a year and expect me to live on that? I have a mortgage, bills to pay. I'm self supporting..."
10:00 A.M. Middle aged white woman to representative for managed care health plan:
"Why won't they pay for chiropractic and acupuncture? It's cheaper than MD's and it works.
HMO representative: "New York state doesn't recognize chiropractors."
Woman: "I have back problems and pain. I know a chiropractor can help, and I know acupuncture works. The state won't pay for what works, but it will pay for drugs that I can get addicted to?"
The status quo doesn't work anymore. It doesn't work for me, and it doesn't work for a lot of folks. The economic wounds in this country are great, gaping canyons. Bandaids won't stop the bleeding. Neither will a minimum wage increase to $6.15 an hour pay anyone's bills. Pain killers won't fix a bad back, any more than a couple of beers will give the woman in the gym enough income to pay her mortgage. My message to the politicians-- all of you competing for a job that comes with free housing, free health care and job security for at least four years--show us the money!
This may be one of the most important ones in America's history.
8:00 A.M. Overheard on a bus in upstate New York: African American teen girl to another: "Well, have fun at work."
"I never have fun at work."
9:00 A.M. Overheard in women's locker room at gym: Thirty something white woman to another woman:
"They're paying $20,000 a year and expect me to live on that? I have a mortgage, bills to pay. I'm self supporting..."
10:00 A.M. Middle aged white woman to representative for managed care health plan:
"Why won't they pay for chiropractic and acupuncture? It's cheaper than MD's and it works.
HMO representative: "New York state doesn't recognize chiropractors."
Woman: "I have back problems and pain. I know a chiropractor can help, and I know acupuncture works. The state won't pay for what works, but it will pay for drugs that I can get addicted to?"
The status quo doesn't work anymore. It doesn't work for me, and it doesn't work for a lot of folks. The economic wounds in this country are great, gaping canyons. Bandaids won't stop the bleeding. Neither will a minimum wage increase to $6.15 an hour pay anyone's bills. Pain killers won't fix a bad back, any more than a couple of beers will give the woman in the gym enough income to pay her mortgage. My message to the politicians-- all of you competing for a job that comes with free housing, free health care and job security for at least four years--show us the money!
7.17.2006
Dr. Jeanne Has Left the Building
Since this blog is about health issues, I'm writing about a woman I knew when she was a medical student, pursuing her degree in women's medicine. As I do, she also believes in holistic health care. She believes the body has the capacity to heal itself, given the right conditions, including proper rest and nutrition. Jeannie was one of my favorite Haitian co-workers. Also one of the most exasperating, at times. Intelligent, educated, and articulate, she could be a total space cadet, no doubt because she had to juggle many tasks, drive many miles, and wear many hats.
For about a year we worked the graveyard shift together in the same retail sweatshop, abused by the same psycho boss. When things got too intense, I broke into song--singing We Shall Overcome-- really badly. My creaky voice could always get a laugh out of Jeannie. Another much persecuted co-worker liked to sing the one about the cotton fields back home. But if we didn't have workplace justice, we at least had each other, and we talked about all kinds of things, much to the irritation of Psycho Boss. The last thing bosses like this want to see is workers sticking together.
One night after another tongue lashing, Jeannie had finally had enough of the abuse and she walked out. Thereafter, she devoted herself full time to her studies and her medical internship. We continued to talk on the phone-- for hours, sometimes.
She was a devout Catholic, while I aspire to the path of Zen (with no road map, I might add).
Something Jeannie told me on the phone one day I'll never forget.
She said: "We are all born free. God wants us to be free."
It was heavy statement, because it made me face the reality that if I were truly free, I would have quit the sweatshop too. A long time ago. Wage slavery is not God's work. It doesn't even serve humankind.
What made me stay under those conditions, for as long as I did, I can't say. If it was about money, then why did I struggle always to pay the bills? I could say it was for the fear of unemployment, but if you live your life imprisoned by fear you might as well be dead, because you are not free.
If it's true that you "make the road by walking," (attribution unknown) then I make my path by walking...
Disclaimer: This is a work of creative non fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons/bosses is purely coincidental.
For about a year we worked the graveyard shift together in the same retail sweatshop, abused by the same psycho boss. When things got too intense, I broke into song--singing We Shall Overcome-- really badly. My creaky voice could always get a laugh out of Jeannie. Another much persecuted co-worker liked to sing the one about the cotton fields back home. But if we didn't have workplace justice, we at least had each other, and we talked about all kinds of things, much to the irritation of Psycho Boss. The last thing bosses like this want to see is workers sticking together.
One night after another tongue lashing, Jeannie had finally had enough of the abuse and she walked out. Thereafter, she devoted herself full time to her studies and her medical internship. We continued to talk on the phone-- for hours, sometimes.
She was a devout Catholic, while I aspire to the path of Zen (with no road map, I might add).
Something Jeannie told me on the phone one day I'll never forget.
She said: "We are all born free. God wants us to be free."
It was heavy statement, because it made me face the reality that if I were truly free, I would have quit the sweatshop too. A long time ago. Wage slavery is not God's work. It doesn't even serve humankind.
What made me stay under those conditions, for as long as I did, I can't say. If it was about money, then why did I struggle always to pay the bills? I could say it was for the fear of unemployment, but if you live your life imprisoned by fear you might as well be dead, because you are not free.
If it's true that you "make the road by walking," (attribution unknown) then I make my path by walking...
Disclaimer: This is a work of creative non fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons/bosses is purely coincidental.
7.16.2006
Health Care is as Health Care Does
Good people rise above bad politics, and bad politics sink good people. That being said, let me say this: this is not a political blog. It's about health and workplace issues, which often go hand in hand--badly.
I wanted to write about a currently living doctor, an unusual doctor, whose work I greatly admire, but he did not respond to my interview requests. (We blogwriters just don't get no respect.) So, I'm writing about another doctor, also a very unusual doctor--Dr. Ernesto Guevara. Most people know him as "Che." The following words are taken from the book Che: A Revolutionary Life, by Jon Lee Anderson.
"She was dying and there was little Ernesto could do for her. After giving her a prescription for her diet, what remained of his own supply of Dramamine tablets, and a few other medicines, he left, followed by the praising words of the old lady and the indifferent stares of her relatives. The encounter affected him deeply and led him to think about the heartlessness of poverty."
"There in the final moments of people whose farthest horizon is always tomorrow, one sees the tragedy that enfolds the lives of the proletariat throughout the whole world; in those dying eyes there is a submissive apology and also, frequently, a desperate plea for consolation that is lost in the void, just as their body will soon be lost in the magnitude of misery surrounding us. How long this order of things based on an absurd sense of caste will continue is not within my means to answer, but it is time that those who govern dedicate less time to propagandizing the compassion of their regimes and more money, much more money, sponsoring works of social utility."
I wanted to write about a currently living doctor, an unusual doctor, whose work I greatly admire, but he did not respond to my interview requests. (We blogwriters just don't get no respect.) So, I'm writing about another doctor, also a very unusual doctor--Dr. Ernesto Guevara. Most people know him as "Che." The following words are taken from the book Che: A Revolutionary Life, by Jon Lee Anderson.
"She was dying and there was little Ernesto could do for her. After giving her a prescription for her diet, what remained of his own supply of Dramamine tablets, and a few other medicines, he left, followed by the praising words of the old lady and the indifferent stares of her relatives. The encounter affected him deeply and led him to think about the heartlessness of poverty."
"There in the final moments of people whose farthest horizon is always tomorrow, one sees the tragedy that enfolds the lives of the proletariat throughout the whole world; in those dying eyes there is a submissive apology and also, frequently, a desperate plea for consolation that is lost in the void, just as their body will soon be lost in the magnitude of misery surrounding us. How long this order of things based on an absurd sense of caste will continue is not within my means to answer, but it is time that those who govern dedicate less time to propagandizing the compassion of their regimes and more money, much more money, sponsoring works of social utility."
7.09.2006
World Wide Genocide
There is no safe place when you're poor. I used to think this was only in America, where spending on social programs has been demolished by design, but the blog of Wandering Scribe has made me understand this "trend" is worldwide. A world wide genocide against the poor (apologies to Pearl Jam for the World Wide Suicide rip off).
The pain in my head is most likely caused by a long ago car accident in which I was hit from behind, and that resulted in almost immediate head and neck pain. I know from experience that a chiropractor can make the pain disappear, sometimes for weeks at a time. But I have no health insurance, and no money to pay the medical bills. I canceled my health insurance, because I couldn't afford to pay the premiums, but it doesn't matter because when I was working, the employer provided insurance "coverage" didn't pay for chiropractic treatment either. Or acupuncture. And since throwing boxes all night aggravated the injuries, continuous pain was guaranteed. Today's headache came with a bonus: numb feet and nausea. I don't know if they're connected. I just know I was too sick to do anything, including write in this blog. I thought for awhile about maybe having to go to the emergency room, and I thought about the huge bills I'd never be able to pay, so I concluded death would be preferable. Having no health "benefits" doesn't make me feel less safe. It makes no difference at all.
I remembered a news story I read about a "free clinic" run by Muslim doctors, but I didn't save the article. I called a family member who works in the health care field and asked her to try to find out where this clinic is. I might need it someday. Still, I have my doubts.
There's very little that's "free" these days. Everything comes with conditions, with a price. Only your mother's love is free and unconditional. And those very rare--and very few, friends. When you become too sick to function even on a basic level, and know there's no help available to you without money, that's terror. Health care terrorism.
When you try for nine months to find a job, and you are homeless and have one more unemployment check and the job you're offered pays about $250 after taxes--working full time--that's terror: economic terrorism. After nine months of unemployment, and 16 months of homelessness, I finally found an apartment I could afford. It was a studio, very small, but OK. The rent was cheap, and so was my paycheck, but I made it for a year. Then a new landlord bought the building, and all the tenants fled. In terror. Housing terrorism.
New tenants moved in--with bigger incomes or rich parents. I wanted to flee too, but could find no apartment where my 11 year-old dog could live too, so I stayed, and paid the $200 a month rent increase, until all my savings ran out, and my in-laws said then: we'll take the dog in. So my dog moved, and soon after I found another apartment. And meanwhile, my dog died, and I wasn't even with him at the end. When you're poor, even your dog gets terrorized. Pet terrorism.
When you're poor, you get moved around a lot, because the rents are always rising, and the apartments are always going condo, and poor people can't buy their apartments. In Florida, even middle class people can't buy their apartments, never mind a house. So where is this state going to house all the low wage workers they so desperately need to keep the service economy running? Maybe they'll build company dormitories, like they do in China. But unlike China, they'll charge us rent for our bunk beds.
When you move a lot, it's hard to put down roots, be part of a community. It's especially hard in Florida. Everything can take root and grow here; everything except humans.
The pain in my head is most likely caused by a long ago car accident in which I was hit from behind, and that resulted in almost immediate head and neck pain. I know from experience that a chiropractor can make the pain disappear, sometimes for weeks at a time. But I have no health insurance, and no money to pay the medical bills. I canceled my health insurance, because I couldn't afford to pay the premiums, but it doesn't matter because when I was working, the employer provided insurance "coverage" didn't pay for chiropractic treatment either. Or acupuncture. And since throwing boxes all night aggravated the injuries, continuous pain was guaranteed. Today's headache came with a bonus: numb feet and nausea. I don't know if they're connected. I just know I was too sick to do anything, including write in this blog. I thought for awhile about maybe having to go to the emergency room, and I thought about the huge bills I'd never be able to pay, so I concluded death would be preferable. Having no health "benefits" doesn't make me feel less safe. It makes no difference at all.
I remembered a news story I read about a "free clinic" run by Muslim doctors, but I didn't save the article. I called a family member who works in the health care field and asked her to try to find out where this clinic is. I might need it someday. Still, I have my doubts.
There's very little that's "free" these days. Everything comes with conditions, with a price. Only your mother's love is free and unconditional. And those very rare--and very few, friends. When you become too sick to function even on a basic level, and know there's no help available to you without money, that's terror. Health care terrorism.
When you try for nine months to find a job, and you are homeless and have one more unemployment check and the job you're offered pays about $250 after taxes--working full time--that's terror: economic terrorism. After nine months of unemployment, and 16 months of homelessness, I finally found an apartment I could afford. It was a studio, very small, but OK. The rent was cheap, and so was my paycheck, but I made it for a year. Then a new landlord bought the building, and all the tenants fled. In terror. Housing terrorism.
New tenants moved in--with bigger incomes or rich parents. I wanted to flee too, but could find no apartment where my 11 year-old dog could live too, so I stayed, and paid the $200 a month rent increase, until all my savings ran out, and my in-laws said then: we'll take the dog in. So my dog moved, and soon after I found another apartment. And meanwhile, my dog died, and I wasn't even with him at the end. When you're poor, even your dog gets terrorized. Pet terrorism.
When you're poor, you get moved around a lot, because the rents are always rising, and the apartments are always going condo, and poor people can't buy their apartments. In Florida, even middle class people can't buy their apartments, never mind a house. So where is this state going to house all the low wage workers they so desperately need to keep the service economy running? Maybe they'll build company dormitories, like they do in China. But unlike China, they'll charge us rent for our bunk beds.
When you move a lot, it's hard to put down roots, be part of a community. It's especially hard in Florida. Everything can take root and grow here; everything except humans.
7.06.2006
Blueberry Fields 4-ever
Something is wrong inside. I feel it, like that flicker just before the light goes out and the screen gets dark. Something inside is flickering, some energy is running down, and it has been for some time.
So before I go out, I want to be engaged, so to speak. I don't want my light to go out in some dead end job or sitting in front of a T.V.. There is a chain of life. We are all links.
This is what I think about while eating blueberries. One berry at a time. I look at them, fascinated by the color. What other food is this color? Some are sweet, and some are not. I'm mindful of their path to my kitchen. Of how the blueberries came to be in the supermarket where I bought them. Of the labor required to "rake" them. Of the workers, exposed to pesticides and to the elements, working sometimes in extreme heat, bending for hours, at risk for back injuries. I think of the human price that made these blueberries affordable to someone like me. I think of the low wages--especially in the southern U.S., without health insurance or other benefits.
I'm no guilt ridden white liberal, having worked in a succession of low wage jobs without air conditioning. Some of these could be described as sweatshop conditions, and have been so described by some of my co workers. But as an American citizen, I've had a few advantages that my sisters and brothers in the fields do not. Health care, for one. However inadequate and unaffordable. Vacation days. Paid holidays. The ability to change jobs and not be deported. So we are different. But in some ways, maybe not that different.
They work in the fields, in rural areas. Maybe they want to be someplace else. But there they are, for love of family and children, trying to outrun poverty. And in another kind of field--maybe in a downtown high rise or a suburban office park, somebody else labors over paper work, struggles with a heavy mental burden. Maybe they too want to be someplace else, but they stay in the office they have learned to hate, for the love of family and children, trying to outrun poverty. Different fields, different languages. Same motivations. We are all connected. By blueberries, by lettuce, by paper, by pineapple scented candles; by the economic chains that hold us all.
This one's for you, Andrea. Wherever in Mexico you are.
So before I go out, I want to be engaged, so to speak. I don't want my light to go out in some dead end job or sitting in front of a T.V.. There is a chain of life. We are all links.
This is what I think about while eating blueberries. One berry at a time. I look at them, fascinated by the color. What other food is this color? Some are sweet, and some are not. I'm mindful of their path to my kitchen. Of how the blueberries came to be in the supermarket where I bought them. Of the labor required to "rake" them. Of the workers, exposed to pesticides and to the elements, working sometimes in extreme heat, bending for hours, at risk for back injuries. I think of the human price that made these blueberries affordable to someone like me. I think of the low wages--especially in the southern U.S., without health insurance or other benefits.
I'm no guilt ridden white liberal, having worked in a succession of low wage jobs without air conditioning. Some of these could be described as sweatshop conditions, and have been so described by some of my co workers. But as an American citizen, I've had a few advantages that my sisters and brothers in the fields do not. Health care, for one. However inadequate and unaffordable. Vacation days. Paid holidays. The ability to change jobs and not be deported. So we are different. But in some ways, maybe not that different.
They work in the fields, in rural areas. Maybe they want to be someplace else. But there they are, for love of family and children, trying to outrun poverty. And in another kind of field--maybe in a downtown high rise or a suburban office park, somebody else labors over paper work, struggles with a heavy mental burden. Maybe they too want to be someplace else, but they stay in the office they have learned to hate, for the love of family and children, trying to outrun poverty. Different fields, different languages. Same motivations. We are all connected. By blueberries, by lettuce, by paper, by pineapple scented candles; by the economic chains that hold us all.
This one's for you, Andrea. Wherever in Mexico you are.
Union Si!
(This is reprinted from an article published in the June 1999 issue of Industrial Worker, the newspaper of the Industrial Workers of the World.)
Bearing an eagle silhouette and the words "Hasta La Victoria," the red, black, and yellow banners of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC) flapped in vivid opposition to a backdrop of gray skies over Tampa, Florida. On this Saturday morning, the sky yielded a soft rain; a release from the week long heat. Fernando Cuevas Jr. sheltered his younger brother under his umbrella while organizer Dan Belgrad offered to share his umbrella with a new supporter who arrived at the Food Lion supermarket at 10 A.M.. Shoppers accustomed to living in a land of perpetual sunshine, hurried to their cars. FLOC organizers decided shoppers would not be receptive to leaflets and picket signs as they dodged the drizzle, so the rally was postponed.
In the fields, Fernando Cuevas Sr. observed, rain changes nothing. If there are cucumbers to pick, they pick. If it rains, they work. If the sun beats down, they work. The work days are long; ten, twelve, fourteen hour days are common. It's a marriage of sorts, this relationship between farmworkers and field; between men, women, and children who live in squalid, crowded quarters and the land they work until it's time to move on to the next crop. Asked if farm workers have employer provided health insurance, Cuevas replied they don't need it, explaining that pickers don't get sick. "We can't afford to," he said, adding that if they get sick, they work anyway.
Teresa Ivey, a Tampa activist and nurse practitioner, agreed. Ivey works at a Plant City clinic where many of the patients are migrant farmworkers' children.
"They don't go to the clinic themselves," she said of the adult farmworkers. "They bring their children."
"They (the government) are federally subsidizing what employers should be paying for," Cuevas said.
Employers in Southern right-to-work states like North Carolina, where the Mt. Olive pickle company is based, are openly hostile to unions. While organizing in North Carolina, Cuevas says his life was threatened by growers. He was told, "The Yankees won the war, but us Southerners never freed the slaves. We use them now as sharecroppers." Eighty percent of North Carolina farmworkers are Hispanic.
Farmworkers in non-union southern states are paid under a complicated piece work system that many workers don't understand. Without a contract, they are open to exploitation.
"There is no enforcement to make sure workers get paid the minimum," said Cuevas. In contrast, union workers in states like Ohio and Michigan are guaranteed a minimum of $6 an hour. In 1993, sharecropping in Ohio and Michigan was eliminated by agreement, and farmworkers became employees with rights.
Cuevas said their goal is to "organize the South." FLOC has fought this war before. In 1978, the union clashed with the Campbell Soup Company when Ohio farm workers went on strike in fields contracted to that company. At issue were sub minimum wages, exclusion from protective legislation, poor sanitation, health care, and housing. A national consumer boycott of Campbell and its major supporters eventually succeeded in securing a contract in February 1986 between FLOC, Campbell, and thirty-five family farmers. Contracts with Heinz, Vlasic, and 49 growers followed in 1987.
Though for the moment rained out, FLOC promises to be back. On this unlikely day, the farmworker union picked up four new supporters. More pickets are planned for June and July in various South Florida locations.
-Cris D'Angelo, Tampa
The Mt. Olive pickle boycott had a successful outcome, eventually winning a contract for the cucumber pickers. Go to www.floc.com to read more about the Farm Labor Organizing Committee.
Bearing an eagle silhouette and the words "Hasta La Victoria," the red, black, and yellow banners of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC) flapped in vivid opposition to a backdrop of gray skies over Tampa, Florida. On this Saturday morning, the sky yielded a soft rain; a release from the week long heat. Fernando Cuevas Jr. sheltered his younger brother under his umbrella while organizer Dan Belgrad offered to share his umbrella with a new supporter who arrived at the Food Lion supermarket at 10 A.M.. Shoppers accustomed to living in a land of perpetual sunshine, hurried to their cars. FLOC organizers decided shoppers would not be receptive to leaflets and picket signs as they dodged the drizzle, so the rally was postponed.
In the fields, Fernando Cuevas Sr. observed, rain changes nothing. If there are cucumbers to pick, they pick. If it rains, they work. If the sun beats down, they work. The work days are long; ten, twelve, fourteen hour days are common. It's a marriage of sorts, this relationship between farmworkers and field; between men, women, and children who live in squalid, crowded quarters and the land they work until it's time to move on to the next crop. Asked if farm workers have employer provided health insurance, Cuevas replied they don't need it, explaining that pickers don't get sick. "We can't afford to," he said, adding that if they get sick, they work anyway.
Teresa Ivey, a Tampa activist and nurse practitioner, agreed. Ivey works at a Plant City clinic where many of the patients are migrant farmworkers' children.
"They don't go to the clinic themselves," she said of the adult farmworkers. "They bring their children."
"They (the government) are federally subsidizing what employers should be paying for," Cuevas said.
Employers in Southern right-to-work states like North Carolina, where the Mt. Olive pickle company is based, are openly hostile to unions. While organizing in North Carolina, Cuevas says his life was threatened by growers. He was told, "The Yankees won the war, but us Southerners never freed the slaves. We use them now as sharecroppers." Eighty percent of North Carolina farmworkers are Hispanic.
Farmworkers in non-union southern states are paid under a complicated piece work system that many workers don't understand. Without a contract, they are open to exploitation.
"There is no enforcement to make sure workers get paid the minimum," said Cuevas. In contrast, union workers in states like Ohio and Michigan are guaranteed a minimum of $6 an hour. In 1993, sharecropping in Ohio and Michigan was eliminated by agreement, and farmworkers became employees with rights.
Cuevas said their goal is to "organize the South." FLOC has fought this war before. In 1978, the union clashed with the Campbell Soup Company when Ohio farm workers went on strike in fields contracted to that company. At issue were sub minimum wages, exclusion from protective legislation, poor sanitation, health care, and housing. A national consumer boycott of Campbell and its major supporters eventually succeeded in securing a contract in February 1986 between FLOC, Campbell, and thirty-five family farmers. Contracts with Heinz, Vlasic, and 49 growers followed in 1987.
Though for the moment rained out, FLOC promises to be back. On this unlikely day, the farmworker union picked up four new supporters. More pickets are planned for June and July in various South Florida locations.
-Cris D'Angelo, Tampa
The Mt. Olive pickle boycott had a successful outcome, eventually winning a contract for the cucumber pickers. Go to www.floc.com to read more about the Farm Labor Organizing Committee.
6.15.2006
Whose Health is it Anyway?
Health care and the working stiff--it's enough to make you sick. These two doctors I've seen have refused to fill out the paperwork required by my employer for a paid medical Leave of Absence. So it becomes an unpaid leave, which means without income. No income means I can't pay my health care premiums, so I'll lose my benefits. Very soon I'll join that elite group of over 40 million Americans Without Health Insurance.
The way the last doctor treated me made me feel violated. I showed up early for the appointment, and was kept waiting more than an hour. By the time I finally saw this doctor my normally low blood pressure had shot up higher than it's ever been. He was loud, angry, hostile; asked me if I was "married." I said, "What's that got to do with anything?" If he'd bothered to read the patient questionaire I had to bring to the appointment, he'd know the answer anyway.
Then he asked if I had a history of depression, insinuating I guess, that my liver condition is all in my mind? So I told him no, haven't been officially diagnosed, but yeah it is depressing to be told I have to "swallow" whatever the MD gods decide is best for me--even when my own instincts scream: NO!
And it's depressing to be treated like a non-person, like I can't educate myself, make informed decisions about my own health. Basically this doctor told me that if I choose not to inject myself with the currently accepted (by the mainstream medical establishment) costly, scary side effects causing chemical treatment, then I'm "refusing treatment" and he refuses to fill out my leave of absence papers.
Refusing what? I don't smoke, drink, or use any drugs, including over the counter. I adhere to a vegan diet, and exercise several times weekly. Is that not treatment? Why is dosing oneself with powerful chemicals the only way to treat a disease? Mainstream medicine is slow to accept "new" treatments, especially those that can't be patented by a drug company. They call it "alternative," but acupuncture and herbal medicine have been used in Asia for hundreds of years. There's more info at http://nccam.nih.gov/health/acupuncture.
There was a time, not so many years ago, when chiropractic care was viewed as not quite legit. Now it's considered "conservative."
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