a1512: AP: Voodoo Signs threatened some workers (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: JD Lemieux <lxhaiti@yahoo.com>

Workers: Voodoo Signs Present Before Union Vote


Tuesday, March 26, 2002

By KEN THOMAS
The Associated Press

MIAMI -- Workers at a nursing home testified Monday that
they felt threatened by voodoo signs they saw before a
union election that lawyers for the facility say should be
nullified.

Employees of Mt. Sinai-St. Francis Nursing and
Rehabilitation Center said they saw lines of pennies,
half-empty cups of water and a pro-union employee twisting
black beads in her hands before the Feb. 28 election, which
the union won.

"If there was a group of people afraid of voodoo, your mind
could be swayed," Barbra White Bynum, an employee at the
nursing home in suburban Miami Shores, said at a National
Labor Relations Board hearing into the disputed election.

Lawyers for the nursing home, which has a large
Haitian-American work force, contend that workers were
spooked into supporting the union.

Union officials have accused the nursing home of trying to
overturn the results of the election by offering bogus or
frivolous claims.

Workers at the nursing home voted 49 to 37 to unionize,
citing low wages, unaffordable health insurance and
mistreatment from management.

Labor and Haitian-American leaders gathered outside the
nursing home last week to denounce what they called racist
and anti-immigrant charges.

But lawyers for the nursing home presented several workers
who described an atmosphere of fear of voodoo pervading in
the 150-bed, nonprofit facility.

Lula Torina McClain-Barrett, a dietary aide, said she was
worried after finding half-filled cups of water placed on
cabinets and rows of three pennies in drawers that held
sheets.

She said she was warned by others who knew about voodoo not
to touch the pennies.

"After she told me they could be evil, I left them alone,"
McClain-Barrett said.

Bynum, a dietary aid, said a co-worker warned her about the
consequences if workers failed to approve the union.

"She said we have tried two times to get the union here,
and if the Haitians don't vote the union in, something bad
is going to happen to them."

Avernell Merle Simmons, a cook and dietary aide, said on
election day she saw a union supporter carrying a set of
black beads in her hands. She said black beads are prayed
over in voodoo to accomplish one's goals.

"I thought that was the rea-son that we lost," Simmons
said.

Lawyers for Local 1199 of the Service Employees
International Union showed under cross-examination that
none of the employees had ever seen others purposely
placing pennies or half-filled cups of water inside the
facility.

Testimony was expected to continue through today.


Voodoo evolved in the 17th century among African slaves
brought to the Caribbean. Followers believe in a supreme
god and a world of mighty spirits who link humans with the
divine.


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