a1554: Vigil for Justice for Mt. Sinai/St. Francis Workers (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Dear Friends,


The workers at Mt. Sinai/St. Francis Nursing Center need your help.

On February 28, 2002, the Mt. Sinai/St. Francis Nursing Center workers –
determined to come out of poverty – decided to unionize.  They voted in a
union election supervised by the National Labor Relations Board, and they
won.

Within a week, the nursing home management had filed objections in an effort
to overturn the results of the election.  The basis of the employer’s
objection was an allegation that the union had used “voodoo” to intimidate
the largely Haitian workforce into voting for the union.  Clearly, the
employer’s allegations have no respect for the culture, religion, and
heritage of the workers whom they employ as evidenced by their
characterization of vodoun as evil and the stereotyping of Haitian workers
as “casting spells” on their coworkers.

Filing objections to a union election is a typical union-busting tactic to
try to delay the certification of the election for years, thereby
prohibiting the workers from negotiating improvements in their working
conditions, salary increases or better benefits.  The “voodoo” allegation
adds a cruel and racist twist to this effort to steal the workers’ election.
  For 2 days, the employer made their case at a hearing before the National
Labor Relations Board that one of our Haitian union organizers did “voodoo”
dances, wore “voodoo” perfume, and carried “voodoo” beads to scare the
workers.  They even called in an “expert witness,” an anthropologist and
professor of religion at Florida International University, to substantiate
their bogus claims that “voodoo” threats and evil signs were used to scare
the workers into supporting the union.

Marie Jean Philippe, who Mt. Sinai/St. Francis management charges with being
a “voodoo priestess,” is a veteran union organizer who first joined the
labor movement as a worker in a nursing home who couldn’t tolerate the
unjust conditions and galvanized her coworkers to organize a union at her
facility.  Marie has been very active in the community for years fighting
for justice for Haitian refugees and organizing Haitian parents to fight for
their children to have access to a quality education.  Marie is also a
devout Catholic who often carries her rosary and her Bible and is very
active in her church.

While Mt. Sinai/St. Francis nursing home workers and the union organizers
have suffered the painful indignity of having their culture denigrated and
ridiculed, the ramifications of this hateful attack on Haitian/Caribbean and
African culture go far beyond the doors of the nursing home.  As pointed out
to me by a local community activist, this is a dangerous stereotype –
reminiscent of Haitians being associated with HIV/AIDS -- that can create
hysteria and can lead to Haitian workers being subjected to employment
discrimination by uneducated or unscrupulous employers, and even becoming
the targets of hate crimes.


Thursday, April 4th is the anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin
Luther King, Jr.  Dr. King of course was killed at a demonstration to
support predominantly Black sanitation workers who were fighting for the
right to organize a union.  Here we are 45 years later, still fighting for
that same right.  This Thursday, local Haitian clergy will lead us in a
vigil for justice to mark the anniversary of Dr. King’s death, with a
renewal of our commitment to stand up against injustice.

Vigil for Justice for Mt. Sinai/St. Francis Workers

Thursday April 4th at 4:30 pm

In front of Mt. Sinai/St. Francis Nursing Home 201 NE 112th Street, Miami

(across from Barry University)

We need you there, your leadership will send a message that there are
consequences for racist and anti-immigrant attacks against our people.

In Unity,



Monica Russo

President, SEIU 1199 Florida

(305) 623-3000




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