AFSCME in Chicago -- Ten Thousand Workers Who Want a Union

by   |  August 09, 2006

By Sandie Zerjav, Local 1565, Council 4 My name is Sandie Zerjav and I am a corrections officer from Coventry, Connecticut. When I first went to work for the Department of Corrections, there had been a union for years. Honestly, it was something I took for granted. But now I realize that no union can be taken for granted – that there are workers all across this country who are struggling to form a union. Often they are fighting management that uses dirty tricks and scare tactics to keep workers from joining together for more power. There is no better example of this struggle than the 10,000 workers at Resurrection Health Care here in Chicago. These brave men and women have been on the front lines of an organizing fight for the last four years. All they want is a union with AFSCME. But management at this supposedly “charity” hospital is fighting them every step of the way with threats and firings. That’s why it’s so important what I, and the thousands of other attendees at this year’s convention, will be doing today. We’re going to show up – all together in AFSCME green – and rally in front of the hospital. We’ll show the workers of Resurrection that their AFSCME brothers and sisters stand with them in this fight. We have their backs today, and we’ll have their backs until the fight is done and they have the union they need and deserve.