For Immediate Release
Friday, October 03, 1997
Hundreds Attend Union Picket and Rally at D.C. General Hospital
Washington, DC —On Wednesday, December 3, hundreds of health care workers — members of the AFSCME-affiliated National Union of Hospital and Health Care Employees, (NUHHCE) — participated in a union picket and rally at D.C. General Hospital in protest of recommendations made in October by the Public Benefit Corporation (PBC) to reduce the number of unions at D.C General from 16 to six.
Henry Nicholas, president of NUHHCE/AFSCME Council 1199, speaking at the event, voiced strong opposition the PBC’s call to reduce the number of unions at D.C. General. "We’re getting together because we don’t want to merge into one union," he said. "We deserve the right to keep our individual unions and maintain a degree of dignity and respect. With these changes proposed by the PBC we’d be sacrificing things such as better working conditions, fair and equal treatment and quality care that we’ve been providing for so many years."
NUHHCE/AFSCME represents over 2,600 hospital employees in the metropolitan D.C. area, including service and maintenance employees, housekeepers, technical employees, dietary workers, clerical workers and others. "We are the care givers at DCG/PBC, the services we render are second to none, and our quality of care is as good as gold!" said Nicholas.
