Counting on Kerry

By Susan Holleran

BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS

It was the fall of 1997, and Sen. John Kerry had just addressed the Council 93 convention. As he left, he stopped to ask Betty King about the status of her workers' compensation claim. Told it had been denied, Kerry responded angrily, "You were injured on the job. You have a right to those benefits." He offered to help.

That Saturday, Kerry called to tell King that he was personally asking the U.S. Secretary of Labor to investigate. As a result, King's denial was overturned, and she was able to retire on disability.

Four years earlier, King had been a senior nursing assistant at Boston City Hospital, assigned to care for an abusive patient. He was assaulting her — punching her, throwing his urinal at her — and, although she kept asking for help, nothing was done. Finally, as she was checking his vital signs, he pushed the swinging TV at her. Jerking back just in time to keep it from hitting her head, she felt her neck snap. Ever since, she has lived with pain and deteriorating health. But her efforts to win workers' compensation benefits were stymied at every step.

King, who had always been a leader in Local 1489, and served as Council 93's recording secretary, deeply appreciated Kerry's actions. He knew what she was going through. And while other busy and famous folks might just sympathize, Kerry took immediate action.

"That's just the kind of man he is," says King, who is now confined to a wheelchair. "I'll always support him. I've told the Senator, I'll do whatever I can to help him win this election."

Quiet strength

Carole Deneault, LPN, has worked at the Worcester (Mass.) State Hospital for about 20 years, and she has been involved in politics even longer. The Local 137 (Council 93) president remembers when John Kerry first ran for the U.S. Senate in 1984.

"John was kind of a quiet individual when I first met him," she says. "Not shy: There was a lot of strength in his quiet." Deneault had grown up in the era of the lively Kennedy clan, so Kerry represented quite a change.

"He got you to talk before you got him to talk. He always cared about the little person. His concerns were for families, working people, kids, single parents. I was a single mother. I raised six children. Where he saw that needed programs didn't exist, he tried to develop them."

Deneault was at this year's AFSCME Convention when Pres. Bill Clinton described Kerry in these words: "Of all the people in the United States Congress — in both houses — he was the one person who relentlessly pushed me to do more for poor, troubled, inner-city kids."

"I can hear John saying that," says Deneault. "He never gave up on it; he hasn't changed."

Promise-keeper

In Minneapolis, Kefah Nyanchiri describes similar feelings about Senator Kerry's meeting with him and five other workers in early June. A trained medical assistant, Nyanchiri has been leading a group to organize some 330 co-workers in the Council 14 campaign at the Walker Methodist Health Center. Management has retaliated against a number of union supporters.

"I thought, 'This is John Kerry — the man who's running for President?" says Nyanchiri. "He was down to earth, and made us all feel comfortable. He was very attentive, very much a listening person. You could see that he felt bad when he heard what we were going through.

"He touched me where it hurt most when he said, 'Everybody there is a working person. Everybody deserves respect.'"

Kerry did more than listen. He sent a letter that strongly supported the workers to Walker Methodist's CEO. Says Nyanchiri, "he was going to follow up, but I didn't know he would do it so fast. The letter was sent within the week. This is a person who keeps promises."

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