NEW YORK — The health care workers union 1199SEIU said Tuesday’s midterm election results were a victory for working families and said its members expect the winners to protect Medicaid, expand access to care and restore protections for immigrants.
“This is a win for working people, by working people,” union President Yvonne Armstrong said in a statement released Nov. 3.
The union, whose members work in hospitals, nursing homes, clinics and home care programs in New Jersey and other states, said the election had personal stakes for frontline caregivers.
In the statement, Armstrong said “drastic funding cuts and political stunts in Washington” had hurt health care workers and the sick, elderly and disabled people they serve, and she contended the cuts were made “to hand tax cuts to billionaires.” She said members had seen patients lose insurance and facilities threatened with closure.
Armstrong also criticized the loss of temporary protected status for some of the union’s members and immigration enforcement actions in their communities. “Temporary protected status was cruelly ripped away from our colleagues while ICE agents stormed into our communities terrorizing our neighbors and our loved ones,” she said.
The union said its members organized and turned out voters to elect candidates who share their goals. Armstrong said voters “rejected a government driven by greed rather than the needs of working families.”
She said the union would press the candidates it helped elect on several priorities: protecting Medicaid, expanding access to quality care, restoring immigrant protections and defending workers’ right to organize.
“This is just the beginning,” Armstrong said, adding that 1199SEIU members “will keep organizing and will hold every leader accountable to all working people.”
The statement did not name specific candidates or races.
This report is based on information from 1199SEIU.
Source: 1199SEIU
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