CHICAGO, Aug. 10 – Yes, I fled to the Windy City
to escape Washington's heat wave. And it's just my luck that in this town around this time in August,'autumn's first cool nip sneaks in with the jolt of an alarm,' as one local observer puts it. This 'little snooze called summer will soon be over,' she adds. In fact, that 'foreboding nip arrived this week, a sliver
of something Arctic slicing through the warmth'.
There was another jolt of an alarm when I
woke up this morning. Terror alerts. Homeland Security is warning of possible
airline explosions between now and the 5th. That’s the 9/11 anniversary.
We’re warned to expect longer delays at airports, but at the same We’re also
being told to enjoy our trip. I’m grinning in a wince. I fly back tomorrow.
I got in five days ago for our AFSCME
International Convention. The temperature inside the cavernous McCormick Hall,
where nearly 6,000 delegates and guests have converged, is more than just a
sliver of something Arctic. It’s almost
freezing. But it’s no match to the heat being generated by militant spirits.
“Fired up, can’t take no more," and “We Fight, We Win” are not just
slogans. When mean-spirited politicians refuse to increase the minimum wage,
but shamelessly give themselves pay increases, expect workers to breathe with
fire.
Yesterday, we rallied at St. Mary of Nazareth Hospital
in downtown Chicago.
I met a Filipina American waving a sign that says “It’s Time for a Real Voice.”
Nida Cuevo, a registered nurse and a resident of Skokie,
is one of more than 9,000 hospital workers employed by the Resurrection Health
Care system, the second largest hospital chain in this city. It’s owned by
Catholic nuns. “We’re overworked and underpaid," she says. “We’ve
been trying to form a union in the last four years. But management is hostile
to us." It has fired eight activists and continues to harass anyone
suspected of being pro-union.
Nida can’t understand why a Catholic-run
institution can be this mean. Catholic teachings and traditions, in fact,
recognize the right of workers to organize. That’s why, as a woman of faith,
she has taken an activist role in talking to co-workers about joining a union.
She has spoken at rallies and meetings. “We’ll have a real voice in asserting
our rights," she says. “But it starts with each one of us taking a bold
step."
Also at the rally was April Lewton, a
Filipino American Master of Divinity student at the University of Chicago.
She came to the rally with a group called Interfaith Worker Justice. “My own
faith tells me to stand up for those who are fighting for economic
justice," she says. “That’s what Jesus Christ would do.”
I’m heartened to have met April and Nida
at the rally. They embody the power of faith and politics. They are the
Filipino faces in today’s labor movement.
Maybe, on my flight back to DC, I won’t
have to grin in a wince after all. This summer was absolutely far from being
a little snooze. It’s been the plight of
Nida and thousands of others that have kept me and my union awake, angry
and afire. America
is in for a real heat wave, that’s for sure.
e-mail your comments to jonmele@aol.com
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