by Jacob Goldstein
AMBIENCE: Band playing, then fades under.
NARR: It felt more like a party than a union meeting, as the band played and home health aides from around the city danced in the aisles. But the signs the dancers waved had messages like "I'm a home health aide and my family has no health insurance" and "I' m a home health aide and I earn $6.25 per hour." $6.25 an hour comes out to less than $13,000 a year.
Some 5,000 of the 20,000 home health aides who belong to the New York chapter of the Service Employees International Union turned out last night. Almost all of the members of the union have been working without a contract since the beginning of the year.
Several city council members addressed the crowd before Jesse Jackson took the podium to rally the faithful.
TAPE:
Strike if we must, strike if we must, forward ever, backwards never, $10 an hour is fair and reasonable.
NARR:
Jackson was followed by Union President Dennis Rivera. As the event built to a climax, Rivera announced that workers from around the country had contributed $1 million to a strike fund for New York Home Health Aides.
TAPE:
When we go on strike, everybody's gonna get money, everybody's gonna get food. We're gonna fight until we get the $10 an hour. All those in favor of the strike, signify by saying I. (Crowd responds.)
NARR:
Medicare pays $17 an hour for the work done by home health aides in New York City. but the money passes through middle men before it reaches the 15 agencies that employ health aides. Calls to three of the largest agencies were not returned for this story.
Keith Johnson is a former health worker who now works as the union's vice president. He says he hopes last night's endorsement of a strike would break the impasse in the negotiations.
TAPE:
We've been negotiating with these agencies for moths, some of them for years, and they haven't given the workers an increase.
NARR:
No date has been set for a strike. But Johnson says one will come soon if the workers are not offered a contract that guarantees they will be making $10 an hour by 2006. Jacob Goldstein, Columbia Radio News.