Guest Column: Washington's working families are Gregoire's special interest

Guest Column: Washington's working families are Gregoire's special interest

by Carol Frontiero

Seattle Times (15 July 2008)

In response to attacks on Governor Chris Gregoire, Carol Frontiero, a CNA at Vashon Community Care Center submitted a guest column to the Seattle Times, emphasizing Gregoire's support for working families:

Gov. Christine Gregoire's detractors would have voters believe she has spent the past four years looking out only for the "special interests" who contributed to her campaign. In fact, those special interests represent teachers, home-care and nursing-home workers, farmworkers and working families. They are the real winners

Dino Rossi, her opponent then and now, was the chief budget writer when he was in the Senate. In that role, he held up funding that would have provided health benefits and a raise to home-care workers who were making $7.68 per hour. He wrote a budget that forced seniors onto a waiting list for home-care services. He was willing to kick 46,000 low-income kids off health care.

On the other hand, Gregoire as governor has fought for working families.

When she worked to increase reimbursement rates, it was for the state's poorest, most-vulnerable citizens. At any given time, more than 10,000 elderly and disabled residents depend on Medicaid dollars to pay for their nursing-home care. The increased funding for nursing homes went specifically to improve the quality of care offered to low-income residents.

Washington residents stand to benefit from Gregoire's smart investments in long-term care (specifically in improving the quality of nursing homes, and increasing training opportunities for long-term care workers). She has given people more health-care options, and made it easier for people to stay in their own homes longer.

Anyone who has a family member with a developmental disability, an elderly parent being cared for either in their own home or a nursing home, or an accident victim who needs short-term rehabilitation — all are better off because Gregoire was elected four years ago. Their families, friends and loved ones are also better off.

But it's not just low-income nursing-home residents, seniors or the people who care for them who have benefitted from her leadership.

She has also made our education system stronger — honoring the will of the people by funding voter-approved initiatives to lower class sizes and giving teachers a cost-of-living wage increase. Rossi had suspended these initiatives.

She has also stood up for consumers against Big Insurance, which is a big supporter of Rossi.

She reduced the tax bill for low-wage workers by as much as 30 percent, by championing the Working Families Tax Credit.

She brokered a fix for the unemployment-insurance system that benefited construction workers, farm laborers and seasonal workers.

In addition to directly helping working families, she has also made Washington a safer place to raise a family — protecting our children by increasing the monitoring of predators.

Washington state's long-term care workers were proud to support Gregoire four years ago. Given her record as governor, and her work on behalf of working families, it is no surprise that long-term care workers, state employees, consumers, construction workers, seasonal workers, our state's Native Americans and others are standing by her once again.

Carol Frontiero has worked as a certified nursing assistant at Vashon Community Care Center for almost 25 years. She is a member of SEIU Healthcare 775NW.

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