Grassroots Legislative Organizer's Blog #3
January 24, 2010
Monday: People's Summit and March on MLK DayLast week was my second week in Olympia. Monday started out great. I went to the People’s Summit and March on Martin Luther King Day. The march was attended by several other members of our union. About 150 people total marched in the parade – and we had a band, which was pretty cool. Our Lobby Day is tomorrow – but we won’t need a band. We’ll be so loud that we’ll overpower them just with our voices.
Tuesday: Susie Young and Sharon Kitchel-Perdue’s Testimony
On Tuesday Susie Young and Sharon Kitchel-Purdue came here to Olympia to testify at the Health & Human Services Appropriations Committee. Boy, were they great! Listening to the other speakers you could tell that they don’t do the work of long-term care workers. It was really important to let them know how these cuts really affect us and our clients.
Wednesday: Nursing Home Workers Conference Call
On Wednesday I was on a Conference Call with nursing home workers across Washington State, explaining what has been going on here and answering any questions they might have. Several felt the need to be here in Olympia in person, but couldn’t get time off because of the shortage of nursing home workers.
(Inspired by this call, I will be hosting a weekly conference call for home care workers starting Tuesday, February 2 and 6pm. This call will help members keep up to date and ask questions about what’s going on. This is free from a land line will cost minutes if you use a cell phone.)
Thursday: Purple Presence On Thursday, we had our weekly Purple Presence. I am so proud of our members who stepped out of their normal lives to attend Purple Presence for the first time. We had three new members this week, Melba Navas, Cynthia Wesley-Nordblad and Isabella “Boots” Chambers. Thank you for coming and using your voices as caregivers so that we can continue to have our legislators hear our voices. We did a phone bank in the Pritchard Cafeteria where we meet for Purple Presence to remind people about Lobby Day. Margaret Singh and Mike Roth used Skype, which lets us call members through the computer. How cool is that? Dawn Forks, June Taputoa, and others helped make phone calls on their cell phones.
Because we had new members that had never been to the capital, I asked Phil Bradford to be our tour guide of the capital, and the members loved it. Phil helped them learn “How a bill becomes a law” and where different buildings were. Judy Harris, Johnny George, Ivy Williams and Heather Miller delivered post cards. We had 9 meetings and visits with different aides. Johnny met with his legislator. He said, “She was very positive about some kind of revenue but, she is only one vote. So if we as caregivers get them to commit to a revenue increase one vote at a time, we can get the votes we need to help stop the cuts.”
Lobby Day
On Monday, hundreds of us will be in Olympia for Lobby Day. If you can’t join us, call your legislators at 1 (800) 562-6000 and let them know how these cuts will affect us and our clients. Tell them to raise revenue and stop the cuts!
Personal Note
On a personal note, last week I mentioned that one of my clients was in the hospital. She’s at home now. The hospital sent her home with oxygen, a walker, and a visiting nurse. The visiting nurse was supposed to come over and check out the open sores and the bruising, which has been occurring because she gives herself shots. She asked how the oxygen was going but didn’t ask about the sores or bruising. With the increase in the amount of care she needs, my client has tried to get her hours increased. (It’s currently only two hours a day). The answer she got from DSHS was, “No”. So my question, if she has to choose, what should she get - a bath, or should she get fed that day?
Catherine Byrd
“Change can’t happen if you don’t do something about it.”
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