BROOKLYN, December 18 — Ten days ago, workers throughout a Brooklyn hospital stormed the Human Resources department shouting “No Layoffs!” — refusing to forego their 3% wage increase. This hospital’s workers are largely black, Latino and immigrant, who, because of racism, suffer disproportionately from the bosses’ economic meltdown, making their fight an anti-racist one as well.

This militant action was answering the hospital bosses’ “request” that healthcare workers give up the upcoming 3% increase because Governor Paterson is cutting State funding. This would also lay off healthcare workers statewide, in line with the bosses’ financial crisis.

The 1199 SEIU leadership “rejected” this wage-cut “request” because it didn’t include hospital CEO and managers also being cut!

Before this action, workers met to discuss a plan of action. Some wanted to forego the 3% increase in order to save jobs. Others felt giving up the wage increase wouldn’t prevent layoffs. One worker stated, “In 2007, the union leadership re-opened the contract by foregoing the 4% wage increase due that July. The hospital bosses saved one million dollars and then reduced the workforce the following June.”

Then the workers voted overwhelmingly for the “walk-in.”

While, the 1199 SEIU leadership is always boasting about being a powerful and effective union, it has no plan of action to fight the threatened attacks by the hospital bosses and Governor Paterson.

The union leadership’s close collaboration with the hospital bosses and politicians have encouraged workers to believe that capitalist reform programs can save jobs. But the nature of the capitalist healthcare industry compels the bosses to constantly cut jobs. It drives small institutions to close, creating a huge pool of unemployed workers and reaping greater profits for the bosses.

PLP’ers must bring our communist politics to this battle against-short staffing violations in patient care and to maintain their benefits. In doing that, we can win them to see the real solution to rotten healthcare and racist wage-cuts: communism.