MAY DAY, MAY DAY

May 1 was a warm spring day in Connecticut, but 8,000 nursing home employees braved the icy winds of the Bush-era labor climate when they walked out on strike. At issue are shamefully low staff-to-patient ratios, which rank thirty-third nationally in 200 nursing homes in the country's richest state, as well as wages and benefits. Republican Governor John Rowland has gone to extraordinary (and possibly illegal) lengths to crush the union, New England Health Care Employees District 1199, publicly calling for members, who are mostly women of color, to break ranks and stay on the job. Rowland also promised to pony up millions to pay for strikebreakers, a reprise of his response to the union's one-day walkout in March, when he authorized $4.6 million in Medicaid spending on out-of-state replacement workers. Because Medicaid funds account for three-quarters of the income stream to the state's nursing homes, the state government is a key player in contract negotiations. Rowland has pledged to cover strike costs of nursing home operators for thirty days; to keep workers in the fight the union needs to raise $1.2 million from nonunion sources. Make checks payable to the District 1199NE Strike Fund, 77 Huyshoppe Street, Hartford, CT 06106.

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