Page 6 - Work Force April 2020

‘We are all essential workers:’ Members provide vital services in hard-hit New York City
As the unprecedented COVID-19 worldwide pandemic hit New York, CSEA members across the Metropolitan Region continue to perform their essential jobs despite the universal challenges.
At the New York State Veterans Home in St. Albans, Queens, visitors are no longer allowed on the premises and a CSEA-represented nurse takes the temperature of essential employees at the door.
“We’re
trying to hold it
together,” said
Unit President
Allyson Baptiste.
She cautioned
that the dwindling
supplies of
protective gear
has members
worried. “The
most important
thing right now are those masks.”
While staff currently has enough protective gloves and hand sanitizers, Baptiste is concerned that the masks staff are currently using is not sufficient or adequate since they are ill-fitting, for starters.
“Everybody is wearing a mask. Thank God no one has gotten sick,” said Baptiste. At the Veterans Home, CSEA has members work in the nursing, dietary, engineering, housekeeping departments in addition to administrative staff.
As a precaution, a unit at the home, where some 250 veterans currently reside, has been vacated with the intention of using it to quarantine residents returning from the hospital or other facilities. It’s a measure that raises some concerns for Baptiste since staff has to attend to their needs and the needs of other residents at the facility.
Experience equals expertise
If there is one state agency adept at dealing with a crisis
of this magnitude, it’s the AIDS Institute at the state Department of
Health. Already, workers have been reassigned to work on COVID-19 response and have been deployed statewide, according to Health Research Institute Local President Deborah Hanna, whose local includes the AIDS Institute.
“Everyone
goes through a
training before
they do this. They
learn universal
precautions that
are necessary
and additional
requirements
to respond to
something that
is so unknown
as COVID-19,” said Hanna. “What I have heard so far is that it’s tiring, but also gratifying to be a part of the response.”
Speaking just days before the governor virtually shut down the state with the exception of essential personnel, Hanna noted, “The state is working as well as everyone and overtime to respond as effectively as possible.”
“There isn’t a full road map,” said Hanna. “We don’t know how this [virus] fully works.”
Hanna, who works in a building next to the World Trade Center, witnessed the attacks and was involved demanding worker protections in its aftermath. She compared the response to 9/11.
“It’s very similar in a lot of ways,” said Hanna. ‘There are a lot of questions, a lot of chaos and a lot of learning as you go along.”
More importantly, Hanna emphasized the importance of unions during such a crisis.
“It further supports the idea to
me why it’s important to have a union because it gives people an additional source to ask questions and get support,” said Hanna. “I
saw that after 9/11 and how our unions banded together to do things management couldn’t do.”
Baptiste
SUNY Downstate Housekeeping Department employees Anthony Burke uses a disinfecting tool on an ambulance cot
Hanna
Concerns over equipment, safety
At Brooklyn’s Kingsboro Psychiatric Center the looming concern was access to personal protective equipment and the admission of new individuals from correctional facilities.
“We are
preparing one
isolation area in
case there is a
need, an empty
ward, but staff is
still concerned
that they need
more safety
precautions and
equipment,” said
Kingsboro Local
President Conrad Forsythe. “We have an open-door policy with the director if we have any concerns.”
In addition to the cancellation of visits to the facility, management has also ordered a full medical report of incoming individuals within 24 hours, Forsythe noted.
Notwithstanding these measures, Forsythe said he is being bombarded
with calls from members pleading for personal protective equipment that management apparently is rationing in light of dwindling supplies.
“I’m keeping my head up, but
I see panic in the members,” said Forsythe. “They are fearful.”
‘Be strong, diligent and safe’
At SUNY Downstate a large white tent that occupies half a city block is being used for triage and to admit patients potentially infected by COVID-19.
Not unlike Kingsboro, but with added urgency since it is a hospital, workers are clamoring for masks, gowns and other protective gear.
“Our housekeeping and dietary workers, who interact with patients daily, need this safety equipment,” said SUNY Downstate Local President Althea Green. “We also need to have the proper training on how to deal with this pandemic. It shouldn’t be just for doctors and nurses.”
While she’s been assured by management that additional safety
Continued on page 7.
Forsythe
6 The Work Force
April 2020