I am honored to be offered this opportunity to lead our union into this exciting new era for healthcare workers in Pennsylvania. Let me tell you something about who I am, what’s remarkable about our union, and why I am so hopeful about what we will accomplish when we work together.
I grew up in central Pennsylvania. My parents divorced when I was five and my mother moved back to her family farm. My dad had custody of my sister and me. So from the age of 5 until I was 13, I was raised by my grandmother. She taught me to lead with love and to expect the best from people and to never take more than you give. She instilled in me old fashioned Democratic New Deal values.
Spending so much time with her and her friends, I came to deeply love and value seniors. It made me want to work with and care for people in their final years. So at age 18, I went to work at a nursing home. A year later I was chosen by my coworkers to be the union chapter president. Now, after all these years of building our union, I am proud to be the President of SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania.
It’s an exciting time to lead this union. For the past few years we have really been on a roll. From the member leaders in hospitals, nursing home, Commonwealth facilities and in home care to the officers who worked tirelessly to support and lead members every day, I have so much hope for the future of our union. I am thrilled to announced a new Officer team is joining me in the elected leadership of our union. Zach Zobrist, Morgan Lindsey, Jesse Wilderman, Cathy Brady, Kevin Hefty, Wendell Royster, Amanda Lapina, and Sarah Fishbein are some of the people who have contributed the most to making our union what it is today, and I’m thrilled to work with them to lead us into the future.
The work of  leadership team is guided by three major priorities that bring SEIU’s core strategy into focus:
First, we are going to organize and grow our union. Nurses, hospital workers, nursing home workers, and home health workers will have the power to lift up their professions and the transform the lives of their families. We will innovate in our work as a union so SEIU Healthcare PA is a stronger and more effective organization in healthcare institutions. At the same time, we’re going to help home care workers and other service workers create new organizations that bring people together and build power.
Second, we will unite nurses and other health professionals to achieve the triple aim of improving the health of Pennsylvania’s people, enhancing the care experience of every patient, and creating efficiency that lowers cost, making sure that every dollar in healthcare is used wisely for patients. While we are doing that we will make sure everyone understands that at the center of the triple aim model are nurses, housekeepers, respiratory therapists, nurse aides, lab techs – the people who actually do the work and who know how to change healthcare for the better. We are going to drive innovation in our industry for the good of our communities and we are going to forge new partnerships to transform the health of all Pennsylvanians.
Third, in partnership with progressive organizations in our state, we will move heaven and earth to make sure that love trumps hate. We will build bridges and tear down walls. We will defeat institutional racism, sexism and homophobia. We will overcome the divisive politics that entrench the privilege of the 1%. We will knock on every door, dial every phone number, talk to every working person. We will elect progressive champions like Katie McGinty and Josh Shapiro and we will beat hateful, divisive politicians like Donald Trump, and we will carry Pennsylvania to elect the first woman President of the United States, Hillary Rodham Clinton. And We’re not going to stop there. We are going to re-elect Tom Wolf as our Governor and, together, we will build the majorities that transform Harrisburg and Washington so we can put our state and our country back on a path to justice.
You know, there’s a saying from the women’s movement that the personal is political. That is true for me like I bet it’s true for you.
As a young gay man growing up in a small town, I felt isolated and alone. At school, I had to deal every day with hostility and even violence. I did not have the knowledge or the tools that I needed to stand up for my rights or build the community that I deserved. The place where I learned to fight for fairness and to build that community was in the union.
When the administrators at my nursing home cared more about paperwork than helping residents get to the toilet, my coworkers and I marched together to demand that patient care be the priority. When the Director of Nursing unfairly denied my coworker time off for a doctor’s appointment, we all occupied the administrator’s office until he agreed to ensure adequate staff on the floor so that my coworker could leave for her appointment. I saw the power that I could have in my life by sticking together with people like me — that by taking direct action and using our strength in numbers, we could make change happen and at the same time win dignity and respect for ourselves and our patients. Those lessons will stick with me as long as I live.
Because of this union, I’ve had the opportunity to step up, to lead, to learn, and to struggle with complicated problems, walking hand-in-hand with fellow workers and allies to find solutions. This is the greatness of the union — it teaches all of us that no matter who we are or where we come from, we can become bigger and more powerful versions of ourselves when we organize and work together. It shows us that when we organize and work together, we can, step-by-step, actually change the world.
I can’t wait to join hands with you and get started.