(February 1, 2022, Pittsburgh) – We are honored to spotlight our incredible leader, Sarah Lillie, an ICU nurse from West Penn Hospital, who delivered an absolutely incredible speech to rally SEIU workers to endorse State Rep. Summer Lee for Congress. Our essential caregivers, along with our SEIU PA State Council, which includes SEIU 32 BJ (property services) and SEIU 668 (public sector), are “all in” to elect Summer Lee to represent working families in the 18th District.
Read Sarah Lillie’s full statement below. You can also watch Sarah’s speech on our Facebook Live Video at 9:50.
I am honored to represent our proud Union SEIU Healthcare PA to endorse State Representative Summer Lee for Congress! Let me tell you why.
After years of struggling to organize our workers at West Penn Hospital – and being blocked by vicious anti-union tactics – nurses finally organized our Union in August 2020 during the height of the COVID pandemic.
But it would take another year, in August 2021, when we would finally win our first collective bargaining contract!
We succeeded in forming our Union because nurses finally had enough of management’s disrespect and refusal to listen to our voices during this global pandemic.
Even though we organized our nurses into the Union, management continued to slow-walk and block our effort to win a contract.
So in July 2021 our nurses finally decided to go on strike to take a stand and protect ourselves and our patients.
Our strike announcement embarrassed and shocked the management at Allegheny Health Network, who finally backed down and signed our contract.
It was a victory like no other I’ve ever experienced!
But here is why winning our Union at West Penn matters – and why it is fueling our commitment to elect Summer Lee.
As the virus first spread, our nurses and workers had to find and even buy our own Personal Protective Equipment, or PPE.
Working as a nurse was always a hard job – but then it became a dangerous one.
Healthcare workers had to fight hospital executives and management every step of the way – for more testing, hazard pay, paid sick-time – you name it.
It showed why every single worker MUST have the right and the ability to join a Union – to protect ourselves and our patients.
This is why Summer Lee believes in expanding our “Unions for All” agenda because she knows that workers need a voice. Summer Lee’s life and career as an organizer, as an advocate for her community, and as a State Representative embodies standing up and fighting alongside workers on the picket lines.
Summer Lee understands that if we are ever going to bridge the appalling wealth gap in our country for black and brown workers – then making it easier to join a Union has to be an essential solution.
Summer Lee believes that healthcare is a fundamental human right.
She demands accountability from healthcare corporations and hospital conglomerates, like UPMC, whom she has personally and directly challenged to their face to invest their enormous wealth and revenues into workers and our community.
Summer Lee is committed to addressing the appalling wealth and health disparities throughout Pittsburgh – by championing efforts to raise the minimum wage, which in Pennsylvania is an immoral, pathetic and beggar’s wage of $7.75 an hour.
I am proud to say that our West Penn nurses have 92% of our workers who have signed cards to become members of our Union in a remarkable show of strength and power. But even with our power, we are still fighting to end catastrophic short-staffing within our hospital and across our state.
That’s why we are so proud that Summer Lee is an advocate for investing in our frontline healthcare workers to end the short-staffing crisis in all sectors of healthcare.
We need to send Summer Lee to Congress to be a leading voice to help transform our long term healthcare system and finally recognize and respect low-wage caregivers, especially workers and communities of color, who are the foundation of our caregiving system.
Lastly, we don’t know exactly when, but at some point we will get to a new place where the COVID pandemic will be just a factor in our lives that we have to manage – and not our all-consuming and day-to-day focus.
The question for all of us is this: who do we want to lead us through this new, challenging, and uncertain world? Who do we want to elect to help shape our future? I want Summer Lee to be leading that transformation.
Summer will center our values of economic and racial justice, protecting our environment, and championing union rights.
This election matters not just based on how a candidate will vote when the time comes – but if a candidate truly champions and fights for all working families and will lead on an agenda that empowers unions and workers.
That’s why our healthcare workers are ALL IN to elect Summer Lee to represent Pennsylvania’s 18th district! Thank you.