STOP PATAKI'S ATTACK ON OUR HEALTH

SUPPORT THE HUNGER STRIKE AND TAKE A STAND FOR OUR LIVES

MAY 6 - 13, 2003

FINALE RALLY

TUESDAY, MAY 13
6:30PM - 7:30PM

IN FRONT OF GOVERNOR PATAKI’S OFFICE * 633 THIRD AVENUE B/W 40TH & 41ST * NEW YORK CITY

Low-income communities and 9/11 victims tried to bring their health concerns to Pataki’s attention, but he ignored them, and even escalated his ‘rob the poor, feed the rich’ agenda. The hunger strike is a brave act of resistance at a time when the government is starving us—denying our basic needs and right to live healthy lives—to fund war abroad. It represents the pure determination of workers who have been stripped to the bone and have nothing left except their will to fight for justice. Together with the hunger strikers, we will stop Pataki's attack on our health and demand our human right to health, to dignity, and to our lives.

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THE HUNGER STRIKER DEMANDS

WHO ARE THE HUNGER STRIKERS? WHY ARE THEY DOING THIS?

Maria Reyes

Maria Reyes came to New York from the Dominican Republic in June 1994 and found work in the city's notorious sweatshops, where she worked 9 to 10 hours a day, five days a week sewing sweaters. "It was depressing and sad to go there every day," she recalls. In 1995, after a tiring day at the factory Maria tripped and injured her knee and hip. She was told that she needed surgery. After two years of waiting in vain for her Workers Comp benefits and for authorization for her surgery, Maria was forced to return to work despite her pain. She found a job in a wedding dress factory, sewing, ironing, and cleaning elaborate gowns with harsh chemicals. The boss would brag that the dresses they meticulously sewed were to be worn by movie stars such as Halle Berry in blockbuster films. In addition to working long hours on the job, Maria often brought dresses home with her to finish in the evenings. In the factory, there was no ventilation, and the protective equipment they were eventually given turned out to be useless. Some of her co-workers had miscarriages or their children were born with birth defects as a result of the chemical exposure. When she spoke out against these conditions, the boss retaliated against Maria, forcing her to work even harder and longer hours.
Maria began experiencing respiratory problems, including asthma, irritation of her trachea, shortness of breath, and dizzy spells. By February, 2000, she was completely unable to work. Six years after Maria's first injury, the Workers Compensation Board finally authorized the surgical procedure she needed and offered her $113 a week. She is still waiting for treatment and compensation for her second injury. "Because of Workers Comp my husband is forced to work three jobs and my sons work long hours to support our family. I'm hunger striking because we've suffered too much, and I've taken part in too many protests. We need changes now."

You Di Liao

For You Di, July 4 is a special day. She remembers July 4, 1997 as the last day she was able to walk without the use of a cane. As America was celebrating its birthday, You Di was hanging garments in the heat and dust of a factory inside a Chinatown tenement. It was on that day that her exhaustion from the grinding work hours - 12 hours a days, 6 or 7 days a week - finally gave way. You Di remembers collapsing and hitting the floor and the voices of co-workers around her. She recovered consciousness in a hospital and was told that she had suffered a stroke and lost the use of half her body. Every day activities like walking became struggles. Unable to work, she was abandoned by her boss and her union. To survive, You Di looked through garbage for soda cans. Each can could be redeemed for 5 cents each.
Dealing with the pain of her injury and the poverty that she found herself in had virtually drained the life out of her until another injured worker told her to go to Chinese Staff & Workers' Association. You Di met other workers at CSWA and with them began organizing injured workers. In October, 2001, she was part of a delegation that traveled to Mexico to file an international lawsuit against Governor Pataki and the New York State Workers' Compensation Board. In February, 2002, upon invitation from U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton, You Di testified at a U.S. Senate Hearing on workplace health and safety, and Clinton promised to write a letter to Governor Pataki on Liao's behalf. Two months following the Senate Hearing, You Di won her case, but the insurance company refused to pay. Almost six years have passed since You Di's injury, and she has still not received a single penny from the Workers' Compensation. "I do not yet know the hardship of a 7 day hunger strike but after six years of suffering at the hands of a heartless government, I am determined to do this. To have an honest chance of making the government listen, I need support. All who are not joining me on the hunger strike need to get involved and become active. You have a role to play."

Laura Gillis

It is always hard for Laura to talk about the day she refers to as the "eleventh day." Laura loved swimming, running, and even biking across the country, but her life completely changed when she got a job as a temp in a chemical manufacturing company. Laura noticed an ammonia-like odor around her workspace, but when she brought this to her supervisors, her concerns were dismissed. By the end of her 11th day on the job, she felt a burning sensation in her nose and throat and was completely disoriented. She couldn't use her hands or remember how to drive. Her head felt as if it was clamped in a vise. Later, she was diagnosed with toxic encephalopathy, a condition affecting her central nervous system and causing damage to the brain. Since her exposure in 1992, Laura suffers from cognitive impairment such as slow recall and speech as well as muscle spasms, breathing problems, chest pains and depression. With the deterioration of her health, she relies on her partner, Steffi, to survive. After a torturous eight-year Workers' Compensation case-which included 30 hearings, 12 insurance-company-paid doctors, and $12,000 in legal fees-her lawyer and doctors pressured her to settle for $170 per week. Says Laura, "I went through eight years of torture. I can never get back my health. I have lost the joy of social activity. I and others have all reached new levels of frustration and exhaustion as we struggle for our survival. This hunger strike is our effort to be heard. I want to let the world know how badly we are treated here and hope they stand beside us."

Nereida Buitrago

Nereida has lived on the Lower East Side for over 35 years. On the morning of September 11th, she was getting ready to leave her apartment when she began hearing noises followed by the sound of blaring sirens. She looked out of her kitchen window and saw the plane hit the World Trade Center. It was the second plane. She heard screaming and crying. "I'll never forget that morning." Horrified, she tried to turn on the t..v. to find out what had happened only to find that there was no electricity. Both her t.v. and radio were out. When she tried to call family, Nereida discovered the phone lines were down. A little later she began to smell the smoky fumes and debris of the collapsed WTC.
The 9-11 disaster immediately began to affect Nereida's health, worsening her eyesight and her allergies. She developed respiratory problems despite never having had a history of such illnesses. Her close friend and companion of many years - who is 87 years old - was also harmed by the toxic fallout, requiring Nereida to spend more time monitoring and taking care of his health. "On top of these new health problems, it's hard to also take care of someone else who now has even worse health after 9-11. All these new strains on my time and health and I can't even get health care. And instead of explaining why we're getting sick down here, the government has covered up the problem, lying to us that the air was safe." Living only on a widow's pension, Nereida has been forced since 9-11 to pay hundreds of dollars out of her own pocket for medicine because her income had put her just above the income level requirement for Family Health Plus and Medicaid. "I'm a victim of 9-11 and I can't get help from my own government. Our government went after Saddam Hussein's chemical weapons but refuses to do anything about the toxic air here in Lower Manhattan that is slowly killing us."

Stanislawa Kocimska

For eight years, Stanislawa was among the thousands of home health attendants who cared for our country's elderly and disabled. In March of 1994, the man she was caring for fell from his bed. As she tried to catch him, Stanislawa permanently injured her knee and back. Although Stanislawa always easily passed the annual physical checkup that was required of her job, the Workers Comp Board insisted that Stanislawa's injuries pre-dated her job and closed her case. After depleting her $25,000 in life savings, Stanislawa has been homeless since 1998. For four years she spent most nights sitting in a McDonald's in Brooklyn until management called the police on her. Other nights she slept on the steps of churches, or if lucky, in a hallway of an apartment building, or on the floor of a deli until closing time. She was forced to go to the hospital four times in the last year because of problems with her heart and legs. She had come to this country for a better life-to provide for herself and her children. Now her friends avoid her because she has borrowed money from them. She is ashamed to tell her family in Poland about what has happened or to even return to her native country; she is afraid of being a burden. Says Stanislawa, "I am 76 years old. I am homeless because Workers' Comp has denied me benefits. And, in 1996 a doctor told me I needed surgery on my knee but Workers Comp refuses to pay for the operation. I am hunger striking because I have no choice. I want the world to know how this country is treating me -- I have already gone hungry for nine years. This country is breaking my heart. I've lived through Nazis and Communism in my country, but the poverty I have lived through here is the worst."

Joining Laura, Maria, Nereida, You Di, & Stanislawa, are seven other hunger strikers rising from their hardship to demand change now.

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