State Healthcare Workers March and Sit-in for a Moral Budget to Expand Services

Taking to the streets during a week of actions on the 53^rd anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.. SEIU Local 1199 healthcare workers were joined by community and faith leaders and elected officials in their cry for a moral budget that expands services and pays living wages to long term caregivers.

On Thursday, 20 workers sat in at the Department of Public Health in Hartford for a civil disobedience action following a picket by caregivers, community partners and members of the General Assembly. The rally demanded that the State of Connecticut start to facilitate the Long-Term Care Workers Bill of Rights to ensure safe staffing, quality jobs and quality patient care in home care, group home and nursing home services.

Two days earlier, over 200 people took part in a “March for a Moral Budget” from the State Capitol through Hartford demanding the expansion of state services to meet the growing need of residents and communities across Connecticut.

Currently in contract negotiations with the State, the healthcare workers joined together with service recipients, elected officials, and community allies to call on Governor Lamont to fulfill his commitment to racial equity by expanding the essential services that have saved lives during the pandemic despite chronic under funding. The union represents 7,000 state healthcare workers.

The march called for greater racial equity through major investment in critical state mental health and health care services. Decades of service cuts have led to immense suffering and skyrocketing waiting lists, disproportionately harming communities of color. Workers and community allies demanded that Connecticut’s elected officials not only protect, but dramatically expand, these services to save the lives of the most vulnerable residents and reduce systemic disparities in health care.

“Here we are today, five decades after Dr. King’s assassination still determined to gain our rightful place in God’s world. We’re still struggling to eradicate systemic racism, still fighting for dignity and human rights, still fighting for basic things like ensuring that a wealthy state like Connecticut gets to appropriate sufficient funding to be able to provide quality services,” said Rev. Joan Cooper Burnett, associate chaplain with the Connecticut Department of Correction (DOC) at York Correctional Institution.

Chronic under funding is leaving behind Connecticut’s most vulnerable populations. At the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, general funds have been reduced in the past decade resulting in a smaller number of staff positions while the need for services continues to grow.

Similar downward trends in public investment have taken place at the Department of Developmental Services. At the DOC some 170 additional staff are currently needed to provide health care in Connecticut’s prison system.

“Here we are today hoping for our State of Connecticut, one of the wealthiest states in one of the wealthiest countries in the world to close the gap, to demolish economic disparities and to reverse long-standing racial inequalities. We hope that our state will protect struggling citizens and the vulnerable populations who need public services to survive. We cannot wait any longer. Our families cannot wait another 50 years. We need redemption. We need it now!” said Burnett.

The members of 1199 and community partners have raised specific funding concerns and solutions so Connecticut can provide these critical services where they are needed the most. Some of the proposals are eligible for 85 percent match funds from the federal government’s American Rescue Plan. Additional state funding will be required to rebuild services for the long-run.

“Under the threat that ‘our state is bankrupt’ public investment in critical services have been flattened or reduced for the past decade,” said Rob Baril, president of District 1199 New England, SEIU, and one of the leaders of the Recovery for All coalition. “The result is a systemic erosion of services that no longer meet the needs of working families and poor communities. The result is more poverty and less resources to achieve equity in Black, Brown, white and AAPI communities in need.

“We are here to say that Connecticut is not bankrupt,” said Baril. “We are here to demand that this state gets its act together and starts funding these services with the urgency they require. We are here to show that we will not let our state services keep sliding down the path of divestment from the state’s duty to serve the people of Connecticut.”

“Now is the time to boost vital services and protect those who are most vulnerable in our communities,” said State Senator Rick Lopes of New Britain. “The people of Connecticut do not want to go back to ‘normal’. When we cut services down to the bone we all suffer. We want to live in a state that makes wise investments in health care and mental health. We want to live in a state that makes a real investment in Black, Brown and poor communities to break away from the legacy of extreme economic disparities that still haunt us,” concluded Lopes.

“The past year has taught us that there are many weaknesses in our safety net,” added State Senator Jorge Cabrera of Hamden. “We can find the resources in Connecticut to build back our public services. We can afford to care for each other in Connecticut. And a good place to start is by expanding critical mental health and addiction supports, services for people with disabilities, and services for rehabilitation and community reentry. That’s what equity is all about. That’s what Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was all about.”