Quinn Joins Union Chiefs in Pressing for Health Workers' Wages

By WINNIE HU

In her first press conference since taking over as speaker of the City Council, Christine C. Quinn stood alongside some of the city's most politically powerful labor leaders yesterday to call for higher wages for home health care workers.

For those reading the tea leaves of the city's shifting political alliances, Ms. Quinn's baptismal press conference as speaker was telling, as she was joined by Dennis Rivera, the president of 1199 S.E.I.U. United Health Care Workers East, and Roger Toussaint, the president of Local 100 of the Transport Workers Union, and about a dozen council members on the steps of City Hall. The political alliance with 1199 S.E.I.U. was noteworthy because the union did not endorse Ms. Quinn during the speaker's contest. The union represents more than 175,000 health care workers in New York City.

The union's leaders were said to be reluctant at the time to choose between Ms. Quinn and her closest rival, Councilman Bill de Blasio, of Brooklyn, who had strong union ties of his own. During the last speaker's contest, in 2001, the union endorsed Gifford Miller.

But now that Ms. Quinn is the speaker, Mr. Rivera was quick yesterday to side with her. He introduced her as the "brand spanking new" Council leader and said his union would start a campaign next week to be known as "The Quinn Principles: Fair Labor Practices for Home Health Aides."

In the meantime, Mr. de Blasio was relegated to a minor role on the edge of a crowd of supporters.

Ms. Quinn, who previously served as chairwoman of the Health Committee, said her involvement in 1199's campaign for higher wages for home health care workers was a continuation of her earlier work. "If the union feels my contribution has merited enough to put my name on the principles, I am very appreciative of that," Ms. Quinn said, "and honored by the recognition they have given my work, and really the work of the whole Council over the past four years."

The Quinn principles are a set of voluntary standards to be adopted by the agencies, which would address issues like higher wages, health insurance and training for their workers.

FAIR USE NOTICE

This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of political, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.