Retired Member | Brooklyn, NY
Long before 1:30 p.m., the allotted time for marchers to gather for the March 15 Manhattan march and rally against New York Gov. Elliot Spitzer’s proposed Medicaid budget cuts, thousands had already assembled. In the very first row stood 1199SEIU retired member Eustene Corbin, leading a delegation of retirees.
She was wearing a plastic 1199 poncho that she says she takes with her so that even rainy days don’t prevent her from taking action. “I’ve been here since 11:30,” she proudly declared just before the marchers pulled out around 2 p.m. “I wanted to be up front with other retirees to show everyone that we’re still fighting for ourselves, for those who are still working and for all the patients in the healthcare system.”
Corbin retired in 2004 from Mary Immaculate Hospital in Queens after working 29 years in the hospital’s housekeeping department. She was a steward in the former SEIU Local 144 and later a Delegate in 1199SEIU after the merger of the two unions. She has remained active in Brooklyn’s senior movement and within 1199SEIU’s Retirees Division.
“In retirement I’m able to get health coverage and my medication without paying a penny,” Corbin said. “When I first heard about Spitzer’s cuts, I knew we would have to fight. In the Union, we learn that when they start taking from one, they’ll soon try to take from others. That means that we are all threatened by the cuts.”
Corbin said that after the rally she was going back to Brooklyn to sign up retirees to join other 1199ers who will be in Albany March 20 to lobby members of the state legislature. “This fight is not over,” she said. “And we retirees have to keep the ball rolling.”
