Gwen Brown

Gwen Brown has been working at the 1199SEIU Call Center since 2004 and now she is really getting excited. One of a team of workers who called on Union members to turn out for the February 28 City Council hearings on Home Health Aides, Gwen herself went to City Hall to see what happened.

“Our calls were important. The situation with the Home Health Aides is simply unacceptable,” she says. “When I went down to City Hall, I was excited. I was actually crying. Before this, I’ve never before experienced democracy and I’m almost 50 years old.

“I’ve never before seen how real people like me, like our Home Health Aides, can have an effect on others and make lawmakers sit up and listen to our stories. The Council Members heard the homecare workers and said they would 'do whatever it takes' to get conditions to improve. I was impressed. Itmade me feel stronger.

Gwen says about herself, “I’m a passionate person. I feel deep in my bones that certain things are just wrong. I just know it.”

After the City Council hearings, “I was so excited to go home and talk about it.” When asked if she told her son, a student at John Jay College, shesays, “Hey, the whole neighborhood knows about my experience.”