Ingleside Nursing Home Workers Take to Streets

Midday traffic on Military Road in northwest DC slowed to a crawl Monday as hundreds of labor activists demonstrated in front of the Ingleside nursing home. A purple-clad sea of SEIU healthcare activists – many of them fresh from last weekend’s Baltimore launch of a new healthcare worker union – chanted, marched and danced in the street to demand a contract for 150 Ingleside workers who voted in the union in January 2006. “I want a union and I want it now,” shouted Christa, an Ingleside worker who joined the spirited rally on her break. Local political leaders – including DC Council members Kwame Brown and Ward 4’s Muriel Bowser – joined labor leaders and activists at the demonstration and vowed their support. “You’re looking at the daughter of a nurse so I know what you’re fighting for,” said Bowser.  Newly-elected SEIU 1199 leader George Gresham vowed that “If there’s no contract by August 31, Military Road won’t hold us next time” and Metro Council President Jos Williams promised “Next time it won’t just be purple; we’ll have all the union colors here, because this isn’t just about the workers at Ingleside, it’s about dignity for all workers.”
-Report/photos by Chris Garlock