Public Employee Press

Union-community alliance built pressure
Clinics saved

By ALFREDO ALVARADO

DC 37 leaders, health activists and elected officials banded together in August to prevent the Bloomberg administration from shutting down two immunization clinics in Queens and the Bronx. The Health Dept. has now reversed its decision and will keep the clinics open until the end of 2013, with their fate after that in the hands of the next mayor.

"This achievement shows how alliances with the community multiply our strength as a union for the benefit of all New Yorkers," said DC 37 Associate Director Henry Garrido.

"This is a great victory for our members and also for the thousands of people who use these clinics to get shots for their children so they can attend school," said Fitz Reid, president of Health Services Employees Local 768.

Clinics serve 29,000

In August, just as parents were preparing for the September start of the school year, the city Health Dept. announced that it was shutting the clinics in Corona and Tremont. The two clinics together immunized 29,000 people in 2012, including 10,000 children. Children must be vaccinated to attend New York City public schools.

The Corona clinic in Queens serves a large low-income immigrant community. "This clinic has a lot of adults coming in who need to get free shots so they can work," said Susan Frederick, a Public Health Advisor II and member of Local 768.

Working with the Commission on the Public's Health System, the People's Budget Coalition and Make the Road New York, District Council 37 launched a citywide petition drive against the closings and pressed political leaders to oppose the Bloomberg administration's harmful plan. New York City Comptroller John Liu, State Sen. José Peralta and City Council members Letitia James and Julissa Ferreras denounced the closings.

James, whom DC 37 has endorsed for Public Advocate, joined DC 37 leaders and activists in speaking out against the scheduled closings Aug. 7 on the steps of City Hall, and Peralta and Ferreras blasted the Bloomberg plan at a news conference in front of the Corona clinic.

If those two clinics had closed, Queens and Bronx residents who needed the free and low-cost shots would have had to travel to the only clinic left, which is in Fort Greene, Brooklyn.

"The mission of public health is to prevent disease. Trying to close those clinics shows that that mission was being abandoned," said Judith Arroyo, president of Local 436, the United Federation of Nurses and Epidemiologists.