SCRANTON, LACKAWANNA COUNTY (WBRE/WYOU) – Caregivers dedicate their lives to serving others — and now they’re hoping to get some help themselves on Election Day.
Catherine Cooney works as a registered nurse at a local hospital.
“I was born to care for people.”
But she has several concerns. Specifically — understaffing and unsafe working conditions.
“We want to take care of the community. That is what we’re supposed to do, and that’s what we want to do. But, the corporation makes it very difficult for us to do that.”
This “caregivers in the community” rally was held Saturday at the “laborer’s international union of north America” building in Scranton.
Those who attended are part of “SEIU Healthcare PA” — which is the largest state-wide healthcare workers union. Matthew Yarnell is the President.
“We have a bunch of our members here today who are folks in this community who go to work in nursing homes and hospitals.”
Several local candidates — who say safe staffing and good union jobs are top priority — gave speeches at the event.
“What’s so important to us is, we know come Election Day, there’s going to be a lot of really important issues that affect patients in our community and folks who deliver those services.”
10-year-old Destiny Stevens says her mom is an aide at a local nursing home. Destiny is here to support her mom , and her mom’s patients.
“Some people don’t support the old people, they just don’t care. But i care about the old people.”
“The grassroots group is calling hundreds of voters and knocking on doors to hopefully get their message out before November 6th.
Rally leaders say voting is really important this year — because “Medicare” and “Medicaid” are on the ballot.
And they tell us that funding could be cut for certain programs that support patients.
