HEALTH WORKERS ELECT FIRST AFRICAN-AMERICAN WOMAN TO HEAD MAJOR LABOR UNION IN MASSACHUSETTS

1199SEIU elects Veronica Turner to top post in Bay State’s fastest growing and most politically active union

 

 

BOSTON, MA – Veronica Turner, a former employee of Boston Medical Center, has been elected to the top leadership position of 1199SEIU in Massachusetts.  1199SEIU represents 35,000 workers in hospitals, nursing homes, and home care programs across the state, and has the most politically active membership base of any union in the Commonwealth.  Turner is the first African-American woman to head a major labor union in Massachusetts.  Turner’s barrier-breaking election was determined by mail-in ballot during the union’s regularly scheduled officer elections. 

 

Turner ran unopposed and was supported in her candidacy by 1199SEIU’s outgoing Massachusetts leader Mike Fadel.  Fadel became Executive Vice President in 2005, and since then 1199SEIU has more than tripled in size in Massachusetts.  During that time, the union has also become a strong voice for workers in the state’s largest industry and within state politics and health policy.

 

“Veronica has shown herself to be a dynamic and committed union leader.  I’m confident that the tremendous progress we’ve made over the last five years will continue and increase under her leadership,” said Fadel.

 

A resident of Brockton, Turner was born in Dorchester and began her career at Boston Medical Center in the dietary department.  She later became a unit secretary and unit coordinator in the hospital before joining the union staff as an organizer in 1999.  Turner emerged as a natural leader of her peers during the historic merger of Boston City Hospital and Boston University Medical Center in the nineties – a time fraught with uncertainty for caregivers at both hospitals. 

 

As a rank and file leader, Turner helped secure the first union contract for SEIU members within the newly formed Boston Medical Center and was elected Vice President when the former SEIU Local 2020 merged with the powerful multi-state Local 1199 in 2005.  Since Turner’s election to vice president,

 

Turner says she hopes her election will be the start of a more balanced representation for women and people of color amongst labor’s top leaders in the Bay State.  As the new executive vice president of the union in Massachusetts, Turner will hold the union’s highest post in the Commonwealth, and hopes to continue the track record of success that 1199SEIU has established since its inception in 2005.

 

“Healthcare is the engine of the Massachusetts economy,” said Turner.  “Our state needs to make sure healthcare jobs enable workers to support a family and invest in our local economy.  The future of working families in our state hinges on improving standards for jobs within our largest industry – healthcare.”

 

“Veronica just burst out as a leader early on.  Her leadership was evident right away, and she’s only gotten better over time,” said Karen Wheeler, a clinical engineer at Boston Medical Center who has worked alongside Turner during a number of union campaigns. “It makes me proud to see our union electing young leaders like Veronica.  I have no doubt she’s going to be a tough fighter for healthcare workers.”

 

“She’s a strong and positive woman who knows her stuff.  She is very dedicated to her work,” said Keila Price, another former BMC colleague of Turner’s, “She is fair, understanding, and she just cares so much.”

 

During most of her youth, Turner lived with her grandmother in Tennessee.  Turner’s grandmother became ill when Turner was a young teen.  Turner served as a home care attendant to her grandmother, providing personal care in the years prior to her passing.  Turner’s grandmother was herself a nursing home worker, and Turner’s mother is employed at Boston Medical Center.  Her father, the late Robert Colfield, was an auto mechanic in Mattapan. 

 

Turner said disparities in the healthcare industry are one of the reasons she thinks it’s important for more workers to organize unions and have career training opportunities.

 

 “Too many healthcare workers have been held back in their careers either because of prejudice or a lack of pragmatic and affordable training opportunities,” said Turner.  “A union contract can provide important protections against those problems, so with more organizing in healthcare, new opportunities will open up in the industry for people who were unjustly held back in the past.”

 

1199SEIU members have distinguished themselves in recent years as not only focused on job standards, but also as relentless advocates for quality, affordable patient care.  1199SEIU was a strident backer of state and national healthcare reform efforts and continues to bring new levels of public accountability to healthcare employers whose actions run counter to worker and patient rights.

 

Since 2005, 1199SEIU has helped thousands of Massachusetts workers join the nation’s largest healthcare worker training program – the 1199SEIU Training and Upgrading Fund (TUF).

 

“Bringing access to that fund to new worksites and members will be a key priority of my administration,” says Turner. “The 1199SEIU training fund helps workers build a better future and helps employers train incumbent caregivers for high-skill positions.”

 

 

“Veronica fires people up.  She gets them excited,” said Gale Martell, an 1199SEIU member at Quincy Medical Center, “She is a tough negotiator and is very skilled at bringing people together from diverse backgrounds for a common cause.”

 

Turner is available for interviews by appointment by calling 1199SEIU Communications Director Jeff Hall at 617-281-8384.