Kerry finds friend in union

September 19, 2004

MIAMI - Rose Assinthe earns $10 an hour working at a nursing home here, emptying bed pans, cleaning her feeble patients' sores, brushing their teeth. A single mother of four, she lives barely above the poverty level.

Odd as it sounds, this 50-year-old Haitian immigrant might prove to be one of the most influential Americans in the presidential election.

Assinthe is a member of the Service Employees International Union, probably the most important player in Florida's presidential election that you've never heard of. Largely below the radar screen, the SEIU, which represents mostly low-wage service employees, is pumping at least $7-million into Florida to swing 27 electoral votes to John Kerry.

Assinthe is on the front lines, spending most every day knocking on the doors of fellow Haitians and other Caribbean immigrants. A citizen since 1990, she is one of 350 SEIU members on union-paid leave from their jobs to mobilize anti-Bush voters across Florida. They are ringing doorbell after doorbell, making phone call after phone call.

"I feel I am fighting for the future, for a better life," she said in her deep Haitian accent.


http://www.sptimes.com/2004/09/19/Decision2004/Kerry_finds_friend_in.shtml


Hope is one the way

Question: How does one eat an elephant?

Answer: One bite at a time...

mmmm,mmmm, good

What does that comment have to do with this subject?

will take down the Reublican control of government in November.

I guess I'm just not in a joking mood yet. It went over my head.

sounds good.

Welcome to DU!

:toast:

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

Excellent article.

They have a very active phone bank. In the same strip of buildings where SEIU is located is the America Coming Together (ACT) offices. These people work their tails off for Kerry. IF he wins he had best remember and overturn the dracionian overtime rules put forth by the US Chamber of Commerce and their friends in Bush, Inc.

"This is indicative of Kerry's supporters in Florida," the Republican shill says snidely.

I'm thrilled to see that these pillars of our society, the ones who hold all the rest of us up, who work so hard for such small return, are on the streets for Kerry. They are the ones who most deserve what he can do for them.