[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 86 (Friday, May 23, 2008)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1097]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  HONORING A FALLEN HEALTHCARE WORKER

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. ANTHONY D. WEINER

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, May 22, 2008

  Mr. WEINER. Madam Speaker, several months ago, the Kingsbridge 
Heights Rehabilitation Center in the West Bronx unilaterally decided to 
stop making payments to the health care fund for its employees. Before 
some of my colleagues ``tisk tisk, well that's just the free market at 
work''--as the Daily News and their award-winning columnist, Errol 
Louis, pointed out--this center has made $5.2 million in profits last 
year and its CAO, Helen Sieger, made $700,000 in salary--all of it paid 
for by Medicaid funds, our tax dollars.
  Audrey Smith-Campbell and 220 of her colleagues decided they weren't 
going to take it; they were going to go on strike. Audrey Smith-
Campbell was not a union activist or an ideologue. She was for 30 years 
a certified nurse assistant, caring for our parents and our 
grandparents, giving them dignity in their most vulnerable moments. She 
knew she wasn't ever going to get paid what she was worth but she 
wanted to be paid at least enough to live on.
  Audrey Smith-Campbell is dead. She died after having a severe asthma 
attack because she couldn't afford to pay for her medication when she 
was on strike. She should be honored for the way she lived--and we 
should all be ashamed for the reasons she died.

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