NYSNA joined forces with the healthcare workers of 1199SEIU at seven chronic dialysis facilities in Brooklyn, Bronx and New Rochelle, with informational picketing on January 15. The message: protect quality patient care with fair contracts for nurses and healthcare workers.

Fresenius Medical Care is the biggest provider of dialysis care in the U.S., racking up $1.6 billion in profits on its U.S. dialysis operations in 2014, with more profit projected for 2015. But the mega-company wants givebacks in health and pension benefits from NYSNA members. Continuous quality care from a committed workforce protects patient care in dialysis, and the community is well aware of that fact. The clinics’ patients are largely from communities of color.

Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez and Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams visited the picket at the Fresenius clinic in Cobble Hill to express their support.

January 15 is the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. who said in 1966, “Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane.” These words resonated on the picket lines.