Kingsbridge Workers Return
The nursing home workers looked great in their fresh scrubs, in anticipation of doing what they love to do---care for patients. But this was not just any workday. On August 21, six months after 220 workers walked out onto an unfair-labor-practices picket line, these workers were returning to their jobs at Kingsbridge Heights Nursing Home after Federal District Judge Denise Cote issued an injunction. She ruled that the nursing home’s owner, Helen Sieger, must as of Thursday, August 21, 2008, reinstate the striking workers and return their old jobs and seniority. An appeal by Sieger to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was denied on Wednesday, August 20.
Although the nursing home doors were still locked at 6:30 a.m. on Thursday – in direct violation of the court order--the workers were calm. Before heading in, they held a prayer service. And when the doors were finally opened not long after, they entered to applause and cheering. The constant refrain was "we’re just happy to get back to work." Many drivers from the neighborhood honked and waved in support of the workers. 
Mike Rifkin, Executive Vice-President of the Union’s Nursing Home Division said, “CEO Helen Sieger, a millionaire nursing home operator, tried and failed to deny the humanity and dignity of the Kingsbridge Heights workers. She's a perfect reminder of why we have a labor movement.”
“Today is the start of a new beginning after a big struggle,” said housekeeper Pablo Santiago “Sieger took what was rightfully ours. She didn't honor our contract. Anybody who tries to do what Ms. Sieger did to us -- we'll stand against them."
CNA Hazelene Hope said, “I'm prepared to go back to work. I was feeling very bad, but I'm happy and eager to get back to work today. Hope said she missed her patients. "When we were on the strike line they came to the window and they waved.” 
Over six months and three seasons, the workers held a 24-hours-a-day picket line. Tragedy struck when Kingsbridge nursing assistant Audrey Smith Campbell suffered a fatal asthma attack. With health benefits cut off by Sieger, Audrey couldn't afford the $400 a month it cost for the special medicine she needed. Poignantly, the strike ended on her birthday, August 21.
Sylvia Thomas recalled, “It was hard being out there for six months. It's hard on the body. We were out there in all kinds of weather. When we went out, we thought it would last 2 weeks, but then we thought it would never end.. Now we're here this morning ready to go back to work. This shows that whatever you do, you have to stay strong and stick together."
In all, the judge ordered Kingsbridge to comply with 11 demands. Among them, she said the home must make contributions to the worker benefit fund; cease all unfair labor practices, including videotaping employees engaged in strike activities; and engage in good faith efforts to bargain a new contract with 1199SEIU.
Helen Sieger still faces charges brought by Attorney General Andrew Cuomo that she failed to provide workers’ compensation insurance for her workers for more than a year. She was arrested earlier this month and faces a hearing in State Supreme Court in the Bronx on Oct. 21.
