Public Employee Press

Swine Flu
City nurses on the front lines

When New Yorkers confront a crisis, the members of DC 37 step up to the plate and demonstrate once again why they are the city’s unsung heroes, as they are doing in the current swine flu outbreak.

The city’s 1,000 Public Health Nurses and Epidemiologists — members of DC 37’s United Federation of Nurses Local 436 — are on the front lines as the H1N1virus sweeps through city schools.

“We had to see as many as 65 children every day for the last three days,” said a Local 436 member who works in a Queens school. Fearing retaliation from management, she asked PEP not to use her name.

The Public Health Nurses were responsible for monitoring the children, seeing that they drink plenty of fluids and sending them home if need be. “Not one of our members called in sick,” said the Queens PHN. “Everyone worked together, the teachers, the parents and the Public Health Assistants.”

When her school closed for a period in May, despite the dedication of the Public Health Nurses during the crisis, they were not paid for those days.

“Even though they are on the front line of the H1N1 outbreak, the only group of employees the city is not paying upon the closing of a school is the Public Health Nurses,” said Local 436 President Judith Arroyo June 11 before the City Council Committee on Health and Public Safety. The union is filing a grievance to get members paid, Arroyo said.

Need more support

At the hearing she also pointed out that some Public Health Nurses worked through their lunch hours and were not paid, and that in the crisis they need more Public Health Assistants and Public Health Advisors to provide support. The Dept. of Health and Mental Hygiene has now issued a memo saying that the nurses would be paid for the lunch hours.

DC 37 has asked the Dept. of Health to assess the hazards facing various occupational groups in the H1N1 crisis, including members who work at the Health and Hospitals Corp. and other city agencies. As PEP went to press, 30 New Yorkers had died of the swine flu.

“We all love these children,” said the Queens Public Health Nurse. “And there was no doubt that we had to be there for them.”