After five workers with exemplary records were fired without notice by Chase Brexton Health Care, employees there have voted to form a union ("Chase Brexton employees vote to form a union," Aug. 25).
Some people may view this as a small-city labor kerfuffle of little importance or chalk it up to the changes in health care affecting the whole nation. But it is much more than that.
When I showed up at Chase Brexton years ago, I hadn't been to the doctor in years. The health needs of transgender patients are complicated both before, during and after transition, and not only for strictly medical reasons.
During my very first appointment the doctor assured me I would not have to undress if I was too uncomfortable. She was building trust with me. Sure, she would at some point need to check my body, but this was secondary to our relationship. She was not beholden to a checklist. She implicitly knew that it would take time for me to realize I was in a safe place.
If you listen to Chase Brexton patients, certain themes emerge again and again: Shut out from the traditional health care world, we finally found a home where we could begin to heal, physically and mentally.
The typical Chase Brexton patient is disenfranchised: These are the patients who can't pay, live on the streets, don't have documents. These are the GLBTQI patients facing a host of health care barriers from outright discrimination to a dearth of providers who can competently deliver the complexities of HIV and trans-related care.
When you are poor, drug addicted, stuck in an abusive relationship; when you are homeless or a refugee; when you can't speak English or can't read; when your family isn't a mom and dad and two kids; when you are disabled and deemed too high risk; when you are questioning from the crushing poverty to the toll of discrimination it simply isn't possible to be in and out of the doctor's office in 15 minutes.
What made Chase Brexton unique is that it traditionally put human beings above profit, above speed, above time. The patients at Chase Brexton relied not just on the medicine, the blood pressure cuffs, the exam tables, the talking rooms. What we thrived on, what helped us get our lives back, was the hope and love we received when we walked in the door.
Those practitioners saved my life. The dedication of the employees to the ideals of social parity is what saves lives at Chase Brexton every day.
This is not a labor dispute primarily about salary, benefits or working conditions, though these factors are bound up in the clash. This is a dispute about the value of human beings senior management's false equation for wellness: To squeeze dollars from the care needs of the most vulnerable in our society.
Zosia Zaks
The writer is a patient at Chase Brexton Health Care.