Terri Mengler’s Story (in her own words):

I have been an SEIU member since the union organized at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics ten years ago. I am an 18-year employee in the Respiratory Care Department.

I was devastated by the flood of 2008 that hit Czech Village in Cedar Rapids the week of June 10.

I moved into an 1 and 1/2 - story older home that was “stripped and flipped” by the previous owners several years ago. My backyard was on a park with a paved trail around the river next to the closed landfill.

Now it is a swamp of sewage, fertilizer, and other toxins.

On the dreaded night of June 10, 2008, I knew the river was rising fast and might hit the top of the levee. My street was already sandbagged at the storm sewers, and the water was rising in the street.

My family and friends gathered up the stuff in my basement, and put it on the top floor. As they carried the big-ticket items to the trailer, the neighbors watched, thinking we were overreacting. I spent my last night in my home amid piles of my belongings. At 3 a.m., a firefighter knocked at my door and informed me that I had one hour to evacuate.

I had packed my personal items early, so I grabbed my two cats and fled to my sister's in Alburnett. The next day my twin 10-year-old nephews and my 72-year-old father (fondly dubbed “The Alburnett Posse”) made two mad dashes back to the house for more.

The water had risen from the overflowing storm sewers and was poised to rise above the levee. The Posse came to my rescue to remove some kitchen appliances. That was my last visit.

The next days we spent glued to KCRG-TV9, watching the water rise higher and higher, eventually swallowing my house.

As the Cedar River was cresting, the Iowa National Guard kindly let us into a park, where we were high enough to take pictures of the house. The water was 6.5 feet on the main level.

A few days later, when the water began to recede, I was allowed a closer look. There I found my foundation on one side collapsed with two major support beams snapped like twigs.

My father and I tried to salvage what we could from the shed/garage. When we opened it up, the smell was so horrible I nearly gagged. It takes a lot for a health care worker to gag!

Today my home is rated red, which means it is unsafe to enter and full of raw sewage. The mold is destroying any hope of cleaning or repairing. The only choice now is a bulldozer.

I saved a few pictures, quilts my deceased mother made, and a few clothes. I consider myself luckier than most because I have support from my family, friends, workplace and the Alburnett Posse. I am living well with my sister Julie, her husband Mark, Jaxon and Jacob and four cats.

I may have lost everything but I still have what counts. I will never return to live in Czech Village and hope for a buy-out from the city,

Thanks to the National Guard, the Red Cross and our city's government agencies for their work to ensure no deaths or serious injuries while keeping us safe.

Iowans are strong and capable of overcoming this horror. I will continue to live in my hometown of Cedar Rapids and will relocate to higher ground!

Keep us in your thoughts and prayers.

Terri Mengler

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California Nurses Association Updates

 

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SEIU Local 199 Takes Action to Protect Our Profession—and Our Privacy

SEIU Local 199 nurses are filing a lawsuit May 12, charging the California Nurses Association (CNA) illegally attained our private mailing list to send unsolicited literature.

"It's frankly scary that an out-of-state  union like the CNA would have gotten their hands on our confidential, internal list-that's why we're going to do whatever it takes to get to the bottom of this situation.  No one in America should have to worry that their private information will be taken and used without their consent." Cathy Singer- Glasson, RN President, SEIU Local 199

Recently, CNA sent mailers to Local 199 nurses using a list that we believe was obtained attained in an illegal way—not through the publicly-available state nurse registry.

This comes at a time when CNA is already using other underhanded tactics to prevent nurses from joining SEIU and other unions.

• Days before 8,300 hospital employees in Ohio were scheduled to vote in their union election, CNA organizers dressed in scrubs and posed as pizza delivery workers to gain access to patient care areas, urging nurses to “vote no” for SEIU.
  
  
• They’re also hurting nurses and other hospital employees by raiding hospitals in California, Nevada and Texas.

The CNA’s dishonest tactics in Iowa, Ohio, and other places around the country are threatening the gains nurses have made to improve patient care and workplace standards—that’s why SEIU nurses in Iowa are taking action to protect our hospitals now.

We will not let an outside union use illegal tactics to divide us and hurt the progress we've made in our hospitals and with policy makers

102 Second Ave Coralville, IA 52241-2687 319.341.0112

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