Denver Health Workers United: together we can dismantle systemic racism

Presented to the DHHA Board of Directors

July 23, 2020

Partner with us for a better Denver Health. Denver Health Workers United is a union of hundreds of Denver Health workers. We seek to partner with the DHHA Board of Directors and leadership to dismantle systemic racism at our institution and in our community. We are proud of Denver Health. We are at the forefront of addressing racial health inequities and serving all members of our community. Yet from our vantage point as frontline workers, we see the urgent need for significantly stronger efforts to dismantle systemic racism and all forms of oppression.

Acknowledge the reality of racism and make real change. First we must remove all obstacles to the clear understanding of systemic racism and the harm it causes ourselves, our patients and our community. We must acknowledge how institutional racism at Denver Health has historically harmed people and that it continues to harm people to this day. We need to dig deeper into how racism and other forms of discrimination affect patient treatment and health. We must see how racism has limited opportunities and compensation for workers of color. We can start by having a policy to do Native land acknowledgement at the beginning of public events like these – not as tokenism but as part of an overall transformative plan to acknowledge discrimination.

We ask for thorough and regular surveys of employee experiences with racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism and other forms of discrimination. Gathering information must be part of a larger plan to transform our institution. We cannot pretend DH is immune from the ills of our society. Let’s be proactive and take a leading role in how organizations can improve on this front. To do this, we must hear from the people most affected by inequity and discrimination.

We should create a meaningful process for voices to be heard, with the goal of addressing and righting wrongs. We ask you as leaders for a commitment to real and measurable change to acknowledge and address discrimination. We ask for resources, input, transparency and communication on antiracism efforts.

Community involvement. We must include non-white community members in evaluation and recommendations for greater equity, including DHHA implementation of federal standards for culturally and linguistically appropriate services in health and health care. Community stakeholders will help us advance our antiracism efforts and hold us accountable to our shared goals of eliminating health disparities. We know that we can and should do better on access to translation services, including compensating employees who are engaging non-English communication as part of our work.

Workers at the forefront. Workers must also be at the forefront of these efforts. We must strengthen workers’ rights and EEO protections. We ask that you form an antiracism worker management committee, including representation from DHWU members. Executives must stop deterring and discouraging people from joining our union and exercising our freedoms of speech and association. To be clear, leaders cannot act to limit our collective voice at work and be antiracist at the same time; the two are mutually exclusive.

We must overhaul our compensation system and make sure that frontline workers are equitably compensated, particularly in light of our increased exposure to risk during the pandemic. A review of the entire compensation system should be informed by numbers about race, gender and other factors and with the goal to correct discriminatory compensation practices. This will mean shifting money from top paid executives to lower paid titles. Denver Health often expands duties of lower tiered job classes without increases or adjustment in compensation. Denver Health compensation and work environment must be an attractive employer for all, not just the CEO and leadership team.

We also need proactive efforts to ensure that our leadership and providers reflect our patient population; this requires increased opportunities for advancement and career ladders. We need improved training as well as an ongoing and transformative antiracism program for our staff. Antiracism training should be included in procap points. We can honor the experiences of all employees, including allowing staff to take Juneteenth and other important cultural days as “Floating Holidays”.

These are just some ideas. Workers will have more suggestions and we know it is imperative to have our voices at the forefront of the needed conversations about change.

Community health and safety in the pandemic. Community safety, workers’ rights and antiracism in health care are interconnected. We need dramatic social change to defend ourselves against the pandemic. In order to protect ourselves, we need community and worker input into COVID 19 protocols. As a union, we support and are working for increased public funding at the federal, state and local levels for pandemic preparedness and coordination. For equity and justice in health care, the specific needs of all community members and workers must be at the heart of our response to this pandemic. We ask that Denver Health fully compensate any workers who lose work due to COVID19 illness, without having to take their own personal leave.

Commitment and accountability. We ask that your DHHA Board policies hold the CEO and leadership team responsible for compliance with legislation, rules and statutes that protect workers and patients at Denver Health. Our Code of Conduct does not refer to a clear process for enforcement. We want to see a culture change with strengthened ease of reporting, oversight, transparency, communication and accountability around efforts to eliminate discrimination. We request greater encouragement and clarity for providers, staff and patients to exercise their right to file a Federal EEOC complaint or CMS grievance. The goal should not be to limit institutional legal liability but to understand, acknowledge, and seriously address discrimination.

Let’s rise together. In conclusion, we know that there are a lot of things that Denver Health gets right. And we want to add being at the forefront of dismantling institutional racism, eliminating health disparities and ensuring worker protections to the top of that list. We seek to work with DHHA leaders to transform Denver Health in a positive direction. Let us rise together to the challenge of this moment.

Doris Achamfour Testimony at DHHA Board of Directors, 7/23/2020

My name is Doris Achamfour. I am a Custodian and I have worked here for four years.

I am a good worker and I feel at home when I am working at Denver Health. We have good people at Denver Health, who are good and friendly and make you feel like you are part of the organization.

I am cleaning COVID rooms after the patients are discharged. We are working with harsh chemicals. They get into our eyes and nose. Inhaling these smells makes us cough, sneeze and feel tired. The chemical is so strong, it gets in the mask. The instructions say to use only outdoors or in a wellventilated area. Now, with coronavirus, we must keep the some rooms shut, so we are not always working in well ventilated area. We need proper protections for our health and safety.

In addition, most Custodians are African or Hispanic immigrants. I am aware of racist incidents at Denver Health. A white employee came in to the OR breakroom and objected to my Ghanaian coworker listening to music on his phone while on his break. The white employee complained to the EVS supervisor and the Ghanaian worker was fired. Also, I know that some custodians have been wrongly accused of stealing food. We should be able to eat in any breakrooms at Denver Health and to be treated with respect.

While I know that I have the legal right to join a union, my co-workers have been discouraged from this right. On June 30th, after my night shift, our whole crew of morning shift and night shift were called into the EVS storeroom in the basement and given a letter which stated that our union was a third party and could not legally speak for us. Also, we were told that the union would just take our money and do nothing.

I know that we have the right to join a union and to speak for ourselves and others. Even though I knew it was not true, I felt broken. Somebody is trying to tell you that something that you believe in is fake. It is a terrible feeling. It was a shock. We felt broken. To be frank with you, I was broken.

As leaders, I am asking you to right these wrongs. We deserve safety. We deserve respect and freedom from racism. We deserve to have a union to have a voice at work. Thank you for listening to my experiences.