Candidate Edwards Spends Day Walking in an Area Nurse’s Shoes
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Presidential candidate John Edwards, a former senator of North Carolina, skipped the big sights of the city during a visit to the area yesterday, instead spending the day in a Mamaroneck nursing home, where he fed, dressed, and, at one point even shaved elderly residents.
As part of a job-shadowing day organized by the Service Employees International Union, a certified nursing assistant of New Rochelle, Elaine Ellis, was met by Mr. Edwards at her one-bedroom home at 5:15 a.m. yesterday and then led him through her day at the Sarah Neuman nursing home, where she has worked for 18 years. The SEIU is calling on all presidential candidates to see life through the eyes of an American worker. Mr. Edwards is the first candidate to participate in the exercise.
Ms. Ellis “reminded me in the most personal terms why I’m running for president of the United States,” Mr. Edwards said last night during a speech at the Labor Research Association’s 30th annual labor awards dinner at the Hilton Hotel in Midtown. “This woman is so much like the people that I grew up with, who worked in a mill alongside of my mother and father.” Mr. Edward’s praised Ms. Ellis’s work ethic and dedication to her children and called her an American hero who is the heart and soul of the labor movement.
“And if any of us think that the CEOs of these big multinational corporations are going to take care of her, you are living in a fantasy world,” he said. “Now that doesn’t mean we can’t work with them. We don’t have to always be at odds with them.”
Shifting his attention to the presidential campaign, he told the labor leaders filling the ballroom that the country needs a president who can educate Americans about why organizing is important and isn’t afraid of the word “union.”
Earlier in the day, Mr. Edward’s condemned President Bush’s announcement that tours of duty for active-duty Army units will be extended to 15 months from 12, saying the plan “borders on the unconscionable.”
“Our military — and particularly our Army — has already been stretched to the breaking point by this President’s misguided, disastrous policy in Iraq,” he said in a statement.
Mr. Edward’s has said his plan would be cap funding at 100,000 troops, force the immediate withdrawal of 40,000 to 50,000 troops, and withdraw completely from Iraq in 12 to 18 months.
