WHYY
By
Keta White is a Black health care worker at Germantown Home, in Philadelphia’s Mount Airy neighborhood. And she’s one of 13,000 members of District 1199C, a majority Black- and brown-led union that represents Black workers in all fields in the major health care institutions in the city behavioral, mental health, and child care facilities, as well as employees who provide health care services within the city’s prison systems.
At White’s nursing home, she works in the laundry department, sorting and delivering personal clothing to residents. Typically, Germantown Home accommodates 180 beds, but she said that at the height of the pandemic, 60 residents passed away after contracting the virus, one-third of the home’s elderly population.