Rodolfo Gómez

As a floor technician at Indiana Orthopaedic Hospital, health care is often on 42-year-old Rodolfo Gómez’ mind.

Perhaps ironically, Rodolfo, an employee of QBM, is one of 100,000 Indianapolis-area residents without health insurance. “Thank God my wife and children have never been seriously ill,” says Rodolfo.

But like anybody else, Rodolfo and his family need medical care. “Since we don’t have insurance, we have to make some tough decisions when somebody gets sick,” Rodolfo says. “Whether or not to go to the doctor, where to go, where is it cheaper, do we have enough money to pay or not.”

Even when Rodolfo’s wife and children are healthy, Rodolfo still pays for medical care for his mother, who is also uninsured. “She is 60 years old and suffers from diabetes and arthritis,” Rodolfo says. “She has problems with her vision and can barely walk. She needs to go to the doctor and I try to send her money whenever I can.”

Working in a hospital environment means exposure to all sorts of infectious diseases. Rodolfo is aware that every day he runs the risk of contracting illnesses such as pneumonia, MRSA or other forms of staph, hepatitis B, and tuberculosis. Rodolfo believes that QBM is aware of this risk as well. When he first started working, he received the first of a series of vaccinations designed to protect him from hepatitis B. According to charges filed with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the company has been remiss in their duty to vaccinate their employees, leaving Rodolfo and his coworkers at risk.

But lack of affordable health care is only one of the problems that Rodolfo faces on the job. “The workload is so high that even if they gave me 12 hours a day, I couldn’t finish,” Rodolfo says.

Unpaid work is another. “One way or another they don’t pay us for all the hours we’ve worked,” Rodolfo says. “Five hours, ten hours, they do that constantly. Now I write down in my planner exactly when I come in and when I leave. I’ve been fighting with them since September for hours I worked that they didn’t pay me for. I had 40 hours of overtime and they lost track of 8 of those. The supervisor told me that they lost the stub.”

Tired of such treatment, Rodolfo and his coworkers presented a petition that raises the issues of pay, health care, training, and vaccinations. “The supervisor didn’t speak to us for two days,” Rodolfo says.

But Rodolfo and his coworkers have found the power of working together. Now they are standing up for a union in order to have a permanent voice on the job.