Humans of UNAC/UHCP: Annie Restifo, RN
I saw on social media Sunday night that our Maui workers were going on strike the next morning. Maui is very dear to me, like a second home, and I have family here. So without thinking twice, at midnight I booked a flight first thing in the morning on Monday and I got here to the strike line at about 2 in the afternoon. I felt like this was the right place to be with everybody—to support our family here. It just brings me so much joy knowing that we’re all in this together in solidarity.
“I saw on social media Sunday night that our Maui workers were going on strike the next morning. Maui is very dear to me, like a second home, and I have family here. So without thinking twice, at midnight I booked a flight first thing in the morning on Monday and I got here to the strike line at about 2 in the afternoon. I felt like this was the right place to be with everybody—to support our family here. It just brings me so much joy knowing that we’re all in this together in solidarity.
“I’m a fire survivor. We lost our home in San Diego to fire in 2007. Then, our niece and nephew lost their house in the Lahaina fires. They were actually on the mainland when this happened, so they stayed with me. Our niece taught fifth grade, so every night she’d get an email from their principal listing the names of the kids and families who lost their lives in the fire. It was devastating.
“They were born and raised here on Maui, but they actually left this past summer to move to the mainland because of the cost of living and the toll on their mental health.
But my cousin Donell is still a teacher here in Lahaina. She came out to join me today on our picket line. She’s active in her union, Hawaii State Teachers Association.
“The Maui community is really hurting. So, I just felt in my heart that it was the right thing to do, to come and support our Maui community and their family members, including mine.”
—Annie Restifo, RN, Kaiser San Diego