Nurses picketing August 25 outside Shreveport, Louisiana, nursing home explain their struggle to Lea Sherman, right, Socialist Workers candidate for U.S. Senate from Texas. The nurses are paid less than $10 an hour and are forced to work frequent 12-hour shifts, often without overtime pay. They have been fighting for a contract since organizing a union a year ago. Sherman, a meat packer from Houston, Texas, was part of campaign teams throughout the state that put the socialist candidates for president and vice president on the Louisiana ballot.