U.S. Labor News Roundup

Week of June 17, 2013

For-Profit Health Care Kills

It’s not currently legal for for-profit companies to own hospitals in New York state. But Wall Street firms and the legislature are trying to change that.

A nurses union is battling to save a Brooklyn hospital from being sold to a Wall Street company. “For-profit health care kills,” said nurse Jill Furillo of the New York State Nurses Association. “I’ve seen it in other states.”

Health care workers rushed to Long Island College Hospital (LICH) June 20 for an emergency rally—after administrators began diverting patients to other sites.

Ambulances had been instructed to send patients to other facilities, and physicians were told to begin transferring their patients away.

The hospital’s actions flew in the face of a judge’s order directing it to maintain staffing levels.

Bills in the state legislature would open the door to for-profit ownership of hospitals. Although it serves low-income communities of color, LICH sits on prime real estate. To developers—who’d like to put condominiums there—the hospital would be worth more dead than alive.

Hospital workers in Massachusetts have already gotten a taste of what it means when Wall Street becomes your boss. Steward Health Care began laying off workers while putting money into the buildings—so they could be resold later.

And in New Jersey, nurses are trying to get the state to tighten the rules: if a for-profit company buys a hospital, they say, it must make a ten-year commitment to keep the hospital open and provide more charity care.

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Hunger Strike for School Safety

Two parents and two school lunchroom staffers have committed to consume nothing but water till the city of Philadelphia and the state of Pennsylvania take action on school safety.

Their demand? To preserve the union jobs of lunchroom staffers, whom the Philadelphia school district plans to lay off.

The Fast for Safe Schools launched June 17 in a tent in front of the governor’s office

One hunger striker is Earlene Bly, mother of a ninth-grader, grandmother of a student about to start elementary school, and lunchroom staffer. A school environment, she said, needs to have student safety staffers present, to de-escalate potentially violent student conflicts.

The Philadelphia district has a long history of underfunding and crisis. Over the past year, it has pursued a radical program of closing schools, privatization, and staff cuts.

In March, despite civil disobedience and the arrest of 17 protesters, the district voted to approve 23 school closings. On May 30 it passed a budget that eliminates cafeteria staff, school librarians, assistant principals, and many other support staff.

In response, 3,000 high school students organized by Youth United for Change and the Philadelphia Student Union took to the streets—demanding that the governor and the mayor find the funds necessary to fund the school system.

The hunger strikers have seen an outpouring of support from others affected by the closures and the cuts. Student organizations, other unions, and community organizations have visited their tent and participated in evening picket lines.