Rallies For Fair State Budget |
COMMUNICATOR HOMEPAGE
|
|
| PEF protests proposed
privatization of SUNY hospitals By DENYCE DUNCAN LACY Hundreds of PEF members and leaders at the state’s three teaching hospitals took to the streets last month, in a coordinated campaign to defeat a state budget proposal to privatize their facilities and services. In his Executive Budget, the governor proposed an amendment to the state Education law, allowing the State University of New York (SUNY) Board of Trustees to transfer all or part of the hospitals’ operations to a private not-for-profit corporation or corporations. Union leaders say privatizing the teaching hospitals would jeopardize not only public access to quality healthcare, but also the education and training for future health care providers. PEF is fighting back with rallies and newspaper ad campaigns. The coordinated rallies took place at the SUNY Medical Centers in Brooklyn, Long Island and Syracuse in mid-April.  Lawmakers join battlePEF President Roger Benson joined leaders for the rallies at each facility. At SUNY Downstate in Brooklyn, the union also found support from state and local lawmakers, including Assembly Member Helene Weinstein, and New York City Council Member Yvette Clark. Clark is sponsoring a Council resolution condemning the privatizing plan. LEADING THE CAUSE — (Above) New York City Council members Bob Jackson and Yvette Clark join state Senator Carl Andrews at SUNY Downstate in Brooklyn at a rally to protest state budget proposals and privatization of state hospitals. — Photo by Ken DIschel “Our campaign to keep SUNY Downstate Medical Center public gained strength today with the declaration that New York City Council Members will join our cause and fight the issue on another front — at City Hall,” said Benson. “We’re grateful for that support. The medical school has been here for almost 30 years and has trained doctors, not just in the New York area but across the country. If the medical school is severed from the hospital the students would not have a school for their training and we would lose them,” Benson warned. Jemma Marie-Hanson, a PEF council leader and obstetrical nurse who has worked at the SUNY Downstate Medical Center for 19 years, told protestors and the media she’s concerned about the consequences for the Flatbush community in Brooklyn if SUNY Downstate is privatized. “Many recent immigrants who live in Flatbush do not have health insurance,” Marie-Hanson said. “As a state institution, we take care of anyone who comes through our doors. Our concern is that this community will not be served because they will not have access to the private hospitals.”  We’re not for sale The PEF nurses wore tee-shirts and buttons with a “SUNY Hospital not for sale” slogan, carried rally signs and chanted “stop privatization,” and “not for sale.” “Stony Brook Hospital is not for sale,” was also the message protestors chanted at a noon rally outside their hospital’s entrance. Ignoring pouring rain and strong winds, the more than 100 demonstrators marched and chanted outside the facility, and handed out leaflets to passersby as they entered and exited. “This is Long Island’s premier acute-care, teaching and research facility,” said PEF President Roger Benson. “It’s one of the top medical centers in this country. “The state would not need to sell such valuable resources if all New Yorkers carried their fair share of the state’s fiscal burden,” Benson added. “The state should raise the money needed to support the SUNY hospitals and other public services by closing corporate tax loopholes and imposing a temporary surcharge on the wealthiest New Yorkers.” PEF Region 12 Coordinator Doris Dodson and PEF Division 225 Council Leader Virginia Greer, both registered nurses at the hospital, said millions of people depend on Stony Brook Hospital to give them state-of-the-art care and specialty services that are unavailable at most other hospitals on Long Island. “In our neonatal intensive care unit at Stony Brook,” Dodson said, “we are entrusted with saving the lives of the tiniest, most fragile newborns. “Who will save these children if New York is no longer willing to invest in the research and technology, the sophisticated training and the intensive staffing required to provide this level of care?” The Stony Brook rally also drew support from state lawmakers, including Assembly Member Steven Englebright.  Upstate: Specialty services At Upstate Medical Center in Syracuse demonstrators brought their message to the public under sunny skies. Nearly 150 PEF members and other hospital staff, and members of several Syracuse-area labor unions marched and chanted outside their East Adams Street hospital. PEF Division 320 Council Leader and registered nurse June Edwards said millions of people depend on Upstate University Hospital to give them exceptional care and specialty services that are unavailable at most other hospitals in Syracuse. “Upstate University Hospital is the state’s only academic medical center and is a frontrunner in research studies. Our burn center serves more than 25 counties and is the regional referral center providing state-of-the-art burn care,” Edwards said. “The research studies we conduct have already benefited millions of people. Can we risk losing all this if profit becomes the motive?” Benson and other community leaders also spoke at the Upstate rally, urging participants to write and call state lawmakers and the governor and tell them to reject the privatization plan. “Don’t sell these hospitals short,” Benson said. |
