By:Nick Buglione
The rally -- organized by the Civil Service Employees Association, which represents about 3,000 health care corporation workers -- was called in response to an independent report that recommended that the corporation consider, among other measures, cutting more staff to close its gaping financial wounds.
Shouting into megaphones and eliciting long honks from sympathetic truck drivers cruising Hempstead Turnpike, approximately 100 protesting union members proclaimed that too many workers have already been laid off. At the end of 2003, Nassau Health Care Corporation eliminated 250 positions, and the administration says hundreds more layoffs are on the way. More than 300 workers were let go at the beginning of 2002.
It-s not the way to do it, said George Walsh, CSEA unit president for NUMC. I-m seeing the nurses not only doing nursing. They-re taking the patients down to X-ray. They-re going down to pick up medication. They've got to pick up laundry. They-re doing all sorts of jobs other than taking care of patients.
The Nassau Health Care Corporation, which has run NUMC, the A. Holly Patterson nursing home in Uniondale and seven community clinics since 1999, should improve bill collections and cut back on subcontracted work to save money before laying off more staff, Walsh said.
Commissioned by the county in August to examine ways of pulling the corporation out of its financial quagmire, the independent report indicated that the 631-bed NUMC actually had more employees than other area hospitals. Walsh and other staff members, however, dispute that fact.
Sheila Hoting, an East Meadow resident and NUMC clerical support supervisor for the past 23 years, said staff cutbacks have put a huge strain on her department. I can-t answer my phones, Hoting said. We-re trying to multi-task to keep the services going. We-re juggling everything. I-ve got to be at five places at once.
Nassau Health Care Corporation President and CEO Richard Turan labeled the protest another example of the CSEA-s unwillingness to work with the corporation to get on solid financial ground. The corporation has lost millions of dollars every year since its 1999 creation.
I think they were out there because they refuse to come to the negotiating table to speak to us seriously, Turan said. In its last negotiating session on Jan. 21, the CSEA rejected the health care corporation-s request for $10 million in labor concessions that could prevent more layoffs, Turan said.
They have not been a positive force at all, he said. They-d rather have people lose jobs than negotiate.
Union officials charge that Turan is being uncooperative and unreasonable, making up for the administration-s financial mismanagement at the workers- expense. I don-t think we should be making any kind of concessions on benefits, said Doug Mayer, a nurse in the NUMC Burn Center. If we have financial troubles, I would have to question the decisions of the board of directors.
When there are more layoffs, there-s going to be a cut in services, said Christine Hoffman, an NUMC nurse for four years. That means these people, poor people, especially in Nassau County, are not going to have a place to go.
Released Jan. 29, the independent report also recommended selling the 889-bed A. Holly Patterson nursing home and moving it onto NUMC-s campus in East Meadow, where there are many vacant rooms.
We think the entire report has to be taken seriously, Turan said. We are considering the possibility of building a small nursing home on the [NUMC] campus. We are [also] considering selling the nursing home and not having a nursing home.
With 1,000 workers currently employed at A. Holly Patterson, union members are wary of its fate. The patients would lose the homey atmosphere; they would miss that, said Frances Hubbs, a nurse at A. Holly Patterson, referring to the potential move. Here it-s more of a hospital setting.
The residents are upset and scared, she continued. They don-t know where they-re going to be.
