Employees of Brooks Memorial Hospital held an informational picket in front of the 65-bed western NY community hospital on August 7. The action was an effort to raise community awareness about the unfair proposals management is making at the bargaining table. Several hundred workers turned out to walk, along with their families, neighbors, and community supporters. Following the picket was a Community Rally to Save Our Hospital at Washington Park focused on how the community’s access to quality care will be negatively impacted if the hospital, overtaken by a large out-of-state medical center, is downsized to an urgent care center.



State Senator Catharine Young (R) lead the spirited rally to its conclusion by thanking the hard-working healthcare workers at the hospital and encouraging management to come to the table to bargain. “I’m hopeful we can get a good resolution through good-faith negotiations very soon,” Young said.



brooksMem_fa.jpgContract talks began in early March, but have made minimum progress even with the help of a federal mediator. The 1199SEIU Bargaining Committee of Brooks Memorial Hospital workers feels that the hospital, now affiliated with the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, is intentionally stalling negotiations by putting forth contract proposals that they know are unacceptable to the workers.



Some of these substandard proposals include: the elimination of our Training and Upgrading Fund; a freeze to all wages and steps; a health benefit plan only guaranteed through 2014; a freeze ofemployer pension contributions; the elimination of daily overtime; freedom to sub-contract and transfer union-worker services off site; weakened layoff, recall and seniority language; and a decrease in vacation/holiday and sick benefits.



These proposals indicate that the so far unspoken goal of the hospital, as a result of its affiliation with the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, is to end inpatient care at the hospital and continue as an urgent care center



“We aren’t asking for much,” said Rosie Calph, a Medical Records Clerk at Brooks Memorial Hospital for over 26 years, “just a fair wage for an honest day’s work and the hope that the hospital does the right thing for our community.”