Public Employee Press

DC 37 blasts HHC cutback plan


Union finds major problems: conflicts of interest and reckless outsourcing

By ALFREDO ALVARADO

DC 37 sharply criticized the Health and Hospitals Corp.'s 2010 plan to balance its budget through destructive downsizing in "Public Health Care Under the Knife," a white paper issued Sept. 17 by Executive Director Lillian Roberts.

The union charged that HHC's restructuring plan, "The Road Ahead," uses a "slash-and-burn" approach to the public hospitals' financial problems and is deeply marred by confl icts of interest, ideology-driven contracting out and unsubstantiated cost-efficiency analyses.

Roberts called the $4 million HHC paid the Deloitte Consulting LLP firm to draft the report "an unconscionable waste of human resources and taxpayer money that would undermine quality health care at HHC facilities."

The union's 11-page response pointed to a clear conflict of interest in the HHC plan, which calls for privatizing the Brooklyn Central Laundry and firing its Local 420 workforce. Angelica Linen Services, a New Jersey-based company that would be in line to take over the laundry, is a major client of Deloitte, as
is the Sodexo Corp., a private firm that already provides meals for HHC patients.

The union response hit HHC for rejecting offers from DC 37 and other municipal unions to participate in designing the restructuring plan and for accepting virtually no input from communities, health-care advocates or HHC's own staff.

Union input ignored

"Our members are both the front-line workers who actually deliver the services and members of the community who use public hospitals and clinics, yet HHC ignored many constructive recommendations offered by this union," said Roberts.

The union also criticized Deloitte's failure to identify any of the so-called nationally recognized benchmarks it claims to have compared HHC to. The plan is based on Deloitte's cost-benefit analyses, which relied on private-sector models that are not appropriate for evaluating public services, said the union.

The plan would lay off 450 of HHC's 1,200 maintenance workers, endangering building maintenance and HHC's accreditation status. Union legal action held off a wave of layoffs set for Sept. 17.

"The Road Ahead" would be a dead end for a dental clinic and five child health clinics that serve 6,000 children, adults and seniors in Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx.

The union response called on HHC to increase the enrollment of patients in HHC's MetroPlus HMO and target revenue-producing and cost-saving job titles for back filling, training and upgrading as well as ending its contract with Sodexo and returning the Cook-Chill food service to in-house management.

The union filed a legal complaint Aug. 25 on behalf of Brooklyn Central Laundry workers, charging HHC, the city and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg with violating a 2005 agreement to contract in all HHC laundry services and keep the Local 420 members on the job. On Oct. 15, DC 37 lawyers went to New York State Supreme Court to request an injunction to stop HHC from going ahead with its plan to privatize the laundry.

"We'll keep rallying and marching and making our voices heard, because contracting out this work is wrong for our members and wrong for the city," said Carmen Charles, president of Municipal Hospital Employees Local 420.

DC 37 also denounced the HHC plan in the Daily News and on 1010 WINS, WLIB, New York 1 and many other radio and television stations.

Thirty-eight of the 51 City Council members went on record against the downsizing plan by signing a letter to HHC President Alan Aviles from Council members Julissa Ferreras and Mathieu Eugene. They demanded that Aviles postpone HHC's trip down "The Road Ahead" until he sits down to discuss the plan with the community and the City Council.