Public Employee Press

Members rally against health-care cuts

Restructuring at HHC would wipe out 2,400 positions, close child-care clinics

DC 37 members and allies rallied on the steps of City Hall May 12 to protest budget cuts aimed at the city’s public hospital system, including child health clinics and dental clinics. The demonstration included health care activists from the Save Our Safety Net Coalition and union members from the New York State Nurses Association and the Committee of Interns and Residents.

Judith Arroyo, president of DC 37 Local 436, the United Federation of Nurses and Epidemiologists, blasted the Dept. of Health plan to remove Public Health Nurses from public and charter schools with populations of 300 or fewer students, as being in violation of a city law.

“It is important to remember that it was a School Nurse who identified the first cases of H1N1 in the
city last spring,” said Arroyo, from the steps of City Hall. “This is the safety and public health aspect of
our job, identifying early indicators of what can turn into a citywide epidemic and stop it before it spreads further.”

Fitz Reid, president of Local 768, which suffered layoffs of 63 Pest Control Aides on May 14, also spoke at the rally. “Health care is a right for everyone, whether you have a job or not,” he said.

The day before the rally Health and Hospitals Corp. head Alan D. Aviles announced a restructuring and cost containment plan to generate $300 million in savings toward dealing with $240 million in Medicaid reimbursement cuts, HHC’s projected $1.2 billion budget shortfall and its structural deficit.

HHC, which instituted a hiring freeze in 2009, plans to close one dental clinic and five child-health clinics and eliminate about 2,400 employees through a combination of attrition and layoffs by the end of fiscal year 2014.

“This is simply not acceptable,” said Carmen Charles, president of Municipal Hospital Employees Local 420. “We will fight to protect our jobs and the great services that HHC is known for.”