A hefty contingent of SEIU 1199 members turned out at St. Vincent Charity Medical Center today to protest the hospital’s decision to discontinue inpatient and emergency room services in November. That decision will eliminate the jobs of 1,000 frontline healthcare workers, in addition to making it more challenging for nearby residents, who are primarily people of color and of low to moderate economic status, to obtain vital health care services.
St. Vincent has long been known for providing care to low-income residents and for its substance abuse and mental health programs. Those programs, along with ER and inpatient services will cease on November 15, according to the hospital’s September 14 announcement.
That news was just the latest in a string of such announcements in Greater Cleveland and around the country. University Heights announced this spring that it would shutter similar services at its community hospitals in Bedford and Richmond Heights.
In each instance the removal of critical care services most seriously affects people with modest or fewer resources: working class and poor people, who are disproportionately African American.
SEIU 1199 executives accused the hospital’s top officials of hypocrisy, callousness and hypocrisy in a prepared statement accompanying the release. 1199 Executive Vice President Samara Knight said the hospital’s top brass “are responsible for throwing [nearly 1,000] workers out on the street without a penny to help them transition into a new job, while they sit back cashing in their ginormous paychecks. She said this was done after the hospital “took over $11 million dollars in Covid-Relief funds to keep the hospital open.”
”The hospital claims to operate in the name of God and the executives act like the devil,” said Becky Williams, President of SEIU 1199. She accused St. Vincent executives of handpicking “who would be granted severance pay and turned their backs on some of the lowest paid employees. … Deciding to give some workers a severance, while others are thrown out to starve is unconscionable and will be met with great resistance.”
At today’s protest action, SEIU 1199 called on elected officials, community leaders, and residents in the surrounding community to join the union’s demand that top-level leaders at St. Vincent “take care of those who have kept St. Vincent running.”
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