BROOKLYN, February 12 — “I am happy: they fired my boss!” That’s what you hear all over Downstate Hospital in Central Brooklyn. A bunch of bosses were fired as part of N.Y. Governor Cuomo’s design to downsize, privatize, and/or close our hospital. But don’t forget: A handful of administrators have been fired, but hundreds of workers have been laid off in the past year and a half, with more to come.
That’s why workers have been fighting back, with numerous demonstrations but much more needs to be done. What’s holding workers back is that many of them believe our hospital won’t be closed and that the system can work for them.
The workers’ anger was apparent in the celebrations of the firing of their bosses, some who have offered women positions for sexual acts, stolen money, and
given lush contracts to private companies with no results. Some of the petty bosses have been bull-rushed out the door, but some have been able to use favoritism to save their skins; one that the workers would have liked to see fired got a top academic job based on a resumé packed with lies. One department held a victory party, only to find the next day their boss was being kept.
PLP is having many discussions with workers. We’ve been warning that there is no honor among thieves, and that the new administration, the private company Pitts, hired by Cuomo, is even more anti-worker than the old one. The company is known as a hospital closer, with a track record from Washington D.C. to St. Vincent’s in Manhattan.
We are working to build momentum to call the bosses out on their lies, and to point out how this system works, and that no politician will help unless large numbers of workers stand physically in their way.
That is what happened at Interfaith Hospital a few weeks ago. When the CEO said that ambulances would no longer be allowed to bring emergency patients to Interfaith, dozens of workers marched to his office to protest. The order was rescinded and the CEO left through the back door under guard. The money was found, and the hospital is still open — for now.
When Cuomo blames the Federal budget for lack of health care money, we point out that his administration has slashed support to Downstate by 25 percent, and funds Medicaid in Brooklyn hospitals at half the rate it pays in Manhattan. But they’ve given hundreds of millions to their favored buddies in the form of assuming their debts.
This favoritism was exposed recently when the new mayor, Di Blasio appointed Stanley Brezenoff to a top spot in his administration. Di Blasio’s 70% of the vote came in part because he took a stand against New York State’s threatened closing of Long Island College Hospital (LICH). He even orchestrated his own publicity arrest. But it was Brezenoff, with his health management company Continuum, who bankrupted LICH and whose company continues to receive millions in bailout money from the State of New York (see box).
We will continue to point out that under communism, the working class would run the hospitals to provide health care to our brothers and sisters, not to pile up profits. We will continue to expose how their system destroys our jobs and health care, and that the money for health care is being funneled into the U.S. imperialist war machine, killing workers across the globe to protect the bosses’ profit system.