Join us on 9/24 at a Town Hall on the future of UH and the Rutgers-RWJ Barnabas partnership
Changes to public health services, the work we do, are occurring and decisions about how that will look for the communities we service throughout New Jersey are happening now. HPAE members continue to push to be part of these discussions at every level-in the community-in the workplace-with elected officials-with government agencies. On September 24th such a discussion is taking place in Newark with community groups, unions, workers, and elected officials.
At University Hospital HPAE members have been fighting to keep the Hospital true to the Accord reached with the Newark community in the 1960s. Recent efforts by the hospital to eliminate inpatient pediatric services have been stopped for now but the hospital continues to push to move these services to a RWJ Barnabas facility. During the breakup of UMDNJ, the efforts of our union were successful in getting into the “Restructuring Act” that University Hospital by law must remain a public hospital with public sector employees. Once again we must come together to protect the services and jobs at UH for the Newark community. Join your colleagues and Mayor Baraka on September 24th for a 2nd Town Hall to continue the discussion on how we can accomplish this.
The 20 year partnership between Rutgers and RWJ Barnabas done behind closed doors is about creating a massive healthcare system in NJ. It’s about taking taxpayer-funded services provided by public employees and giving RWJ Barnabas the authority to control and manage those services while collecting the revenue. It’s going to change the face of healthcare while providing the open door to slashing public employee jobs. And as we know, Rutgers doesn’t want to talk to the unions about any job protections for its employees. It’s up to us to protect the services and our work.
On Monday, September 24th Newark Mayor Ras Baraka and Senator Loretta Weinberg are meeting with affected workers, unions, community members/activists and community organizations to discuss these issues. We’ll be talking about the future of UH and the commitment to public health in Newark, transparency and government oversite of public-private partnerships and job protections. Sign up here to join the fight.
In solidarity,
Cynthia McDougall, President 5089
Alexis Rean-Walker, Co-President 5094
Tom Murphy, Co-President 5094