HPAE Statement on Hudson Regional Health serving WARN Act Notices to HPAE’s Bayonne Hospital Members

Once again Hudson Regional Health has sown uncertainty and confusion in the Bayonne community and among healthcare workers at Bayonne Medical Center by issuing over 900 layoff notices to every staff member.  This recent WARN filing with the New Jersey Department of Labor comes on the heels of Hudson Regional’s illegal closure of Christ Hospital.

Despite HRH’s claims that they filed a WARN notice merely as a precautionary step during corporate restructuring, HPAE is taking this threat very seriously. This is an employer that refuses to follow law and has gone back on its word to workers, to the union and to the communities where its facilities operate several times over the past year.

HRH received approval from the New Jersey Department of Health to operate Bayonne Medical Center as part of its acquisition of the 3-hospital CarePoint system last year.  At that time they assured a Delaware bankruptcy court and the public that they had the financial resources to not only run the hospitals but to make them a thriving success. Yet just four months after the acquisition, they demanded $25 million from the state to continue to operate Christ Hospital, then illegally eliminated all inpatient services last November, before finally shutting the hospital down-again illegally- in mid-March of this year.

The claim that they sent out layoff notices as a precautionary measure while they restructure the company simply does not make sense. Such actions create confusion and concern on behalf of the workers and the community. If they plan to transfer the license to another operator, they must go through the Department of Health.  If HRH intends to reduced services, as they have in Jersey City, we would, along with the community, challenge those actions. The Department of Health also regulates reduction of services.

As a union, we’re prepared to challenge any actual layoff notices related to restructuring. We will strongly defend our contract and our members’ rights. HPAE Local 5185 members —Registered Nurses, Professionals, Technical Staff, Service Workers, and Business Office Clericals —at Bayonne University Hospital remain committed to caring for our patients in the Hudson County facility.

~ HPAE President Debbie White, RN

For more information, contact: Michael Allen, (646) 436-7556.

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