Brooklyn hospital lays off 500: Unions expected to seek court injunction

Crain's New York Business ^ | October 25, 2013 | Barbara Benson

[2ndDivisionVet]

Long Island College Hospital issued layoff notices to some 500 employees, effective Oct. 29. The majority of the workers are members of 1199 SEIU Healthcare Workers East and the New York State Nurses Association.

"We are aligning our staffing levels to reflect the greatly reduced patient volume and limited services that are available at the facility," said a spokesman for SUNY Downstate Medical Center, which owns LICH.

The unions will likely seek a court injunction to stop the layoffs.

About 211 members of 1199 SEIU received the notices, said a union representative. The job titles were across the board. The union will seek an injunction because each of the workers were not given written 30 day notice of the layoff.

The union is scheduled to meet with management on Monday, said the 1199 staffer, adding, "we plan to protest through the legal system."

The layoffs adjust the Cobble Hill hospital's staffing levels to accommodate the reduced services offered since July 19. A judge ordered LICH to keep all services offered as of that date. Court proceedings have kept the hospital from being shuttered by its parent company, SUNY Downstate.

A NYSNA spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

[WVKayaker]

"you vill do as ve tell you!"

[Son House]

How do hospitals pay employees as everyone is losing their insurance and won’t be able to pay up, and no insurance company is paying out?

[windsorknot]

With 0commieCare we will have more patients and fewer docs and healthcare workers. That should work out well.

[SES1066]

Very likely that this action is an almost direct results of the order to restore the Othmer perpetual endowment that had been legally looted by the Hospital and SUNY over the years since it was established in the 1990s. Donald and Mildred Othmer were early investors in Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway and endowed the Long Island College Hospital with the endowment worth at one time $140 million. With the permission of a compliant state judge, the final draining of the endowment that was only to have its income used came in 2011 to help SUNY take over the failing hospital. It took a Wall Street Journal article last summer and Warren Buffett's media interest to get that same judge to 'revisit' and reverse that ruling.

Question for the INFORMED FReeper, what would be going on now if the same circumstances applied but the investment had been with someone else, like say the Koch Brothers? Would you say a different media interest?