Unions save hospital jobs in Los Angeles

by Evelina Alarcon

This article was reprinted from the September 30, 1995 issue of the People's Weekly World. For subscription information see below. All rights reserved - may be used with PWW credits.

LOS ANGELES -- President Clinton, bowing to sick-outs, sit- downs, tent cities, rallies and marches organized by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) agreed Sept. 22 to send $364 million to Los Angeles County to prevent the collapse of the nation's second largest public healthcare system.

Clinton's decision came only days before massive cuts in staff at the University of Southern California/County General Hospital and possible closing of some of the county's three dozen health care centers and clinics. More than 5,000 health care workers had already received layoff slips or notices that they were being demoted to lower- paying jobs.

Funding cuts proposed by the County Board of Supervisors had plunged Los Angeles into the worst health care crisis in its history.

In a statement announcing the dispatch of the money, Clinton acknowledged that his decision to send the money "was reached after critical consultations with the SEIU." The statement added, "We are committed to working with the SEIU to help protect the jobs and benefits of health care workers to insure the provision of high quality care."

The union never gave up in spite of ferocious pressure from the board. Instead, SEIU Local 660 organized weekly mass demonstrations and lobbied the California Legislature and Congress.

"We were even getting international attention," Gilbert Cedillo, General Manager of SEIU's Local 660 told the World. He was recently interviewed by the British Broadcasting Co and other international media. Cedillo is considered a hero for his tireless leadership of the movement to save Los Angeles from a health care disaster. "The world was looking at how our government was not responding to the health care needs of working people and the poor," he said.

Throughout the summer, SEIU Local 660's militancy and determination never wavered. Despite sweltering heat the local organized militant protests, including blocking downtown traffic. Thousands of union members and community supporters marched and rallied every week in in a multi- racial takeover of L.A. streets. At least 50 union members were arrested for civil disobedience. Unionists took over the office of Sally Reed, L.A. County's chief administrative officer who had proposed the drastic cutbacks, and showered the room with thousands of pink slips bearing Reed's name.

Dr. Sol Londe of the Emergency Coalition to Save L.A. said, "It was this united coalition of labor and the community that forced the president to respond. We need these kinds of actions everywhere if we are to defeat the Contract on America."

After receiving layoff notices, emergency room nurses at County/USC Medical Center organized "sick outs" which forced the nation's largest hospital to close its emergency room and trauma unit to ambulances. On the day of Clinton's announcement, nearly 85 percent of day shift nurses called in sick. In a related protest, nurses, doctors and other health professionals set up a tent city in front of the medical center to demonstrate what would happen if the cutbacks and layoffs came to pass.

Cedillo pointed to the strong support Local 660 received from its International President John Sweeney who marched and rallied with L.A.'s workers. "This is reflective of the kind of leadership we will get from the AFL-CIO if he is elected along with Richard Trumka and Linda Chavez- Thompson," said Cedillo.

Ray Abernathy, a spokesperson for Sweeney, complimented Local 660 members for their courage and determination. "We told the supervisors they could either open the books or we would force them to back down. I'm gla.d the president gave us the credit we were due -- without out us he wouldn't have acted."

"We consider this a pretty major victory," Steve Weingarten, communications director for SEIU's Local 660, told the World. "These funds give the supervisors the room they need not to lay off a single county health care worker!"

"The Board of Supervisors showed a lack of courage in the face of the crisis," said Weingarten. "Without our pressure they would have just cut back services and health care and created a health disaster for all Los Angeles."

Union leaders make it clear that the battle is not over. These funds get the county out of the immediate crisis but they do not solve all the problems. The agreement is tied to agreements with the supervisors to restructure the county's health care system including privatization of some of its services. The board is already warning that layoffs and cutbacks are "inevitable."

In that case, Cedillo said the union is determined to fight. "the funds are there and we are demanding that all layoffs be rescinded,"he said. "We will not let the board stop our drive to save L.A. nor our fight for unionization and protection of workers."

In recent weeks union leaders and activists reminded the Board of Supervisors, state legislators, Gov. Wilson and President Clinton -- Democrats and Republicans alike -- that election time is near and Los Angelenos would remember at the voting booth who fought the "killer cuts" and who did not. "Elected officials will be held accountable," Weingarten warned.

President Clinton must win Los Angeles County in order to win California in the 1996 presidential election, a fact well known by Los Angeles voters and the president himself.

Wilson has received sharp criticism for refusing to help Los Angeles instead of traveling around the country campaigning for president and pushing his anti-immigrant, anti- affirmative action program. The state legislature, which is now divided equally between Republicans and Demo-crats, also failed to come to the rescue of L.A.'s poor.