not a moment too soon

Yesterday, two my of roommates, both members of the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) received a mailer from that union. It's basically a four page pamphlet, listing hospital closings and layoffs in the NYC area. Consolidated like that, it is kind of jarring: in NYC and Long Island alone, there have been three hospital closings and six hospitals which have laid off more than 50 people in the past year alone. The mailer also says that according to an American Hospital Association survey, 50% of hospitals were considering staff cutbacks to deal with "financial stress" as of October 2008. The mailer includes two index card size postcards you can punch out, sign, and send to your state senator or assemblymember to urge them to oppose the $1.3 billion in healthcare budget cuts proposed by Governor Paterson. The NYSNA is not the only one organizing around the budget cuts; SEIU 1199 and the Greater New York Hospital Association launched a million dollar campaign against them earlier this year.

Presumably, the mailer went out prior to the HHC cuts. Interestingly, some of the responses I've read posted to articles about the HHC cuts discussed how difficult it already was for nurses to get a job in NYC even before those cuts were announced.