SEIU Local 200U

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VA UPDATE

ERIE
500 people showed up to rally against the proposed cutbacks
“They say CUTBACK! We say FIGHT BACK!”

In September 2003 one of our Local 200United Chairs at the Erie VA Medical Center, Kathy Moorhead, was the first to testify before the CARES Commission. She went to protest the draft recommendation to end inpatient surgery; a small hit compared to drastic plans elsewhere. Our sisters and brothers in Pennsylvania also worked to keep the Canandaigua VAMC from closing.

Confident that Erie was safe from major changes, imagine everyone’s shock when we learned on February 13, 2004 that the Commission was recommending closing all inpatient operations and contracting out other services. About the only thing slated to remain undisturbed in the new plan was the nursing home beds.

Since this action was not on the table last fall, there was no opportunity to speak out in opposition at the VISN 4 hearing that Moorhead attended. Local 200United President Jerry Dennis immediately contacted Pennsylvania Senators Specter and Santorum and Congressman English asking their assistance. Since part of Erie’s service area is in New York, he reached out again to Senators Schumer and Clinton and Congressman Jack Quinn.

Senator Arlen Specter speaks.

On the ground, Moorhead and RN Chair Dianne McCartan joined with local government, the Erie Central Labor Council, UE Local 506, and area veterans to put together a mass rally on February 24.

On the appointed day, in spite of temperatures in the low 20s and a biting wind blowing off the lake, more than 500 people showed up to rally against the proposed cutbacks. Veterans and Unionists from three states joined local citizens and political leaders for speeches and old fashioned rabble-rousing. Local 200United nurses and service workers joined the group on their lunch break before the whole assembly marched around the VA campus.

On March 26, Sen. Specter held a public hearing on the VA at the Erie County Court House. Local 200United organized a rally on the Court House lawn where 300-plus vets and workers, joined by Specter, spoke out against reduced services.

On May 7, everyone learned that their struggle had paid off when VA Secretary Principi rejected the CARES Commission’s recommended cuts at Erie. The Erie hospital will keep all of its services, proving again that we are stronger together!

CANANDAIGUA

“We're not out of the woods yet, but we're getting closer to turning this thing around.” That’s what Sen. Chuck Schumer said in a prepared statement released December 18. Earlier in the day, the CARES Commission, which had previously recommended closing the Canandaigua VA Medical Center, released their final report.

Then the Commission began looking at a plan that would keep Canandaigua open, but move 50 inpatient psychiatric beds to other VA facilities.

Following our huge rally on the VA campus October 20, Secretary Principi toured the Medical Center. Elected leaders who joined him were surprised at how much bad information Principi had about the VA.
Assemblyman Brian Kolb told the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, “I had the distinct impression that someone has taken him down the wrong path. He didn’t realize that the buildings had been modernized, and it was clear that some of the information he had been given was pretty one-sided.”

William Feeley, director of Veterans Integrated Services Network II (VISN II), covering all of the state outside New York City, refused to talk to reporters. Most VA activists feel that Feeley pressured the CARES Commission to close Canandaigua in order to save the facility in Batavia that he used to administer.

The grassroots campaign mounted to save Canandaigua from the Commission’s axe was the largest in the country. The Democrat & Chronicle reported on January 4 that “of the 175,000 comments to the VA that the closure plans generated, about 100,000 concerned the 171-acre facility in Ontario County.” That can only be a consequence of Local 200United’s outreach to over 800 Upstate New York veterans’ groups, our collection of almost 95,000 petition signatures, and our contact with local, state, and national elected leaders.

Never the less, when the final decision was announced on May 7, the fate of the Canandaigua campus was still in question. “Both services and jobs will remain in Canandaigua,” according to Schumer. In fact, a new outpatient clinic and 120-bed long term care facility will be added to existing services. But where?

The location of the added facilities and the fate of the existing campus will be decided by a local Master Plan Committee. We at Local 200United must stay vigilant….and keep the power of purple close at hand.