Sunday, May 16, 2010

The political scandal that is St. Vincent's bankruptcy

No unemployment benefits for nurses ? Really !?

Could a movement be beginning that will lead New Yorkers to start a petition or ballot initiative to recall the ill-fated, karmically-doomed third term of Mayor Michael Bloomberg ?

As has been said in first person accounts of their true experiences with the New York State Department of Labor, for example :


... nurses were unable to qualify to receive unemployment benefits, once their employment was terminated by St. Vincent's Hospital. There are questions about how long St. Vincent's had not been filing unemployment reports and paying unemployment taxes to the Department of Labor. Now, word of the unemployment benefits financial scandal has begun to spread to some blogs.

"We need a revolution Downtown," said Eileen Dunn, R.N., a former nurse at St. Vincent's Hospital.

Another activist said that throughout the entire process of the closing and bankruptcy of St. Vincents, which will leave about 3,500 without jobs, we have heard nothing but a "deadly silence" coming from Mayor Bloomberg. We need to "recall" Mayor Bloomberg, the activist concluded.

But the reality is that the mayor did know about the deteriorating financial health of the hospital.

According to an exposé on NY1, "Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the city had been anticipating the closure of St. Vincent's Hospital, and that the New York City Fire Department [was] ready to take over the hospital's 13 ambulance tours as soon as it is needed."

What kind of a mayor hears the death rattle, but never summons an organised medical emergency response ? The very kind of a mayor, who we need to recall.

2 comments:

  1. It is hard to read the NYC charter. I'm sure it has to be an option. If anybody is a lawyer, and can give us an opinion by citing the section in the charter that would let us start a recall petition, please let us know. I'm willing to start it, if somebody lets me know that it is legally possible.

    ReplyDelete

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