Hospital Workers Protest Plan to Contract Services
More than 100 health care workers staged a rally Thursday outside County-USC Medical Center in Los Angeles to protest a proposal, currently in the exploratory stage, to contract out all services at county hospitals.
Services Employees International Union officials said more than 13,000 nurses, clerks, therapists and other public health care employees will be working for private firms at lower wages and in most cases without health benefits if the county’s six hospitals are privatized.
In attempt to cut costs, the Board of Supervisors’ conservative majority last September directed health officials to review the feasibility of contracting out all services at county hospitals.
Union officials who spoke to the predominantly minority health care workers at Thursday’s rally accused the supervisors of insensitivity to minorities. “The question once again is economic warfare,” said Ron Wilkins, a representative of the Black Employees Assn.
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