Letters
Raise your voice It
doesn’t take much intelligence to realize that the recent
act in the Republican Congress to “Modify our Health
System, and ‘help?’ seniors get their prescription
drugs” is a ploy to destroy Medicare as we know it today. Bush’s
plan is to induce seniors to join HMOs and give insurance
firms the ability to charge for prescriptions. To
date, I have never heard about any insurance firm going out
of its way for the benefit of clients. But we do hear about
the ungodly salaries and bonuses that their top executives
receive. Since
this “new plan” wouldn’t come into existence
until 2006, my advanced age (86) may not see me survive to
face this debacle. But for “Baby Boomers” et al,
it will spell much trouble. The
second “Bush Plan” to give billions to energy
corporations is yet another example of where our moneys are
being misspent. Surely, these energy firms are not lacking
in funds. Their CEOs too, go home with millions in salaries
and bonuses. President
George Bush has often suggested that “he planned his
moves along the same ways Ronald Reagan did!” This I
agree with him. For example, he has authorized a huge defense
budget (“because we need to fight terrorism!”).
President Reagan also warned the public about an “Evil
Empire” (USSR) and spent some four hundred billion dollars
each year. Problem? I guess readers can recall that the Defense
Department spent $400 for hammers, $600 for toilet seats,
a 16-foot aluminum ladder, all of which could be bought at
Sears et al for about $100 instead of costing many times that.
The excuses always were that these items had to have “special
features” — and after Reagan left office, we were
left with a four trillion dollar debt. That figure has risen
over the years because of interest to at least “a couple
of trillions more.” And
daily, to our sorrow, we hear about yet more young American
soldiers being killed in Iraq. Sadly, children will grow up
without ever having had the joy of seeing their biological
fathers. It
is most imperative that people speak up re: all of the above.
Often I am told that “One man cannot change the world.”
(But, ask yourself this, can you think of ONE person, who
DID fight against the greatest empire of HIS day, and HIS
work created a great religion.) We
can make the USA the truly greatest nation in the world, for
others to follow our examples, but that will only happen if
we all raise our voices. Gerald
Samkofsky
How
blessed we are to live within this time, This
eye-blink eons after ancient slime Began
to stir and then gave birth to life That
fought its way through nature’s storms and strife To
bring us where we’re now, upon this place, Itself
a bit of dust in endless space. And
whether this be due to someone’s God Or
evolution’s course o’er ages trod, Or
other force beyond our narrow ken, Take
pause, reflect, and give yourself to sense The
wonder of your mind, your consciousness. And
then, whatever be your trial or pall Be
humbly grateful that you’re here at all. William
Will
We, the nurses of MCP/EPPI, want the public to know
that we are STILL on strike and
why! although our employer, Tenet Healthcare, Inc. would have you believe that
it is all about money, we want you to know the truth.
Yes, they offered us an 11 percent pay increase over two years but what they don't tell you is that they want the right to involuntarily mandate us to stay and work past our regular eight or 12 hour shifts-that means we cannot leave! Often, we don't even know we are being "mandated" until just before our shift ends, sometimes as we are about to leave!!! Imagine that you have a children to pick up, another job, perhaps a class to go to, whatever and as you are about to leave after completing your work for the day, you are told you are not allowed to leave...think about how that would feel! in addition, studies have shown that safe patient care is at risk after a nurse has worked 12 hours...mandatory overtime has been outlawed in some states for that reason. We cannot agree to this! Conversely, Tenet wants the right to be able to force us to stay home when it is decided that we are not "needed" on a particular day without notice or limit, which then forces us to use vacation time to makeup for the lost hours. So, we can be mandated to stay extra hours on one day but then told to stay home on another which means that vacation time must be used and 40 hours has not been reached in "worked" time. the mandated hours are then paid at regular time, not time and a half. Part time nurses would never get time and a half for mandatory overtime unless they worked 40 hours. Tenet also wants to deny us the
use of our sick time in the event of illness. At present,
we already have to use a vacation day for the first day
out sick, which is outragous, but they now want
to increase the amount of vacation days you must use before
you can access your sick time to FIVE!!! People are generally
not sick that long, so in essence, what it means is that
we will accumulate sick time that we would rarely use.
Does that sound fair? So, although we've been offered
an 11 percent pay raise, the above issues as well as their
proposed increase in out-of-pocket costs to maintain our
current benefits of up to 75 percent and their unwillingness to even discuss safe staffing levels makes
it impossible for us to accept their "offer.”I
can tell you that the decision to strike was an extremely
difficult one for us but in the interests of our patients
as well as ourselves and our families we felt we had no
choice. We just could not allow Tenet's greed to compromise
patient care. MCP Hospital has served the North
and Northwest Philadelphia community's healthcare needs
for many years and EPPI has met the entire city's
Mental/Behavioral Health needs, also for many years. We
just want a fair and equitable contract that will enable
us to deliver safe, quality care to our patients and get
back to work. |
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