February 14, 2024
UUP President Fred Kowal, AFT President Randi Weingarten and NYSUT President Melinda Person brought a message of hope and support to Downstate Chapter members Feb. 12, vowing to stand with them in the fight to keep SUNY from closing Downstate University Hospital.
The three presidents met with more than 400 members in a packed meeting room at the Brooklyn hospital’s building at 450 Clarkson Ave. after a 90-minute tour of the hospital to see where it had been renovated and where it was in need of repair.
“We are here and we know there’s a lot of insecurity,” said AFT President Randi Weingarten to members at the lunchtime meeting. “We have your back. Period.
“Of course we’re going to fight,” she said. “But we can’t just fight for a Band-Aid. We’ve got to fight for the future.”
Weingarten, who leads the 1.72 million-member federation, told members that Downstate is “one of my priorities for this year.”
Kowal told members that UUP was committed to keeping the hospital open. “Our union will do whatever it takes to keep SUNY Downstate open and operating,” he said. “We believe in you, our members, we believe in Brooklyn and we believe in Downstate.”
The crowd cheered when he told them that busloads of UUP members from campuses across the state are set to travel to Brooklyn for a Feb. 29 rally at the hospital. “You are not alone,” he said.
NYSUT President Melinda Person said NYSUT is in the fight to save Downstate.
“If this hospital goes away, where are people going to go for care?,” she said. “Downstate is the center of the community. If we can invest in a new stadium in Buffalo, the people of Brooklyn deserve to be treated the same way. The state must invest in SUNY Downstate.”
In January, SUNY Chancellor John King Jr. announced a so-called “transformation plan” for Downstate hospital, which includes farming many of the services officered there to other hospitals. The remaining services would be consolidated into a wing at Kings County Hospital Center. The plan would essentially close the hospital.
The Central Brooklyn community relies on Downstate for care. More than 400,000 patients are treated there each year and the vast majority of them—nearly 90%—are on Medicaid, are underinsured or have no health insurance. It ranks No. 1 out of all 143 hospitals in New York state as a percent of its revenue from Medicaid, meaning the most vulnerable and underserved populations would be impacted most by its closure.
A tour of Downstate
Earlier in the day, Kowal, Weingarten, Person and PEF Vice President Darlene Williams took a tour of Downstate, viewing hospital rooms, the hospital’s physical plant with huge heating and air conditioning units and other areas of the facility.
SUNY, concerned over the community’s outrage over its plan to close SUNY, was in damage control mode Feb. 12; a cadre of SUNY administrators insisted on joining the union presidents for the tour. That came as a mild surprise to the labor leaders, who continued the tour with the administrators in tow.
While there were several areas of the hospital in obvious need of repair, most were serviceable and in good condition. One thing was immediately evident: the hospital isn’t the dilapidated, leaky, rundown facility that King has described in numerous news interviews.
King has pointed to the extreme disrepair of Downstate hospital as a prime reason to shut it down.
Renovations continue
“They are building a $40 million cafeteria at a hospital they are going to close?” Weingarten asked.
In his Spring 2023 president’s update, Downstate President Wayne Riley outlined 14 renovation projects at Downstate hospital totaling $150.8 million. Those projects include replacing flooring and nurses stations in the emergency room; renovating the IV Compounding Room; and the upgrading two cardiac catheterization areas.
Click HERE to view that chart, on page 35 of the report.