SUNY state-operated hospitals in Syracuse and Brooklyn have grown with the acquisition of nearby hospitals.

So have the ranks of UUP.

The acquisitions of Syracuse’s Community General Hospital by Upstate Medical University and the Long Island College Hospital (LICH) by Brooklyn’s SUNY Downstate Medical Center have brought more than 700 new members to UUP’s bargaining unit.

“This is clearly a win-win for all of us and the community,” said Upstate Chapter President Carol Braund.

“We welcome and look forward to working with them,” Downstate Chapter President Rowena Blackman-Stroud said.

In July, Upstate Medical University assumed ownership and operation of Community General Hospital, which has been renamed Upstate University Hospital at Community General. Nearly 1,000 employees who had worked for Community General are now employees of Upstate Medical. Of those, about 270 are new members of the UUP bargaining unit.

“For some of these employees, this is their first exposure to union membership,” Braund said. Nurse managers, anesthesia, respiratory therapy, radiology, social work and some clinical pathology staffers would likely comprise the new UUP membership, she added.

Community General began discussions with Upstate in May 2010 after breaking off merger talks with Crouse Hospital. Community General faced the possibility of closure or bankruptcy after years of losing money and a decline in patients.

Like Upstate, Downstate has acquired another campus. In late May, Downstate assumed control over neighboring Long Island College Hospital. Its new name is SUNY Downstate Medical Center University Hospital of Brooklyn at Long Island College Hospital.

Blackman-Stroud said the takeover means about 450 employees who worked for LICH—residents and attending physicians—are now in the UUP bargaining unit. They were formally welcomed into UUP during a “meet and greet” in mid-July at the former LICH campus. Several UUP statewide officers attended the event.

LICH had also been stung by financial problems and faced the possibility of closure prior to its acquisition by SUNY.

— Donald Feldstein