UUP’s fight against the Berger Commission’s report that paves the way for the privatization of the three SUNY teaching hospitals is far from over. The battle is entering a new phase, after the state Legislature, meeting in special session Dec. 13, failed to vote to reject the panel’s findings. As a result, the Berger Commission’s recommendations became law Jan. 1. 

Now UUP is gearing up to work with state lawmakers to amend the commission’s recommendations with the goal of saving the SUNY hospitals. 

Key leadership support

The union has a major ally in Ron Canestrari, newly elected as Assembly majority leader. Canestrari, last year’s recipient of UUP’s Friend of SUNY award, has distinguished himself as a champion of higher education in his capacity as chair of the Assembly Higher Education Committee.

Because he believes it would take time to implement the hospital closings and mergers ordered by the commission, Canestrari said there’s a window of opportunity to, as he put it, “fine tune it.”

“We have to negotiate this with the new governor,” Canestrari said. “I believe it’s not fatal that we did not act by Dec. 31, and that there are legal means to address the issue and the proposal, in the spirit of compromise with the executive and his Department of Health. I do believe there are steps we can
take to fine tune it if the political will is there.”

Canestrari needs no convincing as to why SUNY hospitals should not be privatized. He pointed out that lawmakers have examined the issue in a bipartisan manner over a number of years — and rejected it each time.

“The hospitals work very well as is and serve an important public mission. We shouldn’t fix it if it’s not broken,” he said.

Changes can’t happen to the Berger Commission report soon enough in UUP’s view, but a timetable for change is not yet in place. Canestrari said he hopes action will come sooner rather than later, noting the uncertainty hanging over the hospitals is not helpful. He believes Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s focus on his first state budget and selecting staff to round out his administration are factors delaying immediate action.

“All the players are new and need to get their feet on the ground,” he said.

Union springs into action

UUP is mounting an aggressive campaign to effect that change as soon as possible. Among the strategies: regional legislative events in Brooklyn, Syracuse, Stony Brook and Buffalo designed to stress to legislators in each area the importance of the SUNY hospitals and health science centers.

UUP also updated its 2007 Legislative Agenda — which was formally introduced Jan. 30 during the union’s annual Legislative Luncheon — to establish the fight against privatization of the SUNY hospitals as its top priority.

“We’re going to remind lawmakers that privatization is an awful idea that they’ve rejected several times before,” UUP President William Scheuerman said. “There is nothing new to change that opinion now.”

Armed with the legislative agenda, UUPers will be taking their battle to save the SUNY hospitals directly to lawmakers’ offices during a series of advocacy days that extend through March. The greater the number of UUP members who participate, the greater the impact the union will have.

UUP members who are unable to visit Albany can become activists in this fight by sending faxes to members of the state Legislature. Ready-to-fax letters are located on UUP’s Web site at http://www.uupinfo.org/. 

Once again, UUP will take the fight against privatization to the public by mounting an aggressive advertising campaign. Print and TV ads will run in Albany, targeting state lawmakers, and in Syracuse, where privatization would strike first if Upstate Medical University is forced to merge with Crouse
Hospital to become a private entity.

“Lawmakers who attended the public hearings on the Berger Commission report were sympathetic to our testimony,” Scheuerman concluded. “We’re confident that will translate to support to stop the commission’s recommendations in their tracks in order to keep the SUNY hospitals in the public sector where they
belong.” 

— Donald Feldstein