Union Declares War On Hospital Alliance

The Peconic Health Corporation, a newly incorporated consortium of three East End hospitals, asked four hospital employees earlier this month to give up their union membership to help staff a new medical-supply warehouse in Riverhead. The four agreed, but a union official has characterized the request as a "declaration of war."

"The employees have agreed to work at the new facility as non-union workers, with no loss of seniority or vacation time," said Thomas B. Doolan, the Health Corporation's president.

The warehouse will centralize purchasing, storage, and distribution of supplies to its members: Southampton, Central Suffolk, and Eastern Long Island Hospitals.

Non-Union Shop

Mr. Doolan, formerly Eastern Long Island's chief executive officer, said the corporation, as a new employer, has "the option" of hiring on a non-union basis, and its employees in turn have the option of organizing - in this case, reorganizing - into a union.

The warehouse is scheduled to open on Jan. 5. It will have four management-level employees and 13 non-union workers: the four who will drop their union membership and nine others.

Mr. Doolan said the hospital consortium decided the warehouse would begin as a non-union shop on the advice of its Manhattan attorney, Thomas Lamberti.

Check Delivery

Meanwhile, the hospital's financial problems continue to be serious. Dr. John J. Ferry Jr., Southampton Hospital's president, is expected today to "hand-deliver" a check for nearly $290,000 to Eleanor Tilson, the executive director of Hospital and Health Care Employees Union Local 1199 in Manhattan. The money was due Nov. 30.

The payment will avoid, at least for the moment, any court action by the union to collect health insurance premiums, pension contributions, child care, and other benefits for its 275 members who work at Southampton.

The money owed is part of an agreement arrived at in October by the hospital and the union, outlining a payment schedule through June 1998 to restore unpaid union benefits.

Steven Kramer, the union's executive vice president, said Tuesday that if the payment were not forthcoming "immediately," the union would file a protest with the State Department of Health. He preferred not to exercise that option, he added.

Late payments such as this jeopardize workers' health-care insurance, among other benefits, Ms. Tilson said. Had the employees been insured by Blue Cross-Blue Shield, she said, their health care "would have been cut off by now."

Mr. Kramer said that as of this week Southampton Hospital was "in default" to the tune of $1.083 million.

On Saturday, the board of directors of the hospital approved a 1998 budget which calls for an 8 percent reduction in salaries and non-salary operating expenses, but "no layoffs," according to a spokeswoman, Rebecca Chapman.

Fingers Crossed

Ms. Tilson, a part-time Southampton resident, said she knew the hospital "was having financial problems," as reported by The Star last week. She said she had her "fingers crossed" that officials there would find a way "to figure this out."

Describing plans for the new warehouse yesterday, the hospital's attorney, Mr. Lamberti, said, "I'm not a union-buster." He expects that at least one union will organize, he said, but hopes there will be no more than that. "We're trying to bring order into the process," he said.

As an employer, it would be "cumbersome" to negotiate with two unions, Mr. Doolan explained.

"Worse Scenario"

"There could not be a worse scenario," said Mr. Kramer. One of the four workers in question belongs to his union, Local 1199. The other three belong to Local 1115.

"They want to undermine the unions," Mr. Kramer said. He predicted that the consortium's action was only the opening wedge. "Ultimately they will undermine the strength of the unions in all their facilities," he said.

Mr. Doolan denied the action would "set a precedent." He confirmed, though, that the Health Corporation was in the process of consolidating the three hospitals' medical laboratories, where he said "union matters will become an issue as well."

The consortium is also planning a new ambulatory surgery facility slated to be built in 1999 in Hampton Bays.

Large Saving

Centralizing their supplies will save the three hospitals about $4 million over a five-year period, Mr. Doolan estimated, citing "better contracts" reflecting volume discounts as one example.

In time other health-care enterprises such as nursing homes, pharmacies, or even other hospitals, might participate in the supply warehouse, he predicted.

"We understand 'economies of scale,' " said Mr. Kramer, "but we have to respect the rights of employees . . . . At a minimum, they have to recognize the unions and move forward with negotiations."

Mr. Kramer reiterated his position at two meetings earlier this month. Mr. Doolan said this week, however, that he had "no plans to meet again."

"Embarrassing Activities"

If there is no resolution, he said, the union will begin an "expanded action," including "informational picketing" at the three hospitals and other "embarrassing activities" that he declined to specify.

In a statement to local newspapers this week, Robert M. Ringold, a registered nurse-anesthetist at Eastern Long Island Hospital and a member of Local 1199's negotiating committee, said the unions "support Peconic Health Corporation's programs to reduce costs without compromising the high standard of health care the East End community values."

The corporation's position "is clearly illicit and serves no purpose other than to cause disruption to everyday health care," said Mr. Ringold. Hiring non-union workers who are former union members was "ridiculous," he said.

Local 1199 is one of the state's most powerful unions, counting more than 100,000 members. The last time a serious union matter came to a head at an East End hospital was in 1993, during a strike by Local 1199 workers at Eastern Long Island Hospital over contracts. The local's roughly 180 workers are again in negotiations. Their last contract expired Oct. 15 and was extended to Jan. 7, 1998.