Category Archives: Blog

I am a physician at UPMC. I treat indigent patients and paying patients, regardless of what insurance they have. I, and many physicians like myself at UPMC, find it morally reprehensible that a tax-exempt institution, whose growth and prosperity has been partly attributable to tax breaks, can deny the community (even paying patients) access to health care.Shame on the leadership of UPMC.
Dr. K – UPMC Physician

Today, U.S. Labor Secretary Tom Perez met with UPMC workers. Secretary Perez listened to workers’ stories in their struggle for fair wages and better working conditions that will strengthen Pittsburgh’s middle class and bring thousands out of poverty.
As Veronica Shields, who works as a pharmacy technician at UPMC Mercy Hospital, shared with Secretary Perez, “I have always wanted to be part of making people well. As a pharmacy tech, I make sure that patients get the medicine they need to heal. I love my job and I am proud of the work that I do. UPMC workers aren’t looking to be millionaires, but we believe we deserve enough to get by. But that is not what we get at UPMC. Right now, we worry about paying every bill and stay up at night thinking about what would happen if our car broke down. Many of my coworkers couldn’t handle a financial emergency like that.”
Veronica is not alone. Latasha Tabb, who works at UPMC Children’s Hospital, has said, “My husband and I have a young son and I feel like I’m fighting for his future. We need UPMC to do better so my child can have a chance at a good middle class life. Many of my coworkers struggle with making ends meet, and are working two jobs, or picking up as much overtime as they can, and still have to use food banks just to feed their families. It isn’t right that someone working full time hours at UPMC is living in poverty. UPMC has the ability to ensure that we can support our families, but instead it has chosen to hold our entire community back by paying poverty wages.”
Recently we have seen businesses and policymakers – from Seattle to Washington, DC – recognize what Pittsburgh knows: when workers are paid a living wage, the economy grows. Here in Pittsburgh, our largest employer has the opportunity to be a national leader in ending income inequality. By paying all of its workers a minimum of $15 an hour, UPMC could help lift thousands of workers out of poverty, provide millions in new tax dollars for Pittsburgh public schools, and drive up to $53.4 million in new economic activity in our region.
Reverend Rodney Lyde of Baptist Temple Church, who joined the meeting today, said, “It is time for UPMC to start living up to its responsibilities as Pittsburgh’s largest employer and tax exempt charity by using its power and wealth to help re-build struggling neighborhoods and lift workers into the middle class with good jobs for a strong and healthy Pittsburgh.”

UPMC is refusing to renew its longtime contract with Highmark—the region’s largest insurer—that expires at the end of the year. That means more than three million of us could lose access to the hospitals our tax dollars, charitable donations, and insurance premiums have helped build.

Already Denied Care? Share Your Story Here

I know first hand what it feels like to be constantly worried about UPMC cutting of access to my doctors. My husband and I both have severe medical conditions that need constant treatment. We are deeply concerned about having to switch doctors in the middle of our care.
Now UPMC is sending letters to even more patients letting them know that in a few months they too will lose access to affordable in-network access to their doctors they know and trust.
UPMC executives are using patients as pawns and gambling with our health to build a healthcare monopoly in our city. The time has come for all of us to raise our voices and tell UPMC to stop bullying patients with scary ad campaigns.  UPMC needs to put patients over profits.
Tell us how this is affecting you. 
Have you been turned away from your doctor or received a letter from UPMC letting you know that you are about to be locked out from affordable access? Add your voice to the growing number of patients who are speaking out against UPMC’s behavior. Share Your Story Here
Together we can Make It Our UPMC
Angela Vennare-Klein
Patient

Lynn Kiesel is a 24 year old woman with spina bifida who recently found herself escorted out of UPMC Mercy by security and denied the MRI she needed for her care.
UPMC is refusing to treat patients like Lynn, who carries the “wrong” insurance card. The cost of being out of compliance with UPMC’s plan to dominate the healthcare market? No care.
“I was informed in a very public area that I would not be permitted to have my tests because of my Community Blue Highmark insurance,” she testified at a recent state senate hearing on healthcare access. “I was told I had to leave and was escorted out of the hospital.”¹

Sign our open letter to the UPMC Board of Directors to ensure affordable access to all UPMC healthcare facilities

Our community is standing up to UPMC executives who are using patients as pawns in its plans to build a healthcare monopoly in our city. Dr. Dennis Gabos, a UPMC physician, is publicly calling on UPMC² and the state legislature to hold UPMC accountable to its charitable mission. Gabos says:
“In 2013 we witnessed something unprecedented in my 26 years of medical practice. In violation of its own code of conduct, UPMC-Corporate locked out Highmark’s Community Blue patients, refusing to see them even when they desperately offered to pay cash for services”³
The time has come for the UPMC Board of Directors to enforce UPMC’s code of conduct and medical ethics by ensuring treatment for all patients in our community.
Sign our open letter to the UPMC Board and let them know you think it is time for them to put the strength and health of our community first.
Together we can Make it Our UPMC
In The News:
UPMC Refuses to attend hearing on healthcare access¹
A Tale of Two UPMCs²
UPMC Doctor Criticizes corporation’s direction³
Dr. Gabos has bravely spoken for patients and colleagues

UPMC is our city’s largest charity, landowner and employer. It employs 43,000 people here in Pittsburgh—more than twice the number of people working at the next largest employer.
What would happen if the region’s largest employer stopped paying thousands of workers poverty wages and instead paid no one less than $15.00 an hour?
Take a look. This new graphic shows why UPMC raising wages is key to building a strong and healthy Pittsburgh.

Share this powerful graphic on Facebook

Take Action: Sign our letter to the UPMC Board of Directors and tell them it’s time for change at UPMC

We need UPMC to improve jobs and raise wages for its workers. The future of our city depends on it.
Can you sign onto our open letter to the UPMC Board of Directors – and stand up for good jobs for a strong and healthy Pittsburgh?
Together we can Make it Our UPMC.

Surrounded by 100 faith leaders, community members, elected officials and labor leaders, UPMC workers broke their week-long fast for good jobs at UPMC Friday morning. Supported by their co-workers, seven-day fasters Mary Hughes and Chaney Lewis led a procession around UPMC’s headquarters. The procession had five distinct stops, each stop highlighting the injustices UPMC workers face every day at the healthcare giant.
UPMC workers have been fasting outside UPMC’s headquarters in downtown Pittsburgh to shine a light on the immorality of poverty and how UPMC is holding our community back by paying many of its workers too little to live on.
“These past seven days have been about embodying the hardships of all UPMC workers in a form that cannot be ignored,” said faster Mary Hughes, a medical transcriptionist.. “It is immoral that workers can’t feed their families and are choosing to go hungry so their children can eat. This suffering must end and UPMC needs to improve jobs now.”
The interfaith vigil was part of Pennsylvania Interfaith Impact Network’s Love Thy Neighbor campaign, a clergy-led effort of action and prayer aimed at calling on our region’s largest charity to do more for the city of Pittsburgh. Father Eric McIntosh, who also fasted for the week, led the interfaith vigil. “UPMC must end the suffering of its workers by paying all of its employees a family-sustaining wage,” said Father Mcintosh. “We cannot continue to go about our daily lives ignoring the grave injustice that UPMC is inflicting on members of our congregations, of our communities, of our city.”

“My co-workers and I may not have the connections or the money that UPMC has, but we have the strength, the determination, our bodies and even our hunger as part of this fight,” said   faster Josh Malloy, a housekeeper at UPMC Mercy. “We are not going to stop raising our voices until UPMC changes the way it treats all of its employees.”
Together, we can Make it Our UPMC.

The sixth day of the Fast for Our Future brought a real outpouring of encouragement and support for the brave fasters. The companionship and solidarity of those who have sat with, cared for, or sent messages to the fasters have helped them to stay strong through their journey. Among today’s supporters were State Rep. Erin Molchaney, Unite Here, and labor historians from the Battle of Homestead Foundation.  Fasters were also lifted up by Fred Redmond, International Vice President of the United Steel Workers, who told them that their historic action gave hope to people everywhere, not just at UPMC.

VIDEO: Watch fasters meet with supporters on day six of Fast for Our Future

Veronica Shields, a pharmacy tech at UPMC Mercy, has always wanted to help make people well.  She does that by mixing chemotherapy treatments, IV solutions, and other compounds that are part of many patients’ treatment.
Veronica is fasting because she believes that UPMC can do better by their employees and the entire city. “The fast is a silent but powerful commentary on the dedication of UPMC workers,” Said Veronica “We are building a better tomorrow, not just for ourselves, but for all of Pittsburgh.”
Workers are fasting until 8:30 AM on Friday. To break the fast, faith leaders in the Pennsylvania Interfaith Impact Network will lead a prayer vigil outside the U.S. Steel Tower. Can you join them?

Interfaith vigil marking the end of the Fast for Our Future
Friday, April 18^th 8:30 AM
600 Grant St. UPMC Corporate Headquarters
You can RSVP for the event on Facebook – click here
Together, we can Make it Our UPMC

The cold and snow aren’t stopping the brave UPMC workers fasting this week to shine a light on the hunger and sacrifice they and their coworkers experience every day. Though they are increasingly tired and weak, their determination remains strong and their spirits were lifted by visits from adjunct professors at Duquesne University, students from the University of Pittsburgh and friends from Fight Back Pittsburgh. The Reverend William Spencer of Braddock brought greetings and congratulations from Pennsylvania Interfaith Impact Network and helped fasters to meditate on the power of ordinary people.
“My neighbors’ fight is my fight,” said Rev. Spencer, “and UPMC needs to improve jobs now.”
Josh Malloy, a housekeeper at UPMC Mercy, works to make sure the emergency rooms are clean and sterile so patients have top quality care. “I want to contribute to my community, but I can’t because on UPMC’s wages I need to work overtime just to cover my expenses,” he said. Like many of his co-workers, Josh wants a job that lets him support a family – and have time to see his family.
Josh is fasting with his coworkers to help focus attention on the immorality of poverty.  He wants to be part of making Pittsburgh a city where workers and their families can thrive. He’s calling on UPMC to use its power and wealth to help lift workers into the middle class.
Workers are fasting until 8:30 AM on Friday. To break the fast, faith leaders in the Pennsylvania Interfaith Impact Network will lead a prayer vigil outside the U.S. Steel Tower. Can you join them?

Interfaith vigil marking the end of the Fast for Our Future
Friday, April 18^th 8:30 AM
600 Grant St. UPMC Corporate Headquarters
You can RSVP for the event on Facebook – click here
Together, we can Make it Our UPMC

 

On Friday April 11th, UPMC workers began a week long fast in front of UPMC Headquarters to help shine a light on the injustices many of them are facing at Pittsburgh’s largest employer.

Fast For Our Future – Statement of Principles

• We are UPMC workers. Our fast is an act of fortitude and unity.
• We know hardship. We are accustomed to hardship created by not making enough to cover the basics.
• We stand strong and determined in our decision to fast from Friday, April 11, to Friday, April 18, to call on UPMC to find the moral compass that brought the healthcare giant into charity work in the first place.
• We seek a future where UPMC’s power and wealth are used to create a strong and healthy Pittsburgh.
• We have faith that UPMC’s growing success can drive a more socially just Pittsburgh where all our communities enjoy economic security and good health.
• We are proud of the quality of our work and believe that we can work with UPMC – not just for UPMC – in delivering quality care. To do this, we must have workplace rights, dignity, respect, and a valued voice on the job.
• We embrace the great diversity of people and traditions in Pittsburgh and we ask for your support and participation throughout our fast.

Tell the Fasters That You Stand With Them!
There are three easy ways for you to let the UPMC Workers know that you support them and that you are together with them in the fight for a united voice for UMPC employees:
1. Visit the fasters on Grant St. and write a message of support in their message book
2. Leave a voice-mail for the fasters at (412) 330-1198
3. Post your support to Facebook, Twitter and Instagram – include the hashtags#UPMCWorkers and #Fast4OurFuture