Blog | Make It Our UPMC

Fast for Our Future

Posted on April 11, 2014 by Maria Montano

Starting on Friday April 11^th, UPMC workers will begin a week-long fast in front of UPMC headquarters in downtown Pittsburgh to help shine a light on the injustice many of them are facing at Pittsburgh’s largest employer.
Many UPMC workers are in a constant state of hardship, because they are not getting paid what it costs to live in Pittsburgh. A recent study shows that service workers at UPMC earn up to 30% less than what is needed to support their families.
Josh Malloy works hard every day to makes sure the emergency room at UPMC Mercy is clean and sterile, yet he has to work 60 hour weeks just to cover his basic expenses. UPMC is holding thousands of workers like Josh back from joining the middle class, and it’s holding back our entire community.
In this time of hope and reflection, UPMC workers organized the Fast for Our Future as a call to help UPMC find the moral compass as a charity and healthcare provider. In a public tent on Grant Street, fasting UPMC workers will be joined throughout the week by a number of faith leaders from various denominations and community supporters who will fast to show their solidarity. They will be attended by doctors and nurses from the community.

WHAT: Vigil to begin seven-day Fast for Our Future
WHO: UPMC workers, members of the clergy, community members
WHEN: 12:30pm, Friday April 11 – Friday, April 18
WHERE: USX Tower/UPMC Headquarters

Support the fast:
Tell the Fasters That You Stand With Them!
There are three easy ways for you to let the fasters 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

UPMC Workers Fight For Good Jobs Gets National Attention

Posted on April 7, 2014 by Maria Montano

We made big news in Pittsburgh last month as 2000 of us stood with the workers of UPMC, taking their demands for better wages, the elimination of their medical debt, and the right to form a union without harassment directly to UPMC headquarters.
And that news has traveled across the nation. It is the story of a powerful employer keeping workers in poverty and retaliating against them for trying to form a union in the new economy that is much bigger than Pittsburgh. UPMC workers are at the center of the fight in this country to end low-wage work and get the economy moving again.
Read the full story here: A Union Aims at Pittsburgh’s Biggest Employer

NYT reporter Steve Greenhouse writes:

“Christoria Hughes earns $12.85 an hour after six years as a food-service worker at UPMC Presbyterian Hospital. ‘That sounds good on paper, but when you bring it home, it’s less than $350 a week,’ said Ms. Hughes, who has money deducted for health insurance and is helping to raise several granddaughters. ‘UPMC claims they pay everybody these fantastic wages. It’s not enough to live in Pittsburgh.’”

UPMC made $1.3 billion in profits in the last three years, yet UPMC workers – Pittsburghers like you and me – who dedicate years to keeping the hospital running, not only do not take home enough to make ends meet, many are on public assistance and in medical debt to their own employer.
As the region’s largest employer, UPMC sets the tone for jobs and the economy. It can strengthen and grow the middle class.
In the article, Mayor Peduto says:

“It’s the largest employer in the state of Pennsylvania. They have the means to help their workers break the cycle of poverty and join the middle class. They probably have more of an ability to do that than any other entity.”

We are at the center of the fight in this country to end low-wage work and get the economy moving again. The community – people from all corners of the Pittsburgh region, faith leaders, elected officials, UPMC workers – is standing in solidarity for good jobs here.
For a strong and healthy Pittsburgh, it’s past time for UPMC to put people over profits.

Change at UPMC: In the News

Posted on March 14, 2014 by Jessica Durkin

Nearly 2,000 people joined with UPMC workers on a frigid morning March 3 and March 4 in what became the largest protest in Pittsburgh in 20 years to demand that UPMC provide better jobs for a strong middle class in Pittsburgh.
The gathering brought three basic demands to UPMC and together their voices were heard loud and clear: UPMC, the region’s largest employer, needs to pay workers a minimum of $15 an hour, to erase UPMC worker medical debt and let workers form a union at the hospital system without retaliation or intimidation.
After two days of taking over the streets of downtown Pittsburgh and sitting down in protest at the front doors of UPMC headquarters, Mayor Bill Peduto heard us and UPMC heard us. The day after the mass protest, the mayor met with UPMC CEO Jeffrey Romoff.
Our calls for change blanketed the local news, and even national media took notice of the history we’re making. As the conversation dominates the news and our movement builds momentum every day, here’s a look at coverage of the Days of Change in Pittsburgh and other recent news clips:
Huffington Post
Pittsburgh’s Largest Employer Draws Hundreds Of Protesters Over ‘Poverty’ Wages
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Union sees national focus in UPMC organizing effort
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Hundreds protest UPMC over wages for service employees (video)
Pittsburgh City Paper
Uniting in protest: Criticism of UPMC has stretched beyond its workers
Philadelphia Daily News
Are we in Kiev? Why no, it’s Pittsburgh
KDKA-TV CBS
Workers, Activists Target UPMC Offices
WTAE-TV ABC
UPMC protest: Day 2
KDKA-TV CBS
UPMC Protestors Gather Downtown For 2nd Straight Day
PoliticsPA
Protesters Speak Out Against UPMC
90.5 WESA
UPMC Workers Ramp Up Union Organizing Campaign With Day of Action
WTAE-TV ABC
Mayor hopes to ‘open bridge of communication’ with UPMC, protestors
WTAE-TV ABC
Pittsburgh mayor, UPMC CEO meet on labor, other issues
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Mayor Peduto and UPMC chief Romoff talk ‘major issues’
KDKA-TV CBS
Mayor meets with UPMC CEO, talk pay increases, Highmark dispute
Pittsburgh Business Times
Peduto working toward UPMC resolution (video) (press conference)
90.5 WESA
Pittsburgh United Releases Report On UPMC Wages
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
All jobs not equal at UPMC (column)

Pittsburgh Unites for Change at UPMC

Posted on March 6, 2014 by Make It Our UPMC

“I am overwhelmed by the outpouring of support that we have from people from all over Pittsburgh, and I am very hopeful the mayor’s initiative will help bring us closer to improving jobs and forming our union at UPMC. Our families, our patients, our city needs better jobs at UPMC now.” – Lou Berry

This week our fight to hold UPMC accountable to its employees and the city of Pittsburgh blew out the roof!
If you weren’t with the thousands of people who came downtown, I’m pretty sure you saw us. Our voices were impossible to miss.
It started last week when my co-worker Christoria Hughes and Pittsburgh faith leaders were arrested after trying to talk to CEO Jeff Romoff about using UPMC’s power and wealth to lift UPMC workers out of poverty.
UPMC’s refusal to hear our call has just made us more determined. We need UPMC to do better and we won’t quit. That’s why we brave the bitter cold to gather at UPMC headquarters and set up our health care village. We had so many villagers that we spilled right into Grant Street!
In our village, my co-workers and I joined Pittsburgh students and teachers, artists and nurses, union members, City Council members, State Representatives, clergy and choirs to show UPMC what respect and care look like.
Hip hop artist Jasiri X got the formula just right when he gave us a song composed especially for us. It’s not hard: Just put People Over Profits!

On Tuesday, we again stepped out into the bitter cold to renew our call for good jobs, access to healthcare, and for UPMC to pay its fair share. At about 9 o’clock, Mayor Bill Peduto’s Chief of Staff, Kevin Acklin, came to our demonstration to tell us that we had been heard! The Mayor rushed back to town to step in and help resolve our conflicts with UPMC.
I am overwhelmed by the outpouring of support that we have from people from all over Pittsburgh, and I am very hopeful the Mayor will help bring us closer to improving jobs and forming our union at UPMC. Our families, our patients, our city needs better jobs at UPMC now.
Thank you,
Lou Berry
Housekeeper
UPMC Montefiore

Thank You for the Outpouring of Support for Our Days of Change

Posted on March 3, 2014 by Maria Montano

Community Groups

PA Interfaith Impact Network
Action United
One Pittsburgh
Fight Back Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh Students in Solidarity with UPMC Workers
Pittsburgh United
Pittsburghers for Public Transit
Thomas Merton Center
Sierra Club
Just Harvest
Fight for Philly
Philly unemployment project
Mon valley unemployed committee
Media mobilizing project
Why not prosper

Elected Officials

City Council President Bruce Kraus
City Council Members:
- Natalia Rudiak
- Deb Gross
- Daniel Lavelle
- Daniel Gilman
- Theresa Kail Smith
- Corey O’Connor
State Rep. Erin Molchany
State Rep. Paul Costa
State Sen. Matt Smith
State Sen. Jay Costa
State Rep. Brandon Neuman
State Rep. Ed Gainey
State Rep. Dan Frankel
State Rep Mark Gergely
State Rep. Bill Kortz
State Rep. Jake Wheatley
State Rep. Adam Ravenstahl
State Rep. Dan Deasy
State Sen. Wayne Fontana
State Sen. Jim Ferlo
Lt. Gov. Candidate Mark Critz
Gov. Candidate John Hanger
County Controller Chelsa Wagner
City Controller Michael Lamb

Labor

PA AFLCIO
Allegheny County Labor Council AFLCIO
United Steel Workers of America
Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers
Amalgamated Transit Union Local 85
United Food and Commercial Workers Local 23
UNITE HERE Local 57
IATSE Local 3
National Association of Letter Carriers Branch 84
SEIU PA State Council
United Mine Workers of America
District 1199C AFSCME
RWDSU
IBEW Local 29
AFGE

I am Reverend Lyde and I was Arrested for Standing Up to UPMC

Posted on March 3, 2014 by Maria Montano

Yesterday, I proudly joined 10 other clergy members from the Pennsylvania Interfaith Action Network (PIIN) to ask for a meeting with UPMC CEO, Jeffrey Romoff. Instead of listening to our concerns, UPMC left us out in the cold. As we approached the USX building they locked the doors and told the police to arrest us. We stood our ground and refused to leave. A crowd of over 100 of our congregants and other community members stood in the freezing cold as the police escorted us away.
We called on UPMC to “love thy neighbor” and instead, they arrested thy neighbor. Our arrests are just one more example of UPMC shutting out the community and failing to hear our concerns.
Standing in the freezing cold in handcuffs is nothing compared to the hardship UPMC workers face every day. UPMC cafeteria grill cook Joe Kennedy brought it home for us as he spoke to the crowd.
“I can’t run a household on what UPMC pays,” he said. “I am eligible for the food pantry. Thousands of workers who put in full-time work with the city’s largest employer should not be in that position. UPMC does not support the many workers that help run the hospital system every day.”
We all have UPMC workers like Joe in our congregations who are struggling to stay afloat on poverty. The situation we see in our communities is so dire that we’re compelled to do anything in our power to help.
As faith leaders we are tired of looking into the pews to see hardworking Pittsburghers who are forced to rely on a food pantry because their employer pays poverty wages. We’re distressed to know that the boys and girls coming up in our congregations attend crumbling schools because the region’s largest landowner pays no taxes. And we’re disgusted that the region’s largest employer prioritizes corporate jets over a living wage for hard-working Pittsburghers.
This is not the kind of Pittsburgh we want for our children and grandchildren. Pittsburgh will only thrive if we build a strong middle class.
As the region’s largest employer, UPMC sets the tone for jobs and the economy. UPMC has the power to lead. But right now they’re only leading us astray.
We envision a Pittsburgh where everyone prospers. UPMC workers deserve to be able to take care of their families just like Jeffrey Romoff. These men and women aren’t asking for the corporate jet. They’re simply asking for a living wage.
If we continue the fight, there will come a day when UPMC workers will be able to join the middle class and help make Pittsburgh strong. Until that day, we’ll continue to call on UPMC to find its morality and be a better member of this community.
– Reverend Rodney Lyde, Baptist Temple Church

UPMC Can Help Strengthen Pittsburgh, Experts and Workers Tell City Council

Posted on March 3, 2014 by Maria Montano

Good jobs, healthcare access and quality investment in our communities. That was the focus of Wednesday’s hearing held by the Pittsburgh City Council in order to shine a light on the widespread harm UPMC is inflicting on our communities in its unwillingness to invest in good jobs for a stronger Pittsburgh.
For too long, UPMC has been benefiting from our communities without paying its fair share in return. A host of experts, UPMC employees, patients and elected officials offered wide-ranging testimony that called our region’s largest employer out for its uncharitable ways.
UPMC workers spoke out about the unfairness of earning poverty wages within a healthcare enterprise making billions. “Even with my experience and extra training I still only make $11.97 an hour,” said Chaney Lewis, a transporter at UPMC Presbyterian. “For four out of the nine years I have been at UPMC, I worked through a wage freeze at $9.76 per hour, a starting wage only $1 more than what my mother made there 20 years ago when she was a UPMC housekeeper.”
While the strain caused by UPMC’s low wages have had a ripple effect on our region’s economy, UPMC’s attempts to quash its competition has threatened healthcare access for thousands who need it. “I regularly get messages from people living with HIV, Parkinson’s, cancer or other serious illness who are fearful that their health will be compromised because they’ll be forced to leave a provider who has been charged with their care for years,” said State Rep. Dan Frankel from Allegheny County, who also testified on Wednesday. In response, Rep Frankel and Rep. Christiana from Beaver County have introduced House Bills 1621 and 1622 to ensure that healthcare providers like UPMC cannot deny patients on the sole basis of their type of insurance card.
This gathering of voices is the latest example of Pittsburgh citizens, politicians and patients standing up to say enough to UPMC’s disregard of our community’s welfare – from faith leaders risking arrest to hundreds of UPMC nurses from Altoona marching through the streets of downtown Pittsburgh. Together, we are joining hands all across the city to hold UPMC accountable to Pittsburgh’s families and our collective future.
“The key question facing Pittsburgh and our nation today is whether workers, communities, and elected officials once again have the courage and the conviction to build a new – in this case, 21^st century – American middle class,” Keystone Research Economist Stephen Herzenberg said. “Without lifting the wage floor in the region’s dominant employer in its dominant service industry, Pittsburgh cannot rebuild its middle class. It’s as simple as that.”

Inside UPMC – Leslie Poston

Posted on February 28, 2014 by Maria Montano

“I believe that a person who works full time and does a good job at a 10 billion dollar global health care system ought to have a path out of poverty and should not be impoverished by their medical costs. ” Leslie Poston

My name is Leslie Poston, and I am a UPMC employee. I’m coming together with my coworkers to call on UPMC to create good jobs for a strong and healthy Pittsburgh – will you join us on Monday March 3rd, as we call on UPMC to create good jobs?
I have worked at UPMC Presbyterian for ten years. I work hard every day to make sure that the heart and lung transplant unit runs smoothly, and that my patients receive the best quality care.
Recently I saw an ad that UPMC took out in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette saying UPMC gives to the Greater Pittsburgh Food Bank so that people in Pittsburgh can eat. This is a great thing. Generosity towards people in need is really beautiful. But the ad also struck a nerve, because I AM one of the people who uses a food bank. So are many of my coworkers.
I try to work as much overtime as I can so I have more to make ends meet. That’s because if I work only full time, my take home pay is about $350 dollars a week. After rent, utilities, transportation, there’s just nothing left.
I’m also struggling to pay thousands of dollars in medical debt that I owe to UPMC. This past fall I was hospitalized for a couple of days and my UPMC insurance didn’t cover all the costs. As I keep telling the people who call me every day, I just don’t know how I’m going to pay it off. Even if I saved every possible penny and worked hundreds and hundreds of hours of overtime, I can’t get ahead. I’ll just be paying off my hospital stay.
I believe that a person who works full time and does a good job at a 10 billion dollar global health care system ought to have a path out of poverty and should not be impoverished by their medical costs. I believe that this should be a bigger priority for UPMC than corporate jets and fancy signs on top of the highest tower.
UPMC can and must do better for all of us. Please join me and my co-workers and join us on Monday as we call on UPMC to create good jobs for a strong and healthy Pittsburgh.
Good Jobs, Healthy Pittsburgh Day of Action
Monday, March 3
Rally All Day – beginning at 12 pm
US Steel Tower
600 Grant St.
Leslie Poston
Heart and Lung Transplant Unit Secretary, UPMC Presbyterian

UPMC Outsourced Transcriptionists Face ANOTHER Challenge

Posted on February 26, 2014 by Make It Our UPMC

Dear Maria, Hi, Thanks so much for sharing this email about Cindy with your list of members and followers. Remind them to share posts on Facebook and retweet on Twitter too! Thanks, Make it Our UPMC I am Cindy Cromie and I was a UPMC transcriptionist for more than 20 years until UPMC outsourced transcriptionists like me to a low-wage contractor in June.

“I was a UPMC transcriptionist for more than 20 years until UPMC outsourced transcriptionists like me to a low-wage contractor in June.” Cindy Cromie

I am Cindy Cromie and I was a UPMC transcriptionist for more than 20 years until UPMC outsourced transcriptionists like me to a low-wage contractor in June.
I couldn’t believe it. Without a moment’s notice, UPMC was letting us go. Our work was good, and the need was still there. In fact, they wanted us to continue working for UPMC – just through a contractor. The difference: our paychecks cut in half, at best; our healthcare benefits eliminated.
Like others in the transcription department, I took the job with Nuance, the contractor — we were given 10 days to decide to take it or leave it and told we couldn’t get unemployment insurance.

From one paycheck to the next, my income in a two-week pay period as an hourly transcriptionist went from $1,012 to $330 – a 67 percent decrease – with Nuance’s pay-by-line system. In fact, Nuance had to adjust my pay to bring it up to minimum wage.
Who can afford to live on that? At 57, I had to move in with my mother, back to my childhood home. I had to cancel my son’s health insurance. And I’m dipping into my retirement savings just to cover my bills.
I filed for and was granted unemployment benefits, but now, four months down the road, I am facing further indignity by Nuance. The company that UPMC outsourced me and other transcriptionists to is appealing my unemployment claim.
All of us former UPMC transcriptionists are hardworking people. We did good work helping to keep patients safe and we earned enough to support our families.
UPMC decided to push me and my co-workers out of the ranks of the middle class and into the ranks of the working poor. Thousands of other workers at UPMC are struggling to get by on UPMC’s poverty jobs. We don’t think that’s charitable behavior.
Together, we need to tell UPMC that they cost us all. We need to remind the community what happens when a business chooses profits over people.
That’s why we’re all coming together to demand UPMC help build and strengthen our middle class instead of holding our families and economy back.
Join Us: Good Jobs, Healthy Pittsburgh Day of Action

March 3 at the US Steel Tower, Downtown Pittsburgh

Inside UPMC – Mary Hughes

Posted on February 24, 2014 by Make It Our UPMC

The work we do matters, and we deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. We need UPMC to work with us, and to create good jobs and help us make a stronger, healthier Pittsburgh.

My Name is Mary Hughes, and I am a UPMC employee. My coworkers and I are calling on UPMC to create good jobs for a strong and healthy Pittsburgh. Will you join us and sign our online petition?

I have worked as a medical transcriptionist in the imaging department for the past 8 years. People sometimes think that transcriptionists just copy out what the doctors say, and ask “where’s the skill in that?” But the truth is we have to know a LOT about medicine to get he notes right. Every day we catch the little human errors that doctors make, and it’s our job to call them up and ask if we should make a correction. That’s the role we play in keeping patients safe and healthy.
I am very proud of the work I do. But my work is not all of me. I am not an expendable person who can be worked until the end of their life without any life for themselves. Nobody is expendable and it is wrong when employers treat people as if they are.
My mother was widowed at 43 and didn’t have a fancy education, so she went to work as a housekeeper. She cleaned healthcare facilities for 20 years. She tried to teach me the advice her father gave her: “If all you’re doing is sweeping the floor, be the best floor sweeper they’ve got.”
It’s good advice, but it’s not enough. My mother is old now, worn out, frail and sick. Her time is almost gone. When I hear her coughing in her bed at night, trying to clear the fluid her weakened heart can no longer cope with, I wish her life had something in it other than hard work. I wish she had enjoyed some of the richness that the people she worked for enjoyed. I wish she had not been used up to the point that she could no longer give.
At UPMC, the people around me are getting used up. They work hard – too hard – since everybody puts in overtime to make their paychecks bigger. And even with all that, many rely on foodbanks and other forms of assistance to feed themselves and their families. It feels as if nobody is making enough to live, let alone to start to see work pay off.
And at UPMC, even workers who make a good living can’t count on it. This year hundreds of skilled UPMC transcriptionists were plunged into poverty when UPMC sold them to Nuance, a company that pays so little for a line of transcription that it had to supplement one of my former colleague’s paycheck to reach minimum. Many of these workers had served UPMC for 20 and 30 years. They are still transcribing for UPMC hospitals, but their lives have been devastated.
Here’s the worst thing: even as people work themselves sick, or fall into medical debt with their very employer, or fear sudden financial ruin, UPMC makes it very clear that to speak out or try to get make changes is not tolerated. UPMC’s workplaces are places of fear.
UPMC is using all of its wealth and power to silence workers who are trying to make their lives better. To know for sure that their kids won’t go hungry at some time during the month. To be able to get the care they need in the hospital that they clean.
The work we do matters, and we deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. We need UPMC to work with us, and to create good jobs and help us make a stronger, healthier Pittsburgh.
Mary Hughes
UPMC Medical Transcriptionist