Health care CEOs, thank you is not enough

Last weekend, nine of Minnesota's health care CEOs released a joint statement warning that hospital operations are strained, and many health care workers are feeling "demoralized." They warned that individuals suffering from car accidents, strokes and heart attacks could experience life-threatening delays in care.

"Your access to health care is being seriously threatened by COVID-19," they said, imploring the public to take COVID-19 more seriously, to get vaccinated, boosted and to wear a mask. They paid tens of thousands of dollars to print a full-page advertisement in Minnesota's largest newspapers.

As the president of a health care union with over 50,000 members in hospitals, clinics, nursing homes and home care across Minnesota, I and my members join these CEOs in encouraging the public to be vaccinated and wear a mask in all recommended settings.

But as for the "shortage of hospital beds" and "demoralized" staff, I would encourage these millionaire CEOs to take a long look in the mirror to recognize why that's happening.

Over the years, they have been progressively cutting costs and staffing and using corporate "just in time" policies that have caused shortages in supplies. Collectively, these CEOs are responsible for eliminating more hospital beds and laying off more workers than any comparable group of health care CEOs in years.

The CEO of Fairview closed the only dedicated COVID hospital, Bethesda, and is in the process of closing St. Joseph's Hospital. The CEO of Allina Health is closing Phillips Eye Institute and has closed maternity wards at Unity Hospital and Regina Hospital. Mayo Clinic has closed services across southern Minnesota, including significant reductions at Albert Lea Medical Center. HealthPartners closed the Riverside Clinic — a community hub for our state's growing East African community — along with all its retail pharmacies. Children's Hospital reduced services at its St. Paul hospital. The list goes on and on.

These closures and service reductions have resulted in the loss of hundreds of beds for patients, massively reducing services in urban and rural communities alike. On top of that, thousands of workers were laid off — all to improve the profit margins of our supposedly "nonprofit" institutions. And the same nine CEOs saw double-digit raises to reward their decisions.

Meanwhile, the workers on the front line are "demoralized" largely because these CEOs have prioritized their profit margins while putting both workers and patients in these awful situations. We have experienced layoffs, cuts to our retirement plans, frozen wages and ongoing cuts to our benefit programs. It is insulting for these workers to walk past giant banners thanking them for being "essential" and "heroes" while knowing the CEOs won't even pay for quarantine from COVID exposures at the workplaces.

Most of these CEOs did not even provide any "hero pay," and those that did offered a small fraction of the amount health care workers deserve.

It is also demoralizing that even our state Legislature can't seem to agree on a meaningful bonus for essential health care workers.

Brianne Bernini, an emergency center tech and union executive board member recently said in a MinnPost opinion piece, "I would love to see the top executives who have worked from home during this pandemic spend a day with us and understand the stress we are under. They would quickly understand that being called heroes doesn't change the reality we are facing."

Thousands of health care workers in Minnesota like Brianne are overwhelmed, overworked, understaffed and rapidly facing burnouts. So, rather than paying for expensive ads about strained hospital operations, we call on these CEOs to stop passing the buck. Treat workers with respect and dignity and stop cutting their pay and benefits. Sit down with these workers and our union to address the challenges together.

None of us are responsible for this pandemic, but we are witnessing the consequences of the poor decisions and actions taken by these CEOs being exposed. Putting profits first always ends poorly for patients and workers.

We have had enough empty words. What front-line health care workers want is simply to be respected, protected and paid.

Jamie Gulley is president of SEIU Healthcare Minnesota.