Paid Sick Leave Controversy

Why would candidates oppose the Paid Sick Leave Bill ?

Feminist Gloria Steineim has been pressuring New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn to allow a vote on the Paid Sick Leave bill.

For an employee to have paid sick leave is only a humane policy. Candidates for mayor, who oppose Paid Sick Leave bill, risk being identified as the heartless 1% bringing back unsafe and unjust labour practices from an era, which we thought had put passed us.

"If you have paid sick days it's easy enough to take them for granted. If you or your child gets sick, you stay home to recover or go to the doctor. You are not punished financially for taking care of your health or your children. It's time to ensure all working women—and men—have the same economic security," wrote Ms. Steinem.

It's difficult to believe that there are candidates, who would stall, squash, or oppose the Paid Sick Leave bill.

Peninsula Hospital Closing Protest

Peninsula Hospital Center - Protesters Take Over Lobby - Hospital Closings in NYC

Approximately 200 union employees, residents of Far Rockaway, in Queens, and local officials, gathered in the rain outside Peninsula Hospital Center, across the bay from JFK Airport. Peninsula Hospital Center has filed a plan to shut its doors. The hospital’s owner is embroiled in a political and financial scandal, but employees and residents are worried about the threat to public health, should the hospital’s closure plan be approved.

Attendees of the rally braved the rain, then, once the rally had ended, stormed into one of the lobbies of the hospital, until hospital officials called the police, to clear the lobby of its own employees.

In the time that Christine Quinn had been speaker of the City Council, eight hospitals (not counting Peninsula) have closed. If Peninsula closes, it would mark the ninth hospital to close under Speaker Quinn's watch.

This week, President Obama agreed to severe budget cuts to social safety net programs, that underpin the social contract we make with our government and amongst ourselves. More budget cuts to Medicaid and Medicare will lead to a further collapse of our healthcare system. Is Christine Quinn in Bermuda with Mayor Michael Bloomberg each time a hospital closes in New York City ? Is President Obama surfing in Hawaii each time a hospital closes in America ?

If we obediently listen to people, who are in power (the same people who work for us, the very same people who are closing our hospitals), telling us to leave the lobby of a closing hospital, then it just makes it that much easier for the New York State Department of Health/Christine Quinn to keep closing hospitals.

Brad Hoylman Open Meetings

Brad Hoylman, CB2 Call Police : Is this a Violation of Open Meetings ? (CB2 Omnibus St. Vincent's Committee Meeting)

On June 14, 2010, Brad Hoylman, as chair of Manhattan Community Board 2's Omnibus St. Vincent's Committee, presided over a public meeting to discuss a proposal for a first aid clinic to replace St. Vincent's Hospital. With no hospital now in the Lower West Side of Manhattan, everybody is concerned about healthcare.

After one senior citizen became upset, Community Board 2 called 911 and asked for police to come to the meeting. Was the call for police a way to intimidate senior citizens from asking healthcare questions ? In your comments, please discuss whether the calling of police was a violation of New York's open meetings law.

See also the longer video version of the way Brad Hoylman does things.

What an outrage. If Brad Hoylman runs for public office, will he call the NYPD on every citizen, who complains ?

Rudin Family Can't See Past Greed In St. Vincent's Condo Conversion Mega Deal

Last month, four community activists were arrested after orchestrating a sit-in to save St. Vincent's Hospital from being sold to the greedy Rudin family, which stands to make millions and even hundreds of millions of dollars from converting the hospital into luxury condos. It was reported earlier today that St. Vincent's Hospital is going to become luxury condos. Do no politicians hear the plea of voters, who ask for a downtown hospital ?