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I'm a bit worried about my little blog buddy Paul Levy. After the Boston City Counselors voted unanimously to recommend that Boston hospitals agree to guard patient care when dealing with the unions (you know, by not yanking workers away from their patient's bedsides and forcing them to listen silently to anti-union propaganda), my unstable pal Paul has been conspicuously silent on his blog.
He had a mini-meltdown a short time ago and smoke started coming out of his ears when the SIEU wanted workers to be paid a fair wage before a big new cancer ward expansion was undertaken in New Haven. "What kind of healthcare service union would stand in the way of a cancer center in New England? That strikes me as the kind of union we don’t want," he said at the time.
It was fear he recovered from just in time to try and block the building of a cancer center near his hospital Beth Israel, however, because it might have interfered with his own hospital's profits. Someone must have gotten him breathing slowly into a paper bag or something. Nice to know for future reference what can inspire a full recovery.
In the interest of blogger solidarity I want to help my pal Paul out. He's one of the finalists for the coveted "Grinch of the Year Award" that Massachusetts Jobs With Justice will be giving out on December 9th. Please vote for him by going here.
You know, blogger solidarity and all that.
And by refusing to refrain from union-busting tactics when dealing with hospital workers who live paycheck-to-paycheck, especially during the holidays, he has most certainly earned it.
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Bedlam is dreaming of rain
Nice entrance line, Musicsleuth!
Well, Paul got my vote even though it’s early yet, Season-of-Giving-wise and all. Oh, and singles.
Has anyone told them downstairs yet? Where is everybody? Jane!
I did.
That was from “the Masthead”, if you will, at the old Lake.
Cast my vote for PL too, BTW.
Yes, I know. I used it as my ‘zed’ twice since the change-over. Nice to see a like-minded person.
Great minds, and all that.
Jane, I went to the website and didn’t just vote. I actually read who else was up for the award, and lo and behold, one of the other finalists was:
You really still want me to vote for Paul, the small fish in the small pool, when I could be voting for Mitt, the biggest fish in the much bigger pool? Seems to me, Mitt stands to do much more damage; he could poison the whole pool for everyone!
Exactly. Quirk-loving people whose hearts are NOT two sizes too small, as opposed to certain unnamed hospital administrators!
Oh Ann, it won’t mean anything to Mitt, he’s collecting awards all over the place for being a seasonal asshole. Think of how much it will bring to Paul’s small-fish life.
You guys gonna make me beg?
And how much to the workers at that hospital. (I voted already, Jane–no need to beg!)
OK. Your begging worked. I voted.
My pleasure to help expose the guy as the asshole he is.
Voted. And nice move, calling this guy out.
From his blog:
Right…
Are all of the Harvard teaching hospitals fighting the union or is it just the BI? Many years ago, when I was working in the Longwood medical area, the Brigham and CHMC were also bat shit crazy about unions.
I voted for paul.. he’s appalling.
You out there Punaise. SanderO has issued a challenge.
That vote felt great.
You guys are easily amused!
I voted!
America’s Owners are becoming increasingly bold in their approach to human capital.
It might be time to think about a National General Strike.
A consumer strike, not a workers strike. The latter costs you money, the former saves you money, and would scare the sh*t out of the corporations. I thought that should be done in advance of the 04 elections.
OT: I just got a facebook page, and now would like to join the FDL group on facebook. So how do I do that? Thanks.
Go to your FDL profile page and fill in your Facebook address in the appropriate field.
After the business at Facebook about data sharing..I think the FDL crowd is leaving a quickly as possible. I still can’t get rid if my “f”.
OT — has anyone else had trouble logging in from a different computer? I couldn’t log in from work. I even requested that they re-send my login information and that didn’t work either. I can log in at home with no problem… Do I have to log out at home before I can log in at work?
Marion, most likely something in the way your work network and/or computers are administered. It wasn’t a problem before because you never had to login before.
Just to let you know, I tried very hard to leave a comment in the news section, Krugman, but it just would not let me. But I can comment here.
And, if have certainly been logged in on a second computer without having first logged out on the first one. Happens all the time when I use my laptop.
Me too.
I know we didn’t have to login, but I was always greeted with “welcome back, Marion in Savannah” when I went to the site. I doubt it’s our network — I can wander at will because I’ve got administrative privileges which the boss insisted on because he has me ghosting for him from time to time.
Thanks, Bilbo
Capital has always thought of labor like iron or pork bellies… just a commodity.
I had no trouble getting on from my dads yesterday, thats when I found the new template.
I was told earlier today that if you left FDL without logging out, you got the ‘welcome back’ the next time you came in.
I guess it’s another little glitch, like some of us not being able to use “Preview.” And I would pay somebody to get edit back…
what means that?
I think if you go to your profile and remove the information there you can lose it next to your name.
Except for Henry Ford who realized that workers were also customers.
Don’t forget that Marcy is next door, and boy-howdy is she cranking out the articles today.
“Human Resources.”
Telling phrase.
Conventionally regarded as “overhead/cost center” expenses.
Go to Jane’s page and poke her. No, really…she won’t mind…that’s Facebook vernacular for “Hey, Jane!”
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=722455824
Meanwhile, for that all over tan…
Of course, if workers can purchase anything, then they are slaves aren’t they?
The wife is a nurse and used to work in a hospital and they get treated like shit. Less aides so the RN’s have to do alot of housekeeping chores. Mandated time. But these (mostly) women are really cowed. They’re afraid to joina union. I’ll vote for the sonuvabitch. People like him crapped on my wife. Grrrrrrrrrrr.
I believe you have the operative word right in your comment…
My vote still counts if I don’t make a donation, right?
I meant CAN’T kill me
anyway we are a ll99 SEIU family so it’s personal with Paulie.
Somebody CAN use Preview? What system/browser? No joy here on XP with FF or Opera.
Damn!
This storm is kickin’ some butt!
They are threatening to close I-5 between Vancouver and Seattle at Chehalis due to water covering the whole freeway.
Just called my Dad so he could contact my Mom who is up North and due to leave tomorrow. Maybe not?
Are you kidding? Firefox ought to do the trick…
Maybe not the best example, in the early years, Ford would rough up employees.
Ok I voted with you although I would have preferred
voting for Mitt
Not for this Firefox user. I’m running XP Professional and the latest version of Firefox and Preview worketh not for me.
Why thank you. I thought you might approve :-) I’m sorry to have zed and run, but I had to run my son out to his cello lesson right after reading and leaving a note downstairs.
And I’m another unhappy FF/XP user. The problem has been reported by email to Siun though and she has promised to keep me informed of progess.
Preview hasn’t worked for me since the changeover. I’m on a Mac, OS-X 10.4.11, Firefox 2.0.0.11.
Same here — not to pile on or anything. I also discovered that the RSS feed went away ’round about the same time the emptywheel blog got started. Sorry to litter the thread with this housekeeping stuff. Both blogs are just beautiful! I’m sure the rest of this will be worked out soon.
I would just like to say, though I am sorry to hear others are having problems.. I love the new site and I love my mac with firefox or safari.
Preview is my fickle friend eh?
Working for me, FF, XP,Compaq PC
So, this past weekend has offered quite an insight into the Bush Vision of the world.
In Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, the man who Bush and many have referred to as a ‘dictator’ put his plan to a fair vote and lost the referendum.
In Russia, the man who Bush deemed trustworthy after a lusty period of eye gazing just fixed elections giving him more power.
In the US we have learned that Iran has reportedly stopped efforts to obtain nuclear weapons years ago…despite the fact that Bush only weeks ago threatened WWIII over the prospect of Iran developing said weapons.
My, my, my.
-G
So, what gives with the double posting?
-G
I love the new site, too, but without Preview it is sorta a white knuckle trip with the things that don’t work the same (like “quote this comment”).
Don’t know the history that well, but was he any worse than his contemporaries? And you say ‘early years,’ Did his treatment of employees improve as time went on?
I think the techies have a lot of sorting out to do.
Gimme an edit button
Do you hear me? DO you ear me now?
Not seeing double posting, but someone mentioned it this morning.
Preview doesn’t seem to work with FF and Leopard.
I noticed last night that some posts repeated themselves. (FF, and preview doesn’t work for me either.)
I wonder what the Mods are having to put up with?
Heh, more growing pains.
Be thankful this isn’t Hell-O-Scan.Seriously.
It’s official, after reading over one hundred whiny comments of yours this weekend I am now calling you SanderO-fusspot. /s
Mom always loved you best…!
Jane is firedoglake.com/2007/12/03/new-nie-report-going-to-need-some-tweaking-for-conservapedia-debut/
Oh bother. Sorry friends. I’m link-impaired. Will practice quietly in corner til I get it right!
Don’t you love web software? So many variables of platforms, browsers, little languages, versions, and who knows what else. Seemingly identical setups behave in opposite fashions. But then, I really miss distributors … a screwdriver and a leaf gauge used to do it.
Jane, you’re framing this as good vs. evil when it isn’t. Beth Israel was quickly going broke when Levy was hired. He turned it around without mass firings, and now it finally makes a little money. Not a lot, but a little. Most people at BI are delighted with Levy, if the local coverage is remotely accurate. The first year that they turned a profit, he gave everyone a bonus, and he’s continued to do so. He’s a very open, transparent manager. Not perfect, but way better than the green-eyeshade crowd.
SEIU wants to unionize all hospital workers — no problem with that, if the workers want it. They have started with the weakest hospital in the area, BI. Again, no problem if the workers want it. But BI has a good labor relations history under Levy, and SEIU is painting him as an ogre, which he’s not. I urge you not to pile on without checking out the local angles. It just isn’t that simple.
hahahaha
I accept.
It’s one less step than it used to be for me.. After highlighting text, click link/chain icon and enter addy in box, click OK once. hth
go digg it! let’s make sure he wins!
Voted for Paul. By coinkidink the other Grinch trying to steal Christmas–the formerly relevant con Rove now desperately trying to get some bodypart in the door–should be shown the gate by all the candidates on both Dem and Republican sides of the aisle. His stench will take years of scrubbing off the body politic. And shame on Newsweek and CNN for furthering this
thug.lying thug.Liar, thug, Bush, Rove. Hmmmmmm. Four letter words all.
Demand better. Be better.
Thank you ES. That’s what I thought I did, but it didn’t work. (And preview doesn’t work–yet–for my Mac in Safari). She said, uncomplainingly.
test
My bad. Meant to click Preview, not submit. Sorry. Trying to figure out what might be up with preview.
FYI, This is the link to the new post upstairs.
Jane, you’re framing this as good vs. evil when it isn’t. Beth Israel was quickly going broke when Levy was hired. He turned it around without mass firings, and now it finally makes a little money. Not a lot, but a little. Most people at BI are delighted with Levy, if the local coverage is remotely accurate. The first year that they turned a profit, he gave everyone a bonus, and he’s continued to do so. He’s a very open, transparent manager. Not perfect, but way better than the green-eyeshade crowd.
SEIU wants to unionize all hospital workers — no problem with that, if the workers want it. They have started with the weakest hospital in the area, BI. Again, no problem if the workers want it. But BI has a good labor relations history under Levy, and SEIU is painting him as an ogre, which he’s not. I urge you not to pile on without checking out the local angles. It just isn’t that simple.
—————————–
The last time Jane brought up Beth Israel and Paul Levy, I brought a lot of information concerning the unions that are there. The nurses are unionized - Massachusetts Nurses Association. This is a very active union which has advocated strongly for more registered nurses per shift.
The hospital has treated patients well, has an excellent reputation as a nurses’ hospital. People go there for the high level of nursing care. My sister continues to be treated for breast cancer, my stepmother was cared for there for years and recently died there surrounded by family.
I am confused by painting Paul Levy in the way that this post does. He brought the hospital back from being nearly driven out of existence.
Boston has no shortage of cancer treatment centers. The cancer treatment centers under discussion here are in the suburbs of greater Boston. There is a large cancer treatment center in Waltham and the Newton Wellesley Hospital would like to open one. These are suburban towns, not the city. These large cancer treatment centers would be a few miles away from each other.
I am confused by the way this is being presented. We are not deprived of cancer treatment in Boston.
Jane you smooth talker. I voted.
Thanks for the heads up.
Quietly OT: www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/22492.html
link to article on Food shortages for Iraqis in Syria.
Part of what bothers me about Jane’s post is the snark: “My little blog buddy Paul” and the rest of it. The guy is not your average civil servant or corporate CEO. He seems to be a brilliant idealist who may be too naive regarding his openness. No one in Boston has questioned his ethics, and in this town, that’s amazing. He’s considered a straight-shooter who may talk too much.
I’ve read his blog — I thought he bled a bit too much, but that’s Paul. I think he’s extremely passionate about defending his institution, and he might be better off working the conciliation beat. He feels he shouldn’t have to, that everyone who works at BI should feel as passionately about their mission as he does. That’s naive. People work for a paycheck, period.
But he’s not cut from the cloth of those who control so much of our economy, and we err if we cast him in with them.
Part of what bothers me about Jane’s post is the snark: “My little blog buddy Paul” and the rest of it. The guy is not your average civil servant or corporate CEO. He seems to be a brilliant idealist who may be too naive regarding his openness. No one in Boston has questioned his ethics, and in this town, that’s amazing. He’s considered a straight-shooter who may talk too much.
I’ve read his blog — I thought he bled a bit too much, but that’s Paul. I think he’s extremely passionate about defending his institution, and he might be better off working the conciliation beat. He feels he shouldn’t have to, that everyone who works at BI should feel as passionately about their mission as he does. That’s naive. People work for a paycheck, period.
But he’s not cut from the cloth of those who control so much of our economy, and we err if we cast him in with them.
fact-check, people. fact-check. This is more than some of us can handle.
hmmm…..*crickets*
veritas and boston: I very much appreciate your injection of some…..oh, what’re those dang things called…..oh yeah, FACTS…..into this slanderous diatribe. Wouldn’t hold my breath, though, waiting for a response.
“fact-check, people. fact-check. This is more than some of us can handle.”
’specially those who trumpet their fact checking credentials from the mountaintops. Funny how that works.
Let me give you another perspective. I was recruited to come to BIDMC at the end of 2005 to become its new director of throughput - minimizing and eliminating patient delays for admissions, transfers and discharges. I was given other orphaned departments after my arrival to direct - none of which had been discussed with me during the interview of job offer process. One department was that of patient “sitter” - people unskilled and supposedly given training to stay in continual attendance with patients at risk to harm themselves or others - such as though on suicide precautions, or who were confused and at risk to get out of bed or to fall. I learned that many of these workers had been given no training or supervision, whatsoever, and that both patients and the workers had suffered repeated incidences of harm due to accidents and unsafe work practices by both the workers and the employer. The workers had been recruited from a single church in a nearby area, and they markedly over-represented “diversity” in the workplace. Records and their recollections could show no orientation, training, supervision or evaluation. And to top that off, many workers were working without any benefits whatsoever and a significant number had worked over 80 hours WEEKLY - some for over a year. When they fell asleep on the job, nurses learned to simply wake them because reporting that never resulted in removing them. Their prior director simply returned them to work, where they frequently worked 1 hours per day and then returned the next - exhausted and unsafe. They were at the very lowest end of the pay scale. Not only was this known by my boss - but the senior VPs for both patient care services and human resources were fully aware.
I also discovered that a manager for another department had failed to report infant deaths to the state, and had since 2001, allowed fetal remains to languish in the morgue. At the time of my firing, a hospital attorney was meeting with patient finance and registration directors to try to identify a funeral director who would mass bury the remains - all twelve of them - quietly - they are deathly afraid of the Boston Globe and media coverage. I don’t know why, as Liz Kowalski seems to be in their pockets. I took immediate action to investigate and to correct all of these things, as I was also trying to address the patient delays. I discovered that many of my direct report supervisors were deliberately undermining my work and were doing whatever my boss - their former boss - what telling them to, countervailing my directives. I was threatened, blacklisted and have been unemployed since. I appealed to the hospital’s office of business compliance who never gave me any “finding” in writing, but verbally agreed with every claim I mad and am making here. However, for doing the right thing, I’d be better off dead - and that’s exactly the intent of the hospital. I also wrote Paul levy on his blog - and not surprisingly my comment was never published by him.
I learned about the unlicensed beds that were used, and not staffed per budget. I learned about the many statistical games that were played with the data. I learned that the nursing supervisors had been giving wrong information to injured workers about getting timely health care. I learned about supervisors not being included in emergency preparedness education and leadership or in COOP planning.
I got a real education at the BIDMC. I also learned that patient admissions were green lighted for cardiac patients, and that almost 100% of patients with long ER delays for inpatient beds were on the medical services with diagnoses of multiple chronic illnesses. Why the differences? $$$$$ for the cardiac patients and $ for the medical patients.
I learned that there are many great people who work and practice at BIDMC, but that the senior leadership overall is not a part of that group. I learned that information is very heavily filtered as it goes to the top. I learned that many managers and directors are fearful of administrators. I learned that human resources was a joke, and that my boss, who hired out of policy and promoted and evaluated out of policy - was protected by HR managers, directors and VPs.
Paul is not transparent. He is not aware of many of the wrongs that his administrative team are wreaking because the information is so heavily filtered before it ever arrives on his desk. I learned that the CIO, Halamka, is despised by many physicians, and that There are enormous power struggles among the different services of the medical staff. I learned that nurses and nursing are invisible and do not have power nor do they wield influence. There are no directors of nursing - they are subsumed under the umbrella of “clinical operations”.
BIDMC nurses are not unionized and are not represented by the Massachusetts Nursing Association. Nursing there is but a shell of what it was when Joyce Clifford headed up nursing at the Beth Israel Hospital before the merger.
The current leader of nurses is Diane Anderson, who is very fond of making “elevator speeches” and running numbers. She is not visible to nurses, and prove me mistaken, but I don’t think that many nurses would recognize her if she visited their nursing units.
Managers and directors worked under an oppressive and suspicious work atmosphere. I met many dedicated mid-level managers who tried to do the right thing for patients and employees, in spite of the administrative game of “Survivor” that is the real agenda. I also met some of the worst, unethical managers and directors there, as well. And in those cases, they had been in the system for many years. They wielded power well beyond what their positions would have suggested.
I was fired while the senior VPs were away, I was a fresh post-op myself, and I had to request permission to come back later that day for a physician’s appointment. My experience at BIDMC was such that I would never encourage anyone to work there or be a patient there.
A vote for Paul here is a vote to highlight the need for workers to have equitable work conditions and work rules which are applied evenly and ethically.
Meanwhile, I will work for food and shelter - literally. But you will get someone whose health is in the toilet, who can’t afford to purchase that mandatory Mass. health insurance (snort), and who thinks about suicide as about the sole remaining viable option. And because they can’t hurt me any more than if they had just used a lethal weapon, I could care less who knows what was done to me and to the workers for whom I was advocating.
And finally, Jane (and the other FDL leaders) has never contacted me about any of this. Nor has anyone in the so-called progressive community, ever expressed any interest in this.
I am so sorry you are going through such a hard time. Is there any help this someone on the West Coast can offer you?
Thanks, but I don’t want pity, sympathy or friends. I need a job and a way to sustain myself - by myself. And the BIDMC workers need safe working conditions, and they need to work under policies and procedures that are applied equitably, fairly and transparently. That’s the only reason I de-lurked.
Understood. Best wishes to you.