The public hospital system will decide on Thursday whether union workers will continue to wash the millions of sheets, pillowcases, lab coats and medical scrubs that come through a central laundry facility each year.
The Health and Hospitals Corporation, whose governing board must approve the decision, wants to close the 50-year-old plant and let private companies handle the load. Currently, a contracted-company processes 1/3 of the laundry more quickly and cheaply than in-house workers, according to HHC President Alan Aviles.
"This is not about our workers at that plant not working hard," Aviles said. "It's about the competitive disadvantage of a very old plant to the state-of-the-art modern plant."
The plant's 83 workers could continue working in hospital system on the housekeeping staff where they would earn higher salaries, and the shift could save $72 million over nine years, according to the HHC.
D.C. 37, which represents the workers, has said the companies that would take over the laundry-only pay minimum wage – which is low enough to qualify employees for Medicaid and food stamps. The union did not reply to a request for comment.
The two sides continue to negotiate, but HHC has said if the motion to privatize is approved Thursday, the facility will close by August 1.
Fred Mogul has been covering healthcare and medicine for WNYC since 2002. His beat takes him to hospitals, community clinics, doctors offices, health agencies, public schools and research labs across the metropolitan area. His work has appeared on NPR and in the New York Times, Time magazine and Philadelphia Inquirer, among others.
Comments [1]
One of the "vocational training" opportunities offered by the Dept of Ed is commercial laundry. . . will a private employer hire these people - and keep them on once the tax incentive runs out? Will they offer medical insurance? This will have impacts above and beyond cost savings - and ultimately, will probably not save money.
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