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WHEREAS, Sally Kalson of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette poignantly stated, “This is how the middle class shrinks, not with a bang but a series of whimpers. Jobs that paid a living wage are dropping like dominoes, outsourced to low-wage contractors, forcing workers to do the same tasks for less money or lose their jobs altogether;” and,
WHEREAS, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, now the region's largest employer, as well as the Region's largest health care system and recipient of taxpayer-supported charitable tax exemptions in the City, has a responsibility to our community to live up to our shared economic and civic values; and,
WHEREAS, on May 15, 2013, UPMC announced they would be eliminating its workforce of medical transcriptionists, which employs 129 women and 1 man, because it is being outsourced to an Internet-based provider from Burlington, Massachusetts called Nuance Transcription Services (Nuance) starting July 1, 2013; and,
WHEREAS, these employees, many of whom have worked for UPMC for decades, were given nine days to decide if they would accept a position with Nuance for perhaps as little as minimum wage, significantly reduced benefits, and with no job protection; and,
WHEREAS, UPMC told these employees that they would receive no severance pay for their decades of service and they were not to apply for unemployment benefits if they decided not to accept a job with Nuance; and,
WHEREAS, the transcriptionists' health care costs will become completely unaffordable, and they are at risk of losing access to UPMC facilities and providers- with whom they have long had coverage-because the Nuance plan is with Blue Cross Blue Shield; and
WHEREAS, these changes will be catastrophic, as the loss of half their plus having to pay thousands of dollars more in increased health care costs leaves them wondering how they'll survive; and
WHEREAS, in fairness to UPMC, cost-efficiency is important to maintaining such a large and thriv...
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