Lifespan – RI Future

January 15, 2016January 23, 2016

Alternatives and Solutions: Strategies for Climate Justice and a Just Transition

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The Environmental Justice League of Rhode Island (EJLRI) has created a brilliant position paper, “National Grid’s Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Liquefaction Facility: Toxic Hazards in the Port Providence: Proposals for a Just Transition” that eviscerates National Grid‘s plans to build a new liquefaction facility for fracked LNG at Fields Point in South Providence. Over the next few days RI Future will be presenting the EJLRI’s position paper in its entirety.

Solutions and Alternatives

The information presented in the previous posts show that in addition to not being necessary, National Grid’s proposed LNG Liquefaction Facility would be dangerous and would contribute to existing environmental racism. LNG Liquefaction is not needed in Rhode Island in general, and it certainly should not be placed in the most toxic and most impoverished part of the state.

The immediate solution is to stop this facility from being built. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) needs to deny National Grid LNG LLC’s application, and the RI Department of Environmental Management (RI DEM) and RI Coastal Resources Management Council (RI CRMC) need to deny the state level permits.

That being said, the proposed liquefaction facility is not the only problem outlined in this position paper. Even without the added significant risks of the liquefaction facility, the existing LNG storage tank, the Motiva oil terminal, the Univar chemical plant, the Enterprise LPG terminal, and other facilities in the area all pose significant environmental health hazards, and create the overall context of environmental racism. Toxic and hazardous facilities are dangerous for communities and dangerous for workers. Yet families are dependent on them for jobs, municipalities are dependent on them for tax income, and the way our socioeconomic system is set up we are all collectively dependent on the products they produce. Regardless of our dependency, the reality of climate science is that the fossil fuel / petrochemical industry is rapidly pushing our planet past its limits, producing present and future catastrophic impacts, and making people sick, especially front-line communities of color and indigenous communities. Our dependency on these industries is literally killing us.

As an organization, the EJ League is interested in big picture, long term, real solutions to interlocking crises that impact communities of color, marginalized communities, and planetary ecosystems. We are members of three national coalitions of grassroots, membership based organizations: Right to the City, Grassroots Global Justice, and Climate Justice Alliance. Together, and lead by our members and our communities, we are developing and sharing solutions that address these intersecting crises from the grassroots. These community based solutions are in opposition to the corporate top down false solutions that pretend to address a single symptom while reinforcing the underlying root causes of the problems.

True solutions are rooted in the work of grassroots internationalism, and using the framework of a “Just Transition”. We are collectively building a different context and a different system, an economy for people and the planet. The Just Transition framework emerged from partnerships between environmental justice and labor organizations. In the words of the Just Transition Alliance, “together with front-line workers, and community members who live along the fence line of polluting industries, we create healthy workplaces and communities. We focus on contaminated sites that should be cleaned up, and on the transition to clean production and sustainable economies.”

As part of the Climate Justice Alliance (CJA) Our Power Campaign, we are part of a collaborative that is:

uniting front-line communities to forge a scalable, and socioeconomically just transition away from unsustainable energy towards local living economies to address the root causes of climate change.

“We are rooted in rooted in Indigenous, African American, Latino, Asian Pacific Islander, and working class white communities throughout the U.S. We are applying the power of deep grassroots organizing to win local, regional, statewide, and national shifts. These communities comprise more than 100 million people, often living near toxic, climate polluting energy infrastructure or other facilities. As racially oppressed and/or economically marginalized groups, these communities have suffered disproportionately from the impacts of pollution and the ecological crisis, and share deep histories of struggle in every arena, including organizing, mass direct action, electoral work, cultural revival, and policy advocacy.

“Together we are strengthening relationships between community based organizations, environmentalists, labor unions, food sovereignty/sustainable agriculture groups and other sectors of society.

“As CJA we are coalescing our power to reshape the economy and governance in the coming decades we are communities united for a just transition.”

CJA’s Our Power Campaign has the long term goals to: 1) End the Era of Extreme Energy, and 2) Implement a Just Transition to Local Living Economies. This will be achieved by:

Building Local Living Economies with a model that that centers on: Zero Waste, Regional Food Systems, Public Transportation, Clean Community Energy, Efficient Affordable and Durable Housing, and Ecosystem Restoration and Stewardship
Building Community Resilience: Creating climate jobs that will build stronger, resilient, and more equitable communities through Grassroots Economies (ex. worker owned cooperatives) and Rights to Land, Water, and Food Sovereignty.

Economic strategies around Just Transition require strong partnerships between environmental justice community advocates and the labor movement. Too often the corporate 1 percent strategy of divide and conquer is successful, but Just Transition pushes us to build powerful working class alliances to overturn the economic and political power structures that simultaneously harm workers, create widespread economic inequality and poverty, and destroy the planet’s ability to sustain life. There is a growing international movement to change this, and the following reports outline some of the strategies to build strong labor/environmental alliances around energy systems and a Just Transition:

Just Transition in Port of Providence

Working with our national alliances and using these strategic frameworks, EJ League will continue to convene local and regional coalitions to develop and implement Just Transition strategies in Rhode Island, focusing on the Port of Providence as an urgent need. Our goal is to develop concrete strategies and tactics to leverage a rapid transition away from natural gas and all fossil fuels, with democratic front-line community ownership over the development of the sectors for truly renewable energy and energy efficiency work. Through workshops, teach-ins, and hosting a Just Transition Assembly with Grassroots Global Justice in late summer / early fall, we will be doing the collective work of developing local solutions to massive social and planetary problems. We will share our joint understandings and perspectives on the problems, learn about the frameworks and strategies that are effective elsewhere, and will forge pathways to transform our oppressive realities.

There are too many solutions and alternatives to list, and most solutions will be built collectively through praxis and not through theory. As a starting point, one could easily envision how the $100 million price tag for the proposed liquefaction facility could be better spent in ways that would address energy needs, create jobs in the economically marginalized and oppressed front-line communities next to the Port, support renewable energy and energy efficiency, and build greater community health instead of increased toxic risk. With the high percentage of old housing stock and rental units in low income communities, there is a large need to improve housing quality with weatherization, energy efficiency, and improvements in indoor air quality, lead abatement, and other healthy housing requirements. This investment would reduce the need for heating fuels, improve health outcomes, and would be able to employ many people from the community.

Job training programs around weatherization and housing work are already in place, and are focused on people of color, youth, and people with records who are excluded from many other sectors of the dominant economy. EJ League has a Board Member who is a weatherization job training specialist, energy auditor, and is working on seeking investors to build a production facility for cellulose to be used in blown-in insulations and home weatherizations. Worker owned cooperative enterprises in the industries of energy efficiency would transform economic power dynamics, bring democratic control into the workplace, and build wealth at the local level. These types of economic developments would be community owned, community led, would employ community members, and would support true community wealth development in stark contrast with the corporate fossil fuel and petrochemical model developments that poison, displace, and extract wealth at the expense of community wellbeing.

In addition to worker owned businesses for energy efficiency, we need community owned renewable energy development. National Grid is required to make a bare minimum level of investment into renewables, and is allowed to add a surcharge to all consumer bills to cover this. Despite the fact that everyone is paying for this, National Grid’s limited investments into renewables have been in affluent white suburban communities. Front-line communities, which have been sacrifice zones for hazardous energy developments for generations, need massive investments in renewable energy. But these investments cannot operate like most investments in the dominant capitalist economy, which come in from outside with disregard for residents, take advantage of poverty conditions, lead to gentrification and displacement, and extract wealth for the investor’s return on investment. We are also not asking for charity or handouts that would support public relations campaigns for polluting industries. We are demanding reparations.

We are exploring mechanisms to make it possible for renewable energy to benefit our communities, given that current capitalist market mechanisms favor larger corporations, municipalities with surplus budgets and strong tax bases, and families that are homeowners who can afford upfront costs in order to get the return on their solar/renewable energy investments. We are determined to make renewable energy a working reality that benefits low income communities of color in multiple ways, from reduced toxic hazards, lowered bills, better jobs, and shifting away from energy sources that are literally killing us. We know this will not happen overnight, and it will be a massive cross sector effort to manifest this vision. But we also know that we cannot afford to wait, and nothing is more urgent. We invite you to join us.

Economic Inequality: high cost project that will cause economic damage

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Economic Inequality

The Fields Point Liquefaction Facility project takes advantage of, and will increase problems with economic inequality and economic injustice related to energy. First and foremost, the massive $100 million price tag for construction will be passed onto consumers as an added charge. National Grid tries to hide this fact by saying “the cost of the natural gas commodity on a customer’s bill is a pass through cost. This project will allow National Grid and other companies who use the Fields Point facility to supply domestic LNG at a more stable cost.” But “pass through cost” means they pass that cost through to us, and there is no guarantee that prices of domestic fracked gas will be any more stable than prices of internationally sourced LNG. If anything, the international prices of LNG have been steadily declining while domestic fracked gas prices are at historic lows and likely to increase as the industry builds LNG export terminals and fracked gas power plants that increase demand and lead to rising prices. There are existing plans and proposals to connect the Spectra Pipeline (the source of the fracked gas for this facility) (See: here and here) to an LNG export facility in Canada and to build a massive 900 MW power plant in Burrillville, RI that would be powered by gas from Spectra’s “Algonquin” pipeline.

Despite the industry’s claims of needing to build these projects to lower prices, with power plants and other major purchasers getting preferential treatment with locked in prices in long term contracts, individual consumers in Rhode Island will see rising gas prices for home heating and cooking. The $100 million construction costs for the liquefaction facility will be added on top of the price of gas, and collectively we are the ones who will end up paying the bill. On a purely economic level, the proposed facility does not make sense and will be locking us into further dependency on fracked gas.

Income and wealth inequality in Rhode Island means increasing gas prices won’t impact everyone equally. There are only four municipalities in RI that qualify as high poverty “core cities”, with childhood poverty rates over 25 percent – Providence, Pawtucket, Central Falls, and Woonsocket. Providence as a whole has a 27.7 percent poverty rate, almost twice the national average of 12.8 percent, and the front-line communities close to the Port includes the census tracts with the greatest concentrations of poverty in the state, specifically census tracts 5, 7, and 12. Five of the twelve census tracts in the adjacent neighborhoods are within the top 10 poorest tracts in Rhode Island, ranking 1st, 2nd, 4th, 6th and 10th. The median family income is $31,800 with the poorest tracts having median family income as low as $14,067. On average, 35 percent of people in the community live below the poverty line and 63 percent are below the 200 percent poverty line. In the poorest census tracts, 64 percent live below the poverty line and 83 percent are below the 200 percent poverty line. EJLRI Position Paper_Page_27

The Providence unemployment rate of 12.4 percent is much higher than the statewide average of 7.7 percent , while the highest unemployment levels were found in Wards 8, 9, 10, and 11 (South Providence and Washington Park), where unemployment rates range from 15.3 percent to 40.5 percent . Ward 10, directly adjacent to the Port, has the highest unemployment levels including Census Tract 5 which is the highest at 40.5 percent.

Given this data, it is clearly a myth that expanding operations at the Port will create jobs to solve economic issues such as unemployment. There is no public data available on the workforce in the Port, but based on personal accounts and parallels with other comparable sectors, the jobs for work in Providence are not given to residents of Providence, let alone residents of the neighborhoods that are directly impacted. With the limited number of temporary jobs promised with the proposed LNG Liquefaction facility, the high paying jobs requiring specialized skills will be going to Kiewit, a multinational corporation that has also worked on the Keystone XL pipeline.

The increased costs of home gas prices will have a devastating impact in Washington Park and South Providence, where families living in poverty are already dealing with the frequent impacts of National Grid terminating utility service. This is especially true in rental units which are often less energy efficient: because tenants pay utility costs, landlords have no incentive to invest in weatherization or energy efficiency, making heating costs higher. In violation of state and federal law, National Grid routinely shuts off utilities for low income medically vulnerable people who are dependent on heat and/or electricity for medical needs. The RI Center for Justice filed a class action lawsuit against National Grid and the RI Division of Public Utilities and Carriers to stop these utility terminations.

The press release for the suit included the following:

“In my work on behalf of medically vulnerable children and families, I have witnessed National Grid’s routine disregard for health and safety considerations,” says attorney Jeannine Casselman, legal program director of the RI Medical Legal Partnership at Hasbro Children’s Hospital. “Even in cases involving children with severe illnesses and disabilities, we see utility shut offs happening on a regular basis. In some instances, this can lead to loss of housing altogether. Rather than provide a reasonable repayment plan for struggling families, National Grid too often shuts off services, causing further disarray and trauma to low income households.”

In collaboration with the George Wiley Center’s Lifeline Project, this effort is working to protect the health and welfare of families that are put in danger by National Grid’s reckless and greedy energy policies. The EJ League endorses the George Wiley Center’s campaign and the full demands described in the letter from health care professionals and delivered to the RI PUC:

1. A one-year moratorium on termination for all accounts that are coded as ‘medical’.

2. The engagement of an independent third party monitor to review the Division of Public Utility’s approval of petitions for permission to terminate for all accounts coded as medical. The monitor will be selected by a joint committee composed of members of the George Wiley Center, the medical community, the Department of Health and the Public Utilities Commission.

3. The Public Utilities Commission immediately begin requiring data submissions from National Grid that are consistent with those requirements placed on the company in Massachusetts, as per the George Wiley Center’s formal request from March of 2015.

4. The Public Utilities Commission immediately begin accepting and thoroughly reviewing petitions for emergency restoration and providing timely responses to each request.

There is no publicly available address specific data that shows geographic distribution of utility shut offs. Regardless, the concentration of extreme poverty and high levels of chronic disease and health problems in the front line communities next to the Port make it highly likely that these neighborhoods are disproportionately impacted by utility terminations. Testimonials for grassroots membership based organizations in the community confirms that utility termination is a major problem for many families living in front-line communities next to the fossil fuel energy complexes in Port of Providence which provide energy for the entire region. This is yet another sign of environmental injustice and systemic injustice that is built into the normal business operations of the fossil fuel industry.

Public Health: health disparities and impacts on health care institutions

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Public Health

All of the above issues discussed in this position paper are also public health issues. In looking at the social and environmental determinants of health, public health paints a picture that helps explain why particular populations are more likely to be sick. Issues of potential disasters, environmental racism, climate change impacts, and economic inequality are all public health issues. The EJ League is the backbone organization for COHEP (Community Organizing for Health Equity in Providence), a collaborative effort with DARE (Direct Action for Rights and Equity), PrYSM (Providence Youth Student Movement), and the RI Doula Collective. COHEP is funded through the RI Department of Health’s “Health Equity Zones” (HEZ). As a place based initiative that works to develop collective impact strategies to address health problems and health disparities, COHEP’s HEZ work focuses on a few neighborhoods in South Providence including Washington Park, a front-line community to Port of Providence. Research and GIS mapping conducted as part of the HEZ community assessment show that Washington Park has largest concentration by far of chemical exposures in Providence, and also has the highest concentration of leaking underground storage tanks:

EJLRI Position Paper_Page_24 At hearings and public events about the proposed liquefaction facility, multiple community members have spoken out about issues of high asthma rates in the community being a major concern. Public health data backs up this concern, and shows that the area is one of the state’s largest asthma hot spots. While most of the state has asthma rates of 04.4 percent or 4.56.2 percent, most of Providence has asthma rates of 8 – 10.3 percent and the neighborhood next to I95 and the Port has the highest levels in the state at 10.4 – 15.4 percent. (link)

On top of the high level of children with asthma, the front-line community and asthma hot spot next to the port also has some of the highest levels in the state for Emergency Department visits or Hospitalizations due to asthma. Among children with asthma living next to the Port of Providence, 15.5 – 24.1 percent have had an Emergency Department visit, compared to rates of 03.3 percent for more affluent neighborhoods in Providence. Similarly with asthma related hospitalizations, for front-line neighborhoods adjacent to the Port or Providence, children with asthma had inpatient hospitalizations at a rate of 5.1 – 8.3 percent compared to the rate of 00.7 percent in the more affluent neighborhoods in Providence.

In addition to the many health problems and health disparities impacting the neighborhoods of South Providence and Washington Park, there are also public health impacts relating to healthcare facilities in these communities. The Lifespan and RI Hospital complex is the largest and most visible concern, containing the state’s only level 1 trauma center, Rhode Island Hospital, Women and Infants Hospital, and Hasbro Children’s Hospital.

In addition to this major hospital complex, there are many other healthcare facilities within a close radius (1 to 2 miles) from the proposed liquefaction facility and close to the other hazardous facilities in Port of Providence. These include but are not limited to:

Hasbro’s Medicine Pediatrics Primary Care (245 Chapman St) this facility offers primary care for children, and also offers specialty services for chronic conditions including asthma, diabetes, and hypertension, which exist at very elevated levels in this neighborhood. The facility also offers gender and sexual health services. It falls within the one mile radius of the proposed liquefaction facility.

Providence Community Health Centers (375 Allens Ave) PCHC serves approximately 50,000 patients in Providence, many of whom are low income, uninsured or under insured, and suffering from health problems impacted by social determinants of health. This location has their administrative building for all 9 health centers in Providence, as well as the Chaffee Health Center which serves patients. It is located within the half mile radius of the proposed liquefaction facility.

Providence Community Health Centers Prairie Avenue complex (369 Prairie Ave) this health center location also includes the asthma and allergy specialty clinic for the entire PCHC health center system across Providence.

Fertility Solutions (758 Eddy St) specializes in fertility treatments and in vitro fertilization and other related services

New Beginnings (717 Allens Ave) offers perinatal and ultrasound care

It is clear from this limited list, that any cumulative or emergency related impacts from the proposed liquefaction facility would not only impact the whole state’s health care system, but would particularly impact health care services related to maternal and child care, reproductive care, chronic disease care, and emergency response services. Ongoing background pollution and risks in this area should be seen as a public health crisis. Any potential future disaster impacting the port could cause a public health emergency of unimaginable proportions.

Candlelight vigil outside RI Hospital for fair labor negotiations

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Members of the United Nurses and Allied Professionals (UNAP), Local 5098, at Rhode Island Hospital, with labor and community allies, held a candlelight vigil and march Thursday evening to call attention to to unsafe staffing levels and other problems that continue to remain an issue in negotiations. UNAP members have been working without a contract since June 30th.

In a press release, UNAP said, “UNAP represents nearly 2,300 nurses, technologists, therapists and allied health professionals at Rhode Island Hospital. Members have authorized the negotiating committee to issue a 10-day strike notice, if an equitable agreement cannot be reached. On Friday, Lifespan officials acquiesced to UNAP’s request for federal mediation. A representative from the Federal Mediation and Reconciliation Service has been assigned to work with both parties in seeking resolution.”

“We are aware that this is a challenging economic time for Lifespan, that all health workers need to be part of a ‘shared sacrifice’ to aid the hospital. But that’s a tough pill for our members to swallow when Lifespan continues to pay a small handful of top executives nearly $13 million a year,” said UNAP Local 5098 President Helene Macedo, RN, “The question must be asked: Who’s really making the sacrifice?”

RI Treasurer **Seth Magaziner** attended the vigil

July 10, 2015July 13, 2015

Nurses union pickets for more staff, better benefits

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The corners of Eddy and Dudley streets were lost in a blur of purple as more than 400 nurses and other professionals working at Rhode Island Hospital picketed for higher wages, retirement benefits, and more staff.

The United Nurses and Allied Professionals (UNAP) Local 5098, shared its concerns about the unwillingness to effectively staff the hospital, while Lifespan continues to pay its executives millions of dollars a year.

“With healthcare reform going the way it is going right now, staffing has become a major issue,” said Lee Meyers, a registered nurse who has worked for the hospital for 25 years. “We work on the floors, and it’s getting to be with a skeleton crew. We need to have plenty of staff to take care of the very sick people that we are getting now, because people don’t go to the emergency room like they used to.”

“We take care of seven, eight patients that are really intensive care unit type patients,” she said. “That is causing us to burn out quicker, it’s too much handle.”

Debra Page, another registered nurse who has been working for just under four years, shared the sentiment.

“It’s on every level,” she said of the staffing problems. “Its from the minute you walk into the hospital to the minute you leave. You don’t get taken care of as soon as you walk in because we don’t have staff, you don’t get the care you deserve on the floor, I don’t have the time to hold my patient’s hand if their family’s not able to be there when they’re dying. I want to be able to be there and take care of that patient, and I don’t have the time to do that.”

Hospital staff also remarked on how much the climate has changed. Bernadette Means-Tavares is a pediatric nurse, but has also had experience on the patient end. When her daughter was an infant, she spent the first six months of her life at Hasbro, and there’s a huge difference between care now, and care back then.

“[The care she received] is being given, but it’s being given under a lot of stress and restraints. What she got, there’s no comparison to what you’re getting now, what we’re giving now,” she said.

Short staffing isn’t the only issue that UNAP is fighting against, though. In a press release sent out Tuesday, the group revealed that Lifespan not only keeps their hospitals at minimal staff, but is also attempting to cut employee compensation in the new contract that will be drawn up this year.

“Lifespan is seeking to cut its contribution to the retirement security of union employees- a move which would result in the loss of thousands of dollars to a member’s retirement,” the release said. “The hospital wants to make dramatic changes to the union’s health coverage, and is proposing a pay freeze until July 2016.”

Lifespan’s top five executives and officers were paid more than $12 million in 2012, according to the most recent available IRS 990 filings. Helene Macedo, President of UNAP Local 5098 finds these conditions to be inappropriate.

“For years, frontline caregivers have been asked to do more with less while the hospital spent lavishly on high-priced public relations campaigns; millions in salaries for top executives, and on other misplaced priorities,” she said. “It’s time for Lifespan to stop shortchanging healthcare professionals and invest in patient care again.”

Page added that Lifespan has tried to take away many of their rights as employees.

“For the hard work that we do, not only do they want to freeze our pay, not do any sort of cost of living increases, and actually take away benefits from us, including the fact that we have not had a matched 401k in quite so many years,” she said. “They want to limit our healthcare, where we get to get our healthcare, a lot of things that for one of the larger employers in the state, it doesn’t look good for them.”

The union has agreed to continue negotiations with Lifespan throughout July, but the negotiating committee has been given the authorization to deliver a ten-day strike notice if they cannot reach an agreement.

April 2, 2015October 17, 2016

Neighborhood Health Stations are better than cutting Medicaid

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Imagine a plan sitting at the RI Department of Health (RIDOH) that would reduce health care spending in Rhode Island by 15 to 30 percent. A plan with the added benefit of improving health care outcomes “with a cutting edge technology that brings every Rhode Islander into world class care – as they need it, where they need it, when they need it, in a way that builds community instead of building profit for others.”

Neighborhood Health Stations, developed by the RIDOH under the leadership of Dr. Michael Fine, is that plan.

Neighborhood Health Stations are “basically community hospitals without walls,” says Dr. Fine in conversation with Richard Asinof of ConvergenceRI. Dr. Fine planned to build one station for every 12,000 Rhode Islanders, between 75 and 100 such stations in all. The first one was to be built in Central Falls.

Neighborhood Health Stations would locate pediatricians, internists, family physicians, dentists, nurse practitioners, licensed and registered nurses, advanced practice nurses, physician assistants, mental health and social workers, physical therapists and occupational therapists, pharmacists, emergency medical technicians and paramedics, registered dietitians, home health workers, promotoras, health coaches, navigators and other healthcare workers under one roof, in a facility that would also offer programs such as “nutrition courses, Zumba classes, or group counseling sessions.”

According to Dr. Fine, if we implemented this plan, we could shrink the hospital system in our state. “When you build out the full delivery system of one neighborhood health station for every community of 12,000 people,” says Dr. Fine, “it is very likely that we can reduce the total number of hospital beds by 40 to 45 percent. That means dropping [the number of hospital beds in Rhode Island] by about 900 beds.”

Governor Gina Raimondo’s budget proposes cutting $88 million from Medicaid’s $2.7 billion in spending, a 3 to 6 percent reduction. Since “Reinventing Medicaid” is being presented as an answer to an imminent disaster, improving the quality of health care or paying adequate wages to health care workers is taking a back seat to saving money.

That’s a shame, because a fully realized health care system of the kind imagined by Dr. Fine would attract business and investment to Rhode Island, while draconian cuts in services to our most vulnerable will have the opposite effect. If we could build Neighborhood Health Stations and make them work, “then health care spending becomes a business magnet. People come and locate businesses here, just because of our health care,” says Dr. Fine.

It’s a great idea, but not one that’s likely to happen. Since Dr. Fine’s departure, Neighborhood Health Stations seem in jeopardy. The new head of the RIDOH, Dr. Nicole Alexander-Scott, has yet to comment on the plan. But a more immediate reason for the plan’s quiet demise can be intuited.

“…if I have had one failure [while serving as director of the R.I. Department of Health],” said Dr. Fine, “if I want to be self-critical, [it’s] that I haven’t made it clear enough to people that we don’t have a problem with insurance, the problem is insurance. That thinking, that insurance, as a financial mechanism, can impact health, is a fundamental, categorical mistake.”

Dr. Fine saw his Neighborhood Health Stations as saving money by cutting out for profit insurance companies, and actually reducing the size of hospitals. The Reinventing Medicaid working group is comprised of a diverse group of people, but for-profit insurers and health-care providers have a prominent seat at the table. Timothy Babineau, MD, president and CEO of Lifespan, Peter Andruszkiewicz, president and CEO of Blue Cross Blue Shield of RI and Helena Foulkes, executive vice president of CVS Health and president of CVS/pharmacy will ensure that their corporate, for-profit interests are protected.

To Dr. Fine, Neighborhood Health Stations are the future of health care. “…if we don’t do it, all we’re doing is perpetuating a costly infrastructure that doesn’t work.” An infrastructure that will remain immeasurably profitable to those sitting at the top of certain health care empires.

The “artwork was created by Roger Williams University students, in consultation with students at Rhode Island College School of Nursing, to illustrate how Neighborhood Health Stations could enhance well-being in Rhode Island communities.”

February 17, 2015February 19, 2015

RI Hospital employees will vote on labor strike

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Following stalled contract negotiations between Lifespan and Rhode Island Hospital employees, members of Teamsters Local 251 can vote tomorrow on whether a work stoppage is warranted. There will be three ballot votes at the Local 251 Union Hall in East Providence at 8am, noon and 4pm, according to a Jobs With Justice press release.

“Lifespan executives have angered employees and the community by rejecting common-sense proposals, including a proposal to require the Hospital to “maintain sufficient staff and adequate supplies,” said the press release. “Lifespan even rejected a proposal that, “providing quality care to patients and their families is the top objective of the Hospital and that poor working conditions, inadequate staffing levels, inadequate supplies, and improper equipment undermine quality care.”

Rhode Island Hospital Senior Media Relations Officer Beth Bailey said, “We are committed to bargaining in good faith toward a fair labor agreement that reflects the positive contributions of our employees. Our proposals to date have included increases to wages for all three years of the contract and shift differentials, and a comprehensive plan to help union employees impacted by technology changes. We are confident in the quality of the care we provide and the investments we have made in technology, equipment and staff to support the delivery of quality care.”

Local 251 represents 2,200 employees at Rhode Island Hospital, including non-medical staff, such as secretaries, janitors and landscapers. “But they also represent the unit assistants, the folks who check on patients to make sure everything’s okay, and the CNAs,” said Strecker. He said he had no idea how many people would show up for the vote. “We hope lots!”

Tomorrow’s vote is one step in the process of calling for a labor strike, said Jess Strecker of Jobs With Justice.

“It’s an authorization vote,” he said in an email subsequent to sending the press release. “The contract negotiating committee will then make the final call about when or whether to strike. Then they would actually give a 10 day notice to Lifespan before going out on strike. The strike could last as long or as shortly as it has to.”

A FAQ sheet sent from Local 251 to the 2,200 members said, “Voting to authorize a strike notice does not mean we will issue a 10-day notice right away. We will continue to negotiate and try to reach a fair agreement. A strong Yes Vote will send a message of unity to the Hospital and give the Negotiating Committee more leverage to win a fair contract. A No Vote would send management the message that we are not united. Management would have very little reason to make a fair contract offer.”

The FAQ says, “The bottom line is there can be no strike without a second vote by members to go on strike.”

Kathy Ahlquist, says the press release, “blames understaffing for her father’s medical tragedy.” Kathy is the wife of RI Future contributor Steve Ahlquist, who has reported on some of the previous employee actions as a new contract was in negotiation.

lifespan-says-no-final-feb-10.qxd — Material provided by union to members.

January 30, 2015

Picket at RI Hospital as contract negotiations stall

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Yesterday an “Informational Picket” was held outside Rhode Island Hospital to draw attention to the stalled contract negotiations with Lifespan. Nearly 2,500 Teamsters, represented by Local 251, have been working under a contract that expired on December 31, and was extended to yesterday. According to a statement from RI Hospital the contract has been re-extended until January 30.

Union rep Brooke Reese told me that negotiations with the hospital are “not so great.” A press release from the union says that hospital management has rejected a union proposal that states, “providing quality care to patients and their families is the top objective of the Hospital and that poor working conditions, inadequate staffing levels, inadequate supplies and improper equipment undermine patient care.”

Lifespan has also rejected the union’s proposals on “job security, fair wages and benefits,” which the union calls “a slap in the face to every Rhode Island Hospital employee and every person in the community that is concerned about good jobs and quality patient care.”

To bring attention to their cause workers borrowed a large inflatable “Fat Cat” from New York Teamsters 804. It was an attention getting prop, and it had the effect of slowing rush hour traffic around the hospital more than usual. The Fat Cat is seen wringing the neck of a UPS worker, but for the purposes of yesterday’s picket we’re being asked to picture the strangled worker wearing hospital scrubs.

Jesse Strecker, of RI Jobs With Justice, said in a statement, “Lifespan isn’t hearing workers and the community’s concerns at the negotiating table, so we are coming together to raise our voices in front of the hospital.”

During the picket Strecker led a community delegation consisting of representatives from labor unions, community organizations and student groups as well as religious leaders in an attempt to deliver an “Open Letter” to the hospital administrators, but were prevented from doing so by hospital security. After much negotiation the letter was taken, with the promise of delivery, by the head of security, but no one from the delegation was allowed inside the hospital and no one representing the hospital addressed the delegation in any meaningful way.

Beth Bailey, Senior Media Relations Officer for Rhode Island Hospital, said in a statement that the most recent proposal from the union “does not make economic sense for the hospital or its patients, as our state continues to struggle economically” and that the hospital is “offering a fair contract that continues to provide wage increases, retirement, health care and other benefits.” The statement did not address community concerns about patient care.

The union maintains that Lifespan paid its “ten highest paid executives” more than $16.6 million in its last fiscal year, an average of $1 million more in compensation “than the average earned by CEOs of nonprofit hospitals nationally.”

January 27, 2015January 28, 2015

RI Hospital employees and community allies speak out

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More than 500 people crowded into the meeting room of Our Lady of the Rosary Church on Benefit St in Providence for the Worker & Community Speakout for Good Jobs and Quality Care on January 17. At issue was the contract negotiation between Lifespan/Rhode Island Hospital and General Teamsters Local 251 representing some 2,500 hospital employees.

According to Local 251, “As a non-profit entity, Lifespan and RI Hospital are supposed to put the healthcare needs of the community first. Unfortunately, management has taken cost cutting measures, causing shortages in equipment and staff that undermine patient care.”

Literature at the Speakout quoted a nurse, Aliss Collins, saying, “When we are understaffed, I cover 56 patients in three units. It’s not right for the patients or the employees.” There was a story at the Speakout of another nurse who was forced to buy her own equipment for measuring oxygen levels, because the hospital did not provide it.

Obamacare has allowed Lifespan/RI Hospital to take in an additional $33 million in net revenue last year, because so many Rhode Islanders are now covered under Medicaid. Yet rather than invest this money in patient care, Lifespan pays its “ten highest paid executives” more than $16.6 million in its last fiscal year, an average of $1 million more in compensation “than the average earned by CEOs of nonprofit hospitals nationally,” according to the union.

At the same time, hospital employees such as single mom Nuch Keller make $12.46 an hour with no healthcare coverage. Keller’s pay does not even cover her rent. She regularly works 40 hours or more per week, yet Lifespan continues to pay her as a part-time employee. And in case you missed it, Keller works at a non-profit hospital, and receives no healthcare.

The Speakout was intended to show community support for the workers of RI Hospital, and was attended by Representatives David Cicilline and Jim Langevin, as well as General treasurer Seth Magaziner. There were also representatives from many other unions and community groups such as Jobs with Justice, Unite Here! and Fuerza Laboral. Many religious leaders, including Father Joseph Escobar and Rev Duane Clinker, were on hand to show support.

It was hard not to feel that something new was happening at the Speakout. The level of community support and solidarity made one feel as if a union resurgence were imminent, which many feel is necessary if obscene inequality is to be combated.

It was Duane Clinker who helped put the event into perspective for me. He said that unions have often limited their negotiations to wages, hours and benefits, and health-care unions have long argued staffing levels, but “when/if organized workers really make alliance with the community around access to jobs and improved patient care – if that happens in such a large union and a key employer in the state, then we enter new territory.”

This struggle continues on Thursday, January 29, from 2-6pm, with an Informational Picket at Rhode Island Hospital. “The picket line on Thursday is for informational purposes. It is is not a request that anyone cease working or refuse to make deliveries.”

Full video from the Speakout is below.

Speak-Out for Good Jobs & Quality Care at RI Hospital 002 — Mirjaam Parada

Speak-Out for Good Jobs & Quality Care at RI Hospital 033 — Duane Clinker

Speak-Out for Good Jobs & Quality Care at RI Hospital 080 — James Langevin

Speak-Out for Good Jobs & Quality Care at RI Hospital 172 — Seth Magaziner

Speak-Out for Good Jobs & Quality Care at RI Hospital 087 — Aaron Regunberg

Speak-Out for Good Jobs & Quality Care at RI Hospital 098 — Carmen Castillo

December 17, 2013December 18, 2013

RIF Radio: NSA rebuked; non-profit hospitals under scrutiny; bad tea leves for payday loan reform, voter ID, pot

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Tuesday Dec 17, 2013
North Kingstown, RI – Good morning, Ocean State. This is Bob Plain, editor and publisher of the RI Future blog podcasting to you from The Hideaway on the banks of the Mattatuxet River behind the Shady Lea Mill in North Kingstown, Rhode Island.

It’s Tuesday, December 17 … the day after a federal judge ruled against the NSA’s mass spying program calling it “almost Orwellian.” C’mon your honor, if the NSA isn’t full-blown Orwellian, I don’t know what is…

In a total twist of irony though, Judge Richard Leon, also put a stay on his own ruling to give the government time to appeal because of the national security implications. The gears of Democracy turn much slower than in the espionage industry…

Judge Leon wrote on the NSA randomly spying on as many Americans as it can: “I cannot imagine a more ‘indiscriminate’ and ‘arbitrary’ invasion than this systematic and high-tech collection and retention of personal data on virtually every single citizen for purposes of querying and analyzing it without prior judicial approval.”

There’s a super interesting article in New York Times today that could have local implications. Here’s the lede: “The billions of dollars in tax breaks granted to the nation’s nonprofit hospitals are being challenged by regulators and politicians as cities still reeling from the recession watch cash-rich medical centers expand.”

Cities all over the country are challenging the non-profit status of non-profit hospitals, with some saying they don’t do enough charity to warrant being considered a charity. A lawyer representing the city of Pittsburgh which is suing its local hospital for some property and payroll taxes, said, “Its commitment to charity is dwarfed by its preoccupation with profits.” The Times reports that the average non-profit hospital spends about 7.5 percent of its earnings on charity care and community benefit. Do we know yet what Lifespan spends on these line items?

In any case, the Ocean State does get a shout out – of sorts – in Times’ coverage:

Some patients who are hard pressed to pay today’s high charges found that hospitals can be aggressive in bill collection. When David DiCola, 61, went to Roger Williams Medical Center in Providence, R.I., for treatment of a finger infection, the bill was about $1,500. Uninsured, he offered the hospital $500; it refused his offer and sent it to a collection agency, he said.

The political soothsayers have spoken, specifically on a “A Lively Experiment” this weekend, and they don’t seem so jazzed on the legislation progressives will be pushing at the State House during the upcoming session. Ed Fitzpatrick, Ian Donnis, Ted Nesi and Jim Baron joined Diana Koelsch to talk about Voter ID, payday loans and ending pot prohibition in 2014. Fitz thought legalizing pot has a chance of passing and Voter ID could be repealed. But Donnis had a good point about pot, saying it’s unlikely to happen during an election year.

Because of faulty equipment the Johnston landfill is pumping harmful pollutants in the air, according to a lawsuit filed by the Conservation Law Foundation. The quasi-governmental agency that operates the landfill is ‘failing to adequately capture the gas,’’ Tricia Jedele, of the CFL told the Associated Press. ‘‘We need to be treating this more comprehensively and be managing this as a major source of air pollution, not just as a source of odors that sometimes bother the neighborhoods.’’

Did Cranston police officers write tickets to residents as a way to punish the politicians who represent them? That’s what two Cranston City Councilors said at a meeting last night, according to Greg Smith of the Providence Journal. This is a serious allegation, as such action would be a monumental abuse of power.

Joe Caramadre gets the New York Times treatment today. Caramadre either bilked insurance companies or the terminally ill, depending on whether you believe the prosecution or friends of the defense. A judge sided with the prosecution and Caramadre will be doing six years behind bars.

And NPR reports that environmentalists are split over the need for nuclear power … no we aren’t. But in other news, Kos reports that a former coal company CEO thinks we should better utilize renewables … so I suppose the 1% is split on fossil fuel extraction too…

Marion Simon, one of the early pioneers at Trinity Rep. in Providence, died in New York City yesterday. she was 90 years old. According to obituary in today’s Providence Journal, ”

Great moments in literature … today in 1843, Charles Dickens publishes “A Christmas Carol.” In case you have gone all Scrooge and forgotten the theme of this holiday classic it’s that being a good person is more important than being a good businessperson.

And today in 1944, the American military announced it will no longer be randomly imprisoning Japanese Americans.

And on this day in 1977, Elvis Costello infuriates Lorne Michaels and his record company when, while appearing on Saturday Night Live, he enthusiastically stops his band from playing “Less Than Zero” and instead rips into a now-famous rendition of his anti-mainstream media classic “Radio, Radio. Our song for the day is a terrible recording on the classic moment of corporate defiance on live TV.

December 12, 2013December 12, 2013

RIF Radio: Exile on Wamponaug Trail, Day 11; CEO made more than hospital; RI 6th best at Obamacare

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Thursday Dec 12, 2013
North Kingstown, RI – Good morning, Ocean State. This is Bob Plain, editor and publisher of the RI Future blog podcasting to you from The Hideaway on the banks of the Mattatuxet River behind the Shady Lea Mill in North Kingstown, Rhode Island.

It’s Thursday, December 12 … Day 11, we hope, of the Exile on Wamponaug Trail. Notoriously nasty WPRO misogynist John DePetro has been off the air for all of December so far for calling female labor activists whores on the radio. As I wrote yesterday, Rhode Island couldn’t have asked for a nicer Christmas present from our brothers and sisters in the organized labor movement … so if you’re glad December has been DePetro-free, thank a union member.

The non-profit that owns Rhode Island Hospital and other Rhode Island hospitals is not profitable, reports WPRI. A Tim White/Ted Nesi investigation uncovers that the only thing that kept Lifespan in the black this year was because it purchased a mental health firm with money in the bank. Lifespan, you will remember is the company that paid CEO George Vecchione $8 million. Had Vecchione been able to eak by on just $2 million a year, the hospital management company would have been made money. Can we please all agree we’ve got a real economic malfunction when a hospital non-profit loses millions while the CEO earns millions.

“It’s too fast. It’s too drastic. And it’s not good policy practice.” That’s what Camilo Viveiros said about the state public utilities commission proposal to make it easier to shut off heat and electricity for poor people who are behind on their bills.

A great new analysis by Business Insider shows only five states in the nation are doing better than Rhode Island at getting folks signed up for Obamacare … the six top states, in order, are: Vermont, Connecticut, Kentucky, California, Washington and then the Ocean State.

Another snowy owl has been injured in Rhode Island, this one on Rt. 95.

GoLocalProv reports that the commercial fishing industry in Rhode Island could become extinct.

This from Washington Post education blogger Valerie Strauss: “Education reform policy around the country is increasingly being made in secret or without public input — and with a lot of private philanthropic money.”

Rhode Island taxpayers already pays for text books at private schools … why we do this I have no idea.

“Federal workers have reason to be nervous,” reports National Public Radio. That’s because the new budget deal will effectively cut their pensions by making employees contribute more.

And JP Morgan, the too big too fail bank that put low-income Rhode Islanders personal information at risk, was also complicit with Bernie Madoff’s scam … The New York Times reports that the big bank may have to pay $2 billion for turning a blind eye to Madoff’s ponzi scheme.

November 17, 2013November 17, 2013

George Vecchione needs to meet Jo-Ann Gesterling

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Jo-Ann Gesterling, a fast food worker, and George Vecchione, a former CEO, have both recently garnered some attention for their respective salaries.

In 2011, Vecchione made $7.88 million as the chief executive of Lifespan, a WPRI investigation revealed recently. Meanwhile, Gesterling helped organize a protest at the Wendy’s in Warwick where she works in hopes of calling the media’s attention to her hourly wage of $8.20 an hour. In other words, Vecchione made almost twice as much in one day (~$30,300) as Gesterling will make all year (~$17,000).

	hourly	weekly	monthly	annually
George Vecchione	$3,788.45	$151,538	$656,667	$7,880,000
Jo-Ann Gesterling	$8.20	$328	$1,421	$17,056

But perhaps it is unfair to compare a free enterprise fast food economy with that of a non-profit, regulated for consumer health. So instead let’s use Wendy’s internal pay grades. At $16.5 million in 2011, CEO Roland Smith made more than twice running Wendy’s as Vecchione made leading Lifespan. Here’s how his salary compares to Gesterling’s:

	hourly	weekly	monthly	annually
Roland Smith	$7,932.68	$317,307	$1,375,000	$16,500,000
Jo-Ann Gesterling	$8.20	$328	$1,421	$17,056

November 7, 2013November 8, 2013

Life at Lifespan: CEO makes $8 million, nurses told no raises

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Hospital employees are furious that Lifespan CEO George Vecchione made almost $8 million in 2011 the same year management asked labor to forgo already-agreed upon raises because of the struggling economy.

“At the same time hospital administrators were demanding caregivers do more with less, the executive board of Lifespan was authorizing a gluttonous golden parachute that would make even the most brazen Wall Street executive blush,” said Helene Macedo, president of the labor union that represents Lifespan employees, in a press release. “This sweetheart deal is nothing less than outrageous, and every Rhode Islander who cares about quality, affordable health care should be angry by Lifespan’s arrogance.”

Vecchoine was paid a total of $7.8 million in 2011, including a $4.4 million retirement bonus, according to a startling news report by WPRI last night. In July, WPRI reported that revenue was down by 2 percent at Lifespan, which it used to justify a 3 percent decrease in expenses.

Unionized hospital employees and other progressives quickly denounced the revelation.

“We believe that people should be fairly compensated, but this extravagance goes far beyond what any reasonable or responsible non-profit organization should afford, and further demonstrates the executive management’s misplaced priorities,” Macedo said. “It is our hope that the General Assembly will again give serious consideration to legislation that would appropriately curtail these types of lavish deals that sacrifice quality of care for strengthening the ‘one percent.’”

Meanwhile conservatives defended Vecchoine’s lavish salary structure. Justin Katz, of the Center for Freedom and Prosperity, blamed government regulation and former RI GOP chairman Giovanni Cicione blamed “leftist economic policies.”

May 1, 2012May 1, 2012

RI Progress Report: Taveras, Homelessness, Class Warfare

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Happy May Day. Find out what’s happening locally here and across the country here. Learn about the history of the holiday here.

Providence Mayor Angel Taveras will announce a deal with Brown today for more in lieu of tax money and last night his office announced that Lifespan would be giving the city $800,000 a year. That, and the City Council passed his pension overhaul last night. Not a bad run for the Mayor, says Ian Donnis.

“We get tired of announcing this is the worst year for homelessness ever.”

House Republicans would kick nearly 300,000 poor children out of the school lunch program and 1.5 million people off of food stamps to protect tax cuts to the rich. Of course there is class warfare going on … an op/ed in today’s Providence Journal rightly puts the blame for it on the GOP.

So far, the General Assembly has passed no new environmental bills this legislative session.

Congressman Jim Langevin joins the calls for keeping student loan interest rates low.

We could have told you this long ago but we’re glad a panel from Parliament now agrees that Rupert Murdoch is unfit to lead a multinational media company.

This page may be updated throughout the day. Click HERE for an archive of the RI Progress Report.

February 13, 2012February 13, 2012

Taveras to deliver State of the City speech tonight

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Everyone knows what the state of the city is. Providence Mayor Angel Taveras has already sounded the alarm loudly. But nonetheless, he’ll still deliver the annual speech tonight at 7 p.m. in the Council Chambers of City Hall.

The state of the city is, of course, disastrous. Rhode Island’s capital city is on the brink of bankruptcy and could literally run out of operating funds by June. Taveras, a progressive Democrat, has trimmed the deficit by shrinking the city staff and through tough contract negotiations with employees, but he’s still some $22 million in the hole.

Certainly in his speech tonight Taveras will reiterate that retired employees and tax-exempt non-profit landowners need to pony up in order for Providence to remain fiscally solvent, but it will be interesting to see which group he reserves the stronger rhetoric for.

To date, Taveras has had harsher words for the retirees, but there’s a reason for that. With them he has a lever by which he can compel the needed capital, namely receivership and the city’s new relationship with Bob ‘Scissor or Guillotine’ Flanders.

However, the real money is with the nonprofits.

Brown University already pays Providence more than $2.2 million a year. But the Ivy League school owns property that would be net $38 million if it weren’t exempt from paying property taxes and is sitting on an endowment of more than $2 billion and just approved another tuition increase. Brown can afford to pay the city more, and likely will. Same with Johnson and Wales. It’d be nice if RISD and PC would follow suit.

The hospitals, the other big tax exempt entities in the city, are another story. Together, the six profitable medical institutions in Providence own property that would be taxed at more than $44 million. They pay the city nothing.

And it’s not because they are hurting for cash. Lifespan, which runs four of those hospitals, paid its nine highest-earning executives more than $9 million in salary and bonuses. Their CEO alone made $2.9 million. And according to the nurses union at the hospitals, Lifespan has made $320 million in profits over the past six years.

Providence needs a share to share in the financial success of Brown and Lifespan. If it doesn’t, no matter how much Taveras and Flanders are able to wrestle away from retirees, it won’t make the state of the city any less ruinous.

Note: The mayor’s office plans to live tweet his speech. The mayor tweets using @angel_taveras and you can follow the tweets and add your own using the hashtag #pvdsotc.