Union rallies against NUMC management

About 40 members of Civil Service Employees Association Local 830 and their supporters demonstrated yesterday against what they called “greedy” Nassau University Medical Center management and its “multitude of disrespectful actions against” union members.

“It’s union busting, plain and simple,” said Jerry Laricchiuta, president of the local, which has nearly 10,000 members, more than a third of whom work for NUMC and its affiliates.

Union leaders charged that management of the public hospital based in East Meadow is trying create a partnership with the North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System, a private entity headquartered in Manhasset that union officials say already controls half of the hospitals in Nassau.

Shelley Lotenberg, the spokeswoman for NUMC and its affiliates, which jointly are called NuHealth, declined to comment on the union leaders’ assertions.

Laricchiuta said, “North Shore is a great hospital, but it’s private and not public. NUMC is the people’s hospital, but it’s rife with political patronage. There have been 300 layoffs while rewarding already highly paid management.

“There’s talk about closing the affiliated nursing home in Uniondale, and there is an application to allow a nonunion, not-for-profit subsidiary corporation — that would violate New York State Public Authorities Law.”

The demonstration took place outside the hospital at Hempstead Turnpike and Carman Avenue.