Union leaders: UTMB's 3,000 layoffs unnecessary UTMB's 3,000 layoffs unnecessary, union leaders charge

GALVESTON — The layoffs, beginning today, of about 3,000 employees from the University of Texas Medical Branch are an unnecessary blow to thousands of families and the Galveston economy, employees and union leaders charged.

Employees and critics of the drastic downsizing of the state's oldest medical school say Hurricane Ike was an excuse to speed up an existing plan to dismantle the medical branch.

"I think that they have wanted for a long time to kind of privatize UTMB," said Bertha Garcia, a registered nurse.

"What they did was use Ike cynically to further a policy of dismantling UTMB that began a decade ago," said Tom Johnson, executive director of the Texas Faculty Association.

"Ike was a disaster and this is an even bigger disaster," Johnson said.

He contends that the job cuts are part of a plan to eventually move the medical school to Austin.

Matt Flores, spokesman for the UT system, said the Board of Regents has stated that it intends to keep the medical school in Galveston. UTMB officials repeatedly have denied having a plan to move the medical school to the capital.

Flores said the regents hired the Atlanta consulting firm Kurt Salmon Associates for $285,000 to devise a new business model for UTMB.

The Board of Regents authorized the firing of 3,800 employees last week, saying the job cuts are necessary because the medical school suffered $710 million in damage from Hurricane Ike but has only $100 million in insurance.

John Sealy Hospital, the medical school's main source of income, is temporarily closed while the school must meet a $40 million payroll each month. The school expects to save $20 million per month from the layoffs.

"The alleged $40 million that they claim to be losing is nothing, compared to the economic damage they are causing the people of the state of Texas," Johnson said. "The human carnage is beyond anything in terms of broken families and a community that is losing its heart."

Johnson said the regents authorized the layoffs without assessing available state and federal aid. Flores said he would try to make a regent available to respond to the accusation later today.

The University of Texas Medical Branch is expected to lay off about 600 employees today and in each of the next four days in response to the storm losses.

About 3,000 employees will be out of their jobs by the end of the five-day process.

Department heads are expected to meet personally with those being fired, but many of those losing their jobs have been unable to return to work since the storm struck on Sept. 13 and will be notified by phone, e-mail or letter, UTMB spokeswoman Kristen Hensley said.

UTMB President David Callender announced the layoffs in a message sent Monday to the estimated 12,000 employees.

UTMB already had been making cuts before the storm, reducing the number of hospital beds from 600 to 500 on Sept. 1 and laying off more than 70 employees. Officials now say it will be months before the hospital has 200 beds available.

The layoff is a severe financial blow to Galveston County and the city of Galveston, already suffering economically because of the damage caused by the storm. UTMB was the city's largest employer.

The City Council last week passed a resolution asking the UT Board of Regents to fully support the university and its historic mission of tending to the medical needs of the indigent.

Myko Gedutis, lead organizer for the Texas State Employees Union, said the union will continue organizing UTMB workers as part of a plan backed by the Galveston County AFL-CIO to put pressure on the regents.

Gerdutis said UTMB employees are meeting with elected officials and circulating petitions.

"It's going to be a long fight and we're in it for the long haul," he said.

UTMB had been prepared to make the layoff plan public last month, but a flurry of phone calls to legislators from Galveston Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas and state Rep. Craig Eiland, D-Galveston, caused a delay.

harvey.rice@chron.com