Labor Updates (5/23/08)

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)
Hope & Concern Greet Prince George's Hospital Bill: "Now it's a race to save the Prince George's hospitals," said 1199SEIU's John Reid Thursday as Governor Martin O'Malley signed the Prince George's Hospital Authority bill, intended to stabilize and sell the hospitals that almost closed last spring due to longstanding financial issues. The bill provides a framework and schedule for officials from the State of Maryland and Prince George's County to appoint negotiators to determine funding from the state and county to sustain the hospitals.  They will also jointly appoint members to the Prince George's Hospital Authority, which will issue a Request for Proposals to sell the hospitals. The new law allows sixty days for this work, though the bill was amended in the Maryland General Assembly to extend the deadline for another 30 days. "I am hopeful that our elected officials will do the right thing and live up to the spirit of the hospital bill that legislators and Governor O'Malley worked so hard to pass," said Lorita Waltz, a nurse at Laurel Regional Hospital with more than twenty years experience at the hospitals.  "There is too much at stake for all of us in Prince George's County. Too many lives are in the balance here and failure is not an option."