The February 11 SocialistAlternative.org article and report about layoffs and cuts at the Cambridge Health Alliance, a Boston area hospital network, contained some erroneous information about the contract language of Local 380 of the Laborer’s Union in regards to seniority. The article stated the members no longer have a seniority bumping clause language in their contract (last hired, first laid off) and it had been removed a few years ago. The union has pointed out to us that “Local 380 has almost 100 different classifications and job titles which require a variety of different certifications and licensures, so ‘bumping’ gets a little more complicated for us. For example a housekeeper with 20 years seniority wouldn’t be able to bump a respiratory therapist with 2 years seniority so the ‘last one hired first one out’ argument is irrelevant in this case. This being the case our seniority language goes by title, unit or department, as is the case with hundreds of other public employee bargaining units with a multitude of classifications.”

Socialist Alternative wishes to offer an apology and retraction for the mistaken information in this article and for any offense caused by its content. We support the Save Our Hospitals Campaign (see this interview in the latest issue of Justice) which seeks to build a broad united campaign that opposes all cuts and layoffs at CHA. The web article was removed from our website as soon we were informed of the error.