Brooklyn, NY – United University Professions, the nation’s largest higher education union, has purchased 100,000 medical isolation gowns for doctors, nurses and medical staff on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic at SUNY public hospitals in Brooklyn, Stony Brook and Syracuse.
The shipment of isolation gowns will be delivered to SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University in Brooklyn, where the need is most severe. In March, the governor designated SUNY Downstate as a COVID-19-only hospital.
Over the next few weeks, the AFT Union will ship gowns and various Personal Protective Equipment to doctors, nurses and health care workers at Stony Brook University Medicine and Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, and faculty at the University at Buffalo School of Medicine, who are working in community hospitals.
“These are our colleagues, our friends, our neighbors, our health care providers, and they are union members showing up every day, saving lives and fighting this dreaded disease without the appropriate gear,” said UUP President Frederick E. Kowal, Ph.D. “We wanted to help.”
UUP is also providing housing for members at the hospitals who are fearful of bringing the virus home to their families.
“Health care professionals across the state, including thousands of UUP members, are still working without proper PPE,” Kowal said. “COVID-19 is too dangerous. Searching for more personal protective equipment was a natural and necessary next step.”
1 thought on “United University Professions Providing PPE for Doctors & Nurses”
UUP’s response in sending PPE and providing housing for medical workers is wonderful. I fully support using our union resources in this way. I’m proud to be a UUP member!
At the same time, union leadership needs to initiate a planning process to address the post-COVID-19 situation which will address the lack of capacity in our hospitals created by
the just-in-time and “lean” personnel and equipment policies advocated by the present Governor and allowed to happen over the past several mayoral administrations. This is a crisis
in neoliberal governance.