Forum Health Care paying strike breakers, not nurses

Forum Health Care paying strike breakers, not nurses
EDITOR:
I am a teacher and lifetime resident of the community. I am also a member of local, state and national teachers unions. I am greatly concerned about the situation occurring at Forum Health Care. Spending half of my life educating children, I realize the necessity of having the best health care available to them, so they are ready and able to learn.
Our own nurses, most of whom are long-time or lifetime residents of our community, have been "replaced" with health care workers from a variety of places around the nation. These people choose to go from one city to another to earn more money than the nurses they are "replacing." They have no ties or commitment to the communities where they are temporarily working, and therefore no real concerns for the people they are attending to.
Yet Forum Health Care administrators are willing to spend $1 million to pay for their time instead of negotiating with their own committed nurses. Negotiation between the administrators and the Youngstown General Duty Nurses Association must take place in good faith for this serious situation to be resolved.
The lives of patients, often our friends and loved ones, are in jeopardy so long as administrators are not willing to sit down and resolve the issues. Overworked and exhausted nurses cannot offer the necessary care to their patients. They need time to renew their strength instead of working well beyond their regular 8- to 12-hour days. We're talking about lives here.
Are the administrators willing to sacrifice the safety of the hospital's patients to show a profit? The million dollars they are spending on temporary help could be far better used to develop new staffing strategies that would alleviate the current conditions of mandatory overtime.
SUSAN HOLLOWAY
Poland
Most Americans look forward to long lives
EDITOR:
I am a 78-year-old retired nurse disabled from complications of a stroke. I am not prepared to give up my freedom to seek medical care as all other persons in this wonderful country, the U.S.A., are entitled to do.
God gave me life, He takes care of me, and He will decide when I die. Mr. Thomas Sowell, in his column of April 27, reveals there are some apparently godless people who think the elderly should be refused medical care, because we have already lived a "full rich life" How dare they assume that?
I have many friends in their 80s and 90s who are still living productive lives. We have the right and the responsibility to take care of our bodies which are the temple of our God. In fact, careful reading of the Bible mandates us to do this. I doubt if those who want us to lie down and die read the Bible. I recommend they start now to read it.
I believe Mr. Sowell should know that all homeless people are not "bums" as he suggested.
I am sure Mr. Sowell is a fine person, but he should be careful about such comments. I applaud him for bringing this collectivist mentality to our attention.
God bless him and The Vindicator for being the vessel that is seeking to defeat these misguided persons who want to destroy life that is not theirs but is God's.
ALBERTA GEBHARDT
New Springfield
Time for Traficant to go
EDITOR:
It appears now with the horrible national publicity on Jim Traficant and another one of our prominent business leaders, J.J. Cafaro, there will be no salvation for Youngstown.
Let the dust settle. Hopefully, the Traficant case will be resolved quickly and the Valley's wounds will heal. When it does, may the honest, realistic, intelligent, sound-thinking people of prominence and influence in the area come forward and lead the Valley up the path to respectability and successful economic rebuilding.
Those who continue to think solely of their own personal gains and glory and satisfying their egoes, take a hike.
You've been tolerated long enough.
PAT MACKONDY
Beaver Township