Defending Our Right to a Livelihood

Public Forum

Thursday, Jan. 30 at 5:00 pm
Room 219 SRH
828 S. Wolcott, Chicago Illini Union, UIC

Job insecurity is one of the most pressing problems facing workers. At the University of Illinois Medical Center, for example, while workers are still being forced into the unemployment lines or bumping into new jobs as a result of the mass lay-offs carried out in December 1996, the administration is already planning another round of mass lay-offs in July 1997. Various departments and clinics are continuously being restructured so as to eliminate jobs. Thousands more workers remain on "temporary" status, living every day with the threat of losing their jobs. In short, everyone is under extreme pressure.

And hospital and health care workers throughout Chicago and the country are facing the same problem. As the government slashes investments in health care and the industry is further privatized on the basis of managed care, thousands and tens of thousands of jobs are being eliminated. Within the last year, for example, hundreds of workers at Cook County Hospital, University of Chicago, Northwestern Memorial and other hospitals have been thrown into the streets.

Similar "restructuring" and "downsizing" is taking place in all sectors of the economy. Tens of millions of workers are either unemployed or only able to find part-time or temporary jobs. In this situation, who can say that his/her job is secure?

The January 30th Forum will provide an opportunity for workers to discuss these issues; we will look into both the immediate conditions facing workers at UICMC and other area hospitals, as well as the direction our country's economy is going. The Forum will zero in on how to develop an all-sided struggle to win our right to a secure livelihood.