We'd like to thank the four hundred-plus PWHS employees and citizens who have emailed and patiently waited for a new article and update to this blog.
Where we went.........
A month ago today, we found ourselves very much outraged at the continued lack of transparency with pre-merger PWHS and the reported denial of access to employees who wanted to attend the meet-and-greet when the Novant CEO visited on April 20th. We knew none of the questions we were posing were being addressed and we were being largely ignored by the powers that be, who finally realized that they had been our greatest means of spreading our message by putting our name out there in their poorly written, inaccurate letters to employees that falsely accused Save PWHS of being a union in sheep's clothing. So we decided to take a collective deep breath and take a step back from actively writing to decide our best next step in furtherance of our goals: standing up for the employees of PWHS and the community.
We also took this hiatus due to a large volume of emailed reports coming in that informed us of a virtual 'witch-hunt' had begun at the hospital as the organization's 'leaders' scrutinized and made assumptions about the identities of Save PWHS posters, registered blog followers and those emailng them questions that would go unanswered. Such a thing is un-American and just goes to show just how much PWHS fears people speaking their minds and asking questions.
If you are a PWHS employee and have been penalized for anything you've emailed, blogged, subscribed to, commented on or posted while OFF THE CLOCK and from the privacy of your own home, DOCUMENT EVERYTHING AND CALL A LAWYER.
We also took this past month off in order to do our own thorough investigation of what Novant buying Prince William means and the current happenings at PWHS.
Things are different, now.
Changes within Save PWHS....we practice what we preach when it comes to transparency.....
After a great deal of introspection and research, some of our founding members believe that -- despite their anger and disappointment with the limited abilities of the current leadership and the decade long tenure of the current CEO that has left no other viable options but to sell to a larger organization -- Novant will be a blessing to PWHS if it purges the current leadership and allows the organization to have a rebirth, a fresh start.
We all still agree that there should be accountability to why PWHS could not make it on its own like ALL of our non-profit neighbors and the other issues we've beaten to death throughout the history of this blog.
We all still believe that there needs to be more transparency and a GREAT deal of attention needs to be paid to the terms of the merger and the details of the language and conditions set forth, especially in regard to local control and the Board of Directors, who currently operate in secret.
We all still believe that there needs to be more transparency with PWHS' financial information and that it is a travesty and a crime during a year when PWHS employees are NOT RECEIVING THEIR ANNUAL RAISES for the "leadership" executives to be paid six months of their salary as a bonus upon completion of the merger and a YEAR of their salary plus benefits as severance if they are replaced (and they will be) within a year of the merger.
We all still believe that a policy regarding severance for ALL employees that MIGHT lose their job due to a merger needs to be put in place.
We all still believe that PWHS, given the high costs of pre-merger legalities, public relations and lavish annual awards ceremonies that are being readily paid for without complaint, that the organization CAN pay its employees their meager annual cost of living / performance raises.
What we do not all still believe is that our work is done.
Some of us think we've said our piece and the blog can stand on its own and continue to inform those who read it. Some of us think that we're putting employees at risk and under an unfair spotlight if the hospital is truly actively persecuting or investigating what people might write or say on their own time... but conversely some of us think that this means now more than ever is the time to stand up and not buckle while there are still so many issues on the table.
Some of us think that continuing to report is the only way to enforce any degree of accountability and encourage dialogue in such a very non-transparent non-profit organization.
On many such issues, we respectfully disagree. Some of us will not be staying onboard to actively contribute. We'll continue to respect the anonymity of those who are leaving and the fact that for our own jobs and very safety, our methods and tactics of anonymous dissent were the necessary ones.
For the original image used in our Blogger profile (that we have since replaced), one of our departing founding members' very talented kids created a sketch based on an iconic masked avenger, a character who valued the truth above all else and did not believe in compromise, who could be best be summed up in the following quote:
"We do not do this thing because it is permitted. We do it because we have to. We do it because we are compelled."
In other words....
We're not going anywhere.
You can't buy us.
You can't scare us off.
You can't impress us or talk us into changing our minds.
We believe that the only thing that greed and the mistreatment of the working person need to flourish is for good people to remain silent and on the sidelines. Save PWHS is sticking around to keep encouraging people to get off the bench and into the game, to speak up and ask questions... to tell their bosses that IT IS SIMPLY NOT RIGHT OR JUST for the highest paid individuals in an organization to get bonuses worth 6 months of their salaries while the working people who actually RUN the hospital and allow it to function are not even getting their miniscule (less than 5%) annual increases.
This would have been a good issue to bring up at the recent public forum on the merger, it's a shame any employee who would have shown up with a dissenting opinion could be jobless by now....
The forum and regulatory approval...
According to recent public forum, a function at which virtually no employees attended or asked questions at for fear of reprisals, the regulatory approval process is already underway.
As with the INOVA merger, this approval is being done in secret and behind closed doors. The conditions and terms of this process are not being shared with the community or hospital employees. What regulatory agencies are involved? Will PWHS truly be an acquisition and be SOLD to Novant, as it would have been to INOVA, and is merger and "partnership" truly a euphemism as we've always claimed? Will there really still be genuine local control?
PWHS employees need to know who the Board are, who they'll be after the merger, what kind of power they'll truly have, if any, to really look out for the community when the controlling corporate office will be in North Carolina.
The biographical info on the PWHS website reveals NOTHING meaningful about the Board.
Readers have emailed the hospital's CFO and PR departments the following questions and received no answers:
How are Board members elected?
Are any Board members compensated?
Do any Board members work for the hospital in a consulting capacity?
What is the structure of the Board, what are its committees and subcommittees?
Do any of its members own businesses with contract relationships with the hospital? (WE know the answer to this one...)
Is the Board's charter and bylaws a matter of public record? Can the public access it?
Will the existing charter and bylaws be altered because of the merger? If so, how?
Prepare for more deafening silence in regard to these questions....
PWHS in the news:
More articles and links to come.
Tell your friends we're back and have a renewed focus.
Our focus is on PWHS owning up to what we've reported about their executive employment agreements and how it's only right for the average hardworking employee to receive their annual raises.
Our focus is on greater transparency about the Board and the truth about the terms and conditions of the merger agreement.
Our focus is on the creation of policies regarding severance for ALL employees.
Still anti-union. Still anti-corporate greed. Still pro-employee, pro-community and pro-transparency.
Still not for sale.
Probably a good time for some more employee forums, PWHS "leadership". With a number equal to 1/3 of your employee population subscribing to this blog and emailing us you can bet most everyone you work with will be reading it well before your Public Relations department informs you of it.
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