Contact: Matt Ginsberg-Jaeckle (773) 355-8222
Students Organized & United with Labor
Richard Berg (773) 550-1467
February 16th, 2005
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

U of C Hospital Worker & Teamsters 743 Presidential Candidate Fired
Case against U of C for retaliation against Richard Berg entering arbitration

PROTEST in Hyde Park
58th and Ellis
Thurs. Feb. 17th - 12noon


U of C Hospital worker and reform candidate for Teamsters Local 743 president Richard Berg has been fired. Rallying against corruption in Local 743 and for an end to its close ties to management, Berg’s New Leadership Slate was about to win this fall’s Local 743 union elections when the acting leadership cancelled and re-started the voting process, a move now under close scrutiny by the national and regional offices of the U.S. Department of Labor. Now management at the U of C hospitals is attempting to get rid of Berg.

In response, students, alumni, community members and workers from the University of Chicago will join together for a rally and protest in front of the University of Chicago administration building (58th and Ellis) on Thursday February 17th at 12noon.

Berg has long denounced the continual fall of wage rates relative to other Hospitals, the undermining of union jobs through use of temp workers, the lack of respect by supervisors, the intimidating use of cameras to monitor workers, and the skyrocketing health care premium costs. Berg frequently points out the irony that workers at one of the State’s top Hospitals can’t afford to pay for health insurance.

Though the Hospital Administration claims the rationale for the firing is their suspicion that Berg used sick days to campaign for the New Leadership Slate, students, co-workers, lawyers and community members assert that he is being singled out as a scapegoat because of his organizing on behalf of workers’ rights and against the corruption in Local 743.

Visuals will include large banners, giant props, and marching students, workers, and community members bringing this issue to the doorstep of the U of C’s administration building.

The protest comes at the end of a week of action in support of Berg organized by Students Organized and United with Labor and other supporters of Berg at the hospital and around the city. Hundreds of phone calls and emails have been made to UC Hospital Head of Human Resources Darlene Lewis, Employee-Labor Relations Manager Maya Bordeaux, and CEO Michael Riordan. The protesters will demand intervention by University of Chicago President Don Randel and present him and hospital management with petitions containing signatures from labor activists, students, hospital workers, and other supporters around the city and country.