CHARLESTON, W.Va. — UE Local 170, the West Virginia Public Workers Union, has issued a call that the Governor refuse to approve the closing of Jackie Withrow Hospital, a nursing home facility in Beckley.
Donna Morgan, former Local president and current UE Eastern regional president, said that the union’s attempts to speak with the Governor have so far met with no response.
“The bill makes no specific provisions for residents and employees,” Morgan noted. “It leaves everything at the discretion of the DHHR cabinet secretary. Governor Justice should veto this ill-considered measure,” Morgan said.
Morgan also questioned any benefit from a closure of the state-owned facility. “Apart from the private industry for whom the secretary was, until recently, a consultant, who exactly gains with this move?” she asked. “I hope this is not state government’s model for job creation, much less its idea of how to treat our state’s elderly citizens.”
“The Governor ran on a campaign for jobs. He can keep that promise by not putting the employees of Withrow out of work,” she added.
Morgan also noted the negative economic impact on the local community as Raleigh County has already experienced heavy losses from the decline in coal mining. “If the Governor is serious about saving our state, he can start by saving Jackie Withrow Hospital and its residents and workers. It is not right for West Virginia to abandon its elderly population just when that population is projected to grow larger,” she continued. “We must not lose touch with our basic values. We demand the Governor do the right thing and reject this closure.”
Morgan applauded the successful effort by lawmakers to turn back, for the third time, a similar effort to shut down the Hopemont nursing facility in Preston County.