HIP replaces 186 Downtown, NY jobs, breaking a massive promise

[billyoc]

As a native New Yorker watching labor related news from around the country, I am always taken by stuff happening in the Big Apple. One news item that really got me going today was learning that 185 workers at the nonprofit health-insurance company, HIP, that covers sanitation workers, correction officers and more than a million other hard-working New Yorkers were told their jobs were being eliminated. Who are the replacement workers? Folks way out in Melville, Long Island.

There is a lot more to this story though. HIP was the first company to move to Lower Manhattan since 9/11. They relocated downtown in October of 2004 leaving their digs on West 34th Street. People in the City, from the City, and watching the City from around the country really applauded this move … We all knew it was a move funded by more than $12 million of city, state and federal taxes – our taxes!

The promise in 2004 was that these much needed jobs brought down to Lower Manhattan were going to be kept there until 2013. Politicians, union people, everyday people … we all applauded this awesome move. Unfortunately the promise is broken just shy of three years later!

“The state gave HIP this money in good faith," said Pat Hoffman, business agent for Local 153 of the Office and Professional Employees International Union. "Now the company is trying to shift the jobs to Long Island. This is a perfect example of why corporate welfare is a waste of the taxpayers' money." Hoffman was interviewed for an article on this in the New York Newsday.

http://unionreview.com/hip-replaces-186-downtown-ny-jobs-breaking-massive-promise