the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
Jun 1, 2020
In late April, Stanford Hospital in Palo Alto, California announced that it was imposing a 20-percent pay cut on its employees for 10 weeks. Stanford said it was because the number of surgeries and ER visits had gone down due to the COVID-19 pandemic, so the hospital was making less money.
What Stanford did not say, however, is that it is also receiving $102 million in federal bailout money—more than any other hospital in California, and more than twice the amount the hospital is cutting from its workers’ pay—even though the hospital’s parent organization, Stanford University, has $708 million in cash reserves, and sits on an endowment worth about $28 billion.
To Stanford, like other big health care companies, health care is just a way to make as much profit as possible. And to that end, Stanford is trying to use the COVID-19 crisis to squeeze even more out of its work force.