**FOR PLANNING PURPOSES ONLY**

MEDIA ADVISORY for May 1, 2023, 11:30 AM

Contact: Emilia.Rowland@mail.house.gov 330.212.2065

CONGRESSWOMAN SUMMER LEE, REP. SARA INNAMORATO, MAYOR GAINEY HOST 

MAY DAY ROUNDTABLE WITH UPMC HOSPITAL WORKERS
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Experts, researchers, and UPMC employees on the frontlines of care will discuss the worsening hospital workforce crisis and what can be done to stop it. 

Press planning to attend should RSVP here
 

PITTSBURGH – At a Roundtable on International Workers’ Day (Monday, May 1, 2023) Congresswoman Summer Lee will join with Representative Sara Innamorato and Mayor Ed Gainey to hear from UPMC workers who have been laboring under an increasingly catastrophic workforce crisis.  These challenges are years in the making, brought to light and made worse than ever before by the pandemic. While some impacts of the pandemic have shifted, the hospital workforce crisis is continuing to escalate. 

“Because of UPMC’s greedy corporate behavior, union-busting, and exploitation of our health care workers, Western PA’s hospital workforce crisis is getting worse. This is both an economic crisis putting our loved ones’ lives at risk —especially for Black, brown, and women workers – and a health care crisis putting our loved ones’ lives at risk and leaving our most marginalized communities behind without access to care,” said Congresswoman Summer Lee. “But for too long, healthcare workers have not had a seat at the table in these discussions. At Monday’s roundtable, we will hear from experts, but we will also hear from and listen to workers’ voices; they are the ones on the frontlines who care for our families every day, understand the problems, and have innovative and powerful solutions to offer.”

In addition to testimony from UPMC nurses and hospital workers, the elected officials will hear expert testimony on the workforce crisis and possible solutions from the Pittsburgh Wage Study’s Jeffrey Shook, PhD, University of Pittsburgh.

What: May Day Roundtable on the Hospital Workforce Crisis

Who: Congresswoman. Summer Lee,  Rep. Sara Innamorato, Mayor Ed Gainey, Pittsburgh City Council Members Deborah Gross, Erika Strassburger, and Barb Warwick, several UPMC Hospital workers (names available upon request) 

Where: Highmark Blue cross Blue Shield Education Center at the August Wilson African American Cultural Center, 980 Liberty Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15222

When: Monday, May 1, 2023 11:30 AM – 1 PM

Press planning to attend should RSVP here. 

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