5 Managers Fired Amid Union Organizing At Baltimore Clinic

BALTIMORE (AP) -- When Bryanna Jenkins found out that her health care provider of five years had been fired she was shocked, and above all, scared.

As a black transgender woman, Jenkins said it took her years to muster the courage to seek medical care; she'd transitioned by herself, using black market hormones. Finally, five years ago, she began seeing Jill Crank, a nurse practitioner at Baltimore's Chase Brexton Health Clinic who took a special interest in treating LGBT patients.

But after roughly 100 workers at Chase Brexton tried to unionize, five supervisors, including Crank, were abruptly fired, leaving their patients -- mostly underinsured members of the LGBT community, many with HIV -- in the lurch.

The move has drawn criticism from lawmakers and advocates who say it jeopardizes the city's most vulnerable populations, those who both have the greatest need for medical care and are the least likely to seek it.

"There are lots of places where doctors, if they detect you're trans, they won't touch you. Jill knows what she's doing, and there aren't a lot of people who do when it comes to transgender health care," Jenkins said.

Founded in 1979 as a volunteer-run clinic for gay men, Chase Brexton boasts an endocrinologist dedicated to serving transgender youth, offers space for support groups and provides care for more than 3,000 HIV-positive residents in a city that has one of the highest rates of infection in the country.

According to SEIU 1199 organizer Brian Owens, Chase Brexton employees reached out to the union in July after the clinic announced plans to shift toward a volume-based salary model. But Owens said once management caught wind, five supervisors including Crank were fired. Crank had been there nine years and had a caseload of 600 patients.

Supervisors are prohibited from joining a union, Owens said, and firing was designed to send a message to subordinates.

"The union believes these individuals were fired to make an example of," he said.

Owens said the union has filed a formal complaint with the National Labor Relations Board, alleging unfair labor practices.

Workers vote Aug. 25 whether to unionize.

In an emailed statement, Vice President of Development and Marketing Becky Frank said the clinic recognizes "we have not communicated as effectively as we could have through this process."

"Chase Brexton Health remains fully committed to our mission to provide compassionate, quality health care that honors diversity and inclusion," the statement read, adding that a union "will have unintended consequences."

The statement did not address the fired supervisors.

Crank started her tenure at the clinic as a public health student at Johns Hopkins University with a passion for serving HIV-positive individuals and members of the LGBT community.

"They come with an internal and external stigma from themselves and their previous providers. It's difficult for them to even walk through the door, let alone come into an exam room and expect someone will respect their preferred pronoun and gender -- or even ask about it," she said. "I'm worried they will withdraw from the system back into depression and addiction."

Chase Brexton is one of handful of Federally Qualified Health Centers, or "safety net clinics" in Baltimore that cater to uninsured clients and those on Medicare and Medicaid. Since the passage of the Affordable Care Act, clinics like Chase Brexton have seen tremendous increases in patient volume. Last year the clinic served roughly 30,000 patients.

Delegates from Baltimore are drafting a letter to Chase Brexton administrators asking for the supervisors to be reinstated.

Del. Mary Washington, who is African American and gay, signed the letter. "I can't imagine the devastation and trauma that caused communities that already have trouble finding support," she said.

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