Drs. Lauren Beene and Valerie Fouts Fowler at a protest following their terminations by University Hospitals in Cleveland
By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor, associate publisher
CLEVELAND, Ohio- Activists and union advocates will protest in front of the City Club on Euclid Avenue in downtown Cleveland Friday, Aug. 8, in support of doctors Lauren Beene and Valerie Fouts Fowler, two pediatricians who were fired by University Hospitals in June while seeking to organize a doctors' union.
Among the groups organizing the protest are the Cuyahoga Democratic Women's Caucus, Mobilize the Vote, SEIU, and Concerned University Hospitals Physicians.
At issue is a City Club-sponsored forum on healthcare at noon that includes Selena Cunanan, chief health impact officer for University Hospitals, as a panelist.
The City Club of Cleveland, dubbed by the City Club itself as "Cleveland's Citadel of Free Speech," was established in 1912. It was founded as a forum for open discussion and debate on social, political, and economic issues. The idea was conceived at an organizational luncheon in June of 1912, and the club was formally established later that year, according to Cleveland Historical.
Reached by phone, a City Club spokesperson said she had "no comment" on the upcoming protest and that the City Club remains "the citadel of free speech."
Friday's upcoming picket is part of a series of activist protests held in support of the doctors, who are relatively young in their careers.
Beene and Fouts Fowler, both pediatricians, were fired on June 24 after being placed on administrative leave, and they say this occurred without a hearing or any due process whatsoever. They were seeking to organize the first doctors' union in Northeast Ohio and met retaliation, not to mention that Beene leads Ohio Physicians for Reproductive Rights, which is among the groups that rallied Ohio voters in 2023 to pass an Issue 1 referendum that made abortion legal in Ohio.
University Hospitals claims the doctors were fired for using a database to contact employees in support of union organizing and sending phone texts to other doctors, a pretext for an illegal termination, activists have said.
Activists say that the pickets against University Hospitals will continue until justice is served, including the reinstatement of Drs. Beene and Fouts Fowler. They say that sexism is also a concern.
Beene and Foust Fowler have said that patient care is also at issue when doctors who advocate for patients are erroneously fired.
Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most-read Black digital newspaper and blog in Ohio. Tel. 216-659-0473. Email-editor@clevelandurbannews.com
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