Members Speak Out at Oscar-eve Protest of MPTF Seniors' Home Closure

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.seiu.org/2009/02/members-speak-out-at-oscar-eve-protest-of-mptf-seniors-home-closure.php

6:55 PM Eastern - February 22, 2009

By Matt Browner-Hamlin

MPTFrally.jpgSEIU UHW member Saida Ramos, a nurse at the Motion Picture Television Fund (MPTF) long term care facility in Los Angeles, and her daughter joined more than 250 caregivers, members of the entertainment industry and family members of the facility's elderly residents at a Saturday night protest outside an MPTF fund-raiser at The Beverly Hills Hotel. The MPTF, citing money woes, announced in January its sudden intention to close the facility, thus evicting around 120 residents and laying off all workers.



This Fund was started by Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks and has been kept going by generations of movie and television workers for some 90 years. Yet despite the fact this closure decision is financially motivated, no effort was made to reach out to the Hollywood community to raise funds to save this critical care facility that more than 100 seriously ill elderly show biz folks depend upon. Last week, MSNBC's Keith Olbermann gave MPTF CEO David Tillman the title of the "World's Worse" person, for closing the retirement home for film-industry employees for no good reason.

The Oscar-eve MPTF fundraiser was held just one night before Hollywood played host to the Academy Awards, and typically raises many millions of dollars. Limousines of some party-goers had to wait as Ramos and others held signs before them while legally using the crosswalk. "They need to listen to the families of residents and also to workers and our families. Closure is a terrible decision," said Ramos. "MPTF has the money and needs to find a way to let the residents stay."

* Variety's coverage and photos of the protest here: http://www.variety.com/vstory/VR1118000445.html?categoryId=38&cs=1