Prominent social justice advocate Rev. William Barber joined with SEANC members and politicians at a rally in Greenville Wednesday to call for answers in a proposed privatization effort of state jobs at East Carolina University.

As you know, the jobs, retirement security, benefits and rights of more than 1,200 state employees at ECU Physicians, a state entity run in conjunction with the Brody School of Medicine, have been left in limbo by a planned merger with corporate health care giant Vidant. Sold as a “partnership” deemed Project Unify, Vidant would own 51 percent of the new entity created out of the merger, meaning it would control all decisions, including those pertaining to employees.

The merger would allow them to control prices for the region’s health care needs. An estimated 25 percent of Pitt County residents make below the poverty line and would no doubt face higher costs because of the merger.

After a Monday meeting hosted by ECU and Vidant provided little to no answers for the employees, SEANC Executive Director Mitch Leonard penned an open letter to the director of ECU Physicians demanding transparency in the process.

SEANC President Stanley Drewery told the Greenville Reflector that SEANC would fight the fight to the end to make sure the employees got the answers they need and their voices are heard.

“We are not playing the waiting game at the cost of our 1,200 state employees,” Drewery said. “We will not wait for Vidant Health to monopolize this community like they have other parts of the east.”

Barber, an eastern N.C. native and president of the N.C. NAACP, said the NAACP had received calls about the planned merger from concerned citizens due to it's likelihood of disproportionately affecting African-American residents in the region. He told the crowd that Vidant’s track record was one of greed, and cautioned the employees to be leery of trusting them.

“You can’t trust a corporation to be anything but greedy,” Barber said. “We have seen that you can only trust Vidant to look after their bottom line.”

Greenville native and Lt. Gov. candidate Linda Coleman, N.C. Sen. Don Davis (D-Pitt) and Rep. Jean Farmer-Butterfield (D-Pitt) also spoke at the rally, all pledging their support for the workers and demanding answers. SEANC will continue to stand up for the 1,200 state employees at ECU Physicians throughout this attempted takeover. All members need to stand up for these workers because, simply put, your job could be next. We’ve seen privatization efforts all over state government in recent years, from mass efforts at the Department of Transportation and Public Safety to smaller efforts at UNC Student Stores and even the N.C. Zoo.