(MOBILE, Ala.) A USA Health System employee talked to Local 15 Tuesday about a bonus and pay raise she is not getting.
USA President Gordon Moulton sent a letter to all USA employees this month, proposing University employees get a raise and a holiday bonus.
Health system employees were not included in the proposal.
The employee who agreed to speak to us did not want to be identified.
But she hopes her interview will influence the Board of Trustees decision. They meet December 6th to vote on the issue.
The hospital employee is a single mom, struggling to raise a child on her own.
She says she hasn't received a raise in five years. Needless to say, she's frustrated.
"Yesterday I cried all day long," she said, expressing in our interview the sentiment felt by many other professionals in the USA Health System.
"You do so well. You do the best you can and it's like so what, you're not important," she said.
Her disappointment stems from a letter USA President Gordon Moulton sent out last week. In it he recommends that University employees receive at least $1500 bonuses and three percent raises, while hospital and clinic workers get nothing. He blames financial uncertainty in the nation's health care system.
"They should be ashamed of themselves. Moulton makes well over half a million dollars a year. He can donate $3 million to the University, then he gives us excuses. If he really cared about us, he could make a difference and I don't think he does," said the USA hospital employee.
In his letter he also thanks the USA Health System and its talented professionals for the outcome of his recent brain surgery. This thank you doesn't sit well with some employees.
"They don't see how he can sleep at night. Because, we're professionals, we're going to do our job the best that we can because that's just who we are. But, how can you come there, look at these people with a smile on your face and save your life and then say, 'I feel you're pain, thanks, but no thanks,' " she said.
Afraid of losing her job, she asked us to alter her voice and hide her face in our interview.
But she wants the Board of Trustees to understand the further heartache this action would cause.
"The prices have been going up and we haven't gotten raises so you can't afford to do anything. I'm trying to get registered with Salvation Army because I don't know how we're going to eat or anything for Christmas," she said.
A petition against the President's proposal now has 328 signatures.
