American Academy of Sleep Medicine and Sleep Research Society
June 6-10, 2015
Washington State Convention Center
Room block: Grand Hyatt Seattle
Contact AASM Executive Director Jerome Barrett at [email protected] or (630) 737-9700.
April 6, 2015
Dear SLEEP 2015 Participant:
You may already know about the labor dispute surrounding the upcoming SLEEP 2015 meeting. We started contacting AASM and APSS leadership about the Seattle Hyatt boycott many months ago, asking them to speak with hotel workers about why they are organizing for dignity and respect.
APSS and AASM have refused to meet with workers, but have clearly communicated with Hyatt and continue to mimic their corporate talking points about the labor dispute. We merely ask they pay workers the same courtesy. The Executive Director of the Specialty Coffee Association of America’s city-wide convention flew himself and staff to Seattle to meet with hotel workers. You should ask Dr. Morgenthaler why he will not look hotel workers in the eyes and make an honest attempt to understand why they are organizing.
It is patronizing and unethical for an organization of doctors and medical researchers to plug their ears while workers try to hold them to the ethos of “Do No Harm.”
Please get in touch with APSS Executive Director Jerry Barrett at [email protected] and AASM President Dr. Timothy Morgenthaler at [email protected] and tell them to do the respectable thing: meet with workers and honor the boycott.
Sincerely,
Levi Pine
UNITE HERE Local 8
2800 First Ave., Room 3
Seattle, WA 98121
312-296-7649
From: Levi Pine
Sent: Thursday, February 19, 2015 9:11 AM
To: ‘Lore Schaffner’
Subject: RE: Survey re: your faculty & pharma money
Ms. Schaffner,
I obtained your email address from a public website.
It is unfortunate that you feel that your clinic has “nothing to do with a random group of hotel workers in another state that [you] have never been to.”
Your clinic is accredited by AASM, which means you have given them at least one accreditation fee. Your clinic’s money is going to an organization that has chosen to ignore workers fighting for dignity and respect on the job at the Seattle Hyatt hotels, and insult workers by mimicking the Hyatt’s corporate talking points on the AASM website.
The public has a right to inquire about the financial relationships between medical professionals and pharmaceutical companies. Why is your clinic refusing to answer the questionnaire? If none of your faculty have had financial relationships with drug companies, then please say so.
Sincerely,
Levi Pine
UNITE HERE Local 8
2800 First Avenue, Room 3
Seattle, WA 98121
206-470-2985
http://unionhotelguide.org/
From: Lore Schaffner [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Thursday, February 05, 2015 4:29 PM
To: Levi Pine
Subject: RE: Survey re: your faculty & pharma money
Hi,
This is no my SECOND formal request to you as to where you obtained my email address from – please let me know from where you obtained it. (First request was placed with you on 1/7/15.)
And it’s none of your business who me or anyone in my “clinic” have relationships with. What we do in our personal lives and what our facility does has absolutely nothing to do with a random group of hotel workers in another state that we have never been to.
Please note that if I do not receive the information I am requesting from you, I will start taking further action.
Thanks,
Lore
From: Levi Pine [[email protected]]
Sent: Thursday, February 05, 2015 12:28 PM
To: Lore Schaffner
Subject: Survey re: your faculty & pharma money
Dear AASM-Accredited Sleep Center Administrator:
As part of the ongoing labor dispute at the boycotted Seattle Hyatt hotels, we are requesting more information from your clinic. AASM is violating the boycott called against these hotels.
Please instruct all licensed practicing MD’s at your clinic to complete the questionnaire below within 5 business days.
Please send the completed surveys to Levi Pine at [email protected] or by hard copy at 2800 First Ave., Room 3, Seattle, WA 98121.
Sincerely,
Levi Pine
UNITE HERE Local 8
2800 First Ave., Room 3
Seattle, WA 98121
312-296-7649
For the purpose of this questionnaire, “Designated Company” means an entity related directly or indirectly to the manufacture or distribution of lenses, pharmaceuticals, medical devices or instruments, or vision care products or services commonly utilized by ophthalmologists.
Check all options that apply and sign below.
__Yes __ No I, or a member of my family, or my professional partnership or corporation, or my employer, or coinstructor(s)/co-author(s), currently or within the preceding twelve (12) months have had a financial interest in Designated Company, or a financial relationship, or advisory capacity with any Designated Company or entity.
Complete the following if applicable:
__Stock shareholder Company Name(s):______________________________
__Consultant, advisor or employee Company Name(s):______________________________
(compensated or non-compensated)
__Educational grant or research funds Company Name(s):______________________________
__Received free/discounted products or Company Name(s):______________________________
Services
__Participated as a member of an advisory Company Name(s):______________________________
Panel
__Corporate Sponsor Company Name(s):______________________________
X___________________________________________________ _________________________
Signature Date
This mailing was sent on behalf of UNITE HERE. Unsubscribe requests will be honored within 10 days. Click here to unsubscribe
275 7th Avenue
New York, NY 10001-6708
United States
January 7, 2014
Dear SLEEP 2015 Participant:
You may have already been contacted about problems with the upcoming SLEEP 2015 convention in Seattle. The meeting is taking place in the middle of a labor dispute and boycott at the Grand Hyatt Seattle and Hyatt at Olive 8. Please support workers and do not participate in any aspect of SLEEP 2015 that takes place at these two hotels.
Recently AASM President Dr. Timothy Morgenthaler penned a statement on the AASM website that mimics several years of Hyatt talking points—that Hyatt has not broken any labor laws, and that the workers are not represented by a union.
Not a single leader or staff member of AASM has made any effort to hear from the workers who are struggling for rights on the job. AASM and its leadership should be ashamed of justifying and obscuring the Hyatt’s abuses, especially by invoking the Hippocratic Oath.
Do not be misled by AASM leadership’s attempts to gloss over the fact that workers have spent years fighting abuse at these hotels. Multiple other events have altered plans in order to support the Seattle Hyatt boycott, including the 2015 city-wide convention of the Specialty Coffee Association of America, and local Seattle medical clinic Country Doctor.
You should get in touch with AASM Executive Director Jerry Barrett at [email protected] and tell him that it is beneath the AASM to so blatantly take the side of a corporation without ever hearing from the workers. Tell him that you will not participate in any aspect of SLEEP 2015 that takes place at the boycotted Seattle Hyatts, including sleeping there.
Sincerely,
Levi Pine
UNITE HERE Local 8
2800 First Ave., Room 3
Seattle, WA 98121
312-296-7649
Relationships with Pharmaceutical Companies
Research has shown that drug company marketing can influence what a doctor prescribes.
Members of AASM and SRS leadership and committees have taken money or other transfers of value from pharmaceutical companies:
Dr. M. Safwan Badr: $26.01 over 2 general transactions in 2013
Dr. Douglas B. Kirsch: $122.80 over 2 general transactions in 2013
Dr. Merrill S. Wise: $46.96 over 4 general transactions in 2013
Dr. Alberto R. Ramos: $10.86 over 1 general transaction in 2013
Dr. Robert W. McCarley: $75.00 over 1 general transaction in 2013
Before you go to an AASM-Accredited sleep center, check to see if the physician has had a financial relationship with a pharmaceutical company here.