April 28, 2026 — PEF President Wayne Spence and interim Downstate Regional Field Services Director Deb Egel participated in a question-and-answer feature in the AFT Health Care publication’s Spring 2026 issue on the history of the fight to save SUNY Downstate.
Members can read the full article here.
In addition to PEF’s leaders, AFT spoke with Redetha Abrahams-Nichols, a nurse at SUNY Downstate for 25 years, and president of United University Professions (UUP) Downstate chapter, and a member of the UUP Executive Board and the AFT Nurses and Health Professionals Program and Policy Council; and Fred Kowal, president of UUP, an AFT vice president, and a member of the New York State United Teachers Board of Directors and Executive Committee and the New York State AFL-CIO Executive Council.
SUNY Downstate was at the center of a yearslong battle to protect access to healthcare in central Brooklyn and is a crucial academic medical center and safety-net hospital that delivers quality care to a primarily Black and Latinx community with disproportionately high rates of chronic illness.
When plans to shut down the hospital were announced in January 2024, unions, area clergy, and community organizations banded together into a powerful coalition and fought back. Victory came in June 2025, when the coalition secured $1.1 billion to upgrade and expand SUNY Downstate’s facilities and services.