Several workers at King's Daughters Medical Center are now looking for work.

The Ashland, Ky based hospital announced the layoffs Tuesday afternoon, citing the slumping economy. The cuts affect all departments in the hospital.

Hospital Division Director of Service Employees International Union District 1199, Rob Johnson, tells Eyewitness News that his union was notified by fax Tuesday morning. Johnson says 85 union workers were let go, and 150 others were reduced to part time.

He says the union plans to fight back, stating KDMC did not follow the collective bargaining agreement and give employees the required seven days notice.

"For her [supervisor] to tell me whats going on with no explanation at all given why I'm being laid off and why my job is being done away with, I was just totally humiliated and disrespected," commented laid off worker Carole Shelbage.

Ashland Mayor Tom Kelley says KDMC is the city's largest employer.

Here is a statement from the hospital:
The economic recession has hit our region hard and is lasting longer than anyone expected. KDMC has weathered the economic downturn for two years by minimizing capital expenditures, changing benefits, renegotiating contracts and changing flow processes whenever possible to improve efficiency. However, the harsh reality is that patients are delaying their own healthcare and often those who are receiving the needed care cannot pay for it. Unreimbursed care and bad debt are at an all-time high for our organization — approaching the $100 million mark this year, which is a 33 percent increase over just a year ago. This is a $25 million dollar difference in one year. Cost reductions alone cannot compensate for this change in our community and in our country.

Unfortunately, we had to make the very difficult decision to reduce the number of team members the medical center employs. In healthcare, people are our most important resource, which has made this decision even more difficult. However, it is critical for the future of healthcare in our community.

KDMC is working closely with the team members affected by the organizational changes to access available benefits, including other job options that may be available both in the medical center and in the region, and including unemployment benefits. We know this will be traumatic for all our team members and the community as well, but we will support them through this difficult time.

We are here to serve all those who come through our doors and are committed to providing the same high quality, customer focused care to all individuals. This reduction in our workforce was done only as a last resort, but we had to respond to the continuing economic realities of the recession. KDMC has experienced many economic ups and downs over the past 111 years. We will manage through this situation so that we can care for our patients and their families for another 100 years at the very highest levels that our community has come to expect.