Execs Lavish High Pay on Themselves While Workers are Mired in Poverty

August 13, 2007

We've come to expect greedy execs at for profit corporations (Home Depot, Enron, etc.) but you'd expect better from a Catholic non-profit hospital. Unfortunately, Resurrection Health Care, a Catholic hospital system in Chicago, seems to be taking on the worst traits of corporate America. Read all about it in the report "Coming Up Short: Resurrection Health Care's Distorted Pay Priorities." Released by AFSCME Council 31 last week, the report documents the stark disparity between the compensation of top executives and the low wages paid to patient-support staff on the frontlines of hospital health and safety. You can listen to a story about the report and Resurrection workers' struggle on the Workers Independent News radio network. Father Larry Dowling, a supporter of the workers trying to form a union at Resurrection and interviewed in the WIN story, said it well:

Catholic social teaching is very clear about the need for employers to pay a living wage and respect workers' rights to organize a union. These low wages are an embarrassment - an embarrassment - for a Catholic institution.