For Immediate Release
Monday, June 22, 2009
Catholic Bishops, Catholic Health Care, and Unions
Washington, D.C. —The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) along with leaders from Catholic health care and the labor movement today released a set of guiding principles for creating a fair process for health care workers to decide whether or not to form a union. Outlined in a new document entitled Respecting the Just Rights of Workers: Guidance and Options for Catholic Health Care and Unions, the principles reflect a unique and ground-breaking consensus between Catholic health care employers and unions and are the result of a dialogue that began more than a decade ago.
“The Bishops and the leaders of Catholic health care, with this understanding, have taken an important step in affirming the right of workers to join a union if they so choose,” said AFSCME President Gerald McEntee. “This is a positive step toward ensuring that Catholic health care facilities provide both quality care for patients and a fair and just workplace for employees.”
The new Guidance and Options document offers seven key principles for appropriate conduct by both employer and union representatives that will help ensure that employees are able to make an informed decision without undue influence or pressure from either side. The document suggests that unions and employers agree, in writing, on the specific ways they will:
- demonstrate respect for each other’s organization and mission,
- provide workers with equal access to information from both sides,
- adhere to standards for truthfulness and balance in their communications,
- create a pressure-free environment,
- allow workers to vote through a fair and expeditious process,
- honor employees’ decision regardless of the outcome, and
- create a system for enforcing these principles during the course of an organizing drive.
Guidance and Options is intended to offer principles and practical alternatives for leaders of Catholic health care and unions who want to avoid the tension and conflict that often accompanies organizing drives. More than 600,000 employees work in nearly 600 Catholic hospitals nationwide.
Labor officials said they were optimistic that the agreed-upon principles would help ease current labor-management tensions at Catholic health care facilities such as Resurrection Health Care in Chicago, IL, which has 15,000 employees at 8 hospitals.
“For six years the workers of the Resurrection Health Care system, in tandem with community leaders and Catholic and interfaith clergy, have been working to form a union to ensure a fair and just workplace,” said Paul Booth, Executive Assistant to the President of AFSCME. “We hope this breakthrough leads to a fresh start at Resurrection Health Care and at Catholic health care facilities across the nation.”
Leaders of the Bishops’ Conference, Catholic health care, and the labor movement welcomed the newly-reached consensus as one that could strengthen their relationships and opportunities to work together to achieve their shared goal of guaranteeing affordable, quality health care for all.
