[Antiracism] [EFCA] Unions and Catholic hospitals reach agreement on organizing principles

[WMass Jobs with Justice]

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From: Portside Labor labor-moderator at PORTSIDE.ORG 
 
 
Labor unions, Catholic hospitals to end conflict
 
By SAM HANANEL
The Associated Press
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_LABOR_CATHOLIC_HOSPITALS
 
WASHINGTON (AP) - Labor unions and Catholic leaders have reached an
agreement designed to end years of bitter hostilities that often surrounded
union efforts to organize workers at Catholic hospitals.
 
The accord, announced Monday, seeks to apply Catholic teachings that
recognize the right of workers to "freely and fairly" decide whether to join
a union.
 
One of the key principles directs both employers and unions to refrain from
harassing, threatening, intimidating or coercing workers.
 
The agreement touches on a thorny situation for Catholic hospitals, some of
which have aggressively resisted union organizing amid complaints that their
conduct contradicts Catholic doctrine on social justice.
 
In Chicago, for instance, union leaders have accused hospital officials at
Resurrection Health Care of worker intimidation and other unfair tactics to
thwart a six-year effort to unionize workers at the company's eight
hospitals. The company has denied those claims.
 
"The central actors in these dramas have to be the workers themselves,
that's what we feel is the strength of the document," said Cardinal Theodore
McCarrick, retired archbishop of Washington, D.C., who helped lead the
discussions.
 
Under the agreement, hospital managers agree not to use "traditional
anti-union tactics," including hiring firms, known as union-busters, that
work with companies to defeat organizing drives. Unions also agree not to
publicly attack Catholic health care organizations during labor campaigns.
 
Nearly 600 Catholic hospitals that employ about 600,000 workers are covered
under the agreement. Roughly 15 percent of those workers are currently
believed to be union members.
 
The recommendations do not bind individual bishops, hospitals or unions but
provide guidance in how they are expected to conduct themselves during union
organizing efforts. Union leaders believe it will be easier to organize
workers at the nation's Catholic health centers if hospital managers abide
by the agreement.
 
"The theme that runs through all of this as far as I'm concerned is the
emphasis on workers' rights to organize as part of church teachings," said
AFL-CIO president John Sweeney.
 
Parties to the accord include the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the
Catholic Health Association of the United States, the AFL-CIO, and the
Service Employees International Union.
 
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