Reforming Resurrection Health Care Or Why We Need the Employee Free Choice Act

by Bill Barclay
New Ground 126

On September 25 through 26, there will be a vigil outside of Resurrection Health Care in Chicago, here’s the background.

In 2004, Resurrection Health Care (RHC), the second largest hospital chain in Chicago, acquired Oak Park’s West Suburban (West Sub) Hospital. Since this acquisition, and despite its identity as a Catholic company, RHC has behaved as any other for profit corporation. RHC has cut labor costs by increasing the patient:nurse ratio (despite numerous studies that demonstrate the crucial role of this ratio in patients’ recovery time), switched accreditation from the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health Care Organizations to the less stringent American Osteopathic Association’s Healthcare Facilities Accreditation Program and aggressively resisted efforts by employees to organize for union representation.

The Oak Park/Austin Health Alliance, formed in 2005 by OPCTJ, SACC and AFSCME Council 31 has fought both the cost cutting measures and supported the efforts of RHC employees for a voice in their work. One of our successes has been the victory of the House Keeping staff at West Sub in their struggle against a supervisor that hired, fired and allocated jobs on a racially discriminatory basis. After community rallies, letters to the local newspapers, testimony before an Oak Park citizens commission and complaints filed with the Illinois Department of Human Rights, West Sub finally replaced the supervisor with one who has respected the housekeeping staff and assigned tasks and jobs in a non-discriminatory manner. Of course, there was no acknowledgement on the part of West Sub management that the actions of the employees and their community and union allies had any impact on this decision even thought West Sub had to settle the formal complaints filed with the state of Illinois. To admit such would be to admit that West Sub employees were able to take the first step in determining their own fate in the workplace.

However, RHC’s opposition to employee voice in governing of the work place continues unabated. Earlier this year nurses in Illinois circulated a petition asking the legislature to enact safe nurse:patient staffing ratios. Four West Sub nurses were among the more than more than 2000 who signed the petition ­ but these four were pictured on an AFSCME flyer describing the petition. Shortly after publication of the flyer ­ and within 24 hours of other – three of the four nurses received disciplinary sanctions. These ranged from elimination of a job to supervisor write ups. None of the four had ever been disciplined before, although their combined years of service totals more than 20. The substance of the disciplinary actions were thin but the message to others from West Sub management was clear: If you participate in efforts to give workers a voice, you will face reprisals from management. The goal is intimidation.

Sometimes people ask what is the reason that unions are seeking to pass the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), why is it needed? Although every workplace is different, the all too common element is lack of worker ability to influence the decisions that govern their working lives. The experience of West Sub employees, whether the housekeeping staff or the nurses, is simply one of the hundreds of day to day stories that illustrates the belief on the part of too many employers that employees have no rights in the work place, that agreeing to be an employee means surrendering the right to free speech and free association. EFCA would, at its most basic level, make it possible for workers to secure the rights in the work place that we take for granted in our public life. The ability of workers to organize into unions without fear of intimidation was FDR’s goal when he signed the National Labor Relations Act in 1935. We now have to fight to reassert that right.

What’s the next step at RHC? On September 25 through 26, there will be a vigil outside of RHC headquarters, asking the chain to recognize and abide by the recent agreement signed by Catholic health care facilities and unions. The core of that agreement is neutrality on the part of the employer during organizing efforts. You can read more about this agreement at reformresurrection.org . You can also sign up to join the vigil on the same web site.

Bill Barclay is an adjunct professor at the University of Illinois in Chicago. He worked for 22 years in the finance industry at various exchanges (MCE, CBOT, CBOT, CHX). He is a currently a member of Democratic Socialists of America, Progressive Democrats of America and the Oak Park Coalition for Truth and Justice. He also paddles white water.  This article originally appeared in New Ground 126, the newsletter of Chicago DSA