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The Challenge for Some Catholic Hospitals
Msgr. George G. Higgins
March 29, 1999
The National Labor Relations Act -- the so-called Wagner Act
-- in 1935 declared it U.S. government policy to encourage collective bargaining
and to protect the right of workers to organize into unions of their own
choice. It created a mechanism to guarantee the free exercise of this right,
the National Labor Relations Board. The board's statutory mandate was to
promote democracy in the workplace, at least in the choice of union representation
for the purpose of collective bargaining. The ensuing years saw the gradual
development of a democratic system for fulfilling that mandate. Rules and
regulations, modified from time to time as experience warranted, were developed
by the board and sustained by the courts. Voluntary cooperation between
unions and employers in carrying out the stated purpose of the Wagner Act
was the cornerstone of this system.
The willingness of the trade-union movement and of a substantial
segment of American industry to cooperate in this regard ensured the system's
success. A remarkable degree of industrial stability was the reward.
Today, however, this fragile system, built over a period of more
than 60 years, is, in the opinion of many qualified observers, on the brink
of collapse. The reason is that one part of the system's cornerstone --
voluntary employer cooperation -- is in many cases no longer forthcoming.
The NLRB is being swamped with unfair labor-practice charges.
But unfair labor practices are only symptomatic of an even more serious
and fundamental threat: the dramatic increase in the number of professional
experts employers are hiring to undermine the democratic election process
developed over the years by the NLRB. Until the fairly recent past, outside
professionals in the field of labor-management relations usually were lawyers,
whose job was to provide legal advice to employers -- the legal dos and
don'ts in an organizing campaign. The employer typically would oppose unionization,
but its campaign tactics were either rational appeals to the employees
or, in the case of a totally unprincipled employer, blatantly coercive
conduct that the NLRB could remedy.
Today, however, the employer's election consultant all too often
functions as an anti-union campaign manager. The tactics of the campaign,
the issues to raise, when to raise them, in what form and, above all, to
which management representatives: All are dictated by the consultant. Elaborate
training sessions for supervisors typify the modern NLRB election campaign
in many industries. It is particularly worrisome that anti-union management
consulting firms are being employed by a number of Catholic health care
institutions, notably in several California hospitals sponsored by Catholic
Healthcare West.
In an effort to thwart an organizing drive by the Service Employees
International Union, CHW has employed anti-union consultants. It is hard
to reconcile this practice with Catholic social teaching in general and,
more specifically, with the teaching of the U.S. bishops' 1986 pastoral
letter, "Economic Justice for All.'' In the section of the pastoral dealing
with the church as an economic actor, the pastoral reads in part as follows:
"All the moral principles that govern the just operation of any
economic endeavor apply to the church and its agencies and institutions;
indeed the church should be exemplary.... All church institutions must
... fully recognize the rights of employees to organize and bargain collectively
with the institutions through whatever association or organization they
freely choose.'' The pastoral then goes on to encourage Catholic institutions
to adopt new and fruitful modes of cooperation with their employees.
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