SEIU in landmark contract with CHW

Social justice news
June 2002

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Bishops to consider Charter to protect children
Frosted mini-nukes?
Maryland calls moratorium on death penalty
SEIU in landmark contract with Catholic Healthcare West
Tactical nukes next up in arms-control agenda?
U.S. bishops say refugee program in crisis
Voice of laity emerging

SEIU in landmark contract with Catholic Healthcare West
On April 26, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) reached a labor agreement with Catholic Healthcare West (CHW), California's largest non-profit hospital system, that SEIU says "sets new standards for quality care and health access." The two-year contracts serve almost 9,000 members of SEIU.

Among the new benefits for workers is fully paid health insurance for employees and their families. SEIU said that currently 1.3 million health care workers have no health insurance. Other benefits include: joint union-management committees on staffing levels, minimum wage increase of 14 percent over two years, and the freedom for non-union employees to join the union. The agreement also provides protection against sub-contracting of labor in the hospitals.

"This is really a landmark agreement," said Kim Bobo, Executive Director of the National Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice. "This would be a terrific contract with any employer but to have it in the context of a religiously-affiliated employer is really fantastic. We're thrilled that CHW has chosen to make this commitment to just employment standards, and we hope it will spread to not only other Catholic employers, but all religious employers."

Bobo added, "When you look at the mission statements of [religiously-affiliated] employers, you see not only a commitment to quality healthcare, but to providing a moral and positive workplace for their employees. This contract gives flesh to those values."

Ingela Dahlgren, a registered nurse at Northridge Hospital Medical Center in Northridge, California, said, "We're very proud of the agreements we reached with CHW. They will really make a difference for workers and our families, but most of all they will ensure that our patients continue to receive the best possible care in our hospitals."

SEIU attributes credit for the agreements to the late Monsignor George Higgins, often called America's "labor priest," for his tireless efforts to establish a union within CHW and support the workers from start to finish. Eliseo Medina, Executive Vice President of SEIU, said that he remembers meeting Higgins when Medina was a young farm worker during the grape strike and boycott. Higgins was a support then to the United Farm Workers Union.

Two years ago, at age 84, Higgins traveled from Washington, D.C. to Sacramento, California during an East Coast snowstorm to be present with CHW workers in the final hours of a vote to unionize. The workers lost that election, but Higgins assured them "unionization would prevail at the end of the day." The next year, the workers did, in fact, win and became members of SEIU. Then, just two weeks before his death on May 1, the SEIU reached the landmark contracts with CHW.

Medina said, "His vision, counsel, and hard work made this achievement possible, inspiring us from dawn to dusk."

He added, "Along with many, many members of our union, I have learned from Monsignor Higgins' precise enunciation of Catholic social doctrine, and from his unwavering commitment to faith and action, even when the actions faith demands may be unpopular and controversial. We express our profound gratitude to his beloved family for sharing him with us, and take comfort in the knowledge that his legacy lives on."—Tara Dix

For more information:
NICWJ's Guidelines for Unions and management in religiously based healthcare organizations
SEIU pays tribute to Msgr. George Higgins

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