by Mike Hall, Jul 11, 2006

More than 8,000 workers at Resurrection Health Corp. fighting to win a voice at work with AFSCME Council 31, have struggled against a vicious anti-union campaign by the Chicago-area, Catholic-run hospital system. The workers say during their drive to win a voice at work, Resurrection has fired several employees for backing the union.

Yesterday, in an effort to end the attacks on the workers, in a letter to Resurrection CEO Joseph Toomey, members of the Illinois congressional delegation urged Toomey to:

initiate a dialogue with your employees and AFSCME Council 31 to create an environment at all Resurrection hospitals that truly respects employees’ right to organize. We firmly believe that this would be both fair and sensible, paving the way for improved communications between employees and management which in turn can bring improved patient care, a goal we all share.

The letter was signed by U.S. Sens. Barack Obama and Richard Durbin and U.S. Reps. Jan Schakowsky, Melissa Bean, Jerry Costello, Danny Davis, Rahm Emanuel, Luis Gutierrez, Jesse Jackson Jr., Daniel Lipinski and Bobby Rush, all Democrats.

All the signers are co-sponsors of the Employee Free Choice Act, which would help put an end to the powerful anti-union campaigns by many employers and strengthen workers’ freedom to join a union. They tell Toomey:

As co-sponsors of S.842 and H.R.1696, the Employee Free Choice Act, we are all too well aware of the inadequacy of current labor law in providing for a free and fair choice process regarding union representation. The NLRB process is inadequate to ensure an environment free from fear for the employees. All too often, the process opens the door to aggressive campaigns of interference with workers’ organizing efforts.

As legislators, we have worked hard to protect and strengthen the most basic rights of workers: The freedom of association and the right to organize. It is our commitment to those rights that motivates us to communicate our concerns regarding the current situation at Resurrection Health Care.

In response, a hospital spokesman basically told the lawmakers to mind their own business—management would not engage in any dialogue with the union.

In June, hospital security guards turned away a delegation of local religious leaders as they tried to deliver a letter urging the hospital to end its anti-union campaign. In May, security guards barred Schakowsky (D-Ill.) and a group of workers and their supporters who wanted to give a letter to Toomey urging the hospital system to adopt safe nurse staffing ratios for better patient care.

Learn more about the Employee Free Choice Act here.

Also, check out the latest actions around the nation as workers protest and rally around a pending decision by the National Labor Relations Board that may eliminate the right to join a union for hundreds of thousands of workers.

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