Clergy and political leaders to monitor union election campaign at Memorial Hospital

NewsDecember 10, 2009

Councilmember Jacobi and others will investigate workers’ reports of intimidation and deceptive campaigning

Santa Rosa, Calif.—A group of prominent political leaders, scholars, and religious leaders have formed a commission to protect workers’ rights in the hotly contested Dec. 17 union vote at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital.

“The reports we’ve been hearing from workers at the hospital are truly disturbing,” said Monsignor John Brenkle, pastor of St. Helena Catholic Church and a co-chair of the new Fair Election Oversight Commission.

“SEIU has prevented any ground rules from being set, and workers are facing a hostile atmosphere in what should be a place of healing and caring,” he said. “When there is behavior by the hospital or by a union that interferes with their right to choose freely, we want workers to be able to report that to an independent body.”

The 17-member commission includes Santa Rosa City Councilmember Veronica Jacobi and will be chaired by Msgr. Brenkle and JoAnn Consiglieri. Consiglieri is a former member of Memorial Hospital’s founding order, the Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange.

In April, a majority of Memorial Hospital workers signed a petition to join the National Union of Healthcare Workers, and hospital management had promised to negotiate with workers’ representatives to establish fair ground rules for a union election. But the rival organization SEIU intervened to block negotiation on ground rules, and has ignored calls to step aside from the North Bay Labor Council¹ and religious leaders from across the country². Even former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich has asked SEIU to come to the table and allow the hospital and the union to set ground rules.³

The lack of fair ground rules has allowed hospital management to launch an anti-union campaign that Catholic Scholars for Worker Justice has called “a violation of Catholic Social Teaching on workers’ rights.”⁴

Fair Election Oversight Commission members:

The National Union of Healthcare Workers is an independent, member-led union, dedicated to improving the lives of healthcare workers and the people they care for. More than 100,000 workers in hospitals, Kaiser Permanente facilities, homecare, and nursing homes have petitioned to join NUHW since January 2009. | NUHW.org