Hospital Monitor: Workers’ Rights to a Free and Fair Union

“Growing up as an American, we are raised on the ideals of democracy—free and fair choices. Advocate’s intimidation of us isn’t just wrong, it is un-American. That’s why we need a fair process that protects our rights.”

Stephen Zee, Environmental Services Associate
Advocate Trinity Hospital.

Advocate workers from all eight hospitals are speaking out about needed improvements for themselves and their patients—including higher pay, better benefits, improved staffing, and a voice on the job—and about what management is doing to stop them.

Advocate management has stated in the media that Advocate “employees are overwhelmingly not interested in being unionized.” But Advocate workers see their experiences quite differently.

Across the Advocate system, employees have been sharing their experiences despite the objections of hospital executives.


	Workers’ Rights to a Free and Fair Union Workers should have the right to form and join a union and the right to choose not to do so." Workers should have the right to make an informed decision regarding union representation free from coercion, intimidation, promises or threats. Workers should be protected by an agreement entered into between their employer and the union that defines a fair decision process (such as holding an election in which the workers decide whether or not they want to form a union.

Advocate found in violation of federal labor law more

Trinity UCC holds prayer vigil in support of church member, Rev. Janet Moore, Advocate Trinity Hospital Chaplain. more

Chicago Metropolitan Association Council of UCC accepts task force recommendations on union organizing and elections at Advocate more

Advocate Health Care accused of failing poor patients and workers
Chicago Defender, September 14, 2004 more

The Labor Day List: Partnerships that Work, distributed by American Rights at Work, features trendsetters that define new standards for 21st century labor relations that balance profitability with workers’ needs and rights. Partnerships SEIU and other unions share with health care employers like Catholic Healthcare West and Kaiser Permanente are highlighted.

Faith in Action describes the year-long management campaign against Advocate Health Care employees who are coming together to improve patient care and working conditions by forming a union.

Reactions to Faith in Action

Statement by former General Counsel of the National Labor Relations Board
At a Congressional Town Hall Meeting on Worker Rights, Fred Feinstein, a former general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board, discussed why current federal labor laws are “fundamentally unfair” and fail to recognize that “employers have significant economic control over the livelihood of the workforce and can and do use that fact to exert enormous pressure on employees to reject unionization.”

SEIU Nurse Alliance This website outlines how nurses are raising standards for their patients and their profession by forming a union with the nation’s largest union of nurses, the SEIU Nurse Alliance.

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Hospital Accountability Project, Service Employees International Union
820 W. Jackson Blvd, 8th Floor, Chicago, Il 60607
Phone: (312) 541-9566 Fax: (312) 541-9650

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