Moving beyond `labor vs. healthcare industry' (Senator Ed Kennedy info)

[Omaha Steve]

FULL article: http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2006/08/22/moving_beyond_labor_vs_healthcare_industry/



THOMAS A. KOCHAN
Moving beyond `labor vs. healthcare industry'

By Thomas A. Kochan | August 22, 2006

EFFORTS BY Senator Edward M. Kennedy and other top political leaders to press Boston's biggest hospitals to talk labor peace with a major union involve far more than urging reluctant healthcare executives to consider the union label. If the participants are willing to move beyond the typical (if not outdated) adversarial and unproductive model of the past, both hospital management and the union could signal not only a new era in labor-management relations, but a landmark step toward the overarching goal of making quality healthcare more available and affordable.

The question is whether both parties will have the foresight and leadership to serve as a model for the future -- or as a reminder of a trapped past that has failed employee and employer alike.

Healthcare executives in Boston have been wary of efforts by the union, 1199 SEIU, to organize the primarily non-union workforce at the city's world-renowned teaching hospitals. Businesses -- and many healthcare providers and analysts -- fear that unionization means higher wages, benefits, and restrictive work rules that will add to the already-soaring costs of delivering healthcare. Those costs, they fear, will end up being borne by companies, families, and individuals. But this predictable reaction reflects the win-lose mindset that has marked the tone of recent US labor relations. In Boston, an opportunity exists to change that tone, to prove that win-win is not only possible but is essential to achieve better and more affordable healthcare, while restoring the fast-fading American Dream for thousands of working families.