What’s It Like to Try to Form a Union? Political Candidates Find Out

[Omaha Steve]

What’s It Like to Try to Form a Union? Political Candidates Find Out

Maggie Nielsen and her co-workers just want to join a union. But like millions of other workers, they have to endure a war with their employer to exercise that basic freedom.

Nielsen, an emergency room nurse at Our Lady of the Resurrection Medical Center in Chicago, part of the largest Catholic health care chain in Illinois, says:

Catholic social teachings are clear: Employees should be able to form a union free from intimidation and fear. So when we began talking to each other about forming a union , you would think Resurrection would follow Catholic teachings. But they didn’t.

They have fired eight union supporters. Just last November, I was handing out union leaflets during my break. The supervisor in charge of the entire hospital in the evenings approached me and told me to stop. She said I was not allowed to hand out union literature at the hospital. Period.

In July, AFSCME filed charges with the National Labor Relations Board, claiming Resurrection violated federal labor law.



Firing workers for seeking to form a union is illegal under U.S. labor law, but in some 25 percent of organizing campaigns, private-sector employers illegally fire workers because they want to form a union.

Nielsen was part of a panel of workers who explained the realities of trying to form a union to some 25 congressional candidates during a candidate briefing today at the AFL-CIO building in Washington, D.C.

FULL story at link above.