Religion and Labor Network challenges nursing home management

?What good is a religious tradition if you don?t live by its principles?? About 100 people gathered Wednesday to pose this question to the management of Walker Methodist Health Center at a ?Witness for Healing and Worker Rights.?

Employees at the south Minneapolis nursing home voted May 30 to join AFSCME Council 14, but management refused to recognize the union and continues using extensive legal tactics to prevent workers from organizing.

On June 30, the regional office of the National Labor Relations Board issued two rulings in favor of the employees? right to organize. Management appealed both decisions to the board?s national office in Washington, D.C.

According to Council 14 Director Roger Siegal, up to eight workers have been fired and numerous others suspended because of their union activity.

The Rev. Seth Garwood leads a prayer outside the Walker Methodist Health Center. Joining him (from left) are state Senator Scott Dibble, the Rev. Nancy Anderson, the Rev. Steven Benson, fired Walker employee Bernice Young and state Rep. Frank Hornstein.

The ?Witness for Healing and Worker Rights? was organized by the Twin Cities Religion and Labor Network along with AFSCME, and was attended by supporters from several union locals and faith communities.

The event included prayers and appeals to management to respect workers? rights.

The Rev. Seth Garwood, a Methodist pastor from Minneapolis, chastised the nursing home for what he described as the institution?s practice of flaunting its Methodist heritage when convenient while simultaneously disregarding the church?s social teachings on the rights of workers.

He and other speakers noted that the United Methodist Church has passed resolutions supporting the right of employees to organize and bargain collectively ?without intimidation of coercion.?

?Respect is a two-way street,? Garwood said, asking how management could expect any respect from its workers when they are denied any dignity or respect themselves. ?We are watching and praying for you to do the right thing,? Garwood said.

Bernice Young, a worker who was fired a month ago after 11 years as a nursing assistant, thanked the crowd for their support, adding, ?We want a union and we will have a contract.?

Young said that she had been ?treated like crap? for the duration of her time at Walker, and that management consistently used antagonistic and unfair tactics with workers.

?They?re showing their true colors now,? she said. ?I really believe they don?t want Pandora?s Box opened.?

Following the Witness, several of the pastors went inside the nursing home to present a letter outlining their request that management cooperate with the employees? organizing efforts. Nursing home managers received the group cordially, but did not acknowledge any wrongdoing, said the Rev. Steven Benson of Bethany Lutheran Church.

?They know we?re watching them,? Benson reported. ?They are nervous.?

AFSCME is planning a demonstration at the nursing home on Aug. 12, Siegal said, while the employees and union await more rulings from the National Labor Relations Board.

Lizzie Tannen, a student at Macalester College in St. Paul, is an intern this summer with Workday Minnesota and the Union Advocate newspaper.

Comments are closed.