Tag Archives: SJHS

Marriage Equality

St. Joseph’s v. SEIU-UHW is all about teh gays

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Dave Johnson sent over this really pretty amazing article in the Catholic News Agency after seeing my post on SEIU-UHW’s battle to unionize workers in the St. Joseph Health Care System.  Sure it is a few months old, but it is too good not to blog.  The article is titled innocently enough “Catholic health workers’ effort to unionize could crowd out Catholics”.  Crowd out Catholics they say?  How?

Well…it is all about the homos you see, as the lead tells us.

A complex labor dispute between a Californian Catholic healthcare company and its employees could end in an agreement with a union that promotes homosexual rights, the California Catholic Daily reports.

And what do they use to base this claim?

Well, they go right after Sal Roselli, the leader of SEIU-UHW.  No, not like SEIU International has gone after Sal, but because, gasp, he is gay!  Going way back to 1984.  Oh my goodness.

In 1984-85, Roselli was president of a Lesbian/Gay Democratic Club.  A grand marshal for the 2006 San Francisco LGBT Pride Parade, Roselli has introduced domestic partner compensation into the UHW member benefits.

This bit is my favorite.  They use an anonymous source to attack Sal and SEIU-UHW.

A political activist in Sacramento, who requested anonymity, told the California Catholic Daily that Roselli’s union is trying to become the exclusive bargaining agent for some St. Joseph employees.

“This is a very contentious union, and if they get what they want, there will be a full homosexualization of everything. Domestic partner benefits and the like will come from worker dues, and the full muscle of the union will be put behind the homosexual agenda,” the activist said.

Yes, that is exactly what SEIU-UHW does.  They are all about advancing the homosexual agenda and homosexualizing EVERYTHING.

But wait.  There is more.

The activist alleged that allowing UHW into St. Joseph’s, the Catholic health provider “would be agreeing, in effect, to fire any Catholic who does not agree to support the Culture of Death with his dues. The average nurse pays around $1,000 a year in dues for this, and that money goes to supporting candidates and propositions that support abortion and homosexuality. What kind of Catholic institution would agree to this for their employees?”

Woah, woah, woah.  How did we get to “Culture of Death” (note the capitalization) from homosexualizing everying?  Ah you see, SEIU-UHW endorses candidates and gives them money so that they can get elected and pass policies that help their members.  And yes, those politicians sometimes are pro-choice and vote for things like civil unions and even gasp….marriage equality.

But what the anonymous source conveniently fails to mention is that any union member by law is able to opt out from having their dues go to politics.  Remember the Prop. 75 fight?  That was over whether it should be opt in to political giving or the status quo of opting out.  So, a SEIU-UHW member who happens to be Catholic and anti-choice and anti-gay can continue being both things without having their dues go to politicians they disagree with.

So you see, all the author and the anonymous source are left with A) Sal Rosselli is gay. B) SEIU-UHW dues will go in a very small part to paying for domestic partner benefits for their staffers.

See, this is why the workers shouldn’t be allowed to have a union that can argue for fair pay and safe working environments for the staff and their patients.  I think they may have me convinced.  What about you?

Uncategorized

Sisters of St. Josephs it’s time to make peace with your workers

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It is a dirty little secret, but often times the more virulently anti-union employers are religious orders that run health systems.  Such is the situation with the Sisters of St. Joseph who run the St. Joseph Health System.  They have been resisting the efforts of their service employees to join SEIU-UHW for the past three years.

SEIU-UHW is organizing a series of events this week in support of their organizing efforts.  Today Delores Huerta of the United Farm Workers wrote a HuffPost piece on the struggle.

This week I’m joining St. Joseph Health System workers, Attorney General Jerry Brown, Father Eugene Boyle, actor Ed Begley Jr, and community and religious leaders to call upon the Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange to make peace with their workers.

For decades, the Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange have fought for justice for California’s workers. In the summer of 1973, they marched in solidarity with Cesar Chavez and farm workers during the brutal Grape Strike. I witnessed the Sisters putting their personal safety at risk. They walked picket lines and even went to jail with more than 3500 striking farm workers. I was inspired by the Sisters’ commitment to stand with the farm workers, even in the face of violent provocation.

But now, these same sisters are refusing to show their own workers the same justice they once fought for.

Flip it for more and a video.

When I write that the nuns are resisting the organizing, I mean it.  They have been using heavy-handed and it appears illegal tactics to stop their employees from forming a union.  Workers have been threatened that they will lose their jobs is they continue to push for a union.  Delores Huerta writes:

Public records show that SJHS has hired some of the most notorious union-busting firms to fight their employees. Meanwhile, government officials have cited SJHS for violating its employees’ basic labor rights, including illegally firing, spying on, and intimidating workers who want to form a union. These heavy-handed tactics leave workers feeling threatened, intimidated and disregarded.

How can the Sisters support farm workers’ efforts to form a union, but fight their own employees for seeking this same basic right? Is there such a big difference between the people who feed us and the people who heal us? Clearly, there is not.

It is great to see a community coming together to support the workers, including Huerta nad Jerry Brown.  More importantly at least IMHO, 20 former members of the Sisters of St. Joseph’s wrote a letter to the current members, urging them to find peace with their service employees.  Here is a video of the delivery of that letter to the nuns.  No, they did not come receive the letter personally.