Union drive under way at Providence Health Systems

By DON McINTOSH, Associate Editor

Service Employees International Union (SEIU) hopes to unionize 5,000 workers at Providence Health System in Oregon — starting with the 3,500 at Providence St. Vincent and Providence Portland hospitals, where registered nurses belong to the Oregon Nurses Association. But with Providence rejecting SEIU’s call for “neutrality,” it’s likely to be a protracted campaign.

Portland-based SEIU Local 49 has financial backing from its international union, which is pushing to unionize the health care industry. Local 49 represents workers at Kaiser Permanente and two sites in the Legacy Health System, but never until recently was able to gain momentum at Providence.

Maeve Carroll, a pro-union worker employed as an emergency room registrar at Providence St. Vincent, said workers are interested in unionizing because of concerns about understaffing, inadequate employee health insurance and basic respect from management.

“We know our jobs well, and we could contribute to better patient care by having a chance to be a part of the decision-making,” Carroll said.

As the union campaign got under way last year, Local 49’s headquarters became a dense warren of organizers coming and going, teaming up with rank-and-file members to visit the homes of workers. Several hundred workers at St. Vincent and Providence Portland have signed on as supporters of the campaign, but management is also prepared to wage an anti-union campaign, and that has caused union leaders to plot carefully their next move.

If they request a government-supervised election, that would commit them to a fixed timeline and campaign ground rules that give too many advantages to the employer, union leaders say. Instead, they’ve tried to get Providence management to sign a neutrality pledge that would commit Providence to:

Allow employees to meet in non-patient areas and discuss openly whether to unionize;
Refrain from negative campaigning and misleading communication;
Not require workers to attend anti-union meetings with supervisors;
Not spend health system resources on consultants specializing in “union avoidance”; and
Avoid unnecessary delays or legal challenges to union certification.

Providence, which energetically fought union campaigns in Yakima, Wash., and Burbank, Calif., has so far declined to sign the neutrality pledge.

SEIU reached out for community support, particularly among religious leaders.

Though it might not act like one, Providence Health Systems is a tax-exempt non-profit, founded and owned by the Sisters of Providence, a Catholic order of nuns. Providence’s logo is a cross. According to its mission statement, Providence “continues the healing ministry of Jesus in the world of today, with special concern for those who are poor and vulnerable.”

There’s no record that Jesus of Nazareth charged extra to heal the poor (or that he charged anything at all.) But Providence — a $4-billion-a-year four-state health care network with $238 million net “profit” in 2004 — was charging uninsured (usually poorer) patients at a higher rate than insured patients — for the same procedures … until a class action lawsuit forced it to settle out of court last year.

And notwithstanding scriptures about camels passing through eyes of needles, Providence makes sure its CEOs are very rich: In 2004, then-CEO Hank Walker received $6.6 million in compensation — the exact average pay received by CEOs at Fortune 500 corporations the year before.

What’s a tax-exempt non-profit with a public mission of charity care doing paying lavish Wall Street-style salaries? The Internal Revenue Service wondered that, and launched an an inquiry.

Back to Local 49: In October, the union turned in a letter of support signed by almost three dozen clerics, including a dozen Catholic priests and three Catholic nuns, 15 Protestant clerics from at least five denominations, and three rabbis.

“We ask you to honor and respect the freedom of employees to decide for themselves whether to form a union,” the letter read.

Providence Vice President Russ Danielson wrote back: “We believe in and openly acknowledge the Catholic social teachings, which affirm that workers have the right to organize or not.”

But, Danielson made it clear, workers need to make an “informed” choice. And management would be sure to inform workers about the “risks” of unionizing, “the facts about unions,” “the costs of union membership,” and so on.

“This is a very anti-union employer,” said Local 49 President Alice Dale.

Dale said so far, Providence management in Oregon has run a low-key campaign. But if the union drive gathers steam, management push-back is likely to increase, judging by the examples in Washington and California.

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