(John a her Catholic Social Teachings and Unions

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August 2005

Catholic Social Teachings and Unions

Currently there is considerable discussion

surrounding the Service Employees International Unions

(SEIU) corporate campaign and its efforts to enroll CHP

associates into its membership. Catholic social teaching

requires church institutions, and it is the policy of Catholic

Healthcare Partners:

To fully recognize the rights of employees

to organize and bargain collectively with

the institution through whatever

association or organization they freely

choose. CHP supports our employees

right to representation by unions. CHP

also respects our employees right not to

join a union. The only way of knowing for

sure what our employees want is to protect

their fundamental right to decide for

themselves whether or not to join a union.

CHP believes this is best accomplished by

requiring a secret ballot election for union

recognition conducted by the National

Labor Relations Board it is the only way

to ensure the decision itself is made free of

coercion by employers, unions or other

employees.

Catholic Healthcare Partners is guided by the

Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care

Services (ERDs)in responding to these union efforts. The

ERDs obligate CHP to respond to the representatives

designated by our associates through legitimate, legally

defined elections (ERD #7). This obligation stems from

Church teaching and especially the teaching of recent

popes such as the late John Paul II and the teaching of the

American bishops (Health and Health Care: A Pastoral

Letter of the American Catholic Bishops, pg. 10-12;

Economic Justice for All: Pastoral Letter on Catholic

Social Teaching and the U.S. Economy, pg. 52-55). Thus

the SEIUs corporate campaign is an appropriate occasion

to reflect upon elements of the Churchs social teachings

as they pertain to work, workers and unions. In this brief

monograph I would like to outline John Paul IIs

encyclicalLaborem exercens and to then propose some

ethical guidelines for our response to the SEIUs

campaign.

Laborem exercens was written to commemorate

the ninetieth anniversary ofRerum novarum, the 1891

encyclical of Leo XIII which launched the genre that has

come to be called Catholic social teaching. John Paul

begins his letter by indicating the various ways in which

the social context that he addresses is different from that

of his predecessor, Leo XIII. Leo XIII addressed the

world of the industrial revolution, a social and economic


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milieu that tended to pitch capital against labor and

class against class. It was an age in which these issues

took on a particular hue or aura depending upon the

individual nation in which these issues were at odds

with one another. John Paul IIs social teaching is not

focused on issues within nations, but rather on the social

condition of the whole world. Thus he sets out toaddress not just issues of inequality between classes,

but also the world sphere of inequality and injustice

(2).*

The first two lines ofLaborem exercens set the

tenor of much that is to follow: Through work man

must earn his daily bread and contribute to the continual

advancement of science and technology and, above all,

to elevating increasingly the cultural and moral life of

society within which he lives in community with those

who belong to the same family. And work means any

activity by man, whether manual or intellectual,

whatever its nature or circumstances; it means any

human activity that can and must be recognized as

work.(1) Work is a constitutive element of being a

person, a Christian in the world. Work provides

elements of ones self identity; it links the worker to

others through bonds of community and society.

The encyclical continues by distinguishing the

objective and subjective sense of work. The objective

dimension of work pertains to the goods and services

produced through the labor and energy of workers. This

dimension of work is relatively easy to measure and

evaluate. Within healthcare, the objective dimension of

work is calculated in terms of quality outcomes,

productivity and similar measures. This is also the

dimension of work through which each worker

contributes to the common good and thus produces the

goods and services upon which each of us draws to

sustain, nourish and elevate the level of human well

being within communities and society.

* Bracketed numbers refer to sections in the encyclical.

The subjective side of work pertains to the

capacity of individual men and women to decide about

themselves and exercise their capacity for self-

realization (6). Through work women and men realize

their humanity. The subjective dimension of work

reveals the essential dignity of the worker and work.

Because the self-identity of the worker is, in part,embodied in his or her work, labor can never be viewed

as simply a commodity, a sort of merchandise that can

be purchased. This aspect of work also grounds the

basic ethical principle enunciated in the encyclical, the

priority of labor over capital. The goods and services

that constitute an economy are produced through the

efficient means of labor and the instrumental means of

capital.

Laborem exercens contends that unions are an

indispensable element of social life (20). Workers

have a right to form or join associations that will protect

their just rights and defend their legitimate interests.

However unions should not construe their role as a

struggle against others or engage in group egoism. In

other words, unions like the work of those they

organize, are for the benefit of the common good or

society as a whole.

In the same section of the encyclical, John Paul

II teaches that unions should not play politics and

should not have too close links with political parties.

Unions that advocate for civil legislation that is contrary

to Church teaching, e.g. same sex marriage and

abortion, are not organizations that CHP would choose

to cooperate with in the delivery of health services.

John Paul enunciated a sophisticated

understanding of labor relations and thus the labor

contract. He distinguishes between the indirect and

direct employer. The indirect employer refers to all the

factors outside the direct control of employer or

employees that influence labor relations. Market

conditions, international trade agreements, labor law


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and similar realities constitute the indirect employer.

To the extent possible, employers may have an

obligation to attempt to improve these conditions, but

such factors lay outside the immediate control of the

direct employers.

The direct employer has the obligation toprovide a just remuneration to workers, i.e., an income

that will enable the worker to have appropriate access to

the goods and services contained within the common

good. Salary should be sufficient to provide for a

family and enable it to set aside something for the

future. Benefits should include health insurance, a

pension plan and free time for religious services and

vacation.

Ethical Guidelines

The principle of the priority of labor overcapital should encourage CHP leadership to

continue to respect the centrality of our

associates to the accomplishment of our

mission. They are the efficient means to its

success; physical and financial resources are

merely instrumental means.

Many human resources tools and measuresfocus on the objective dimension of work.CHP should seek to enhance its capacity and

resources to assess, promote and reverence the

subjective dimension as well. Programs

currently in place such as participative

management, shared governance, gainsharing

and professional practice groups are examples

of initiatives that promote and reverence the

subjective dimension of work through

meaningful, individual participation.

The decision whether CHP associates willenter a union is their decision; it is not the

decision of a union or the management of CHP.

The role of CHP and the union is to provide

information; it is improper for either to cajole

or coerce.

CHP must ensure that managers at all levels

are aware that there is to be no discrimination,

retaliation or any other negative actions or

attitudes towards associates who support a

union initiative. An associates decision to

affiliate with a union is the associates personal

decision and is to be respected. There is nothing in Catholic social teaching to

support a corporate campaign that seeks to

damage the reputation and economic

performance of a company. The encyclicals

assertion that union activities ought not

constitute a struggle against others would seem

to argue against this sort of tactic.

Catholic social teaching is precious element withinthe Catholic tradition; it is highly respected both within

and outside the Church. At ordination the Book of the

Gospels is placed in the hands of the man to be ordained

as the bishop prays, Believe what you read, preach

what you believe, and practice what you preach. The

challenge to all of us within CHP is to practice what we

believe to be the sound teaching of Catholic social

teaching.

If there are clinical, operational or management

issues that you would like to see discussed in the future,

please refer your suggestions to:

John A. Gallagher, PhD

Corporate Director, Ethics

513-639-2826

[email protected]


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