Hartnett, a Respiratory Therapist with 33 years experience, confirms Robert Reich’s recent Op-Ed -- that having a union at Memorial Hospital will be good for the workers, and for the patients they’re committed to. This, in turn, will be good for St. Joseph’s Health Systems too, making it a triple win. Hartnett calls on SJHS to respect caregivers’ voices and agree to ground rules for a free and fair election.
Excerpts from Michael Hartnett's interview:
It [a union] would bring a real voice which I’m sorry to say is truly not heard in a lot of circumstances. Front-line hospital workers are right there, they’re there with the patient day in -- day out. They know what the needs are, and to make decisions or to have a voice in those decisions would really benefit the St. Joseph corporation because they would have this front-line understanding of what needs to be done. And they share the common goal for good quality patient care, but to sustain that, you need the workers input.
The union would be a win-win-win. The patient wins because they get the input from caregivers, us, in terms of what changes need to be made to have, and sustain good quality patient care. The workers win because they get to have that voice and become more productive and satisfied in their job. And then the corporation wins because…the patient gets good quality care - it’s a Triple Win.
Deborah Proctor and Sr. Katherine Gray have both insisted that their workers don’t need a union because “we take such good care of them.” If that is really true then there should be no hesitance on their part to allow their workers to pursue a free and fair election.
3 comments:
Great interview. RT Michael Hartnett is right on! We don't have a true voice now but WILL when unionized. His point about SJHS's behavior under the NLRB rules resounds with myself and employees at SRMH, as well as the whole SJHS family. We all have seen the NLRB rules broken many times during our struggle to unionize with minimal repercussions if any at all. SJHS's own conduct has proven why we need a Fair election agreement!
SRMH has been repelling unions for 30 years. The sisters don't really know the workers, they are rarely there.
The workers are scared to talk because the are afraid of being fired. or going up against the big money that is donated to the hospital.People that work at SRMH are part of the whole package of patient care, the sisters need to wake up.
They're so old they creak
It's two years today that I moved away from Santa Rosa to Eugene, Or. I remember the best and worst of it at SRMH and the great work that everyone of us did (and that you are all still doing) to unionize. I know that you will win in the end. Remember that you cannot stand on your principles if you are only using one leg...so fight the good fight and never give up.
Keeping tabs from Oregon!
Carrie Clark
(formerly of 3E, SRMH)
clclark10@comcast.net
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