AFSCME Reveals Low Wages At Chicago's Resurrection Catholic Hospitals - 08/07/07

Submitted by Doug Cunningham on August 6, 2007 - 3:46pm
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By Doug Cunningham

Workers at Resurrection Catholic Hospitals in Chicago fighting to organize a union released a report Monday revealing wages as low as $9 an hour for housekeeping, laundry and food workers at the hospitals. AFSCME's Roberta Lynch:

[Lynch]: "Patient support staff earn wages that keep them mired in poverty, unable to support their families - and in some cases relying on public assistance."

Shirley Brown is working at Resurrection while battling cancer.

[Brown]: "I work hard. I work at a Catholic hospital. Our CEO made more than a million dollars in 2006. Enough is enough. We deserve a fair day's pay for a fair day's work."

The AFL-CIO's Linda Chavez-Thomson:

[Chavez-Thompson]: "It was shocking to me as a life-long Catholic that a Catholic company that preaches about health care benefits and a living wage
as a right for all would pay workers so little."

Father Larry Dowling supports workers trying to form a union at Resurrection.

[Dowling]: "Catholic social teaching is very clear about the need for employers to pay a living wage and respect workers' rights to organize a union. These low wages are an embarrassment - an embarrassment - for a Catholic institution."