Washington D.C., Jun 23, 2009 / 23:12 pm
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), with leaders from Catholic health care providers and the labor movement, has released guidelines for creating a “fair process” for health care workers to decide whether or not to form a new union.
The new document outlining the guidelines is titled “Respecting the Just Rights of Workers: Guidance and Options for Catholic Health Care and Unions,” and took more than 10 years to come to a consensus about.
Parties to the agreement include the USCCB, the Catholic Health Association of the United States, the AFL-CIO and the Service Employees International Union, the Associated Press reports.
According to the USCCB, the effort to produce the document intended to find “common ground” on “alternative approaches” for applying Catholic social teachings on the rights of workers to choose whether or not to be represented by unions.