Large crowd gathers to hear Obama, others, pledge support for RHC workers

Nearly 2,000 hospital workers, union members and supporters came together for a rally on Sat. March 3 in Chicago to show support for Resurrection workers and the Employee Free Choice Act.  Featured speakers included Sen. Dick Durbin, U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney and AFSCME International President Gerald McEntee, but the star of the show was clearly Sen. Barack Obama who told Resurrection workers to "Keep marching for justice." "Where there is injustice anywhere," he said, "it suppresses justice everywhere. And organized labor has a history of bringing about justice."

"Opening the doors for America's workers," was the theme of the Council 31-organized rally.  Before Sen. Obama took the stage, Sweeney and McEntee each promised continued support for the workers at Resurrection. "We will win this fight," said Sweeney. "The entire American labor movement is standing with you."

McEntee said the goal of the AFSCME organizing drive was to "open the doors of Resurrection to workers rights, to fairness and justice, to dignity, respect and fair treatment for workers and patients."

He saluted RHC union supporters as "people who have put everything on the line, who have suffered but still fight and fight and fight."

Three employees of Resurrection Health Care, representing the eight-hospital chain's 10,000 workers, also spoke at the rally, talking in detail about the reason they need a union and documenting the fierce resistance being put up by their employer.

"I find hope in the union," said Shirley Brown, a housekeeper at Westlake Hospital. "Before I got involved in the organizing campaign, I was willing to accept whatever was going on. When bad things happened, I assumed there was nothing we could do about it."

Kelly Beringer, a registered nurse at West Suburban Hospital, talked about how RHC stands in the way of its employees who seek a voice at work: "Employers have money and power and they can use that money and power to divide, intimidate and undermine us. That's why we need to reform our labor laws, so that workers can make their own decisions about forming a union. The Employee Free Choice Act will do that, and those of us who work at Resurrection hospitals know firsthand why it's needed."

And Bernice Grau, a laundry worker at Resurrection Medical Center, explained how getting a union would give her a voice and respect on the job: "In the laundries, we're easily forgotten.  We work behind the scenes. In my department, every single one of us is an immigrant. Resurrection - when they pay attention to us at all -- reminds us of how vulnerable we are by paying us poverty wages and forcing us to work in dangerous conditions.