Last fall St. Louis, the city where this journal is published, watched
in fascination as one of its Catholic hospitals became the scene of an ultimately
successful union-organizing drive by nurses. Of course, St. Louis was not unusual
in that respect. Unions are an increasingly pressing concern in the ministry.
Our special section this month, entitled "Labor Issues in Catholic Health
Care," naturally touches on the union question. Sr. Patricia Talone, RSM, PhD,
traces the development of the Catholic Church's social teaching on workplace
issues, especially in the 20th century. But labor issues include much more than
labor organizations. Daniel O'Brien, PhD, and David Smith describe the efforts
of Ascension Health, St. Louis, to base its human resources policies on the
Catholic social teaching that Sr. Talone describes.
Jeffrey Hamlin discusses a paper developed by an ad hoc group of human resources
executives on the concept of the "just wage." Susan McDonough writes about a
campaign launched by New England-based Covenant Health Systems to recruit an
ethnically diverse workforce to match the increasingly diverse populations the
system serves. Sr. Talone, in a second article for this issue, tells the story
of a Catholic health care system that, forced to "downsize" employees, nevertheless
insisted on following its values in doing so.
In the Wake of September 11
Rev. Michael D. Place, STD, the Catholic Health Association's
president and chief executive officer, focuses in his column
on the growing threat of bioterrorism. Observing that public
health experts have begun to outline a comprehensive strategy
for responding to possible bioterrorist attacks, Fr. Place says
that the Catholic health ministry must participate in the ethical
conversations underlying the strategy. What ethical criteria
should be used to triage emergency treatment in a bioterrorism
incident, for example? September 11, he notes, has caused Americans
to look at health care in a whole new way.
Copyright © 2002 by the Catholic Health Association of the United States
For reprint permission, contact Betty Crosby or call (314) 253-3477.