Aides strike at Sisters of Mercy affiliate near Detroit

National Catholic Reporter, July 28, 1995 by Leslie Wirpsa

FARMINGTON HILLS, Mich. -- About 60 nursing home workers who had been protesting inside the headquarters of Mercy Health Services were escorted out of the building by three city police officers here July 18.

Mercy Health Services, MHS, is a health care conglomerate sponsored by the Sisters of Mercy Regional Community of Detroit.

The workers, representing nurses aides from eight unionized Michigan nursing homes operated by Mercy Services for Aging, were protesting low wages, lack of pension plans and diminished staff-to-patient ratios that they say increase the risk of injuries and reduce their ability to provide high-quality care. Mercy Services for Aging is a subsidiary of MHS.

The demonstrators had entered the building through a back door after a security guard prevented access through the main entrance.

"Mercy professes to be a caring, nonprofit institution that cares for the community and the poor. But 90 percent of the people who work at the nursing homes are poor," said Nancy Darke Johnson, 40, who has worked at the Meauley Place Living Center in Muskegeon, Mich., for more than eight years. Aides like Johnson who work for Mercy Services for Aging at 15 Michigan elderly care homes earn an average of $6.50 an hour, union leaders estimated.

The demonstrators, members of Local 79 of the Service Employees International Union, shouted, "No justice, no peace," under the red crucifix and MHS logo stamped on the building where the conglomerate is housed in this upscale suburb northwest of Detroit. As NCR went to press, Local 79 was set to begin a new round of negotiations July 20-21, the latest in seven weeks of contract discussions with Mercy Services for Aging.

Joe Twarog, chief negotiator for the workers, said he was "hopeful" about the negotiations but "would be shocked if they settled."

Maxine Kollasch, MHS communications director, left a message for NCR with an assistant, saying "she feels it is inappropriate to comment on specifics while negotiations are in progress."

Local 79's Twarog said the union did not want to create a "replay" of the labor conflict and six-month strike by 100 registered nurses at Merey Community Hospital in Port Jervis, N.Y., which is also sponsored by the Sisters of Mercy. That dispute ended in March when the order took control of the hospital's board o directors, restored recognition of the nurses' union, retracted a decision to hire permanent replacements and pledged to stay true to church teachings on social and economic justice (NCR, March 17).

"But who knows what can happen," Twarog said. The union is suspicious of the recent hiring of Bruce Stickler, a Chicago lawyer known in labor circles as a specialist in union-busting, as a chief negotiator for Mercy Services to Aging.

"You think after Port Jervis, they'd be more sensitive to relations with labor," Twarog said, "but it's been quite the contrary."

Stickler did not respond to requests for comment.