"I thought we'd get wage increases, better staffing, and have job security as soon as we voted for a union!" Many of my co-workers have voiced this opinion and a truthful response is "Only in dreamland!" Voting for a union is an important step towards improved wages, better staffing, and job security but there are a lot of other steps that need to be taken as well.

Our next big step is to bargain a contract with CHW, and we are finding out how difficult that is. Ask yourself this: "What advantage is there for CHW in having a contract with employees that will guarantee us wage increases, dependant health care coverage, job security, etc.?" No matter how long you ponder, the answer will be "none" (unless they see that having a contented workforce will produce better patient care, which they don't appear to factor into the equation). Which is probably why they are stalling on the bargaining process and why we, the employees, have to give them some incentive to bargain in good faith with us.

The following photos record our effort to demonstrate to CHW how much we want to bargain a good contract with them. An informational picket lets uninformed employees and the public know that bargaining is not going well and that a certain nonprofit organization which depends on the good will of the community is not bargaining in good faith with its employees.

There are those who say "They're not going to reward you with what you want if you do things they don't like" to which I say "Have they rewarded you for NOT doing things they don't like?"

The informational picket was state-wide (20 CHW hospitals) and occurred on February 12th, 2002. The Mercy General picket took place from 2-5 on "J" Street , in front of the hospital and included employees from the other CHW hospitals in the area.