Our support for every employee’s right to have a strong, independent voice in a fair and just workplace is unwavering.  By standing up for our employees’ right to make their own choice about whether or not they want to consider a union, we remain true to Catholic Social Teachings and our mission of ensuring the voiceless have a voice. 

• We are committed to providing a fair and just workplace for all of our employees and have set even higher standards than the law requires for doing so in our own Code of Conduct and Guiding Principles.  We believe it is our responsibility and obligation to provide a fair and just workplace whether or not a union is present.  We believe living our values, being held accountable to our principles and ensuring our employees’ are respected and have a voice is the best way to guarantee a fair and just workplace for our employees.
  
  
• We are pro-employee and we take seriously our responsibility to advocate for our employees; we are not anti-union.  For years we have had constructive relations with employee-sanctioned unions at our ministries and have worked for decades with unions around the world to support workers’ rights.
  
  
• Regarding union representation, we support our employees’ right to choose for themselves, rather than unions or management choosing for them.  Agreeing to a mass organizing agreement covering multiple hospitals, as more than one union has called for, does not respect the right of our employees to make this important decision for themselves.  Employees who may be opposed to union representation deserve a voice as much as do those who seek out such representation.  Every employee deserves the full protections afforded them under our national labor laws.
  
  
• We are clear with our commitment to any union that if they have the support they need to represent our employees, they should file for an election under the rules of the National Labor Relations Board.  As soon as a union has the NLRB-required 30% “showing of interest” from employees, we will begin the election process, as we most recently did at St. Mary Medical Center with the United Steel Workers.  It is clear that if our employees choose to organize, we respect and honor their decision.
  
  
• In keeping with our Catholic Social Teachings, we will continue on the path of dialogue and discernment, a path that is paved in common values.  We have and will continue to meet with both employees who are interested in unionization and those who are not.
  
  
• We remain focused and true to our Mission.  Our caregivers are highly committed to providing quality patient care and our charity care and community services remain at the heart of our work.  Moreover, efforts continue throughout the System to become an even better place to work for our people.  We are gratified that the vast majority of our more than 23,000 employees value us as an employer, as evidenced by our recognition for a third straight year as one of only twenty-three companies worldwide to be named a best place to work in Gallup’s Great Workplace survey.