Baltimore Catholic Charities Betraying Its Values in St. Elizabeth’s Contract Talks

Catholic Charities of Baltimore – the owner of St. Elizabeth’s nursing home – says its values are respect, service, dignity, compassion and justice. But in ongoing contract talks with 1199 caregivers, Catholic Charities is not living up to those values

On June 30, St. Elizabeth’s 1199ers, with support from their union brothers and sisters from nearby facilities, staged a spirited informational picket in front of the home, bringing attention to the facility’s contract crisis and the threat to resident care.

Catholic Charities is pushing to eliminate the longstanding pension for St. Elizabeth caregivers – and for all 2,000 of its Baltimore-area staff. Management at St. Elizabeth’s also wants to stop supporting the joint labor-management training fund, which would make it much harder for workers to obtain the training necessary to advance their careers and provide better care for residents.

“We are out here fighting for fairness,” said Tonya Drummond, a GNA at St. Elizabeth’s. “Without more training, without our pensions we can’t make it. I really want to learn phlebotomy so that I can be a bigger support to the nurses and provide better care to the residents. The training fund could help me achieve my goal.”

At the same time that Catholic Charities has been attacking the training fund, it has been lavishing generous pay and perks on its top executives. In its most recently available IRS 990 form (from 2009), Catholic Charities of Baltimore reported $662,000 in compensation for its outgoing CEO and spent $1.26 million on corporate travel. Though St. Elizabeth’s management has called the fund “an unnecessary drain on its resources,” Catholic Charities saw its endowment grow by 18 percent in 2009 and has real estate holdings and other property valued at $63 million.

The St. Elizabeth contract expired in January, and management has unilaterally imposed pay and benefit changes on the 1199 caregivers. The changes include the suspension of contributions to the training fund and a limited pay raise without any commitment to future increases. But St. Elizabeth’s workers are showing no signs of backing down.

Nicole White, also a GNA and a 10 year veteran of St. Elizabeth’s said the training fund is a vital benefit for St. Elizabeth’s workers, and says she still intends to use the training fund to go to nursing school. “It takes a very special person to become a nurse — it’s hard work that not everyone can do,” White said. “If someone is willing to take on that challenge there should be resources to help them.”