Proclaiming this Council's support for the collective bargaining rights of the striking Red Cross workers and calling upon the Red Cross to resume good faith bargaining with the union in order to settle the contract in a manner that protects the health and safety of the workers, the donors and the blood supply and to submit any deadlocked bargaining issues to binding arbitration.

WHEREAS, The City of Philadelphia supports the right of all workers to better wages and health care and recognizes that paying workers livable wages and respecting their collective bargaining rights helps develop sustainable communities that use those earnings to support local businesses; and

WHEREAS, The 250 registered nurses and donor collection assistants who work the front lines of blood donation at the Blood Services Division of the American Red Cross Penn-Jersey Region work hard each day to support their families; and

WHEREAS, Their employer, the American Red Cross, is currently embroiled in more than two dozen labor disputes with unions representing its workers across the nation, resulting in scores of unfair labor practice charges pending against Red Cross in a number of states; and

WHEREAS, The 250 local Red Cross workers are represented by Local 5103 of the Health and Allied Employees, AFT, AFL-CIO. These workers reluctantly went out on strike on May 24, 2011 after a 13 hour negotiating session failed to produce a settlement; and

WHEREAS, From the first day of labor negotiations, the Red Cross demanded that these workers waive their collective bargaining rights over their health care benefits. In response, Local 5103 offered to take the issue of health care coverage off the table and submit it to binding arbitration in an effort to avoid a strike. When the Red Cross refused to submit the issue to arbitration , the union filed unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board and reluctantly voted to strike; and

WHEREAS, The Philadelphia City Council strongly urges all businesses to respect its employees' rights under the National Labor Relations Act to organize and to bargain collectively; now therefore

RESOLVED, BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, That this Council proclaims its support for the collective bargaining rights of the striking Red Cross workers.

RESOLVED FURTHER, That this Council calls upon the Red Cross to resume good faith bargaining with the union in order to settle the contract in a manner that protects the health and safety of the workers, the donors and the blood supply and to submit any deadlocked bargaining issues to binding arbitration.

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