BCT Editorial – 2/22/09

This page was last updated on February 22, 2009.

Stiffed; Editorial; Beaver County Times; February 22, 2009.

As I’ve written elsewhere, I agree it’s wrong the employees are left hanging. They had every right to expect to be paid in a timely fashion for their work.

There are at least two points the editorial ignores, however.

First, the editorial says the employees “actually thought that if they showed up for work and did their jobs that they would be paid.” Isn’t that also true for other creditors owed money by the hospital? For example, do the employees have a greater right to be paid than the vendors who sold goods or services to the hospital? Paying the hospital employees may mean lower payments to other creditors and reduced pay for their employees. As I wrote above, I believe it’s wrong for the hospital employees to be in the position they are. My point is simply to note the editorial isn’t presenting the whole story and there are ripple effects of every action.

Second, the editorial never mentions the employees’ labor union management. I thought one of the roles of labor union management (in this case SEIU) was to guard against situations like this. The editorial never mentions SEIU management apparently failed its members for allowing them to be put in this position.