wfn.org | National Council of Churches Settles Labor Dispute with Employees

[PCUSA.NEWS@pcusa.org]

3-January-1997 
 
 
96481      National Council of Churches Settles Labor  
                      Dispute with Employees 
 
                          by Tracy Early 
                  Ecumenical News International 
 
NEW YORK--The National Council of Churches (NCC) has made concessions to 
settle a dispute with its staff union over job cutbacks. 
 
          The NCC -- whose 32 member churches represent 49 million American 
Anglican, Protestant and Orthodox Christians -- is the most influential 
ecumenical organization in the United States. 
 
          The concessions by the NCC should bring to an end difficulties 
which reached a head in August with the abolition of eight jobs.  The cuts 
followed more than a year of discussion. 
 
          Joan Brown Campbell, NCC general secretary, and Jane Lowicki, 
president of the Association of Ecumenical Employees, announced on Nov. 21 
that they reached agreement at a meeting held after a day of hearings 
before an arbitrator. 
 
          The union had invoked a contract provision for arbitration after 
the NCC announced on Aug. 8 that it was dismissing eight support staff and 
contracting to have the jobs done by outside companies, a procedure called 
"outsourcing." 
 
          Lowicki said the work was contracted out to non-union companies 
that did not provide benefits to their employees. The union, she said, had 
agreed to the elimination of a few jobs that would give the NCC necessary 
savings, while continuing to have the work done by union members.  If the 
union had not objected, further contracting might have caused the loss of 
more jobs, she said. 
 
          While some of the dismissed workers would be able to resume their 
jobs, other older workers would remain in retirement, she said.  But an 
agreement by Campbell to give recognition to those permanently retired at 
some "appropriate social function" would serve to restore the dignity lost 
in their abrupt dismissals, Lowicki said. Union members had claimed that 
although the NCC publicly supported labor rights in policy statements, in 
practice it treated its own lower-level employees with less personal 
consideration than would a business corporation. 
 
          Lowicki said the NCC had probably decided to make the settlement 
because after the union presentation on the first day of arbitration, NCC 
officials foresaw the possibility the arbitrator might impose more 
demanding conditions on the organization. 
 
          Clifford Droke, the NCC's financial officer, told ENI that the 
NCC made concessions to avoid "a lengthy and quite expensive arbitration 
process." He added that the NCC would not now be able to save the $500,000 
a year he expected under the original plan, but would still realize 
substantial savings. 
 
          Lowicki said the agreement would serve to overcome the 
"demoralized" feelings of union workers as they dealt with grievances 
regarding health care and other issues.  

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