AFFILIATED WITH NATIONAL & STATE AMERICAN FEDERATION OF
LABOR & CONGRESS OF INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATIONS

Local 888 UFCW and The Workers From Cardinal McCloskey Services Rally

On a cold rainy day, UFCW # 888 held a press conference at the headquarters of Cardinal Mc Closky Services in White Plains to complain that the administration was not cooperating with the desire of workers to join a union. Cardinal McClosky cares for people who are mentally retarded or have a developmental disability at 13 locations in Westchester County, Rockland County and the Bronx. It is affiliated with the Catholic Church's Archdiocese of New York.

Christina Clausen, the union's director of organizing, said that more than 70 percent of the 125 counselors had signed cards indicating they wanted to belong to the union. She said that she had asked the employer to be neutral but it seems they have opted for an anti-union position. She reminded the agency that the Catholic Church has always taken the stand that workers have the right to organize and pointed that Cardinal Egan, himself, had once been a union member.

Along with the workers of McClosky Services at the press conference were: two Vice President of the Westchester/Putnam Central Labor Body, Organizing Chairman of the New York City Central Labor Body, members of IUPAT DC 9; CWA # 1103; RWDSU # 338, UFCW # 1500 and other UFCW locals from the New York area. All promised to stand behind the workers in their fight to unionize.