By Michael Motes

Labeling the Rev. Hosea Williams of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) a “chronic, pathological liar,” Alex W. Smith, a member of the Board of Trustees and general counsel of Holy Family Hospital, stated that the employees’ strike at the hospital “could have been settled long ago had not Williams interfered.”

A group of former employees of the hospital, one of three Catholic hospitals in the archdiocese, currently are picketing the downtown office of Paul Brown, chairman of the Board of Trustees and vice president of the Citizens and Southern Bank. The protestors are demanding Brown’s resignation from the hospital board.

Brown said Tuesday: “It’s a serious problem within the community. I don’t know what the answer will be. It’s a regretful situation which a bunch of former employees have caused. They can, in effect, bring down a hospital. The doctors are not putting patients at Holy Family because the patients don’t want to go to the hospital because of the turmoil involved. I think the entire matter could be resolved if Hosea Williams would step out of the picture, which he has elected not to do.”

The strike could have ended two weeks ago according to Alex Smith. At that time members of the board negotiated for six hours with representatives of the discharged employees.”

At 2 a.m. Walter Gaines, representing the striking workers, stated that he thought the matter was settled,” said Smith. “We all left – the doctors, the trustees, Gaines and his crowd—thinking that the thing was over. Then Williams met with them outside the hospital and apparently talked them out of a settlement. He had previously met with the administration and at that time indulged in insulting and disgraceful language.

“After that meeting, we have heard nothing form Gaines or Williams. The picketing continues and none of the employees have returned back to work.”

Lee F. Nichols, administrator of Holy Family, has been charged by Hosea Williams with placing the picketing blacks on leave of absence without pay because they had tried to form a labor union at Holy Family. Say Williams: “Nichols says that the employees were put on leave of absence because there were no patients in the intensive care ward, where the majority of discharged employees formerly worked. But this is not the real reason. There have been 40 times in the past when there were no patients in intensive care and no one has been dismissed. Eleven out of the twelve employees dismissed were involved in trying to form a union at Holy Family.”

The former employees have organized a group called the Holy Family Employees for Better Working Conditions. Elected spokesman for the group is Patricia Ivey, a registered nurse who had been employed at the hospital almost two years before her dismissal last March 13.

“We are eager for the strike to end,” said Miss Ivey. “But it will not end until our demands are met.”

As they picket, the Holy Family Employees for Better Working Conditions are distributing mimeographed sheets which list their demands as follows:

“1. All employees be reinstated and receive ALL back pay immediately, with all criminal charges dropped and all mention of their involvement in this labor dispute be deleted from their personnel file.

“2. Eight representatives of the Hospital’s Grievance Committee merge with eight representatives of the Holy Family Employees for Better Working Conditions and form a temporary Grievance Committee for the purpose of: (1) handling employee grievances; (2) developing an employee policy statement: and (3) when an air of tranquility will allow, organize and conduct an open, fair election of an employee leadership group. Winner will take all, and the two previously mentioned groups will dissolve completely and support the leadership in an open, fair election.”

“We HAVE met their demands,” states Smith. “We have offered all discharged employees the opportunity to return to work on two separate occasions, but they will not return.

“We have met their demands, but they have not accepted it. We’ve offered to return all employees to work. What else can we do?

“It’s extremely frustrating,” he said. “This is a new low for Hosea Williams. If he would step aside, perhaps we could accomplish something.”

Both the Rev. Williams and Miss Ivey feel that the time has come for the Catholic Church to become involved in the dispute. They now plan to picket Archbishop Thomas Donnellan.

“We feel that the Catholic Church can settle this dispute,” said Miss Ivey. “So why should we disarm before we reach a settlement?”

“The Catholic Church is the only hope left, especially the Medical Mission Sisters,” said the Rev. Williams. “This is the only thing we can resort to now. We will now make a strenuous effort to negotiate through the sisters, who still own the hospital. We also plan a ‘sympathy’ picket of Archbishop Donnellan because he represents the Catholic Church in Atlanta and he is a member of the Community Relations Board.

“The Catholic Church has a wonderful opportunity to show they are equally as concerned about saving black souls as white souls,” Williams continued. “And to save the souls of poor people as well as rich people. These poor people who have been fired are poor people Jesus worked among. The Catholic Church is sitting idly by while these poor people are being crucified.”

Sr. Jane Pellowski of the Society of Catholic Medical Missionaries, a world-wide religious order of registered nurses and doctors which established the hospital in Atlanta, declined to comment in depth when telephoned by the BULLETIN. She did say this: “The claims of Hosea Williams and the propaganda which his group has been distributing are so exorbitantly bad—so gross –that any person in his right mind could not believe them. One day we (the sisters) will have our day in the press, but we are not ready to make a statement now because the entire situation is so inane.”

(The “propaganda” to which Sr. Jane referred are the hand-outs distributed by the pickets.)

From all reports there appears to be no foreseeable end to the dispute.