Voodoo Rules in 80% of Mass Nursing Homes

It’s not a typical union-management battle: One of the
nation’s largest nursing home companies is charging that some Haitian
workers at its Wakefield facility voted to form a union because they
believed if they did not, a co-worker would use voodoo against them.

Harborside Healthcare at Wakefield cq, a nursing and rehabilitation
center, formally objected to the workers’ recent vote to unionize, saying
an
employee, Marie Chery cq, threatened co-workers who refused to vote for
the union with voodoo, possibly swaying the election.

The battle comes as Haitian religious leaders and advocates are aggressively
seeking to improve working conditions in nursing homes. Advocates say
Haitians make up about 80 percent of nursing home employees throughout
greater Boston, and their workplaces have become a key battleground
for union organizers.

‘They lost the election 2 to 1 so they had to trump up charges," Celia
Wcislo, president of Local 2020, said to the angry crowd of about 75
that circled outside 1 Beacon St., the site of a Harborside corporate
office. Some protesters carried signs that said ”Voodoo doesn’t win
elections. Workers do."

Ah, but thousands of impoverished workers motivated by Voodoo, now that’s
a prescription for winning elections! Just ask Papa Doc, if you have
a line to the hereafter.

Actually, this
Voodoo stuff might work out well for the nursing home industry. We
can see it now, competition for patients based on the power and majesty
of the competing voodoo priests and priestesses. "Tutuba’s Golden Autumn
Rest Home features a personal and long-standing arrangement with Ogou
Balanjo (voodoo Spirit of Healing) to protect all our patients from the
dreaded Baron Samedi (Guardian of the Grave.)"

Full disclosure – In our own personal
hierarchy of Caribbean cults, we have always preferred Rastafarianism
to Voodoo. Note to children: make sure we end up in a Rasta Rest Home,
por favor. Jah, out….

from the Boston Globe