Private unions almost non-existent in Lebanon County

Cedar Haven Healthcare Center workers had a thriving union when they were employees of Lebanon County. Less than four years after Cedar Haven was privatized, though, the union had disbanded – broken by an unsuccessful strike against the facility’s ownership.

In retrospect, that perhaps shouldn’t have been a surprise. Like most of the United States, unions in Lebanon County today are almost entirely limited to the public sector.

We took a look at union membership in Lebanon County, how locals feel about organized labor, and why its unions have lost most of their influence.

Major employers go without

Union members and their families total about 10,000 Lebanon County residents, or about 14 percent of the county’s population and slightly above the state average, according to the AFL-CIO.

The vast majority of those, though, are in the public sector. For the Harrisburg-York-Lebanon combined statistical area, nearly 40 precent of public-sector employees are union members but just 5.5 percent of private-sector workers have a union membership, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry.

Lebanon County’s major private employers are not unionized:

• Bell & Evans, the largest private employer in the county and second overall behind the federal government, declined an interview request. However, the Lebanon Daily News is not aware of any union representation at the Fredericksburg organic chicken giant. Company leadership had previously touted what it considers a generous compensation package for employees, including employee health care premium contributions of just $30 per week.
• The county’s next two largest private employers – WellSpan Good Samaritan Hospital and WellSpan Philhaven – do not have any unionized workers, according to spokeswoman Cindy Stauffer.
• Walmart, the county’s fourth-largest private employer, has long resisted efforts to unionize,