Can you tell me about starting a union?

Nurses Union

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My hospital is going through some major changes to include a complete turnover of management. Nurses are leaving due to unhappiness and unsafe conditions. Would a union help if I could help start one and how can I get one started?

Hey, Laborer, I meant that it will cost them money and they won't be able to buy more hospital chains. They warn the new employees at our hospital on their orientation. they tell them" If you don't like it here then go somewhere else" and the guy who gives the speech is or says he is an ex union dude for 20 years. No, I have no sympathy for hospitals. I worked at this particular hospital for the last ten years and was well liked and one of the senior nurses, did all the specialties, took the sickest. They need a wakeup call. We were told by the CNA that once we call for a union vote that the hospital was not allowed to change policy until it was over and if the union got in then no changes unless approved by the union board. The big cheese made a big show of coming around and jotting all of our wishes on her blackberry and all we got was ONE PCT for a 40 bed ICU!!!! And she, the PCT left 6 months later!!!! Now that I don't work there, I'd like to organize it. Can't fire me now. k

Nurses need to learn that they have the power. Nothing to fear but fear itself! Look at the Police, the Firemen, the teachers. Nurses are at least as important as those careers and anyone of them would agree. k

Don't worry! I am MAD! I gave my all to that place. I saved them from lawsuits all the time from disgruntled families by defusing the situation. I represented them in the best possible light-all of us did. I was so tired of there questionaires and Gallup crap and then nothing happened. My boss, who I liked was always begging us to fill out the polls and we were like,"why?" nothing ever changes, just increase the workload. They were having about 48 percent of staff doing the Gallup. And why not? Same poll for last 7 years and no changes. I'd love to see them bend to a union. Nothing has changed either in the 6 months since I left. I keep up with my friends. In fact getting ready to increase the pt ratio. The time is ripe, I'd say. k

Specializes in Pedi.
Question: I've seen 2 comments so far stating that Hospitals are anti-union, as they should be. Could someone explain to me why they should be? I know they are for their own good, but what other reasons do you know of. Does anyone think they should not become union and why?

Hospitals are anti-union because it takes away some of their power. In non-union hospitals, what administration says goes. If administration decides that positions are being cut, that there won't be raises this year, that shift differentials are going away, etc. (and all of the above happened during the time I was at my former hospital), it just happens. In a union facility, those things don't just happen.

I want to start a nurses union for the state of Georgia. I will have to wait until I retire because I know I might possibly be killed in the hospital parking lot by a ninja management team if I don't. If I started talking union today at work I would be fired tomorrow. End of story.

Specializes in Med-Surg, OB, ICU, Public Health Nursing.

It is against federal law to discriminate based on union activity. Proving it is another matter so I always recommend those nurses still on probation, wait until they are off probation. SEIU also represents 85,000 RNs in 21 states. There are geographical issues on which union has which jurisdiction. When I hear nurses on this site talking about $20 per hour and I retired from a union job making $60 + an hour, with a pension, I wonder why all nurses aren't unionized?

Kind of reminds you the deep South after the Civil War. When those uppity slaves wanted to do things like send their children to school, wanted to vote. Drink out of the same fountains as whites. They all went berserk over the idea of slaves being free.

The PTB, are reacting to the, "slaves wanting to revolt". They are terrified of losing control over their cash cows- Nursing staff. THAT is the real issue here. They are terrified at the though of nurses having control over their working conditions, pay, benefits, staffing ratios, etc.

THAT is how nurses should approach all negotiations with management. Realizing that the PTB do not want to lose control.

JMHO and my NY $0.02

Lindarn, RN, BSN, CCRN (ret)

Somewhere in the PACNW

I work at a hospital where there is an RN union and the ancillary staff just voted one in too. For those looking to organize, I wouldn't go with SEIU. It's my union and it's very weak and not worth the money. The network of hospitals I work for have a lot of issues, and the union is part of it. That being said, find a union that knows nursing and nurses and how to deal with hospital management.

Specializes in Med-Surg, OB, ICU, Public Health Nursing.

Any union is only as good as it's active members. The structure is there but the members have to drive the issues.

Specializes in Hospice.

I want to second the previous post. The point of a union is to band together to negotiate the terms of the employee/employer relationship - aka collective bargaining. Your employer has the money and the collective power of the corporation on it's side. Unions are intended to even the playing field, allowing both sides to work from a position of strength. If a Union is weak, it's usually because of freeloaders who want the benefits of a union contract with no effort or risk on their own part. So-called right-to-work laws weaken unions by encouraging people to take a free ride on union workers' backs.

If you are unhappy with the performance of your union, change it. Neither your union nor your employer is going to do for you if you can't be bothered to do for yourself.

Make it a closed shop, to prevent freeloader.

Lindarn, RN, BSN, CCRN (ret)

Somewhere in the PACNW

And don't forget to call the NNOC to start a union organizing campaign.

Lindarn, RN, BSN, CCRN

Somewhere in the PACNW

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