Can you tell me about starting a union?

[nrsjnet]

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?

[APRN., DNP, RN, APRN, NP]

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

Yes, however, nurses are not cash cows” under the current payor system. The MD's are. Which is why management treats the doc's like star performers with special privileges. A union is all fine and nice to combat todays problems, but I see a bigger picture.

I've been saying for a long time that true change will only happen when nurses are removed from the bundled-bed charges and start charging for their services. Patients come to the hospital to see nurses. If they only needed a Dr., they would get an outpatient procedure and then go on their merry way back home.

Other disciplines do it, PT, OT, ST, SW'r, etc. Why not nurses?

[lindarn]

I just wrote a thread yesterday concerning the same issue. That nurses need to bill for their services, and stop having our professional practice rolled into the room rate, housekeeping, and the complimentary roll of toilet paper.

The reason that the PTB did not want us to bill for our services, is that then nurses can validate our worth in to the PTB, and they can no longer tell us that we do not bring any $$$ into the hospital.

Of course we do. We care for the patients who are paying to be a patient and be cared for.

Of course, the same PTB, are trying their hardest to de-skill our profession, and allow every Tom. Dick and Harry, HS dropout, take over our professional practice.

JMHO and my NY $0.02

Lindarn, RN, BSN, CCRN (ret)

Somewhere in the PACNW

[PinayUSA]

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.

Years ago I had a company that tried to go union on me, we at the time made band uniforms. Everyone was fired..........

[SororAKS, ADN, RN]

I worked with others in 2000 to start one, but with Teamsters. The state I lived in didn't have a state nurses union and the state nurse association was not effective. It can be done (we did) but it was indeed a tedious process. Management was hostile, nurses and nurse assistants afraid, but it got done.