CEO's/Hosp.'s making millions off of our work:(

[sassyspot]

I've been a nurse for many years and have been through many nursing shortages (that's right history does indeed repeat itself over and over again). The one thing that all of these nursing shortages have in common is the fact that not once has the shortage resulted in bringing nurses together to form collective bargaining units to increase their wages. Each time this has happened the hospital organizations and thier investors and Ceo's have come out filthy rich. The nurses on the otherr hancdo not even see a decent increase in pay. This is sad, since these hospitals co function uld not without us! Maybe it's time for nurses to come to grips with their self esteem issues and seek help for professional organizing. These hospital Corp. do not care one bit to put you in a position of overwork, underpay and just sheer exhaustion- to the point that you become dangerous and then abandon you when you make a mistake. Theses organizations do not care who you are or what you do, as long as you are a warm body generating revenue for them. How many nurses have you heard of that make million dollar salaries for doing the work that we do? Maybe it's time for Nurse/Healthcare worker owned and operated facilities! Removing the greedy CEO's and boards of director would absolutely change the direction of our profession and institutions. After all these Corp. are Never to bi to fail and they couldn't even operate if we as a group would stick together. Our profession has tried all other options, why not try collective/group bargaining?:)

[No Stars In My Eyes]

WHEW!

[herring_RN, ASN, BSN]

seasoned_traveler,

Yeah, that is terrible. According to the cost-of-living calculator, the difference from CA to OH is more like 25% than 50% so yeah that would be quite a pay-cut. I am sure there are other variables in terms of what nurses actually are paid when it comes down to it.

TheCommuter is right about the southern states like TX. I took a TX Government class and it is well known that the culture in TX is very much anti-union. I must be honest that I personally have never felt the need to unionize. Perhaps if I am given the opportunity to actually be a nurse somewhere, I may change my mind. Frankly I can see both sides of the equation. Theoretically, institutions or companies that do not treat their employees fairly would not be competitive due to very high turnover rates. As a case-in-point, consider SouthWest Airlines. They were they only profitable airline for like... I don't know a decade or more? And they are one of the only ones (maybe the only one?) that are non-union. They have very low turn-over rates which obviously benefits their operations. Maybe hospital's are different- I don't know. Just taking a contrarian view here I guess.... my 2 cents!

Regards,

LW

I remembered seeing union buttons on Southwest employees during their contract negotiations a few years ago so looked it up.

Southwest Airlines Flight Attendants' Union Ratifies Boeing 737-800 Tentative Agreement « Nuts About Southwest!

[Chisca, RN]

... I really wonder what things are going to look like ten years from now...

Robots.

[duskyjewel]

Unfortunately you're probably right.