Good Samaritan and San Jose Regional Medical Center RNs Approve Contract

The question is not whether unions are good or bad, but WHAT unions are good and work for the interests of the direct care RN's.
I am not a unionized nurse, but we have to realize the incredible power discrepancy in our work places.
Administrations have all the power, nurses have very little.
This healthcare industry would replace us at the bedside in a heartbeat if they could, and continue endlessly in their efforts to do so.
For example, nursing faculties (many) have been unionized for decades, and no one questions their professionalism. Airline pilots are unionized and no one questions their professionalism.

Nursing has an ethical obligation to be patient advocates, not just at the "point of care", but globally as well.

We can barely maintain our ability to be bedside advocates as it is, and we have certainly failed to be global advocates. Our "associations" are clearly aligned with the administrations. The AONE, in fact, is a chapter of the AHA.
Just looking at the amount of money this group spends to lobby, I mean bribe, our elected officials is mind boggling. Why do you think they do that?

If we, as nurses, are to have any chance of countering these intentions, and to regain control of our practice domains, we have to be organized. Our ONLY political strength is in our numbers.

To my knowledge, there is only one group that has succeeded in countering these profit driven systems, and that is the CNA/NNOC.

I strongly urge all nurses to join and support this NNOC movement, and to move beyond this negative rhetoric about unionization. Just look at the consistency in what few nursing surveys are out there. The staffing ratio situation, particularly on the MS and Tele floors is beyond belief in many, many facilities.

This is not about union states or right-to-work (sic) states, it is about preserving and strengthening the reasons we went into nursing in the first place: to take care of our patients like we were taught to.

No one else seems to give a damn.