Nursing strike?

tokmom, BSN, RN · Apr 1, 2011

Hi, we just diverted a strike, thanks to managment coming to their senses.

No PTO or vacation. Ours was to be a one day strike. Usually hospitals don't like nurses striking. They have to find coverage and it is negative publicity.

Good luck. I hope you don't end up going that route.

Simply Complicated · Apr 3, 2011

Well hopefully it won't come down to it. I work for a big corporation, and it wouldn't be just one hospital that was on strike. So I imagine it would cost them A LOT of money if it goes that far.

Thanks!

Chico David, BSN, RN · Apr 4, 2011

Has anyone ever worked somewhere that you ended up striking? There is a chance we will end up, it's being talked about. Hopefully it doesn't come down to it though.
I know some people are pretty worried about it though, because of their financial situation. Someone mentioned that there was some sort of government fund that helps out when you are on strike, to help with things like mortgages and other bills. But you have to actually picket.
If you did strike, how long did it last? Did you get PTO pay or anything while you were out?

I've never actually been in a strike, though we did take a strike vote during our negotiations in 2006 and came right to the brink of actually giving notice to strike. In our case, making the threat and getting about a 90% vote of support for the strike made management move enough that we were able to avert it. A strike for a union is sort of like nuclear weapons for a country. Using it is really damaging, but sometimes the threat of using it is a powerful tool. And to make the threat real, management has to believe you really will do it if you have to.

A few more thoughts: Compared to most workers in the history of the labor movement, nurses are a pretty privileged group. We make rather decent salaries and are relatively hard to replace. Back in the early part of the last century a lot of workers struck for decent pay and safer conditions when they were already living on the bare edge of survival and there were plenty of even more desperate people waiting to take their jobs. Missing a few days pay is not actually going to cripple a nurse financially, even though it might seem like it. And in most places, there can be chances to pick up some extra hours ahead or do some agency work and put a few dollars away for a cushion.

One of the keys, long before you get to the point of a strike is that the leadership are communicating well enough with membership that everyone understands what the issues are and why the strike is necessary.

Our union rarely calls an open-ended strike - we usually call a one-day strike, which creates maximum expense and nuisance for management with minimum cost to nurses. Though in recent years, management have learned to respond with about a 3-4 day lockout to prolong the one-day strike, and the agencies that supply scab nurses abet it by a pricing structure that encourages that.

Good luck and know that your unity and supporting your bargaining team are your strongest tools.

jmqphd · Apr 9, 2011

I've never actually been in a strike, though we did take a strike vote during our negotiations in 2006 and came right to the brink of actually giving notice to strike. In our case, making the threat and getting about a 90% vote of support for the strike made management move enough that we were able to avert it. A strike for a union is sort of like nuclear weapons for a country. Using it is really damaging, but sometimes the threat of using it is a powerful tool. And to make the threat real, management has to believe you really will do it if you have to.
A few more thoughts: Compared to most workers in the history of the labor movement, nurses are a pretty privileged group. We make rather decent salaries and are relatively hard to replace. Back in the early part of the last century a lot of workers struck for decent pay and safer conditions when they were already living on the bare edge of survival and there were plenty of even more desperate people waiting to take their jobs. Missing a few days pay is not actually going to cripple a nurse financially, even though it might seem like it. And in most places, there can be chances to pick up some extra hours ahead or do some agency work and put a few dollars away for a cushion.
One of the keys, long before you get to the point of a strike is that the leadership are communicating well enough with membership that everyone understands what the issues are and why the strike is necessary.
Our union rarely calls an open-ended strike - we usually call a one-day strike, which creates maximum expense and nuisance for management with minimum cost to nurses. Though in recent years, management have learned to respond with about a 3-4 day lockout to prolong the one-day strike, and the agencies that supply scab nurses abet it by a pricing structure that encourages that.
Good luck and know that your unity and supporting your bargaining team are your strongest tools.

I appreciate that you mention the fact that strikes are a "nuclear option" and that it's best to avoid if at all possible. I recognize also that we don't operate on the edge of survival pay-wise, and that we have alternatives unlike workers in the early days.

But one thing that you didn't address... am I weird for having moral uncertainties about striking? Please, I'm not trying to be holier than thou. I know management has used the "patient desertion" charge like a club to hammer nurses forever. Then too... if I were not on the schedule, did not have an assignment, by going on strike, I'm not actually putting specific patients at risk.

But if I'd established a relationship with one or more patients, and if I were scheduled to be there for them the next day... I don't think I could look them in the eye and say "Oh, by the way, I won't be here tomorrow, and maybe no one else will be either. But, hey... don't blame me, blame management."

Maybe the deal is that the union works with management to get very sick patients transferred and cancel elective surgeries. But that is almost a tacit admission that striking against hospitals can put patients at risk.

When SIEU was twisting arms trying to organize our hospital, they came to my door and were calling me at my home EVERY damn day. I tried to tell them over and over I was not sympathetic with management, but to leave me alone because I could not join a work action. And as I said on another thread, they were all over the nurses before the vote, but once they had the contract, they've been completely missing in action.

Chico David, BSN, RN · Apr 10, 2011

I appreciate that you mention the fact that strikes are a "nuclear option" and that it's best to avoid if at all possible. I recognize also that we don't operate on the edge of survival pay-wise, and that we have alternatives unlike workers in the early days.
But one thing that you didn't address... am I weird for having moral uncertainties about striking? Please, I'm not trying to be holier than thou. I know management has used the "patient desertion" charge like a club to hammer nurses forever. Then too... if I were not on the schedule, did not have an assignment, by going on strike, I'm not actually putting specific patients at risk.
But if I'd established a relationship with one or more patients, and if I were scheduled to be there for them the next day... I don't think I could look them in the eye and say "Oh, by the way, I won't be here tomorrow, and maybe no one else will be either. But, hey... don't blame me, blame management."
Maybe the deal is that the union works with management to get very sick patients transferred and cancel elective surgeries. But that is almost a tacit admission that striking against hospitals can put patients at risk.
When SIEU was twisting arms trying to organize our hospital, they came to my door and were calling me at my home EVERY damn day. I tried to tell them over and over I was not sympathetic with management, but to leave me alone because I could not join a work action. And as I said on another thread, they were all over the nurses before the vote, but once they had the contract, they've been completely missing in action.

I'd be worried about any nurse who didn't have some qualms about striking. It ought to be rare. It ought not to be done lightly. It ought to be reserved for the most extreme situations. But if we are going to claim to be a profession, we also have to have some bottom line standards we won't go below. And when management is just determined to push you below that bottom line, what else do you do? Good nurse unions that strike do a lot to protect patients. By law, we have to give a 10 day notice. And we always offer to work with management on which patients ought to be transferred, discharged, etc. (management always refuses that offer). And we always offer that during the strike, if there is a patient in the hospital who can not be cared for with the resources that they have on hand, all they have to do is contact us and we will send in a nurse with the skills to care for that patient. They always refuse that too - it's more important to management to maintain the fiction that the strike has not really affected them than it is to get patients cared for.

All unions are not equal. After a period of open warfare, my union came to a peace agreement with SEIU, so we officially get along. But that hasn't changed my personal opinion of them any. There are plenty of unions, unfortunately, who just see members as a source of dues. For RNs, the various unions that have grown out of the state nursing associations and that are run by and for nurses are the best bet. At least most of them.

jmqphd · Apr 10, 2011

We have two hospitals in our town. One organized by SEIU, the other by CNA. Nursing in our town has gotten tougher and tougher, more and more stressful. One union is corrupt, the other seems impotent. I know of a couple of instances where union reps have assisted nurses who were being unfairly terminated. So they might have helped on the margins.

Really, I have no sympathy for management... they often deserve whatever the unions dish out. I've just never seen nurses come out ahead with contracts and I have seen them hurt because they were locked into a poorly negotiated contract for years and years.

The union paradigm grew out of the early 20th C struggle of abused immigrant workers and robber baron manufacturers. The work rules, minimum wages and so forth made sense in that context. It is a collectivist, blue-collar response to a cog-in-the-great-impersonal-wheel, assembly line grind.

Where I see our profession making steady strides is at the state level, where nursing organizations hire lobbyists and confront lawmakers with patient-outcome research data, and use publicists to promote their bills and so forth. In our legislature, SIEU has their money pursuing their best interests, not ours.

It's a tedious, long-range approach to advancing our profession. It doesn't have the immediate pay off that a union contract appears to have. But I think, at the end of the day this is where we will best protect nursing and patient welfare.

Simply Complicated · Jul 15, 2011

Not sure if anyone is watching this or not. But thought I would update. Our union reached a contract at 2 am the morning we were scheduled for our authorization vote. We are voting to ratify the contract next week.

It was pretty close, they had done a general tally and it seemed the vote was in favor of striking.

mdfog10 · Jul 16, 2011

Congratulations!!!! In my experience it takes a "yes" strike vote to get management to take the nurses seriously.They think they can wear you down and you will quit and go away. At my hosptial we recently settled a two year contract! at the start of bargaining managment had hired a attorney from a known union busting law firm. they opened with trying to take away 20 years worth of contract gains. In the end we held firm and settled a contract with NO TAKEAWAYS!. We have to stand up for our practice, our profession and our contracts!

Simply Complicated · Jul 16, 2011

Congratulations!!!! In my experience it takes a "yes" strike vote to get management to take the nurses seriously.They think they can wear you down and you will quit and go away. At my hosptial we recently settled a two year contract! at the start of bargaining managment had hired a attorney from a known union busting law firm. they opened with trying to take away 20 years worth of contract gains. In the end we held firm and settled a contract with NO TAKEAWAYS!. We have to stand up for our practice, our profession and our contracts!

Are you sure you aren't at my hospital lol. Sounds exactly the same they tried to do to us.