Strike breaking agency recruiting nurses

nicurn001 · Apr 26, 2012

the above borders on childish. i see nothing childish were people from one area are imported by employers in order to drive down the wages of people in another area . isn't that the basis upon which some advocate immigration controls ?( of which i am not one! )
closing down hospitals in response to rn strikes is simply not feasible. someone has to take care of patients during a strike - they aren't factory tools - and even though someone does take care of them, strikes are still very effective.i am simply saying this is an option , if there are other hospitals that can take in these patients , then it is an option! maybe unpalatable , true but it is there .
you have a very rose colored view of post ww2 era labor relations as they relate to middle class prosperity (no i think that because the employees felt that through ensuring they were an active electorate and were adequately represented in negotiations with their employers , they believed in the american dream and thought it attainable , do we now ?). the us was the world's ultimate and utterly( eventually) unchallenged military, economic, and manufacturing superpower. it isn't difficult to have a thriving middle class in the postwar 1940s. (as long as you were white).but is it possible to maintain a thriving economy without a thriving middle class

some here think if we continue the trickle down economy all will be well ,how is that working for you ?. often i hear the opinion that those strong unions have brought the economy to its knee , yet the economy is 90% non unionized so maybe we are looking in the wrong direction to find the cause of our economic distress.

kcmylorn · May 6, 2012

Made in America used to mean something. It stood for quality. We used to have good work ethics, personal integrity, stand up for our rights, and beliefs. We used to know right from wrong. Truth and fairness used to mean something. We used to have employer who treated their employees with fairness and according to the labor laws instead of finageling around the law.

We used to have an "honest days work for an honest days pay" Now whe have "the least anount of work for the most amount of money"

All that does not mean anything anymore. Parents used to teach their kids right from wrong. They used to know where their kids were and what they were doing.

There was no movie character standing up proclaiming"greed is good" idolizing the dishonest demi gods of Wall Street which seems to have influenced a generation. And that generation has grown up and is now adminstering the rules and power( hospital administrator, HR personnel, and yes, nursing managers)and slowly changing the laws to suit themselves. Who in the public eye now a days do we have as a positive role model?? Kim Kardashan?? We put these plastic people, throwing tantums over mascara and looks like she could breast feed a entire continent in the daily public eye and watch then waste millions of dollars on a wedding that last 72 days. This is a sociology problem.

Quality care- that is an oxymoron, the great forifice in today's healthcare industry. Any one with any common sense knows there's no quality care going on with the staffing levels and lack of experienced nurses staffing those units today. It doesn't take an advanced degree to figure that out.

The shame and criminal responsibility needs to fall on the CEO's, adminstration and nursing executives who continue to keep this situation going. I can 100% understand nurses going on stike-who are the 2 groups hurt by these shotty business practices-nurses risking their licenses and patients on the recipient end of this holy mess. I can understand nurses signing up with these agencies to work these strikes. They too need paychecks. The villians are the CEO' and administrators. Has any of the CEO's( Kaiser in SanFrancisco- female cancer patient died) that have forced these strikes that have had sentinel patient events been prosecuted and held responsible for their poor decision making and his inability to get along with his staff?

The CEO and administrators sit in their beautiful offices picking their noses calling their personal accountants for the latest market value oftheir stock portfolios. There is no CEO worth millions in a yearly salary-there is no MBA who is robbing from the patients decent care, poaching from the federal government funding for the hospital and poaching from the insurance companies worth that kind of money.. There just isn't any fool with that much "talent"!! These boards of directors and trustees need to be put in the jail cells with these adminstrators. They are grotesgue distortions of a human being. Where's that paddy wagon I asked for months ago!! My dream job!!

sharonp30 · Dec 8, 2012

So years ago when Southern Bell was a separate company from AT&T, a directory assistance operator made really good money and also had great benefits. My Mom worked there, and I remember when they went on strike. I kept wondering what it meant, I went to the picket line with my Mom a few times, these ladies were serious about line breakers. There were cops being called, fruit and veggies being thrown, it was a bad scene. These DA operators would have friends and family repeatedly call 411 with off the wall requests, just to cause havoc. I am under the impression that the union endorsed all of these actions. I was a young girl then, but it did give me an idea of the good and the bad of unions. In the end, Southern Bell agreed to most of the demands. Looking back, I don't even know how they leveraged SB as they were a monopoly. Yes, it was that long ago. I just wonder, even now what is going through a persons mind as they cross that picket line. I'm sure it is not a fun experience. I try to be objective and think that if they have kids at home, and this is the only work they can find? I just don't know. I hope I am never in that position. There aren't many things that I wouldn't do to care for my kids, it's just really hard to say. I just don't think I could step through my fellow healthcare workers who are not only fighting for themselves, they are fighting for patient safety in a healthcare system that is as corrupt as the Government that created it. A system where greed is good. A system where healthcare is a business, that is just crazy.

Orca, ADN, ASN, RN · Dec 13, 2012

The hospitals can always find enough money to pay top dollar to strike breakers, but pull the empty pockets routine at new contract time!

This is the thing that has always fried me about hospitals in labor disputes. The hospitals are willing to pay strike breakers far more than the unions are asking for just to avoid giving them a fair contract. I would never sign up fir such duty. It only harms the profession over the long run, and it isn't worth the personal short-term gain.

Overland1, RN · Dec 13, 2012

It's free enterprise... if somebody has a family (or self) to support, they can and should do whatever they are able to do, within the law, of course ). The nurse who "breaks" a strike may find her tires cut and/or herself assaulted, but that is what some unions are about. Those who perpetrate such crimes against any person or property deserve to find themselves in the "system" for their chosen actions. The problem is that of public opinion, which is (more recently) turning away from unions and strikes, especially in the cases of those who are expected to provide care. The old lines about "brought you the weekends" and "coal mines" just fail to resonate well anymore, so more extreme methods may (unfortunately) seem justified to some.

If somebody else chooses to not work, then that is OK for them as well, as long as they are not a drain on society. I am pro-choice, supporting and practicing my right to choose since my very first job. If I don't like my job, I will, as a free agent, find something else to do.