union pro or con

I am now working at my first non-union hospital in my eight year career and it is the most pleasant and patient-centered working environment I have ever been in.


Selfish and uncaring people do not make good nurses. Generous and selfless people do not make good Union members. Last year, the current President of the National Education Association (teachers union) was asked his opinion on the fact that teachers salaries were getting so high in some schools that they are having to shut down band, choir, and art programs just to keep up with payroll requirements, and he said he would start worrying about their interests when they join his Union.

Unionizing will not result in all the things you think it will and should. If working conditions at your hospital are absolutely intolerable, THEN QUIT! Maybe you haven't heard, but there are more nursing jobs then nurses right now, so it's not like that place is the only job you can ever have. If enough people start quitting, it will force the hospital to make the changes they need to make to keep people. It's called a free-market employment system and it is hated by Union leaders everywhere.


what it means for everyone involved; think about what it means for your patients, not just for you.

Sorry, that is simply not true. Maybe in your hometown they do, but there are many places in the country where nurses can make more than physicians.


Here is something to keep in mind. It's what Union leaders don't want you to think about and will tell you that you shouldn't care about, but if you're a nurse, then you are generous and caring by your very nature, so you won't be able to ignore it:

If you live in an area with a low cost of living, such as upstate NY, then you are going to get paid less than someone who lives and works in Boston or Chicago. To unionize your nurses and strong-arm your hospital in to paying you a wage that is on a par with what nurses in those other cities make, then you have to be prepared to deal with the consequences. If the salaries of all the nurses go up, then hospital bills are going to skyrocket as well. One thing that Unions are good at is promoting mediocrity: you know that crappy nurse who just got fired for being absolutely incompetent and almost killing a few of her patients? If you had a Union, she'd literally have to kill someone before the hospital could get rid of her.

I'm not saying don't unionize. I'm saying think about


I am absolutely a union pro as well. However, as a nurse who is very much involved in hospital finances, there are many information that is not being filtered to the members when collective bargaining are being proposed. For example, since 1996, our nurses received 3% increase per year. What is neglected in the bargaining table as an information is that annually, hospital expenses increases between 6 to 8%. Since the Balanced Budget Act of 1997, hospital payment from Medicare and Medicaid decreased by approximately 12% between 1997 and 2003 alone. New regulations and federal initiatives continues to hit hospitals' bottom line across the United States. Hospitals are closing, in NY alone, 21 hospitals and 48 Nursing Homes have closed since 2000 (HANYS.org, 2008).

In reference to the salary comparison between a nurse and a dental hygienist - it is apples and oranges because RN/LPN benefits are pretty decent and comprises 18% of hospital budget. I cannot say the same thing with dental hygienist if they are working under a private practitioner.

The literature suggests that very few hospitals are operating with sound financial status. The whole healthcare system is in a financial mess, that is why even government implement programs to mitigate the demise of our Medicare program, which hospitals depend on heavily for revenue.