union pro or con

[mark3274]

does your hospital have a union for the nurses? if so has it helped or not?

why do nurses constantly eat each other rather than say have a more powerful labor voice when dealing with all these health care systems or merged hospitals which really means big corporations concerned with one thing there bottom line not your wages.

Don't you think it is sad that in most places in the USA a RN makes less than a dental hygenist....

heck in upstate NY my Hygenist makes over 30 bucks a hour and she started at 29 dollars a hour far more than what a starting RN will make here.

[Not_A_Hat_Person, RN]

I support unionizing if it's done for the right reasons. For instance, I believe that staffing ratios and bans on mandatory overtime should be set in a union contract. I'd like to see unions support national health care (I think SEIU does). I'd like to see them speak out about lack of health care.

I did a clinical at a hospital that voted to strike a year ago. They settled things before the walkout happened. It seemed to be about everything but the patients. From what I heard (and there were posters all over the nurses' lounge), the strike was about the cost of parking, a 1% pay raise, and having to pay 10% of their health insurance premium. Never mind that no one parks for free (it's on a bunch of bus routes and the subway), or that other employees pay 50% of their health insurance premiums. Frankly, if the union wants its members to have free health insurance, they should pay for it. They talked a lot about being disrespected, but didn't specify how they were being disrespected.

[smoke over fire]

I am a union nurse. We negotiate a national contract with all the other unions in our system once every 5 years. This national contract established several things that are positive: 1) Business education for all staff, including nurses, and 2) a partnership program that has management working with staff in a consensus building environment.

So as nurses we get the financial information on how the hospital is doing. We have the numbers and use them to make reasonable wage increases. We also have profit sharing when meeting clinical goals such as promoting referrals for Hgb A1c's and Lipid panels in diabetics.

We also have tons of research, innovation, and committee work that promotes patient care. I think that there has been a misconception that everyone is greedy and looking to make a buck. I feel that even though nursing and management don't always agree, we try our best to make decisions that keep the patient in the center of the argument. I think it's great when we are in a meeting arguing about how we can deliver better patient care. I love tearing apart research & statistics to find truly best practice. And I really believe that the best unions work for transparency across the board. We all benefit from a good union.

I guess the argument would be that it can also be achieved in non union hospitals which is of course, true. It would be a blessing to find a business that listens to employees and offers them trust, job security, as well as fair discipline. It's just in my experience, unions help nurses work together to do this better. Having the union contract means we can take it to an outside mediator and arbitrator when we don't agree, which by the way is cheaper than a lawsuit. We even have PA's , NP's, optometrists, and Midwives in our union. We all work together for better healthcare.

[ILoveRatties]

I work at a hospital where the nurses are unionized. I wouldn't work anywhere withoug a union.

[Iam46yearsold]

We NEED a voice to speak out for us. For too long, nurses have been shamed into silence, accepting whatever hospital administration dishes out, as if asking for fairness in the workplace somehow means you care less about your patients.

It never fails to amaze me that the executives cut vital departments to the bone (ie housekeeping) and expect nurses to pick up the slack. Some even make snide remarks about how they had to make sacrifices to be able to pay the nurses. (Everyone knows that NURSES make the money, not Executives!)

I'm sick of it. But I guess that's how it is here in the US..... Executives make lots of money and when they're too corrupt to keep, you give them a really big severance package!!

Actually as a nurse. Anyone who knows me will tell you I have never been shamed into silence. I have never failed to be an advocate for patients and for what is right. And I do not worry about job security. So what would a union do for me.Except be someone else to answer to. Can not see it.

[jsrRN]

I agree with Latenightnurse

We NEED a voice to speak out for us. For too long, nurses have been shamed into silence, accepting whatever hospital administration dishes out, as if asking for fairness in the workplace somehow means you care less about your patients.

I believe that many non-union nurses are bullied into silence by managers that employ threats and intimidation. New graduates, nurses who are the main breadwinner and foreign nurses are often most at risk. Others who speak up watch as their silent sisters who toe the line get favored treatment (choice of shifts, merit raises, etc.).

In the current economy nurses have good reason to worry about job security. Nurses that do attempt to advocate for their patients and themselves without union protection report being fired for speaking up. Depending on where you live, going across town to another facility may not be an option. Some communities have only one hospital and in other communities, nurses find themselves blackballed at all of the facilities in town.

As a union nurse I really value the ability to speak up and advocate whether to a difficult MD, to the Director of Nursing or to a newspaper or regulatory body without any fear of retribution. I believe that all RNs should have that peace of mind and security.

[Iam46yearsold]

I believe RNs have that peace of mind anyway if they are self conficent in themselves, You can not buy confidence by paying union dues. You either are very self confident are you arent. A crutch isnt going to help you.

[Julia RN]

I don't characterize the power of collective action as a "crutch".

It's great that you are able to be a strong advocate for your patients. Could you agree that your voice would be even stronger, carry more weight, if all the nurses in the institution stood with you?

Not all nurses have your ability. We all excel in different areas. When we come together as a union, we can help those nurses develop their voice- so that all patients benefit- not just those lucky enough to have strong advocates.

We're in this together.

I don't understand the benefit of the "you're on your own" approach in nursing.

[sassijac]

In my 40 + year career as an RN I worked half time in both union and non union hospitals. My most recent and longest stint in one hospital system was in a union and I enjoyed it the most for these reasons.

The union (CNA) was influential in establishing safe nurse patient ratios in all areas of hospital nursing. It protected our rights to bathroom and meal breaks (!!). It protected the right to bid on open positions according to experience and seniority, encouraging promotion from within and eliminating favoritism. It allowed individual staff nurses to speak up about any dangerous practises or practitioners without fear of being fired.

When it was time for layoffs it gave benefits to the most senior employees, who were generally the most experienced and earned the highest salaries.

There were a few times when I hated paying the union dues, generally after a small salary increase and a larger increase in dues. Salaries eventually caught up and outstipped the cost of the union.

I knew I could practise my profession in an atmoshere where patient safety came before hospital profits - and that went a long way towards career satisfaction!

[RN4MERCY]

Definitely "Pro" union, with the caveat, that the union is both a professional association and a labor organization. I am a member of the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee, which is a union that represents only direct care Registered Nurses. Our union leadership is democratically elected and the Board of Directors are all direct care RNs. As members of a professional organization, we monitor and evaluate RN working conditions and the environment of care.

At times it is necessary to take our advocacy beyond the walls of the facilities where we work. Whether it is providing testimony at public hearings, or reporting hospital violations of licensing and patient safety laws, we are protected from unfair retaliation by recalcitrant employers. Collectively, with a unified union voice we are able to initiate actions that are necessary to protect patient safety and public health, like mobilizing to win and defend historic safe staffing laws, or forming the RN Response Network to send registered nurses to hospitals and clinics in the gulf coast after Hurricane Katrina.

We are committed to exposing and removing corporate barriers to patient advocacy, and our ability to provide safe, therapeutic, and competent care to our patients. Direct care RNs have unique, legal accountability for the provision of patient care. CNA/NNOC provides us with the protections and the resources to transform the current health care system that puts the corporate bottom line ahead of the best interests of our patients.

I have been an RN for over 34 years, and to me, nursing is a profession, a vocation, and an exciting and honorable way to earn a living. My colleagues and I spent a few years organizing and building our union at the facility where we work. We met with representatives of a couple of smaller unions and did our homework before making that most important decision: which union best represents its collective membership and adheres to and supports the highest legal and professional standards of patient care? Unfortunately, we found that other unions would have encumbered and interfered with our duty and our right to be patient advocates because they either believed in partnerships with management, aligning themselves with corporate restructuring schemes, and/or they represented a majority of unlicensed service workers with competing and conflicting interests and accountabilities.

Most of my career has been as a non-union RN, but like so many direct care nurses, I was disturbed by dangerous and insidious changes in health care delivery that took control of the environment of care out of the hands of direct care providers. With health care restructuring, lean and mean assembly line/industrial models of care were substituted for proven professional care models. Patients weren't getting the care they deserved and good nurses left the profession as a result of the erosion of professional standards. Many executive nurses aligned themselves with management interests and are complicit in the process that ultimately deskills the profession. They "embrace" and became "champions" of change for change sake and in the process, give up their moral legacy and authority to speak on behalf of the profession.

The most important deciding factor in choosing CNA/NNOC, is the fact that they protect and defend the duty and the right of registered nurses to act in the exclusive interest of patients. We take our practice act seriously, and in the California Code of Regulations, the law states that the competent RN acts as the patient's advocate, "as circumstances require by initiating action to improve healthcare or to change decisions or activities which are against the interests or wishes" of the patient. One of the most important functions of the union is to provide justice on the job.

We won the right to be represented by CNA/NNOC and the past several years of membership have been the most rewarding, significant, and meaningful years of my chosen life's work of nursing practice and patient advocacy. There's an old Native American proverb that states, "As individual fingers we are easily broken, but together we form a mighty and powerful fist." Definitely, CNA/NNOC for me. Pro-nurse, pro-patient! A voice for nurses and a vision for health care.

http://www.GuaranteedHealthcare.org

[lorster]

This is an interesting thread. I am a union nurse and glad of it. Yesterday, i spoke with my state union rep. He was telling me that another hospital in my state which is non union simply dumped their retirement plan. The nurses who have been there for 30 plus years and ready to retire...have nothing. Absolutely nothing. They worked all those years for that. If they would have had a union, that retirement plan would have been protected under the contract and would have been renegotiated with each renewel. Don't think your non union hospital can't do things like this. It happened to a hospital in my state and it can happen to a hospital in yours.

[smoke over fire]

I guess whenever it comes to union pro or con, the answer is... it depends. The basic idea is that any type of organization is only as good as it's members. I can understand some people don't like to be active in "office politics" whether that's as a union or just shared governance (without the legal backup of a labor union).

It's interesting to me an as an active participant it's always the 20% who do the work for the whole. I hope that no matter how you like to work it, you are involved in decisions that affect patient care. If you would like a legal contract that binds the employer to an agreement to work towards quality care - call in a union.

And nurse unions are all different in the ways they operate. We are a different profession now than we were even ten years ago. The nursing shortage is coming closer to being resolved, the economy is in the tank, and national healthcare is on it's way. We will need to figure out how to work towards one goal :Better patient care. Our mortality rates are ridiculous, and we need to get over ourselves. Change from me to we. I choose to do my work & my vocation with my union. Everyone in our union, from the executive leaders down are nurses & I know that nurses can make change together because our nursing union is good at training other nurses to speak up for themselves & their patients.

Nurses need to stand up for each other we can't depend on others to do it for us. And pooling our money together to pay for scholarships, trainings, and people to negotiate my benefits (so I can concentrate on improving my practice) is worth it to me.

[herring_RN, ASN, BSN]

CNA/NNOC History Video - "Taking Care; CNA's first 100 Years"