Unions

Nurses Union

Published

  1. Are you a member of a nursing union?

    • 57
      Yes, and proud of it
    • 10
      Yes, but I hide the fact
    • 123
      No

190 members have participated

I was just wondering peoples views on Unions, from reading other posts I got the inpression that unions are not a standard thing. One of my lectures this semester was two of the big nursing unions came in and gave us informations, so we could join. They are even willing to cover us as students.

What does everyone else think about unions?

WHAT??? Why should we have to correct one thing before we are allowed to correct another? Why cant we correct several simultaneously? Why should students have to wait for those corrections before they can begin their studies? Why should we have to wait at all?

We're doing it all AT THE SAME TIME.

And why cant we do it while new students are in school learning to be nurses? And when they come out of school as we begin to retire, they will have better conditions than we did because we corrected those problems while they were studying.

Dont you know about the Patient Safety Act? The RN Staffing Act? The Mandatory OT Bill? and all the rest of the Safe Staffing Campaign legislation that is before Congress & is where the education bill youre talking about came from?

Sorry W, but your speculation, perspective, and opinion on things is just that & is not shared by everyone.

JT, as I have said in the past. What legislation do you think will get through congress first and without objection, legislation which will benefit the CEOs and the American Hospital Association or legislation that will cost them?

You are all over this board talking about how the CEOs are ignoring nurses while at the same time filling their pockets with money. You talk about how the demands of nurses are going ignored in strike after strike.

Do you think these people and group is going to lay down silently and let legislation pass which will in effect take money out of their pocket? Decreased nurse to patient ratios will take money out of their pockets. Even with decreased nurse to patient ratios that does not address the need for more staffing on the part of support and ancillary staff.

If you read my other topic where I point out how legislation against mandatory OT along with this legislation would actually benefit CEOs, then you would not have brought it up.

Let's not just stop there. There is also legislation that will increase the limits on foreign nurses that is active. CEOs and the AHA are actively pushing it.

We have already heard from Filipino nurses on this very bulletin board that there is a surplus of nurses there. So do not try and tell everyone that is not a reality that we will have to deal with as well.

According to reports the nurses at and around the Cleveland Clinic have already had to face that reality as well as it's affects.

JT, you are so good at talking double talk. Now whose side are you actually on the nurses or the ANA? It sounds like you are trying to play for both sides and in this situation the side that stands to loose is that of the experienced bedside nurse.

JT you ask:

"WHAT??? Why should we have to correct one thing before we are allowed to correct another? Why cant we correct several simultaneously? Why should students have to wait for those corrections before they can begin their studies? Why should we have to wait at all?

We're doing it all AT THE SAME TIME."

JT there is a basic lack of logic here on your part and the ANA's. If it was all coming together under one bill it would be a different story, but it is not. It is not "at the same time as you say". Do you remember way back when I said things need to follow a set order to insure that things are done right inorder to obtain the best results? You know 1, 2, 3, 4, ... and not 4, 2, 5, 1. I said that if things were not done in order that it could actually be counter productive and actually back fire against nurses.

Do you remember me saying that if the problems were fixed that some of the legislation might not be needed at all?

Do you remember me saying that by running to congress instead of allowing nurses to fix the problems that the first thing they were going to jump on was legislation to recruit more nurses as they have done in every other nursing shortage?

Do you remember me saying that this legislation would fly through but that the other legislation would crawl through, if it made it through at all?

FYI, the rest of the legislative packet is also in Congress so yes several things can be done at the same time and are - including fighting against the AHA on increasing importation of foreign trained nurses. The American HOSPITAL Association has MILLIONS to wage their war with - millions to lobby, and persuade the lawmakers to take their side in that. The American NURSES Association has ONLY the funding from 8% of the nurses in this country but still we are going up against the mega-bucks AHA to fight increasing the numbers of nurses to be imported. If you dont want to see more foreign trained nurses imported, make a donation to the ANA to help in the fight against that - if you cant do anything to win the war, you really can have nothing to say about it.

But to answer your question, I HOPE its the Nurse Reinvestment Act and N.E.E.D. that is passed immediately so that while we are getting all the rest of the safe staffing legislation through Congress, we can have students already in school beginning their studies so they can be already finished and available to step in as we begin to retire in a few years.

In order to do that, we need to have more educators, expanded programs, better funding, and we need to have better representation of minorities, including men, in this profession. So I hope the first thing that gets passed is the very legislation you are so against - helping more people enter the profession and train while we correct the rest of the problems driving nurses away from the bedside.

I happen to see the whole thing differently than you do & I do not see helping more people become nurses as being harmful to current nurses. They will not be ready to be nurses tomorrow. They are not going to affect supply and demand. Helping more nurses become educators, helping expand more nursing programs to admit students, and helping more students to be able to enter programs now to be the workforce of the future does not hurt our efforts in repairing present working conditions and environment now.

You are on a crusade - but you can have your opinion and everybody else can have theirs.

Case closed.

See, this exemplifies the difference in our perspectives - me being in there (and a bedside RN) & you on the outside knowing nothing about the organization.

Look at your statement up there. You see the nurses of the ANA and the ANA itself as being 2 separate things.

I see them as being one & the same.

The ANA IS us nurses.

But we've already gone thru that "discussion" many times so thats something you should already know. I have no intention of taking up this thread (or any other) playing that game with you. Ciao.

To the person who started this thread asking about union vs non-union, sorry it "somehow" got off track.

As far as my answer to the question: I will never again work in a facility that is not unionized by my state nurses association.

Happy Holidays!

JT, you are really kind of funny. You really expect intelligent people to buy into what you have said. Just because a piece of legislation that has made it to congress that does not in any way guarantee that it will pass. There have been literally thousands of pieces of legislation that have not passed through congress. There have also been many pieces of legislation that have gone through congress which were altered.

The ANA my have millions of dollars to pay, but I guarantee you that the American Hospital Association has a lot more money to spend toward lobbyists and campaign contributions. Do you think that they are not going to work together to protect their interests? Do you not think that they are not going to take advantage of other legislation that will in the long run be beneficial to them?

Jt please take this as being constructive. You are so hardcore ANA that you actually epitomize the reason why many nurses do not want to join the ANA. I wonder if you have a plaque saying "1. The ANA is always right. 2. If you or anyone should ever question the ANA, then see #1." There have been many nurses who have written to me telling me how you have actually turned them away from not just the ANA but unions as well. Your not perfect, I am not perfect, but mention in anyway that the ANA or the union is not perfect and watch you jump all over it. In short, to you it is either the ANA or union way or no way.

I am not anti-union, but I do realize that there are a large number of nurses who are not in the union. I also realize with the proper leadership and national organization that they would and could benefit from many of the same tactics used by the labor movement in general.

The more I see from you, the more I am turned off by the thought of once again being in a union. Now I am sure that there are others who see you as something different than I do. I see you as someone who would be great in management coming in saying that the company is always right. I have worked under people like you who share the same mentality of being a yes person in the past. They run in spewing the company/hospital line and defend the company/hospital under any and all circumstances. They have always left a sour taste in my mouth. You do not seem to realize that the ANA could be making a big costly mistake nor will you even consider the possibility. Take some advice and think about what you and the ANA are doing.

One more thing, if you think people have not noticed how you dance around and avoid key issues in many of your replies in the past, then you are mistaken. Although I have to say you will make a great politician when you do make it up the ladder in the ANA. It is quite evident to many in that is your ultimate goal.

Specializes in Pediatric Rehabilitation.
;)
Specializes in CV-ICU.

Okay, I'm not on the BB much for a couple of weeks, and Wildtime and JT are back at each others' throats again!:eek: ;) C'mon guys, back off and count to 10.

While reading through this thread, I see that there are a couple of comments made about both me and MNA.

Wildtime, you stated "One union strike after another caved in without regard for the nurses at the other hospitals. I can still remember JennyP and others posting "next time we will........". So where is the true solidarity that you speak of? If this had been one large single group of nurses with the same demands and not willing to back down until all their demands were reached by all the hospitals in question, then things would have been far different. It would not have made one difference if they did not belong to a formal labor union. In fact, if the hospital could not count on reimbursement for the cost of temporary replacement nurses then they might have agreed with the demands much faster." Did you miss the part of it being different strikes? We had our union (MNA), but each hospital was bargaining separately with the union. And we were offered different contracts,- similar, yes, but different. It was not "WITHOUT REGARD"

Wildtime, you keep knocking the ANA, but you don't offer anything better. I remember YOU saying that a group of nurses you worked with were b*#@$ing and you decided to be the spokesman and go into the managers office and complain; AND NO ONE BACKED YOU UP when the manager came out and asked others about your comments! That's the problem with nursing or trying to do things as an individual group of nurses. As someone said earlier on this thread, you can't get a group of nurses in a room to agree on the color of the walls in the room! There are always a lot of people who are willing to b*#@$, BUT NEVER GET UP AND DO SOMETHING TO FIX THE PROBLEM!

So why knock JT and those of us who are willing to stick our necks out and do something for the profession? :rolleyes: It isn't easy being involved as a rep for the union activities. It's a lot of hard work and it is something I choose not to do because I don't need that headache-- it isn't where I would excell.

I'm a staff nurse in CV-ICU ; but I do enjoy being involved in my district, state and nat'l. nursing organizations. I am also a member of AACN, but because I invest my energy in ANA and MNA, I am "just" a dues paying member of AACN. My dues for ANA, MNA, and AACN are used for many different reasons, INCLUDING paying lobbyists to tell senators and congressmen what nursing (or at least THIS NURSE) desires.

You talk about AHA and the AMA spending $$$ in Washington DC and elsewhere for their own interests. Well, ANA and AACN both do that too. MNA also sends out alerts with info so that we (the members) can also contact our legislators and tell them what we want. Here in Mn. we had a slogan several years ago that "1 in 44 voters is a nurse". Just THINK of the power we would have if each nurse contacted our legislators and told them what we thought of each of these bills or laws. Have you contacted yours? I do remember your saying in previous threads that you didn't think that government belonged in nursings' business. Guess what? The AMA and the AHA will take these issues to the government and make them into laws for their own good and we, as nurses, need to speak up for ourselves. And my membership in these organizations helps pay for our own voice in Washington DC. But I also use my personal voice because MNA and ANA encourage me to contact my legislators and tell them what I think.

I'm sorry I'm off the topic here, but I did think it was necessary for me to put in my 2 cents worth also. :D

Specializes in CV-ICU.

One of the things that makes MNA different from southern state nursing associations is the high number of board members who are staff nurses. Our newly elected President is a Nurse Practitioner, but she was a bargaining unit chair for her hospital through most of the '90's and even received MNA's highest award for Economic and General Welfare and was chair for our Assembly of Bargaining Unit Leaders. Our 1st and 2nd VP's arestaff nurses as is our treasurer (I don't know the Secretarty, so can't say what she does. On our Board of Directors, 5 of the 7 are also staff nurses, then 1 is an educator and I don't know about the last one. I know this is slightly off topic, but MNA is an active collective bargaining organization and I thought I'd throw this info out for you to think about. Your state organization's BOD can be made up of whomever you vote in IF you are a member of the organization.

BTW, Wildtime, you asked about Write Stuff writing about being against unions and ANA and MNA. I wrote to her and she does not work in a contract facility, has not looked into MNA, and has only been in Minnesota for about 3 years. I hope to encourage her to check it out in the near future... whether or not she joins is up to her, but it is always wise if a person looks at and studies an organization BEFORE they decide it isn't for them.

Peace.:)

Jenny

Specializes in Pediatric Rehabilitation.

"BTW, Wildtime, you asked about Write Stuff writing about being against unions and ANA and MNA. I wrote to her and she does not work in a contract facility, has not looked into MNA, and has only been in Minnesota for about 3 years. I hope to encourage her to check it out in the near future... whether or not she joins is up to her, but it is always wise if a person looks at and studies an organization BEFORE they decide it isn't for them. "

jenny,

that was me that asked that question. It isn't fair for you to personally confront someone as to their choice not to participate in union/ana. WriteStuff may be non-confrontational, so you're going to hear what you want. She is not a union or ANA supporter by educated choice, but doesn't tell you such because she knows that isn't what you wish to hear. You guys really are starting to remind me of the old union guys..you're either in, or out. If you're out, you're dead meat...

she said it right here, in her post I quoted earlier, why did she have to be confronted in an email??

"Level #4 consists of the rest in our profession who are so far removed from reality they should all be taking antipsychotics by the boat-load............our own ANA, Boards of Nursing, Professional Journal Editors and Staff, the NLN, our lofty State Nursing Associations,etc. etc. "

Specializes in CV-ICU.

Nurse4kids, I wrote to Write Stuff privately after reading her post on the other thread, not to confront her, but rather to chat with her. In previous posts she'd mentioned she hadn't lived in Mn. long, and I have read her posts with interest since she joined our BB. I do not feel I was confrontational in my PERSONAL email to her.

I am offended by your response to me on this. I have no idea what "old union guys" are or what you mean by "if you're out your dead meat."

Sorry to have confused you with Wildtime.

Specializes in Pediatric Rehabilitation.

Okay, Jenny, I apologize. I cut and pasted write's msg here, earlier, so I felt that was the reason you sent to her. I figured she was being confronted for here anti-ana/union stance and it was because I'd quoted her. sorry

Specializes in CV-ICU.

Apology accepted. I really TRY to be tactful and am not an "in your face" type of person. I try to see both sides of an arguement; I may try to convince you that my side (of an arguement) is correct, but I will not force it down someones' throat. And I can respect the other person's viewpoint if it is different than mine. Life is way too short for being a grump.:)

+ Add a Comment