Why is unionization a subject of taboo??

[wanderlustRN24]

Hey everybody,

I work on a busy telemetry floor in Florida. Most days/nights (I work both) I am running around like crazy trying to get everything done with minimal time to take a break, go to lunch, or go to the bathroom. Pay is not that great and I feel as if upper mgmt continuously send patients that are not appropriate acuity for our floor. We are staffed 5:1 and have rapid responses/codes daily and are always shipping people off to the ICU for higher level of care. Also, our charge nurse usually takes patients and we are usually also short staffed a tech leaving the individual RN to fend for ourselves.

I know it is like this everywhere (at least on telemetry units)....sooooo why aren't nurses banding together to stop this? Why is it such taboo to talk about starting a nursing union in Florida (or in other states for that matter)?

In a private conversation with my ANM (who I have grown close with through the ups and downs of our crazy floor), I asked her this same question. She totally freaked out on me and refused to even say the word "union" out loud suggesting that if someone overheard us, we could be fired on the spot. What? Seriously? I'm not saying that unionization is the absolute answer but maybe blending some of their ideas with our own to make for a better workplace for all. Why are we not allowed to even talk about it out loud? This isn't a dictatorship. And nurses continue to put up with this. They say things like, "It is what it is." Actually, usually, it is what it shouldn't be.

Anyway, sorry for the rant. As a disclaimer, I am very thankful to have a job and I do enjoy taking care of my patients. Have a great day!

[WhichWayIsUp?]

I think most employers have done a great job of setting up an adversarial relationship with employees all on their own without any union activity. Unions are declining in the USA except in nursing. They are growing for a reason. Where there is smoke there is usually fire.

[Guttercat, ASN, RN]

This thread has been fascinating to read.

My thanks to those who contributed their insights.

The first half of my near-twenty year career, was spent in non-union workplaces/states. The last ten, have been in a unionized workplace.

The differences between the two decades, are immense. I much prefer the latter.

[WhichWayIsUp?]

I have been anti-union all of my life. It was drilled into me first by my business owning dad and then MBA school. Now, after having to return to nursing to make a living due to the economy and finding the state of nursing in the condition it is in I have a different sentiment. I still don't like unions. Except for nursing. If any group needed organizing I can't think of one that needs it more. Over 2 million strong but yet we have no voice in the decisions made that affect us. We are used, abused and thrown away like trash. It is time for nurses to come together and take control of their workplace issues. Staffing, pulling and resources should be controlled by nursing. I fully believed that no one should be allowed to be the administrator of a hospital unless they are a nurse first. You can't decide how to deliver care unless you have delivered it!

[talaxandra]

My father also ran his own small business, and has been strongly anti-union. I have no idea where my strong sense of social justice came from, but it's been an integral part of who I am since I was a teen - and supporting unions is part of that. They give a voice to the voiceless and power to those who would otherwise be rolled over in the quest for money at any price.

I know the situation in Australia is quite different from that in the US - corruption appears to be far less common in the blue-collar unions, and we have only one nursing union, with different branches in each state. The ANF represents all nurses, members and non-members, when negotiating terms and conditions during Enterprise Bargaining (every three or four years), and it's very much run bottom up: the Executive do as the members vote. ANF's the second largest union in the country, and in Victoria it represents just over 75% of nurses.

[Chico David, BSN, RN]

I have been anti-union all of my life. It was drilled into me first by my business owning dad and then MBA school. Now, after having to return to nursing to make a living due to the economy and finding the state of nursing in the condition it is in I have a different sentiment. I still don't like unions. Except for nursing. If any group needed organizing I can't think of one that needs it more. Over 2 million strong but yet we have no voice in the decisions made that affect us. We are used, abused and thrown away like trash. It is time for nurses to come together and take control of their workplace issues. Staffing, pulling and resources should be controlled by nursing. I fully believed that no one should be allowed to be the administrator of a hospital unless they are a nurse first. You can't decide how to deliver care unless you have delivered it!

Consider the possibility that the way things look to you in nursing might be the same way that other people's workplaces look to them and that the role of unions in bringing about a fairer power relationship would be the same in those places as it might be in nursing. I've believed all my life that the healthiest human relationships (parent and child excepted) are relationships between equals. Way back when I was still in high school and got my first real job, a thing occurred to me: A job is an exchange - my time and labor for my employer's money. So why is it that one side gets to set all the terms of the exchange? Except for a very few individuals with special skills in high demand, there can be no real "negotiation" between an individual employee and their employer. The employer tells you what the terms are and you can take it as is or go elsewhere. I prefer a more equal exchange in which I have some voice in the terms. And the only way I can have that is to act in concert with other workers.

Right now, my hospital is in bargaining for a new union contract - our contracts usually last about 3 years. We have a pretty generous night shift bonus, and management came to the table with a proposal to drastically reduce that - costing night shift workers maybe $2800 per year. If we weren't unionized they would have just done it and told us about it. But now it's a subject of bargaining and we've let them know real clearly that we won't accept it. All over the country, in non-union workplaces (and even some unionized ones) employers with very healthy bottom lines and plenty of money are using the weak economy as a chance to cut wages and benefits. It's only our union that lets us resist those cuts.

[trinitymaster]

Magnet Hospitals are making the situation even worse. Shared Governance is just subterfuge to give nurses (mostly young and inexperienced) the impression that they have a voice. I work in a nonunion/nonmagnet facility, and it is much better than the Magnet Hospitals in my area. However, the unionized facilities I worked at in California put them all to shame.

One day, I plan to return to California and enjoy safe ratios, decent pay, and the semi-autonomy that a Union brings.

[Ruthfarmer]

Magnet Hospitals are making the situation even worse. Shared Governance is just subterfuge to give nurses (mostly young and inexperienced) the impression that they have a voice. I work in a nonunion/nonmagnet facility, and it is much better than the Magnet Hospitals in my area. However, the unionized facilities I worked at in California put them all to shame.

One day, I plan to return to California and enjoy safe ratios, decent pay, and the semi-autonomy that a Union brings.

Thanks for making this point. Having observed a considerable amount of care in magnet facilities in the last 6 months, I have not been favorably impressed.

[talaxandra]

Chico David, thanks for articulating a response that I couldn't quite frame.

[4_Sq]

Chico David, how insightful and accurate you are!

[Woodenpug, BSN]

I have only had negative experiences with unions. The three different union hospitals where I worked were the worst three hospitals in my career. This is the first time I've read a union thread where I'm starting to see the possibility of a benefit to unions. My experiences may have been atypical. Most of what I get from the union threads, though, is that to be anti-union is bad, "cuz I says u a sheep and dumb," or some "facts" which are really the union equivalent to the corporate "propaganda." This thread has offered some food for thought, thank you.

[brandy1017, ASN, RN]

We don't fill out time cards. In a system designed to screw us, our hospital considers us "salaried" and we get paid for our biweekly hours every pay period regardless of what we actually work. So, for example, I work 36 hrs/week. This week I am scheduled for 44 hours and next week for 40 hrs but on my next check which will include both of these weeks I will only be paid for 72 hours. In their mind, it works out to my advantage because the following 2 weeks I will work 36 and then 24 hours but still be paid for 72. In reality, if they did things appropriately, they would have to pay me overtime this week and I'd end up getting paid for all the lunches I work through and all the times I've stayed late.

So in the case of the person I'm talking about, she works 36 hrs/week and all that means to my hospital is that she needs to work 216 hours in a 6 week work period. They'd put her on an extra 4 or 8 or 12 somewhere and hope that she doesn't notice. I think they do this all the time to people who they think won't notice or won't say anything. They know better than to do it with me.

THIS is just one of the reasons I want to unionize.

One of the hospital groups in my city wanted to put the nurses on salary. Thank God it never went thru! That is crazy! You guys are really getting ripped off and screwed! I hope you get a union to put a stop to this! And what's with the coworkers who want to help out and work extra for free? Wow!

It really goes to show, it can always be worse! I would not do bedside nursing on a salary basis. No way, no how!

[talaxandra]

My union is the only reason we achieved (the world's first legally mandated) nurse: patient ratios in 2000 - something we have since had to fight to keep every time we've negotiated our conditions. If not for the ANF we would have no career structure, no recognition of post-grad qualifications, no ratios, and the kind of staffing that's destroying the NHS.

The NSW branch of the Australian Nursing Federation, the NSW Nurses' Association, fought for and won ratios last year - I love this YouTube clip of their stop work meeting: [YouTube]

[/YouTube].

My workplace is one of the most challenging in the state - the average age of nurses there is 27 (compared with the state average of 42), admin is actively hostile to the union, and though we have 75% membership the members are generally apathetic, because of a prevailing belief that the government's proposed changes "won't happen here." I don't believe in compulsory unionism, but I do believe that the Federation, a bottom up organisation comprised entirely of nurses, is nurses only opportunity to win and keep equitable conditions that protect the public as well as the profession.