[Sheri257]

Originally Posted by germain

Thank god they can't outsource nursing- oh wait, can they?????

Not yet. But they are working on nurse robots in Japan.

Hmmmm ... I wonder if they can program these robots for critical thinking.

[hipab4hands]

Originally Posted by germain

This is, in effect, what working people everywhere do on a gobal basis. Lets see, teh lowest bid on tht factory job you had at 11 dollars an hour is in malasia, where they will do the same job for 65 cents an hour and they have no union or labor standards. Thank god they can't outsource nursing- oh wait, can they?????

They do outsource nursing jobs. By bringing in foriegn nurses and paying them lower wages, then those who are not on work visa permits. A good example, was a local hospital that was bringing in nurses from Australia and paying them 14.00 per hour, when the going rate for local workers was 21.00 an hour. The excuse that the hospital was using is that there weren't enough local nurses to staff the hospital.

[germain]

Yep, there you go. But thats illegal, yeah? Dont we, or at least didn't we, have laws against doing that? Lord help us all.

[bpowers]

I find this all very intersting because I have been dealing with it personally in my husband's home business. He subcontracts satellite installations and for one of our larger companies we get work from, they enacted a similar bidding war to pit installers against one another..... to get work, the lowest bidder wins. I think it's funny however that nurses are falling into this trap as they must see it as some advantage when it really isn't. It may be convenient to set up your schedule on-line and such...but you can usually hold out and get better pay (i.e. double time), if you get called in for extra work, or sign up extra for on-call pay.

[hipab4hands]

Originally Posted by germain

Yep, there you go. But thats illegal, yeah? Dont we, or at least didn't we, have laws against doing that? Lord help us all.

No, it's not illegal. The computer industry does the same thing. They say they can't find qualified Electrical Engineer or Programmers and it allows them to recruit overseas. They then bring in workers from India, Pakistan, etc., and pay them about 1/3 to 1/2 the salaries of American workers.

[caroladybelle]

Originally Posted by lgflamini

I agree- with the OT take-away and ploys like this, a union gig IS looking better every day.

I've worked at union gigs before. Said facility was the only place with "mandated" overtime - at least 5 nights a week, someone was being mandated to stay and do a double. I had rights to refuse ,as a traveler.

If I were paying union dues, the phrase mandated OT would exist only for hurricanes, earthquakes and 9/11 attacks. Or I wouldn't paying dues.

The union facilities were also where I met some of the worst slack fannies in Nursing. People that would be fired for performance issues in a heartbeat anywhere else, had been there for years. Woe to you, if you worked with them or followed their assignment.

There are good things about unions, but there are also problems with them.

[Sheri257]

Originally Posted by hipab4hands

They do outsource nursing jobs. By bringing in foriegn nurses and paying them lower wages, then those who are not on work visa permits. A good example, was a local hospital that was bringing in nurses from Australia and paying them 14.00 per hour, when the going rate for local workers was 21.00 an hour. The excuse that the hospital was using is that there weren't enough local nurses to staff the hospital.

Yeah, but a lot of foreign nurses do eventually leave those jobs for better pay elsewhere. A nursing home in Orange County was losing foreign nurses at $21 an hour because, quite frankly, you can't live in Orange County on that much ... that won't begin to pay rent on a tiny apartment there, just as an example.

At least by bringing them here, they have the same cost of living that we do and, hopefully, demand the same wages, which has happened at least in some cases.