[HobbesRN]

RN Power-
Thanks for your reply-
I do, however, take issue with your statement that I 'seem to feel it's ok to have a company union or no union.' That's a total distortion --but fits nicely into your response. I am totally a union advocate--please don't mistake that.
I am a union RN working at a CHP hospital in OH. I have first-hand knowledge of union campaigns. Over 10 years ago, we tried to get ONA to help us organize. They provided minimal advice and they actually didn't show up for a very public meeting we held at the library when our organizing efforts were in their infancy. We were devastated.
Someone called SEIU. I have no idea who, but they came in and taught us to organize ourselves. It took almost two years campaigning, then another two years to reach a contract. During that time, CHP utilized every anti-union tactic available. They were found guilty of almost 100 ULP's. It was a long, stressful, emotional campaign. CHP does NOT want to deal with unions--their past clearly demonstrates that. So, to intimate that SEIU is a 'hand-picked company union' is ludicrous.
The methods used to set up the cancelled elections at the CHP hospitals are board sanctioned and were the result of YEARS of SEIU campaigning and research. As an RN member of SEIU and an employee of CHP, I want to see all of CHP organized under SEIU. It will benefit all of us--and, know that my years as a member of SEIU and my work with the union are part of the ground work that helped set up this process. It's not lost on us that NNOC/CNA's union-busting activities have disrupted that process and have damaged the work that we all have done--a legal and legitimate union organizing effort. CNA/NNOC represent only the RN's---they don't organize the other hospital workers. We would be divided---and we all know we're stronger when united.
A week or two of 'educating in those cities' is totally trumped by all the SEIU work it took to get to those elections. It's my perception that CNA/NNOC saw a fruit ripe for the picking and jumped in. They have exhibited the same negative behaviours they've accused SEIU of exhibiting.
Instead of being on the road to improve their working conditions and the services they provide to their patients, 8,000 CHP employees' lives are in limbo because they still don't have that all-important voice at the table. It boggles the mind that a group (CNA/NNOC) calling itself a union can be so destructive toward another union's organizing efforts.

[mountaincat]

If the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) becomes the law, an employer will recognize a union without an election IF the majority of employees sign a petition.
This is the way unionization happened originally. Notice that proof of majority with signatures still will be required. The Ohio scenario would not have happened under EFCA.

[kat nurse advocate]

As a new member to this site I have been following this dialogue for over a week. As a bedside RN for 30+ years, I have watched as the health care industry has changed from an industry in which nurses had a significant voice, to an industry that is profit driven, and controlled by corporatists. As nurses we all know this is true. Most people become nurses because they care about humanity, and care about making a difference in the lives of the sick and vulnerable. So how do unions fit into this picture? I have been reading about "devastating emotional reactions" to the called off SEIU vote for representation for workers in a large catholic health care corporation. SEIU, "Change to Win", quite the statement. If you do diligent research on SEIU, you discover their goal is a "partnership" with management. That is the "Change" SEIU is pushing. It is their statement, and their goal, not mine. It is no accident the "employer" filed for this election. They were counting on the emotional feelings of the employees to decide that SEIU was better than no union at all. This is called a management union. Why would nurses vote for any union? Is it for better wages, retirement benefits? Why, as a nurse, would you vote for a union? The most valid reason in my mind is to protect my patients and my nursing practice. In case no one has noticed, nursing practice is under assault by corporate health care. Are you, in your clinical judgement, able to provide what your patients' need? Or does your administration tell you how you will practice your art of nursing? I work for a large catholic health care chain, and I am being told all the time how I should practice nursing. I am accused of not being a "team player" by the administration. My response, "To which team are you referring? I am on the patients' team".
I believe as nurses we have an obligation and a duty to do what is best for our profession, and thereby our patients. We need to stop the emotional reactive responses that do not serve our profession. If nurses are interested in collective advocacy, i.e. unionism, they better do their homework, and diligently research the history, and political stance of each union. It is about more than wages and retirement. It is about more than having a union, any old union will do. It is truely about survival of nursing practice. Corporate health care does not want nursing practice to survive, as it takes too long and costs too much money, cutting profits, when nurses do an excellent job of caring and advocating for their patients. Have you done your diligent research on the two unions involved in this blog, or are you using this forum as an emotional outlet for your disappointments?

[Proud Union RN]

I have always wondered about organizations & professionals that are "all about me", nobody else can "understand me & my issues", only if "I am with my own kind can we address our"... fill in the blanks.
That elitism is demeaning to the other members of the healthcare team. Last time I checked, it takes all of us: a team, to provide quality patient care, especially in today's hospital setting.

For the CNA/NNOC to portray it's RN ONLY organization as the "whistle-blower" and "savior" of other job classifications by "referring them to other unions" & of the RNs by telling them: "we ruined your ability to improve patient care right now & we hope you will have the ability to do it sometime in the future" is demoralizing and insulting.

As a bedside RN I make life saving decisions at least every day.
Please do not add insult to injury by telling me that I do not have the intelligence or critical thinking skills to be able to hold my union accountable & to be able to negotiate improved patient care in any way possible.

RNs in Ohio and everywhere else do not need saving from SEIU!
We need to be able to have a collective voice to hold management accountable to their choices and the ability to participate in the decision making process.
A voice & an ability that CNA/NNOC has just managed to postpone in Ohio!
How does that help/save RNs?
How does that improve patient care?

[jrod171]

SHAME SHAME SHAME SHAME SHAME SHAME SHAME SHAME SHAME

I do not understand in this day and age of more and more workers going without a collective voice and less and less unionized jobs, the CNA's undefendable actions of UNION BUSTING. Ask the CNA about their plan to organize a group of nurses in St. Louis, where they pulled the same disgusting union busting tactic and then turned tail and ran, no plan to organize, no plan to come back and give the protection and benefits offered by SEIU to this group of workers, just the same old message of vote NO on UNION????? If the goal was to organize then why not come in with a plan other than just nuking the entire hospital and leaving 8000 families, not just nurses, but actual living, breathing, putting bread on the table and paying for little Jimmy's braces, families who now have no Union protection at all now thanks to the dispicable and shameless UNION BUSTING tactics of the so called Union CNA. And then to top it off the CNA has the audacity to single out only RN's for their elitist organization, while SEIU had a plan in place to ORGANIZE all workers, in a collective effort to sustain real gains for ALL employees of these hospitals, not just the nursing staff. And again, CNA, all without a plan to do anything whatsoever productive or any plan to ever give these workers the voice and justice they deserve, just like a hit and run. It is appauling to see an organization that spends the dues money of the members that they do have to deconstruct and defile other organizations rather than take the time and plan and create something.....how do they call themselves organizers, they should call themselves professional deconstructionists, wait in the wings until a proactive organization like SEIU has all of the pieces in place to allow the workers the right to vote in a rare unpoisoned atmosphere and then show up just in time to poison the whole well....undefensable. I urge any member to ask their president why he decided to spend their dues in this fashion. All members of CNA should shoulder their share of the blame for being a member of such a disingegious organization with an extra large helping being served to the destructionists who showed up to spread the lies and destroy hopes, dreams and possibilities of real families and workers. What do you plan to do next, crash the democratic convention and tell all of labor that it is better to vote republican? Makes about as much sense. Realize this, you have done nothing but weakend the labor movement. Your homes and offices must be without mirrors because I honestly do not know how you look at yourself, you have done the boss a favor again CNA, do everyone a favor next time and stay in California. Fence jumping Union Busters
Round trip airfare (first class)from California to Ohio - $950.00 per person
4 nights hotel accomodations + meals - $540 per perosn
Destroying the hopes, dreams and hard work of 8000 Springfield, Ohio families in need of a Union- apparently priceless to the CNA
some things money can't buy - for UNION-BUSTING there's the C N A - official union busters of the midwest

[mountaincat]

So when it comes to contracts, jrod171, you're saying that half-assed is better than whole-hog?

[kat nurse advocate]

When any working group, such as doctors, airport flight controllers, janitors (environmental technicians), teachers, nurses, respiratory therapists, to name only a few, discuss the needs of their members, it does not make that group "elitist". All members of the health care team are valuable for what they contribute. But each group has different duties and responsibilities. I surely would not want my friend Diane, who is a hard working and caring housekeeper, receiving the openheart patient from the OR, for which my RN friend Pamela is responsible. If any group of workers desires to organize for a collective voice, I would hope the workers had researched and requested a union of their choice. In this instance, the employer requested the union. The employer picked SEIU. SEIU likes employer partnerships. You must ask yourself, why? As an RN, with different responsibilities from other health team members, I want a collective RN voice that addresses the issues of corporate assault on my nursing practice, competancy, and patient/nurse safety. In reading the angry blogs it is apparent the authors do not have their facts straight regarding NNOC/CNA. I would ask, where did you obtain your facts? Certainly, other members of the health team have issues. There are other unions out there that will not form employer/union partnerships. Have you looked? I challenge all workers to do a little research regarding what is happening in the labor movement. It is bigger than one facility, or one job. We are all in this worker bee boat together. Personally, I would not support a union that does management partnerships. They are surely not going to be looking out for my best interest.

[SEIU PSYCH RN]

Hello
Let me be up front and admit that i am a Seiu member. I also have additional insite in that i have been on organizing campaigns in Illinois Texas and San Antino.
The Cna's activities amounts to blatant union busting. are they even interedted in staying and attempting to organize there works?
And this is not the first time the have cost worker's a chance to have a union. They did the same at a hospital in Chicago. At least there the filed to be envolved in the election. But after we split the yes vote the no vote won. But at least that was the honorable way to go about it.

[SEIU PSYCH RN]

SEIU where i work represents Physicians Psychiatrist Rn's Pharmacist and Social workers and does it very well. Yes some issues are position specific but those can be handle in Labor Management discusses. To say a patient is going to be handed off to an unqualifird employee just because we are in the same union is laughable.

[SEIU PSYCH RN]

Originally Posted by JanFromWI

Wow, you and CHP certainly support the same position! Now you're back to defending CHP getting to handpick SEIU as their union of choice. It disheartens me to hear an RN argue that our fellow RNs can't assess two unions on a ballot and make an educated, informed decision about which union they want to be a part of. Do you believe that RNs are that easy to confuse? SEIU and the CHP tried to rush this election through so that RNs wouldn't have time to adequately research the implications for themselves.

As soon as light was shed on the process, CHP and SEIU obviously realized that they couldn't pull it off, so they cancelled the election (oops, RNs got information, now we can't let them vote).

Guess what! If RNs are going to successfully negotiate staffing language and patient care protections into their first contract and build organization in their hospitals to defend patients and RN practice, face off against the healthcare industry to win legislation that improves staffing, etc., we're going to have to be strong enough that we don't fall apart every time the someone puts out a leaflet that challenges our position.

Why do RNs need to be protected from a leaflet that is critical of the practices of the union that they're being rushed to join? Oh that's right, too much data and we might get confused and actually vote in our own interests!

Nice tryu at double talk but you did not answer her question. The presence of multiple unions on a ballot only works to the value of the employeer splitting the union vote and allowing no union even if a vast majority votes to be union. I have done multiple campaigns as a member orgaanizer and have often said "If you feel the comprting is a better choice by allmeans vote for them but vote union it is always the better choice"