[Sherwood]

Nurses of the San Diego area hospital voted in the California Nurses Association about two long years ago and went nearly a year before a contract could be negotiated. During this time the RN's had already become disheartened with the decision and approved an "open shop" contract allowing nurses to decide whether California Nurses Association dues and membership were worth it. In other words the nurses union could not hold the RN's paychecks hostage with a union "security clause".
Well the California Nurses Association failed the test miserably and dues paying members dropped to less than 15%.
A petition circulating for about a month at Scripps Encinitas has collected enough support to be filed with the NLRB to request a decertification election soon. With over 85% of the nurses not supporting the union I feel the union has already lost.

Sherwood


It will be interesting to see how St Mary's Nurses in Reno will feel about the CNA/NNOC in the next couple of years. Nevada is a right to work state. How many RN's will actually choose to support the union in the coming years?

[HM2Viking]

It goes to show that management can win by stonewalling a fair contract and not negotiating in good faith.

[lindarn]

It seems to me that the nurses who voted in CNA expected the union to work by itself, with no support from its constituency. No union can work if the members stand by and allow the hospital to bully it, and refuse to fairly negotiate in good faith.

If this stands, and CNA gets voted out, I will watch and wait for the repurcussions as the hospital reneges on everything that they promised the nurses. They will regret this action, and as in other cases, nurses went back and voted in the union. Its called, 'fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me".

Lindarn, RN, BSN, CCRN
Spokane, Washington

[HM2Viking]

Much more eloquently put than my one liner....

[HM2Viking]

Here is another reason to support the labor movement (From Minnesota):

Saying no to extra hours

Nurses employed at state facilities will have the same ability to say no to overtime as those in the private sector.

Because some nurses felt they were being forced into too many overtime hours through intimidation, a 2002 law permits a nurse to refuse mandatory overtime without consequences from their employer if he or she feels tired or sick and believes it is in the best interest of the nurse and patients not to be in a caregiver role during those hours. A new law, effective Aug. 1, 2007, adds state-employed nurses involved in resident or patient care, regardless of the type of facility. It does not supersede a valid collective bargaining agreement.
http://www.house.leg.state.mn.us/hin...07&storyid=517

The above was passed at the behest of MNA. Managers will work staff into the ground without the protections of laws like the above.

RIGHT TO WORK = RIGHT TO WORK FOR LESS

[Sherwood]

Originally Posted by lindarn

It seems to me that the nurses who voted in CNA expected the union to work by itself, with no support from its constituency. No union can work if the members stand by and allow the hospital to bully it, and refuse to fairly negotiate in good faith.

If this stands, and CNA gets voted out, I will watch and wait for the repurcussions as the hospital reneges on everything that they promised the nurses. They will regret this action, and as in other cases, nurses went back and voted in the union. Its called, 'fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me".

Lindarn, RN, BSN, CCRN
Spokane, Washington

You speak as if you do not believe that the union cannot and does not bully their way in and that only management makes false promises.

It is true what you say about nurses supporting each other. Without nurses who join and participate in professional practice committees nothing will ever get done. This can all be done of course without unionizing. Nurses supporting nurses. Nurses acting as the professionals they are to advance the nursing profession and improve patient care and safety.

Sherwood

[HM2Viking]

Unionization is not incompatible with being a professional or professionalism.....

[lindarn]

It has been my experience as a nurse that the so called, "professional practice committees", are nothing but kangaroo courts that distract and deflect the REAL ISSUES THAT THE NURSES WANT TO ADDRESS. Which, of course, is exactly what the hospitals want.

"Lets pretend that we are letting nurses have a voice in their practice. We will keep them so busy doing NOTHING, that they will never notice that they have not accomplished changed or addressed anything". That is all it comes down to.

In case you haven't noticed, the deck is stacked against nurses. We cannot fight the multi- million dollar corporations that control healthcare. The only way to change anything is to beat them at their own game and get our hands dirty. We have to TAKE the power that we really do have, and quit being 'girly girls" (as my daughter would say), and be as nasty, and driven, as they are. We have to stop playing the "May I" negative game. You know that the answer will be no, so you word it as timidly as possible. As long as we keep asking permission to practice the way we are supposed to practice, and act like they are doing us a favor to "allow" us to take care our patients the way we are EDUCATED (not "trained), to do, nothing will ever change. Example- "may I give my patient a bath and do some patient teaching? I will need another nurses to look after my other patients so I can accomplish this". Their response- "if you give up your lunch break, and not incur any overtime to do this", and stay late and punch out to finish your charting".

Does this scenario sound familiar? Why is that the case? Nurses need the power of a union to provide us with the protection to accomplish what we need to accomplish. In spite of what the anti union faction of this listserve continues to say, nurses are not "socialized" to be leaders and rock the boat. Too many nurses are the sole support of their families, and cannot afford to rock the boat and lose their jobs if they speak out. There is safety in numbers, and nurses who are unionized are still sometimes too afraid to rock the boat because they let the union leaders be too influenced by the hospital administration. It sounds like this is what happened in this case. We don't hold the union leaders accountable when they don't represent OUR best interests. We have to get involved and make sure that our interests are represented. If they are not, we have no right to complain.

Lindarn, RN, BSN, CCRN
Spokane, Washington

[MBANurse]

I love how the management was blamed for stonewalling the contract. LOL what if the union was asking for an obscene contract...

A friend of mine's hospital voted for the CNA and then her dues went to 90 bucks a month... that almost 1100 bucks a year... she didn't get any raise whatsoever so that was money lost for her. She quit... good for her.
Management is going to succeed in getting rid of the CNA there by not hiring permanent nurses and using outside PRN staff; closing floors and canceling shifts... permanent folks are leaving in droves...

[pickledpepperRN]

■ CNA dues are capped at $89.52 per month

■CNA monthly dues are 2.2 times your base hourly rate, which equals approximately one hour of your base pay rate per pay period (not including differentials or overtime). If you make $25 per hour your dues are $55 per month

■ Newly-organized RNs do not pay any dues until the contract has been negotiated and accepted

http://www.calnurses.org/assets/pdf/cna101.pdf