Descrimination: A full hot meal or soup and a sandwich

A hungry, thirsty, and tired nurse doesn't equal good care.

This is an interesting thread.
I think that you do have a fairly good argument and I'm interested in seeing how this turns out.

I'm really curious though, if staff have it written in their contract that they can buy a meal from the facility, do they do anything for night shift? Seems to me that they are being discriminated against too.

you are right about the night shift. just this last week, I was in working, and one of the night crew was stuck over. we do 12 hr shifts....so her 7p to 7am shift went till 11 am. she didn't have any money, and didn't have any food for after her dinner bag-lunch. at our hospital, you can't even get coffee for free. if you are working 16 hrs, it should be not just a law, but common sence from management that the staff get a free meal ticket or something.

Just want to mention, from the OP's original post it sounds as if the facility provides meals to the employees. The OP doesn't make it clear that these meals must be purchased. People are responding to the first post.
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BINGO.

My Canadian and union hospital provides a meal voucher for any overtime worked after your regular shift. So, if you can't use it due to the foodcourt being closed you can use it the next time you work.

I've never had an employer who fed me lunch. I'd take whatever they gave me.

Re - reading the whole thread. Forgive me if I'm wrong - but do people just log on, read the first part and then make a comment regardless of the thread progress? That's not just bizarre - but it seems ignorant and that the posters are more interested in giving their opinion than actually supporting or responding to the person and their issues as they are developed.

Re - Canadaian/Australian unions/rights - I agree that it seems there is a huge difference in how these two country's unions function in support of their members. My guess would be American unions and their leaders suffer the same fat-cat mentality that most capitalist 'businesses' do and there are much less demands made by American nurses. Again, correct me if I am wrong - but you pay to be a member of a union that represents YOUR nursing employment issues - or is it just for the privilege of tagging along while the union determines what is of interest to them?

Re - night shift - even with our free meals we had this problem and night shift were provided a meal to be re-heated. It wasn't enjoyable so after some negotiation there was an agreement to pay the night staff a meal allowance.

Ya, I am guilty of the above.
I am one of those "ignorant & bizarre" members that will (often, but not always) read and reply to the ORIGINAL post in a thread. I feel that there is nothing wrong with answering and commenting on the first post in a thread because I have found that is usually the main topic of the thread.
And honestly, I do not have the time or the patience to wade through hundreds of posts that often evolve with a topic. Arguments start, people become "offended", people start commenting on the weather, etc.....I can't keep up with it. Don't get me wrong, if a thread is evolving and remains OT, I will read it, but usually, the original concern/comment/question gets lost. Many of the posts start to wander or they purely OT from the original post.

Kind of like this post

Some threads get pretty long and not all the comments are riveting. Yes, people respond to the original post and the problem it presents without reading every single solitary post. I don't think that's ignorant.

People come here to relax and for enjoyment, what's wrong with that? This is light entertainment.