New National Nurses Organization???

[PeggyOhio]

I'd like to hear more discussion about this concept of a "new national nurses organization" by the nurses involved from California, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and now Maine. Anyone know what it will be called?

This is an excerpt,

"With MNA’s new freedom, the organization plans to evaluate its current working relationship with other like-minded independent nursing organizations to create a more progressive, staff nurse-oriented national organization that will give front-line caregivers an undiluted, uncompromised voice on issues of particular concern to staff nurses. Work in this regard would involve MNA’s members and ultimately would be ratified by the membership.

In fact, immediately after the vote, the MNA will meet with the California Nurses Association and the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals, to begin discussions about the building of a new nurse association that will include staff nurses and nurses who support them; providing a forum for these organizations to push their agenda on the national stage. "

Read the entire article at http://www.calnurse.org/cna/press/32401.html

[-jt]

"A union? No a said a national association dedicated to the bedside care givers. In fact you know I would like to see an association which would empower it's members to directly stand up to the hospital CEOs who sign our paychecks instead of going to Washington and asking them to fix things for us. No union dues, No union elections, and No union envolvement."

you dont want a union? But that organization IS a union - a labor union of just direct-care nurses, To address their issues. And they want to be the national union for nurses. how do you do that when you disregard all the other nurses in the profession & Their concerns? They promote unity - unity with pharmacists, lab techs, ancillary staff, & steel workers but they exclude an important part of nursing - other nurses.

I am all for labor unions but since you arent, how come you didnt know that the organization you are supporting is a labor union? How much self-educating have you done on the topic before jumping in with your opinions. (which of course you are entitled to & so am I - so you can stop "trying to get rid of" me now.)

[-jt]

"people like you who refuse to yeild to change or a totally new direction. It is just so much easier to start a new organization then have to fight with you."

the thing is, you dont have to fight with anybody. just go do what you want to do. work it the best way you can for yourself. And "people like" me will do the same. But It does not have to be the same exact course.

Theres more than one way to skin a cat. Why dictate & order me or anyone else to do things YOUR way? YOU do it your way & I'll do it mine.

Why do you want to make it a fight between us? Why should anyone have to yield their opinions, beliefs, & activity for someone elses? If you dont like the beliefs or actions of a particular group, you just go find another group that more meets your standards. Or you start up your own. You dont tell the entire group to abandon its own beliefs & opinions just because YOU disagree with it. You just move on & do your own thing. There is no fight needed.

I dont understand why you are so obsessed by such a small group of nurses who just happen to have a different style than you. And you want to squash us because we do. Who were you in your past life? lol.

You yourself have said we are insignificant in number & ineffective so what we do should have no bearing on anything, right? It isnt stopping you from being active in any way you want to. So whats the problem? Join whatever organziation you want to & get started.

I find it troubling your pattern of frequently insisting that others give up their ideas & beliefs for yours. That trait might make it difficult to work with others & accomplish anything.

PS

The ANA treats people very well. I think your comment was in referrence to the literature you got off the MNA website about the temporary internal problem with the CLERICAL staff.....not staff nurses. Anyway, how nice of the MNA leadership to with-hold up to a million $$$ it owed to the ANA, refuse to forward the ANA its share of the dues the nurses paid, - even though the nurses TWICE voted to REMAIN part of the ANA - & then publicize with their own slanted-propaganda-twist that the ANA was having "financial trouble"... while IT held all that money it owed the ANA hostage.

With so many funds being held hostage by the MNA, the ANA had to hold off on negotiating increases with its clerical staff. And the clerical staff was rightly not happy about that. MNA helped create that whole situation by not paying what it owed the ANA, they antagonized it & perpetuated it and then they used it for their own PR by posting that article you found (and misunderstood). Nice bunch of professionals, huh? Anyway, the ANA resolved the issue, & there was no strike of clerical workers or anyone else at the ANA offices.

I think you should learn more of the facts & get them straight before you go blasting off about them.

[Barbara Rose]

OK, you guys. You need to get all your info before passing judgement. Yes, MNA and CNA are union (not all their members are union) and yes they are out of ANA but they are still nurses. I have spoken to both leaders of these groups and they are open to helping TNA and me in Texas to promote membership, etc. without a union and without disaffiliation from ANA. The goal here is to move forward and that is what they are trying to do. I found each rep very knowledgable, and by the way, steered me away from union talk completely since Texas doesn't have unions. They even offered to come to Texas at their own expense to help. They aren't the enemy, just a different group of concerned nurses. Gee, weren't we all on the bandwagon ourselves a few months ago? Keeping division is indeed the goal of the enemy, but that isn't other nurses, that is AHA, AMA, and insurance companies, along with other big business interests. Refocus before we split hairs once to often and divide nurses even further.

[-jt]

Ok... either youre on drugs, missed your drugs, or are simply hallucinating again but I never said half the things you attribute to me & I certainly never said my union restricts my income or anything. I really object to you constantly posting that I have said something which I havent. Youve done it in many posts now & I have tried to be gracious & chalk it up to your overall confusion, or skimming over posts instead of actually reading them before jumping to answer, or your lack of understanding or whatever but I think now youre doing it deliberately & enough is enough. YOure crazy.

I did not say I wouldnt benefit from a movement by nurses. I said I will not & cannot take part in, support, or recommend that other unionized nurses take part in or support a job action while their bona-fide, legal contract is in effect because that would constitute their breaking the law & subject them to penalties of great magnitude. And that would be of no benefit to them. In fact it would be detrimental. No responsible leader would ask such a thing of them.

Any other time (when there is no contract), I am one of the ones actually planning the job actions & mobilizing the nurses to get out there. So knock off your continuous & deliberate misconstruing of my words.

How nice for you that you make $35/hr & have free health insurance & all those other perks. But you have to travel to other cities & other states to feed off the shortage to get that. (do you cross our strike lines too for the exorbitant salaries to be had there?).

Why do you have to travel to earn your salary & perks? Why not stay home & put all this energy into improving the standard of living for nurses there & getting all that for nurses in your own state?

FYI.... I earn more than you, have free health insurance, and many many more benefits right here at home... in my staff nurse position at my local hospital. The contract I helped negotiate with the employer is what got those benefits for all nurses around here. It is the standard for nurses in this entire city.

We dont have to travel every 13 weeks to make a decent living because we demanded a decent living from our employers for the work we do right here at home. And when necessary & LEGAL, we took job actions to get them.

On the one hand you demand nurses stand up for themselves, yet when faced with those who have, you dismiss them because they didnt achieve their accomplishments with the methods YOU want them achieved with. Whats the difference if people have different styles & different methods? The fact remains that we have been successful with ours & you just cant stand that.

You have no clue about my contract but just to clear it up for you - no I do not have to wait 3 for an increase when it "renews". With this last contract, we took a retroactive increase plus 2 more increases 6 months apart in the first yr & will have another in each remaining yr of the contract. Thats not including all of the other items that were increased & everything else that was improved.... like the staffing ratios that we set & the severe limits on mandatory OT, etc etc etc. It just kills you that nurses can be successful in their efforts without doing it the way you odrer it be done.

You assume so much & may be fooling a lot of people here with your rantings but youre not fooling everybody. I think youre a hypocrite.

You have your benefits because of the contract you negotiated too. Get it? The thing we have in common is WE ARE BOTH WORKING UNDER A LEGALLY-BINDING CONTRACT.

How do you sit there & berate me for mine while you travel for a decent living on yours.

Tell me, will you be in the middle of an assignment the day you take this job action? Will you be in the midst of one of those 13 week CONTRACTS on the day you walk-out? Or will you choose a day to have this event when you are in-between assignments - at a time when YOU are NOT under contract & are free of the threat of any expensive & personally damaging legal action against you?

I suspect the job action you head-up, the walk-out you propose will occur on a day that YOU choose to be contract-free.... maybe during one of your month long vacations. And YOU wont have to worry about anything. Ive done some travel nursing myself. Ive signed those contracts so I know there is no way you are taking your job action while you are under contract - you have too much to lose. But will expect the rest of us to just jump at your bid. Yet you'll scream at all the nurses who choose NOT to violate their OWN contract. And you sit there & judge me. Incredible.

What does it matter what I do or what any other unionized nurse does. Theres about 2 million other nurses that dont have contracts to worry about. gO Have your walk-out. Those of us who have contracts in effect will just have to miss it but with the throng of millions of others, no one will ever notice we're not there.

My refusal to conduct this event at my hospital because it will be illegal & detrimental for me to do so while I have a contract in effect should not have any bearing on what YOU do or what the millions of other nurses do at THEIR places of employment. Youre so hot under the collar because SOME nurses wont participate in this because of their legal obligations, youre so focused on the relative few of us who are unionized, yet you make no mention of how you are going to get all those other nusrses there. Forget about us.. start figuring out how youre going to move millions who never moved before. We'll just do things in our own way - & continue to succeed.

I have an idea. Have your walkout in the South. Make it a regional thing. They arent unionized for the most part. You might be able to mobilize them into action - if you can catch them in between their 13 week contracts. I heard that their workplace conditions are so dismal that many of them are traveling just to be able to afford to feed their families.

One final point - finally......

I do not care who joins the ANA or the UAN. I never said EVERYBODY HAS to. I believe that people should find the organization they feel is best for them & be active in that. I think all nursing organzations should collaborate together for the common good of nurses but that doesnt meant that every nurse has to "belong" to just one. I just dont believe that nursing organizations fighting against each other is helpful to any of us. The nursing world is big enough for everybody to exist but we should at least all be on the same side. We should definitely not be saying "I'll destroy you simply to silence your opinion"! (as you have said to me). If you ever read any of my posts, youd see that I keep saying do your own thing, whatever works for you, but let others do theirs. Join whatever you want & start doing something to help change things for the better, but dont try to dictate to others on what course they must take. Make your own choices but dont try to stop others from making theirs.

I think Ive had it with you & your behaviour towards me now - youre giving me a headache & Im all out of motrin.

[-jt]

"JT - claims the 6-10% of ANA members are mostly staff nurses etc. Why would anybody in their right mind, support a group that is pushing for, what you are not? Why would an ADN/ASN/diploma RN, or LPN join when the organization focuses on others and not their supporters?

Now thats a very logical question. Why would all those ADN/diploma staff RNs support an organization that ignores them??? Maybe its because the comments that the organization does not pay any attention to them is simply not true.

And why would ANA member staff RNs here say anything positive about it if those comments were true? Ever think of that?

[Level2Trauma]

jt, I am suprised at you!!! You know very well why Wildtime has to travel, NO FACILITY WILL PUT UP WITH HIM FOR MORE THAN 13 WEEKS AT A TIME!!! I am sick of him and I only know him through the BB. Thank GOD I don't have to deal with him personally on a daily basis.

[CEN35]

OK everybody........SeasonedRN, Valid pints, TJ some valid points, Wild...while I don't see eye to eye with you all the time, Ido agree with alot of what you do say. You all would make great politicians, because instead of making it brief and to the point I have seen paragraphs and paragraghs trying to make a point. I could sit here all day and read, trying to keep up with everybody.

Now brief and to the point, from my perspective.

When I finished school, and got my RN I was crushed to find out the ANA's plans. Those were to prevent any ADN/ASN/diploma RN from getting certified (i.e. CNS, CNOR, etc). Since then they have pushed the NP's and advanced practice nurses. I just cannot see myself being a member of an organization like that? I had seen a post also that claims, they don't acknowledge the LPN either? Another reason to stay away.

SeasonedRN -claims the object of Maa, Ma and Ca is related to unions, and taking from the ANA. I think if its true, its a bad thing. Unfortunatly, I have been in 1! Yes only 1 union, and hated it. Unions protect the lame and incompitent. (That's my opinion).

JT - claims the 6-10% of ANA members are mostly staff nurses etc. Why would anybody in their right mind, support a group that is pushing for, what you are not? Why would an ADN/ASN/diploma RN, or LPN join when the organization focuses on others and not their supporters? They have caused their own lack of membership.

Bottom Line: I thought the unionization, or joining together of all the state associations/organizations could be awesome, only if they support "ALL" nurses. Again the key is "ALL". That's my stand and take on this mess.

This was not meant to discriminate anybody, offend anybody or attack them. So....any attacks on my thoughts, will go unresponded too. there is enough of that going on already, and I will not be a part of that.

Thanks, have nice day! :)

Rick

[res04lly]

I would really like more information on this? I am an Lpn, i do work for a hosptial where we are unionized along with the RN's(separate Union)and everyone else belongs to a different union.I would really like to go over the information and see if it's something that i would like to belong to. ANA does not concern me even thou i know it does alot of you here and i respect that,but a organization that would include me as a healthcare worker has got my interest up and it might be something that i could belong to here in michigan once it has moved my way or i could help move this way. can anyone provide me with more information?