Seiu??

Nurses General Nursing

Published

Got a advertisment from a group called SEIU which calls itself Pennsylvania's largest and strongest nurses union. What can you tell me about them.

You can get get a look at SEIU Nurse Alliance branch at their website http://www.SEIU.org

then click on "nurse alliance"

SEIU current activity includes the following:

On May 8, Congress will receive a wake-up call from union RNs represented by the SEIU Nurse Alliance

Event is open to non-members - anyone can participate.......

** Nurses To Send Wake-Up Call **

"Patients Need Quality Time - Not Overtime". That's the

message the SEIU Nurse Alliance will deliver to Congress

and state legislators on May 8 - as part of its national

Wake-Up Call From America's Nurses........

** Get Involved on May 8th **

Come to the U.S. Capitol on May 8, and join hundreds

of nurses who'll be sending Congress a wake-up call

- literally.

They'll be bringing their alarm clocks and setting

them off in unison. Last year they lined up thousands of pairs of worn nurses shoes along the steps of the US Capitol Building. Photos and more info can be viewed at the website.

For May 8 event and registration information,

visit:

http://www.unionvoice.org/ct/pd1Ha2F1a1zx/nurseweek2

or

If you can't make it to Washington, you have two ways

to make your voice heard on May 8:

(1) Fax a letter to your members of Congress on May

8 and ask them to support the Safe Nursing and Patient

Care Act. Register for that and SEIU will send you a reminder with a link to a sample letter that week.

(2) Join thousands of nurses across the country who'll

make phone calls to their members of Congress on May

8.

(a) Call the Capitol switchboard toll-free

and ask for your Representative and/or Senators........

(b) Tell them to support and co-sponsor the Safe Nursing

and Patient Care Act (HR 3238/S 1686).......

The more phone calls and letters nurses send, the more

Congress will get the message. Make plans to participate in one way or the other and ask other nurses and supporters to do the same!.......

** Take Overtime Survey **

More and more nurses are making their voices heard,

and you can too by completing our online overtime survey........

SEIU is using nurse surveys to demonstrate the crisis

of quality care to legislators and explain how we can

end the crisis through ending mandatory overtime.........

To take the survey, visit:

http://www.unionvoice.org/ct/p71Ha2F1a1z3/nursesurvey >>>>>

I've worked at two hospitals in Seattle where SEIU was the union. I felt they were a very well run union and definitely worth the union dues. The contracts were negotiated without strikes and the union managed to get many concessions for the nurses (ie. paid education days, low census fund, overtime and doubletime pay, call back pay, overtime if returning to work with less than 12 hours break, etc.)

SEIU is my union too... I am an LPN.... In our hosp, the SEIU is only for the LPN's, aides, and the ward clerks... (aint the best though for nurses...)

The contract is decent... thats about it...

--Barbara

I just paid my $50. initiation fee to Service Employees International Union AFL_CIO, CLC.

Dues are $36 a mont :-)

LPNs & all the ancillary staff employees (aides, housekeepers, techs, etc) at my hospital are with the SEIU/1199. They pretty much sound satisfied. The RNs are unionized with their state nurses association and they too are satisfied. Each organization seems to be meeting their particular members needs.

SEIU is a union, plan and simple. It represents some "professionals", but most of it's members are "service workers". At one time it would get a foothold in hospitals through the food service or housekeeping departments and then try for the nurses. But many nurses, especially RN's, didn't want to join a service union. So their tactics now are to go after the RN's first and later try for the other workers.

all of the employees at my hospital have this union. rns, lpns, cnas, dietary, housekeeping, therapists, you name it. i wish we could be a little tougher--but i've just signed on to be a union steward so i'll soon find out how much i/we can do. wish me luck. have a meeting tomorrow with administration for violating the contract based on seniority policy. janet

LPN's, dietary, houskeeping, maintaince and i think security are SEIU in our hospital, they are a lot stronger than our union, houskeeping pretty much runs the hospital and they are some of the slowest, lazy, sloppiest, careless, don't give a crap people in the hospital. Can't transfer or get and admission till they clean the room, whcih can take anywhere from 25 minutes to 6 hours, thats when they are paged stat.

I work in a unionized hospital. Unions are a necessary evil if you have the kind of administration that exists where I work. Their focus id profits before patients. In that kind of mindset, you need a union. I worry though that people think a union will solve all their problems. We have been trying for years to get staffing language into our contract and we can't. They would force us out on strike (again) over that. Unions are also in it for the money too. Some are better than others, of course, but their bottom line is to make money. If you do unionize, your union will only be as strong as its' members. The more solidarity the staff has the stronger the union will be. Each and every member makes up the union. There will have to be some of the staff who are willing to stick their necks out and give up an awful lot of their personal time to run the local you will form. It is hard work! Administration will fight you tooth and nail along the way. They will use scare tactics and threats and may even give you pay increases and other perks if they know you are thinking about unionizing so that you won't.

Personally I couldn't work in a non-unionized hospital. Unless I find one where Administration truly cares about the staff and patients, that is!

Good luck-it's not an easy task!

heres an article from a Pennsylvania newspaper that talks about SEIU/1199 - found it posted on the Nursing Activism/Politics section of this website:

PA Nurses tell it like it is!

Hospitals short on staff, nurses say

Tuesday, May 07, 2002

http://www.post-gazette.com/businessnews/20020507nurse0507p6.asp

>>

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