Disclipline

hmmm - another good case against the union - in my opinion. and they are right - it is awfulhard to get rid of any union member even with documentation let alone without. makes for very sad and scary work circumstances for the residents especially in my opinion.

This is just not true. It actually is just the opposite. Because the union contract is in writing it clearly spells out what the worker and the employer are obligated to do. The employee is very clearly supposed to follow the rules of the company and when they don't, the union doesn't support them. As a manager I had to attend a number of disciplinary grievances filed by employees to defend the hospital's point of view. Because we had the written documentation and proof of the wrongdoing by the employee, often observed by witnesses, there was nothing the shop stewards could do. In fact, many of the shop stewards would just kind of shake their heads in disgust at some of the misbehavings of the workers filing grievances and tell some of us that they wondered what the thinking was that was going on in the heads of these people. Our personnel department knew that union contract down to a "T", which was their job, and had trained us all in exactly how to document any wrongdoing. There are correct ways to do these things and shoddy ways. Unfortunately, nursing school doesn't give students any lectures on how to write up disciplinary actions that have bite. If someone works in a union shop and the administration doesn't take the time to explain to their supervisors, managers and charge nurses how to properly document in order to be in compliance with the union contract, then everyone ends up living in misery. Remember, these contracts are written by lawyers in order to satisfy both sides. Even lawyers on both sides know that there are times when a scuzbucket employee needs to get booted out the door. Unions coach their deliberate "troublemakers" to be careful, follow the union rules and not have witnesses to what they are doing if they start breaking company rules.