Cutting salaries, taking vacation time...are they free to do as they please?

Is that before or after the UAW itself, refused to help the Big Three auto industries.

And the OP lives in Texas, anti union land at its finest,

What part of Texas, if you dont mind other Texans asking

Actually, the UAW has been accepting pay and benefit cuts for years and has accepted more in the latest mess. A few southern senators are determined to completely break the UAW as the price of helping out the auto industry. It's striking that congress was able to approve giving 700 billion to the financial services industry without any enforceable requirement to cut salaries that average in the hundreds of thousands a year, or executive compensation that can run to tens of millions, but feel the need to destroy the last decent paying blue collar jobs in America before loaning 15 billion to the auto companies. And if stories like this one become widespread, I suspect we'll see a lot more unionized hospitals in Texas pretty soon. We don't have that sort of thing happening in California.

It's good that you walked. Not worth it. If I'm on salary, I do 40 hours. No more, no less. If they want more, they can pay more.....

UAW has a long history of trying to save the Big 3 management from itself:

1. Single Payer.
2. Advocating for small fuel efficient cars as early as 1949. (Google Meyerson for a recent column about these very issues.)
3. Making contract concessions 2 years ago that took the responsibility for healthcare away from management and making it a union responsibility
4. Salary concessions were negotiated 2 years ago that set up a 2 tier compensation plan that changed both pension and starting wages to a lower level.

Texas could be opened to organization with a combination of EFCA and repeal of Taft-Hartley.

Good luck on your job hunt. I'm sure you made the right decision. You all were getting screwed royally by that hospital administration.

I SOOOO agree with you! Also, perhaps the OP should consult the state's labor laws for info on the lgality of what that hospital is doing to its employees.

Good for you - hope the other staff also vote with their feet.

Today's economic times give employers the incentive to cut corners every way they want and the best place to cut costs is with personnel issues. You have the option to accept things as the employer hands them to you or you can try to find employment elsewhere. I'm certain there are unemployed people available who will be willing to take your place, no matter what the conditions are. It is that way all the time, not just when the economy is bad.