would you cross a picket line????

Furball · Jul 5, 2002

jt

All I have to add to your wonderful arguments supporting a legitimate strike is....WOW, awesome post!

fedupnurse · Jul 5, 2002

But what is the six figures in relation to the cost of living in the vast majority of the state? I live about 50 miles from NYC and Philly. The county where I live and work is one of the most expensive in the state. The suits advertise how well paid we are yet I'd have to go to a very bad neighborhood to be able to afford a house and it would be a small house at that. Rents are also sky high. So when we get 4% in a merrit pay raise that doesn't even cover cost of living or inflation for that matter. Besides the money issue there is the even more important issue of patient care conditions. I wouldn't want my family members or friends in any hospital in my area. NONE!! None of the facilities in my area staff appropriately yet all have executives making high six and seven figure salaries.

Also, we must keep in mind, the suits are the ones who 99% of the time, force the strike issue. No union wants a strike for its members! It is the suits being penny wise and pound foolish who draw the line in the sand. They are responsible for the safe staffing of their facilities and to remedy the situation if they cannot. They are required to do this by the Joint Commission and fail to comply on a regular basis in my area.

JT hit the nail on the head. Couldn't agree with JT more. When the newspaper wouldn't print our side of the story we went to town council meetings, the Board of the hospitals business', told everyone we could find abotu what was really going on. Solidarity is what stops strikes in their tracks. One of my colleagues decided to go in and talk to the hospital president and told him she could bring the entire ICU back in. She set back our cause by at least 2 months. He saw that we were shaky and he decided to continue rather than settle the strike. It took the commissioner of labor to stop the strike by threatening the suits with loss of certifications. Then they sat down and talk to us. We had a contract within 24 hours. To this day that colleague still insists she did nothing wrong and refuses to accept the fact that her actions kept 600+ of us out in the cold for way longer than we would have been. Again, it gets back to solidarity!!

Peeps Mcarthur · Jul 5, 2002

averaging 19 percent to 25 percent, and hourly wages as high as $47.

Spread out over how many years with what kind of conditions?

who gets 19% and who gets 25%? Is the $47 number for someone working PRN or agency, Or can any nurse earn that with a regular 40 hour work week?(no such thing anyway)

What kind of nurse draws 99 grand a year? There are different levels of nurses in different settings.

It is not uncommon to my knowledge that a Nurse Practitioner(MSN level) can earn that much in some kind of practice management but I have never heard of a "floor nurse" earning this kind of cash.

If You did the research BK,then you'll know the answers.

Sounds good the way it was written and,but I've learned to be skeptical of "Trojan horses" disguised as good news.

adrienurse, LPN · Jul 6, 2002

J.T> now that's some nice propaganda

pacernurse · Jul 6, 2002

I would never cross a picket line and yes, I have been on strike. I was also on the negoiation team and after that experience, I would never, never trust the suits again. The hate and contempt that they showed during the negoiations was disgusting. They called us prima donnas, spoiled little brats, and arrogant women who could be replaced by any "monkey" off the street. They also had no interest in settling the strike, they only wanted to break us. They also had a ten day strike notice before we went on strike and did nothing to decrease the patient census, preferring to use strikebreakers to staff the facility. The distrust between the union and management continues to this day and ironically, when the hospital acheived Magnet status, the examiners told them that it was because of the policies the union negoiated that the hospital got the award.

I think this whole discussion goes to how united nurses are as a group. If nurses spoke as a united group, then they could refuse mandatory OT, improve unsave staffing and unsafe working conditions, and maybe improve the nursing shortage. As much as the suits don't want to admit it, people come to the hospital for nursing care and if we weren't there, the place would fall apart. :)

-jt · Jul 6, 2002

now that's some nice propaganda>

Propaganda? :) Actually, since it all really happened, its Fact.

Dont worry about tar & feathers - my union & its members dont believe in violence.

Education & knowledge is the key..... but you can only lead a horse to water - you cant make him drink it.

-jt · Jul 6, 2002

Point to remember:

No RN or her union wants to strike. They do not walk out of negotiations, stomping their feet & heading to the door. Strikes ONLY happen when The HOSPITAL refuses to talk any further - walks out of negotiations itself - leaving the nurses sitting at the table alone - and expects them to shake in their shoes with fear & just accept whatever is being tossed to them. Our employers tell us at negotiations "thats it - we're thru talking - theres the door - do what you gotta do - IF you think you can". They are banking on the hope that the nurses will not stick together & instead will give up their demands for safe conditions, recruitment & retention incentives. But union nurses will not accept the unacceptable.

Union RNs do not have anything to feel guilty about when they are forced by their employer to strike. That onus falls on the employer & he should hang his head in shame because it is the hospital that provokes & causes a strike - with no thought to the pts & community affected by it.

We started negotiations for a new contract in June one year & at the same time it was supposedly negotiating in good faith, the hospital was found to be making secret arrangements with a strike-busting agency to contract in strikeBreakers. While we thought we were making progress in negotiations, it was all smoke & lip service because the hospital had already decided from the beginning that it was not going to agree to anything we needed & it was secretly PLANNING to cause a strike! They were charged with Bad Faith Bargaining & found guilty.

If they felt any ethical, moral, or professional responsibilty to their "customers" - the pts - they would do whatever they had to do to work out a fair settlement without pushing their RNs out on strike. Too many times, however, the administration will choose to get into a battle of wills with the nurses to protect their profit margin because to them, profits come before pts. Its sad that the administration would choose to have a strike & try to break their own nurses rather than try to fix the hospitals problems. But thats not the nurses fault.

The blame for a strike & the inconvenience it causes the pts, the community, & the loss of taxpayer funds used on strikeBreakers falls directly on the hospital administration that chose to go this route. All of it could have been avoided if the hospital simply was willing to engage in fair negotiations that adequately addressed the problems.

fedupnurse · Jul 6, 2002

Pacernurse and Jt are right on the money. We need to get the word out to the public about how it is that these suits work and how they couldn't care less about the patients. Would I ever CHOOSE to strike, NO, but if it came to a strike vote I would wholeheartedly vote YES and honor the line for the duration and be as vocal with the public as I could. So please, let's stop saying how it is the nurses who are walking away from our patients. We are being forced away and it is all in the name of profits. Go figure that one out!!!!

The Mattster · Jul 6, 2002

Here are independent verifications that the new California Nursing Assn. agreement with the UC system netted nurses BIG, and wll deserved gains.

I'm unclear why these numbers have become a target for attack -- and referred to as "propaganda." If more info is needed, I suggest anyone interested contact the CNA directly.

This is good news. Embrace it:

___________

From the "Sacramento Bee," at Sacbee.com

Systemwide, the nurses voted 95 percent in favor of the three-year agreement that provides raises averaging 19 percent to 25 percent and hourly wages as high as $47,said Charles Idelson, communications director of the California Nurses Association.

Nurses at UC San Francisco

will be able to earn nearly

$99,000 yearly under the

new pact, and retirement after

40 years will be at full salary

with comprehensive health

benefits, Idelson said.

_______

From the

San Diego paper

"It's giving nurses the pay they've deserved all along," said Geri Jenkins, a registered nurse at the UCSD and a CNA negotiator. Some nurses at UCSD, she said, will receive as much as a 32 percent raise during the life of the contract.

RNs at UCSD will make as much as $37.31 per hour under the new contract. RNs at UCLA will earn as much as $42.33, making them the highest paid RNs in Southern California, the CNA said.

______

Now, some of you can continue to call this a "Trojan news item" or any other moniker which will allow you to continue your persecuted state of mind. But sometime, somewhere, the pendelum for nurses is going to reverse. WHy not believe this was the first shudder? After all, solidarity among California nurses made it possible!

(NOTE: Nothing is here resembling advertising and no reference to another web site which broke the story originally. I hope links to newspapers aren't advertising)

Thank you!:kiss:confused:

The Mattster · Jul 6, 2002

Oh, I almost forgot...

To the writer who criticized BK for calling the new salaries at UC San Francisco as "nearly six figures."

Count the digits: $99,000. Can it come any closer?

Why in God's name would such an upswing in nurse pay -- not matter where it is experienced -- upset anyone? With luck and continued solidarity, the trend will leave the Golden State and trac completely across the USA!!!:roll

pacernurse · Jul 6, 2002

Jt is on the money with her comments and it still comes down to unity. If all the RNs stood together as a united group there would be change all over the country. The California nurses stood together and got a good raise in salary, think if we all did that. The best tactic the hospital has is to "divide and conquer." If they can keep us eating our young and fighting amongst ourselves, then they continue to have the upper hand. The hospitals play on nurses' emotions by saying "Oh, but you're deserting the patients, that's not why you went into nursing. It's a noble profession wanting to help people." My feeling is that is a two way street. Yes, I want to take care of my patients but the hospital, as a community based non-profit institution, also has a responsibility to give good patient care, either with competent, educated nurses, or good working conditions, or just plain access to the facilities. So when a hospital forces its' nurses out on strike or uses up whatever money there is on expensive perks for the administration or consultant groups, they are also deserting the patients in favor of profit and gain and the public has the right to know that too during a strike.

fergus51 · Jul 6, 2002

I don't think anyone begrudges them the nearly 6 figure salaries at all. Some of us, like me, just felt the story was incomplete. I would like to know what the pay scale is like from new grad on up, that's all. I know from experience our gov't liked to blast about the top of our pay scale being about 22$US, but he failed to mention that it took nine years to be making the top wage and there were other conditions attached to it.