Another reason unions suck!

Nurses Union

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Trying to get a vacation as a new RN under a union regime is challenging at best. It's all seniority based. So the senior RNs can basically come and go as they choose. But that means the rest of us cannot be off (even though we don't cover each other or know each other's job). Also the silly union made a rule that managers cannot approve vacations to far out. So if someone knows they want a certain week 2 years from now, they cannot secure it and start booking flights or whatever. It's irritating at best.

Rueger you graduated last May. You cant expect others who have worked there for years to cancel their vacations to accommodate you.

Not at all. But when the union contract prevents my manager from approving a vacation in Sept 2017 because it's to far out a someone else may want time that week, I call BS.

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Actually more of your tax dollars go towards corporate welfare not individual or family welfare!!! Also nothing like your tax dollars subsidizing places like Walmart who make millions to billions in profits every year but cannot pay their employees a living wage so they need public assistance just to survive! So tired of people blaming the poor for being poor and totally ignoring the true welfare queens; the corporations!

You have to start somewhere. When I know people who are minimum wage part time and they are getting back more in taxes than myself (an upper middle class) has paid in. There is something wrong there.

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Specializes in Med-Tele; ED; ICU.
Oh, and just for giggles. I'll share something with you guys now. Many of my family members and friends are upper management including some CEOs.

I'm privy to all kinds of stories of how unions use ghetto and mafia tactics to try and get their way.

While those in the executive suite are fair-playing and reasonable.

As I said, I've been there, I know the realities of 'full-contact capitalism.'

Your opinions are obviously set in stone. I continue this discourse only for the benefit of the young 'uns whose minds remain open.

The good news for you is that the executive class has made great strides in wiping out organized labor, and the middle class along with it.

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Specializes in burn ICU, SICU, ER, Trauma Rapid Response.
You have to start somewhere. When I know people who are minimum wage part time and they are getting back more in taxes than myself (an upper middle class) has paid in. There is something wrong there.

I assume you are referring to the earned income tax credit. The EITC has proven to be beneficial to both the country, it's economy, and to low income families since the Republican president signed it into law in 1975. It was expanded in 1990 by President Bush and also in 2001 by the other president Bush.

Not only is something not wrong, something is very right with this Republican tax measure.

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I assume you are referring to the earned income tax credit. The EITC has proven to be beneficial to both the country, it's economy, and to low income families since the Republican president signed it into law in 1975. It was expanded in 1990 by President Bush and also in 2001 by the other president Bush.

Not only is something not wrong, something is very right with this Republican tax measure.

Oh no question. We should totally pay/reward poor people to breed more poor people.

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Alright guys. It's been fun but I'm putting the phone away for the day and spending time with my boys. Enjoy.

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Specializes in Med-Tele; ED; ICU.

This thread is degenerating.

I'll drop this before it dies its inevitable inglorious death:

Everybody and every organization acts in its own best self-interests. In all business relationships, the key factor is goal alignment.

The California Nurses Association and I goals which are reasonably well aligned. Perfectly? No. Sufficiently? Yes. I am their customer and hence, I receive some benefit from their representation, just as I would with an attorney or a financial planner.

Now, in some ways, the goals of my employer and myself are also aligned. That is, we need a continuing and growing customer base who choose our services in order to maintain and grow our revenue stream and our profits. Where our goals diverge is in what percentage of those profits should be directed toward me and that is where the representation and collective bargaining come in.

Are their services worth the $1500 per year that I pay them? Absolutely. Do they support causes which I do not? Of course. As in all things, though, it's a simple matter of which option benefits me the most and as a 50-something person I recognize that in many organizations, I'd have to be concerned about the rampant ageism in corporate America...

I've been there, I know. I've worked for some of the largest corporations in the world as well as mom-and-pops and start-ups... I know how brutal it can be. When I say 'full-contact capitalism,' I'm not talking about going hard after the QB up to the whistle, I'm talking about trying to lay a helmet-to-helmet hit on a receiver laid out over the middle. I'm talking about pushing the envelope just as far as it can be pushed... and then some. I'm talking about monetizing the risk of fines. I'm talking about ruthlessly using people until they're deemed to have been sufficiently drained at which time they're pushed aside in favor of a younger, more aggressive one.

Labor unions are not the problem, they are the answer to the problem. Are they perfect solutions? Not at all. Do they represent a drag on the system? Obviously. But is there a better solution out there to represent the interests of fungible commodity labor like nursing? Not that I see and I am a reasonably intelligent and well-informed person.

I suppose that if I had vast amounts of money socked away as you do, Ruger, I'd not be so concerned. Of course, if I had the vast amounts that you do, I'd step out of the game and be a freelancer.

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Oh no question. We should totally pay/reward poor people to breed more poor people.

Wow just wow!

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Specializes in Hospice.
You have to start somewhere. When I know people who are minimum wage part time and they are getting back more in taxes than myself (an upper middle class) has paid in. There is something wrong there.

As you say, you have to start somewhere - so why do you assume you, a beginner who's less than a year out of school, are entitled to the same perks as a worker with years of service with the same employer?

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I'm going to ignore all the backbiting about taxes and post to the original topic.

I'm union, and while ours go by seniority, our managers weigh in, also. Everyone gets to make two requests for "prime time" summer vacation (May through September). While naturally the seniority gets their first choices, management works hard to make sure nearly everyone gets at least one of their choices. If you take vacation in the "off season" its not difficult to get usually.

The thing is, it was more or less like this everywhere I have worked, union or not. If you have a new grad and someone who has been there for 5 years attempting to vacation the same week of June, the senior person is going to get it. Even though I am absolutely low man on the totem pole since I recently got this new union job, I prefer this over "first come first served" wherein it is just a race to see who can submit faster on the scheduling thing at 12:01 am the day vacation sign ups begin.

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In my hospital we are not unionized - thank god. Unions protect bad employees, plain and simple. If i have a grievance, I settle it myself. I earn my own raises based on my own accomplishments or lack of them. We start earning pto right away and just have to submit our requests as early as possible. Unions should be a thing of the past. Yes, they helped found the labor force but with few exceptions they are not worth it anymore and nursing is one of them that should not have them. i don't know why anyone would want to pay dues to someone that is going to go to bat for a bad employee and base your increases on everyone else.

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Isn't this a nursing blog? Where else should one be able to rant free of judgement?

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