Another Texas Hospital Goes Union

mdfog10 · May 20, 2010

Nurses are taking back our Profession !!!! We provide the care , we are the experts, we have the power to change healthcare!!!!

Bortaz, MSN, RN · May 21, 2010

My understanding is that the vote was 170ish to 160ish in favor. It's going to be interesting to see how this works out.

Chico David, BSN, RN · May 21, 2010

My understanding is that the vote was 170ish to 160ish in favor. It's going to be interesting to see how this works out.

177-152, I think. Yes, it will be interesting indeed. Organizing in a so called "right to work" state is harder, since there is no compulsion to pay dues, it's harder to get the unity you need to get good contracts. But NNOC has had good success in Nevada and is building chain-wide power in HCA, which makes a real difference.

PICUPNP · May 22, 2010

The only positive aspect of unions in Texas is that it will be easier access to good money when they go on strike for one ridiculous reason or another! I hear working hospitals on strike is really good money. Until now, we would have to travel to do this but now...........

Chico David, BSN, RN · May 22, 2010

The only positive aspect of unions in Texas is that it will be easier access to good money when they go on strike for one ridiculous reason or another! I hear working hospitals on strike is really good money. Until now, we would have to travel to do this but now...........

Don't go counting that money you hope to steal from your fellow nurses quite yet. My union is one of the most aggressive in the country, but about 97% of our contracts settle without strikes.

PICUPNP · May 24, 2010

It's not stealing if they're not at the bedside where they belong.

Chico David, BSN, RN · May 24, 2010

It's not stealing if they're not at the bedside where they belong.

It's an interesting thing you know. I don't want to make assumptions casually, but I would hazard a guess that you consider yourself a conservative and a believer in individual rights. So why is it that so many people who think of themselves that way are so quick to deny workers the right to choose to join with others to better their lot? Hospitals all belong to a union. They pay thousands of dollars a year in dues to belong to the hospital assn. because they know that they are stronger as a group than they are individually. Insurance companies all belong to a union, (AHIP) because they know that when they go to lobby congress it helps if they speak with one voice rather than individuals. Conservatives seem to have no trouble with those big business interests joining together. But let ordinary workers choose to join together, and suddenly there is something Un-American about it. For a worker, individually or in a group, to choose to withold his or her labor in order to raise the price of that labor is exactly the kind of thing that businesses do in order to raise the price of what they sell.

Now, as othere nurses in Texas organize and begin to raise standards and raise wages and benefits in Texas, you will be ever so smugly proud that you will get some collateral benefit from their work and sacrifice without paying for it. And if, by chance, some of them are forced to strike, you'll be happy to enrich yourself by making it harder for them to accomplish the goals they choose to sacrifice for. So you will not only benefit from what they accomplish, you will help make it harder for them to accomplish it. Which is why union people consider scabs to be a couple notches lower than thieves on the moral scale.

PICUPNP · May 25, 2010

#1 I'm not about denying anyones right to collectively organize and bargain. I am against unions. My opinion, not others.

#2 Smugly proud...Hmmm.

#3 What union people think of me has no bearing on me or my practice. Sticks and stones.......

#4 My politics...I have no politics. I don't vote by choice in any election, presidential or otherwise.

#5 Yes. I would definitely cross a picket line at my hospital or any other where patients need care! If that makes it harder for nurses here or there to organize, so be it. Its not about money or unions, its about caring for those who need it when union idiots walk out on their patients.

Shannon Doggett · May 26, 2010

Local newspapers are reporting that management was prevented from talking with nurses about the union because of an agreement HCA made with the union. So, the nurses only heard what the union told them. I guess it isn't surprising that the nurses voted to go union, but I'm not sure that being forced to vote based on one-sided information is an example of people exercising their rights. Certainly, it isn't an example of nurses taking back our profession. Instead, it looks to me like an example of nurses being sold out by their employer to a union - because now they'll have to pay dues in order to take part in any union votes.

nicurn001 · May 26, 2010

Because employers recieve notice the legally required notice that nurses have voted for and are going to go on strike . The arguement that patients are going to be abandoned is spurios . If indeed any patient is without care when the strike starts it is because management has not taken the appropriate steps to ensure adequate staffing ie. either settle the strike , get strike breakers in to cover the positons or to transfer out patients to other facilities if they cannot get staff .

Staffing wise it is as though the staffing office is notified that a number of nurses will be off at a certain date , so they need to look at all alternatives to cover the staffing requirements .

Yes there are consequences to nurses being unavailable , but there are also consequences to inadequate staffing , how are these to be mitigated in the face of intransigent management , who would much rather care for their bottom line , than the patients straight line , consequential to poor staffing .

allnurses Guide · May 27, 2010