Attention Care Givers United we stand Divided we fall

[Precious Times]

Our Profession Needs a good strong Union again, All Nurses, STNA's and Social Workers should bind together and Elect to have the Union brought back. Look at our History and see the respect and apreation the Nursing field got, and the profound devotion that they gave the patients, We need the UNION Back to protect our rights our opinions and to hold our health and sanity together. Let us show our profession the respect it so desperately deserves. We can all be a light for generations to come, Together we can move the Mountain! Apart we move only a stone. I Hope we all do are part, and remember the compassion in are hearts for respect and dignity of all Humane Life.

[nursegoodlove]

Dear Precious Times,

I am not sure of what state you are in? I am in Canada & we are largely unionized. I agree that: "united we stand or divided we fall". A union - as someone else has posted somewhere here...is only as strong as its members. What we are seeing in the province I live in - is an exteme right wing (favouring big business/corportations, etc) that has emposed legislation which in fact - tore up our collective agreements. In other words...they have ripped apart the Unions. I say unions because it is not only the nurses contract this has happened to - but also the hospital employees union (which is the largest union in B.C. & covers such people as: nurse aides, LPNs, maintenance, housekeeping, laundry, foodservice, admitting & unit clerks, etc.). We are seeing thousands of fellow workers losing their jobs. I cannot tell you the devastation that is occuring here. The govt. is also selling off or closing non-profit facilities (i.e.: long-term care facilities)/hospital units (i.e.: ERs, ICUs, acute palliative & renal services), they are privatizing surgeries, etc.

It is a very calculated, deliberate move to dismantle unions & canadian universal health care.

There is an excellent write up from a nurse who came from Scotland (where this has all happened "before" us) - her name is Carolin Leckie I believe...it's at: http://www.bcnusfv.org and helps explain the true unfolding & horror of it.

I believe in unions. But I also believe that if the membership does not stand together.........they will not exist.

It's frightening, it's disheartening, it's "war" & it is exhausting.

But as Emiliano Zapata says:

"It is better to die on your feet ~ than live on your knees" & therefore I agree with you......union is best!

May you find others who will stand strong with you. What have you got to lose when you have lost everything?

[sjoe]

"have the Union brought back"

What union? Brought back where? From where?

I have yet to work at a facility where the union left on its own or was thrown out--quite the contrary, union membership has always been either stable or spreading. In other words, your rabble-rousing rhetoric aside, I don't know what you are talking about.

[nursegoodlove]

sjoe - may you never need to "know"

[bellehill, RN]

I have never been a part of a unionized hospital so I don't know what the difference is. Is seems nurses have the same complaints...union or non-union. We tried to unite with such organizations as ANA with no success. Why doesn't somebody figure out why associations don't work, why do we need a union?