Big pay cut at Orlando Health, please help your fellow Nurses

Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN · Sep 12, 2013

And thank you for proving that union bandwagoneers only see what they want to to prove their points.if my union was so awesome, my wage would be comparable to my cost of living, and my Florida lifestyle would be extended here. My rent in FL was $900/month for a 3/2 condo, here in DC its $1800/month for a studio. Yeah, my union does a lot for me.
I still have crappy ratios on a step down floor, 6 to 1 sometimes, 5 to 1 mostly, rarely 4 to 1. At my non union hospital, I had 4 to1 mostly, and 5 to 1 rarely, if someone called out. I had 4 PCTs to 28 beds, I am lucky in DC if I have 2, usually its 1 for 30 beds. I had 24 hr phlebotomy in FL, and none after midnight in DC,and I am super lucky if they showup before midnight. Tell me again, how great they are, where is my $77/month going?
No, I will never change my minds about unions. NEVER. The two people that I know that have actually been fired got their jobs back, because of the union. What did they do you ask? One of them stole a hoyer lift and sold it to a patient for $1,200, this was a federal union that fought for him, the other was defended by a national union and hit a security guard with her car, after he confronted her 3 times for illegally parking, she was just recently legitimately terminated again for bullying her colleaugues, abusing the time clock, and violating HIPAA, I hope federal authorities step in and imprison her before the union fights to bring her back. And of course, she has been there for 20+ years and "makes to much", so I am sure that's why the hospital was really out to get her {rolls eyes}

Compared to the east coast at one of the best hospitals in the US A nurse with 20 years experience makes $80.00 or more without shift diff. The benefits are staggering and the working conditions sublime.

While your conditions are worse now than in Florida imagine what they were before the Union came. I was one that didn't believe in Unions...until about 10 years ago when things began to change in the profession. We didn't need them hospitals treated us fairly and treated us well....because it was the right thing to do. Those days are long gone.

I am curious.....Is you hospital Union a nurses union?

Mindful, RN · Sep 12, 2013

I believe you are wrong about unions, just for fun where do you work ?

PMFB-RN, RN · Sep 12, 2013

And thank you for proving that union bandwagoneers only see what they want to to prove their points.

*** You are mistaken. That's not what I am. I am just a regular staff RN who has worked in hospitals without unions, and now worked in a hospital with a union. I can tell you about my experience. I am not a "bandwagoneer". Just a staff RN sharing my personal experience. If I am ever looking for a new job I will be looking in a union hospital first, preferable a non Magnet one.

if my union was so awesome, my wage would be comparable to my cost of living, and my Florida lifestyle would be extended here. My rent in FL was $900/month for a 3/2 condo, here in DC its $1800/month for a studio. Yeah, my union does a lot for me.

*** Look you have made the decision to work in the worst pay vs cost of living areas on the country. You bear some responsibility for that and the choices you have made. I wouldn't work for the peanuts they pay RNs in Florida and at your hospital in D.C.

I still have crappy ratios on a step down floor, 6 to 1 sometimes, 5 to 1 mostly, rarely 4 to 1. At my non union hospital, I had 4 to1 mostly, and 5 to 1 rarely, if someone called out. I had 4 PCTs to 28 beds, I am lucky in DC if I have 2, usually its 1 for 30 beds. I had 24 hr phlebotomy in FL, and none after midnight in DC,and I am super lucky if they showup before midnight. Tell me again, how great they are, where is my $77/month going?

*** Wow, don't you see that by agreeing to work under such awful conditions you and your co-workers only perpetuate them? Just think how bad it would be without a union!

Anyway your union is weak and toothless if you work under those conditions. How do you think they will get better if the union goes away? What you need is a better union, not no union. $77 a month seems outrageous to me. I pay $12/pay check. if you resent it so much then WHY are you paying it?!!!

No, I will never change my minds about unions. NEVER.

*** (shrug) It isn't really about you.

The two people that I know that have actually been fired got their jobs back, because of the union. What did they do you ask? One of them stole a hoyer lift and sold it to a patient for $1,200, this was a federal union that fought for him, the other was defended by a national union and hit a security guard with her car, after he confronted her 3 times for illegally parking, she was just recently legitimately terminated again for bullying her colleaugues, abusing the time clock, and violating HIPAA, I hope federal authorities step in and imprison her before the union fights to bring her back. And of course, she has been there for 20+ years and "makes to much", so I am sure that's why the hospital was really out to get her {rolls eyes}

*** Sounds like you have a (weak and toothless) mafia. You do recognize that your unions behavior isn't the way it is everywhere? Right?

In our case it was pretty blatant. There were 8 nurses who worked every weekend and got paid time and a half in exchange for working 51 weekends a year. We got a new manager who made a point of saying at our first unit meeting that she hated the weekend program and that is messed up her budget. Within 9 months 6 of those nurses had been fired. No other nurses in the unit were fired during the same time frame. The other two saw the writing on the wall and took position elsewhere. The irony is that since without the weekend nurses all the other nurses had to go to working every other weekend without a differential. That caused such bad moral and so many nurses to vote with their feet that they brought back the weekend program but now have 10 nurses on the weekends.

BlueDevil,DNP, DNP, RN · Sep 14, 2013

I almost never agree with anything PFMB suggests, but in this case s/he is right (and I am staunchly anti-union). You chose to work there. You are accountable. Stop vilifying the hospital system for trying to sustain financial positions and vote with your feet. They will act in their own best interest, you (collective you, FL nurses being affected) need to act in yours.

I didn't like the NP practice act and salaries being offered where I lived, so I moved 2,000 miles away. Yes, I left family, friends, home, etc. You make your choices and you accept the consequences.

allnurses Guide · Sep 14, 2013

Nurses can decertify their union for another they think listens to them. -- Cook County RNs Drop Bargaining Agent | Seachange Bulletin

I wish the best for Orlando health nurses and patients.

allnurses Guide · Sep 14, 2013

Exclusive: Ed Bruno on next steps to form union at Orlando Health

Orlando Business Journal reached out to Ed Bruno, Southern regional director at the National Nurses Organizing Committee/National Nurses United, to see what the next steps are for forming a union and how a union may positively and negatively affect Orlando Health.

What are the next steps for the nurses in forming a union at Orlando Health?

Since the objective of forming a union is to negotiate a good union contract, the essential step is always to help nurses put together an effective, widely representative organizing committee that is capable of leading the campaign to successfully negotiate the union contract. ...

... What benefit would a union be for addressing the nurses’ concerns and complaints?

Primary of course is once the nurses have a union, the hospital must negotiate with their committees and no longer can make unilateral changes in pay or conditions. For example, the current unilateral pay cuts could not happen. Nurses who have collective bargaining rights always spend much effort on winning contractual guarantees on patient care procedures, safe staffing ratios and other professional practices. This, of course, is in addition to wages and benefit issues. As important also is the question of respect for nurses as patient advocates, and protection from unjust or arbitrary disciplines.

How might a union positively and negatively affect Orlando Health?

Collective bargaining by hospital nurses leads to two over-all public values — better patient care and higher community standards of living. It also will tend to force hospital management to be better managers of their hospitals and their employees, also a community benefit. ...

http://www.bizjournals.com/orlando/blog/2013/09/exclusive-ed-bruno-on-next-steps-to.html?page=all

Tao2200 · Sep 18, 2013

At Saturday's meeting a nurse stood up and told the story about how she overheard an Orlando Health administrator telling HR employees that the nurses were a bunch of mutts and that they were to stupid to organize. So I guess this is what Orlando Health thinks of its nurses. Very sad, its no wonder that they treat the nurses like dogs.

allnurses Guide · Sep 18, 2013

At Saturday's meeting a nurse stood up and told the story about how she overheard an Orlando Health administrator telling HR employees that the nurses were a bunch of mutts and that they were to stupid to organize. So I guess this is what Orlando Health thinks of its nurses. Very sad, its no wonder that they treat the nurses like dogs.

Hospitals exist because patients need nursing care.

That is the ONLY reason for someone to be admitted to a hospital.

Administrators and human resources can take weekends off. Our entire administrative and management staff went on a Maui retreat for a week. The nurses and others made sure the finest care was provided.

healthyglo · Sep 18, 2013

Here are some of the latest news videos and articles of what's going on with Orlando health. First link includes a video of news coverage. Its more about the CEO's hogwash. Now she is giving merit raises (Merit raises the nurses were denied earlier this year by the way) while still cutting the pay. It makes no sense other then a tatic to try to cool tempers and deter union activity. In the end the nurses are still getting screwed. They really do think the nurses and employees are stupid.

http://www.wftv.com/news/news/local/orlando-health-delays-cuts-shift-differential-pay/nZzGr/

http://www.bizjournals.com/orlando/morning_call/2013/09/orlando-health-delays-some-planned-pay.html?ana=fbk

Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN · Sep 18, 2013

Here are some of the latest news videos and articles of what's going on with Orlando health. First link includes a video of news coverage. Its more about the CEO's hogwash. Now she is giving merit raises (Merit raises the nurses were denied earlier this year by the way) while still cutting the pay. It makes no sense other then a tatic to try to cool tempers and deter union activity. In the end the nurses are still getting screwed. They really do think the nurses and employees are stupid.
Orlando Health delays cuts to shift differential pay | www.wftv.com
Orlando Health delays some planned pay cuts to January - Orlando Business Journal

I don't think that the nurses are "stupid" They are in an impossible situation in extremely difficult if not impossible economic times. Jobs are not abundant. They are perfectly aware of the bait and switch tactics of the administration...which by the way betrays their guilt...they are essentially powerless to stop it....this is where we have landed.

healthyglo · Sep 18, 2013

I don't think that the nurses are "stupid" They are in an impossible situation in extremely difficult if not impossible economic times. Jobs are not abundant. They are perfectly aware of the bait and switch tactics of the administration...which by the way betrays their guilt...they are essentially powerless to stop it....this is where we have landed.

So very true, its very sad to see nurses and other employees being taken advantage of this way.

lindarn · Sep 18, 2013

NURSES ARE NOT POWERLESS!!!!!!!!

That mentality is why nursing is in the deplorable state it is now.

Take control of your profession, and vote in NNOC. Disregard the, "attaboy crumbs", that the hospital is throwing at you now.

Show them that YOU are in control of your profession.

Engage the public. Have rallies in very public places, invite the press, and TV Stations. Invite a TV newscaster, that you think would support your position. They can write an article that is favorable to the nurses. Hold BP clinics, and offer free BP checks.

Have coloring sheets and crayons, bubbles, candy, fliers, to give out to the kids, and public. Include the salaries of the CEO, other hospital administrators, including perks, like County Club Memberships.

Remind the public, that no one ever died because they could not do long division, diagram a sentence, or recite the Gettysburg Address. Patients are dying, being harmed, because there are not enough nurses to go around, do to, "DELIBERATE UNDERSTAFFING BY THE HOSPITAL"!!

Remind them that your childs teacher can refuse another student, if he/she, has reached the maximum number of students, in order to give each child the needed attention to help them learn. Why is you child safer in a day care center, than if they were a patient in a pediatric ward of the local hospital?

Your CEO, managers, and administrators, ALL HAVE EMPLOYMENT CONTRACTS TO GUARANTEE THEIR JOB REQUIREMENTS, AND SALARY!! Why don't you?? Your CEO would not mop the floor, or clean bathrooms. Why not? because it is not in his/her, job description. It is in their contract what they are expected to do to run the hospital.

Ask the public, if they would want to sit on a bedpan for two hours, because their nurse had 9 other patients to care for. There is only so much one person can do.

State how colleges are now purposely overproducing nurses, who are now unable to get jobs. THEIR tax dollars, are paying for these nurses to attend college, when their is no need for the number of nurses that are being produced. THEIR tax dollars are paying for student loans, that are being defaulted on, because the nurses have no reasonable expectation to find a job with the over producing of nurses that is going on. These nurses may end up needing taxpayer supported assistance to support their families because they diverted family funds, diverted personal time to school, instead of working, all for nothing.

You have to get as mean and dirty as they are!! Put on you big girl panties, and go to work!!

JMHO and my NY $0.02

Lindarn, RN, BSN, CCRN (ret)

Somewhere in the PACNW