The neutrality agreement the CNA and the SEIU obtained between Tenet Healthcare and the SEIU has been ruled as "Illegal Assistance to Unions" by the National Labor Relations Board. This precident was set after a suit filed by a Los Angeles area RN from Whittier Hospital Medical Center.
The Hospital has formally anounced that they will no longer recognize the CNA as the bargaining agent for the Registered Nurses at that facility. Talks with the SEIU have ended. The CNA has also agreed to REFUND union dues collected under this illegal agreement.
This affects Tenet and former Tenet employees who may have had dues collected illegally under this "Neutrality Agreement". If your hospital voted in the CNA and/or the SEIU under this agreement and the union won but not by a majority of the bargaining unit you may be able to have the results of the election overturned and your unlawfully collected dues refunded to you.
No mandatory overtime....NEVER MANDATORY OVERTIME EVER. Never been bullied into it either. I do pick up the overtime though. When I want to and it is available. We get doubletime plus a bonus for staying over and time and a half plus a bonus for extra shifts. I have looked around and we are very competative.
We get about $6.50 for standby and time and a half plus shift diff if called.
We do have a mandatory classes but so does the local union hospitals. We get paid for attending and we get ceu's . If they have to pay overtime to take the class then they do.
We have had a few physicians try the bullying crap over the years. We do not tolerate it. We had one surgeon who was forced to take anger management classes in order to stay on staff. We saw him limping a little one morning and asked what happened. His reply was (and he showed us) that he had to walk around with a pebble in his shoe for some therapy he was getting in his anger management class.
Our staffing, while not the greatest is improving because a few of the travelers have liked us so much they cam on staff! They had many choices here in Southern California. They chose us.
The CNA keeps taking all the credit for the staffing ratio's but they are not the only ones who support safe staffing. We all support safe staffing. The CNA is not the voice for ALL nurses. Only a small minority.
$6.50 an hour for standby. And you think that's worth your while? Sorry to burst YOUR bubble!
I stopped taking call when I turned 35--even though we were getting half-time plus shift differential for being on call, which, at that time, in 1990, was around $16-$18 an hour--could have been more, but my memory is dim of what shift differential was at that time. We also got time and a half plus shift differential, guaranteed minimum of 4 hours, if we got called in.
Now, in SF, in 2001, I recall taking call once during the day on a Sunday for a friend, as a favor, so she could attend some Sunday morning church function. I think I got $30 an hour--they were making around $60 an hour at the time. Iamgine what the p.m. and night crew were making! Even at that, and even though it was not a trauma center (we did not do elective surgeries on call, as many places are bullied into doing now) so there was little likelihood of being called in, I still considered it an enormous intrusion on my free time. I'd rather sleep or do nothing, and call my free time my OWN.
I've always worked with great surgeons--I was not referring to surgeons as bullying us into doing ANYTHING. It's nursing management that tries to get away with that nonsense, and they are the mutual enemy of both the surgeons AND the "worker bee" staff nurses---that's why, in the operating room, the surgeons and the nurses tend to stick together.
You "support" safe staffing--so what? Anyone can SAY they support ANYTHING, but what effort did you actually exert to make it a REALITY? In '81, when it was just an idea in our minds, we went on strike for it--and several times over the years, until Gray Davis signed it into law. Those were CNA nurses--no one else--who went on strike. Yet, those who sat around and mumbled that it was "a good idea" continued to work at their non-union hospitals, and, in some cases, even picked up registry work to cross the strike lines at ours. That's just not right.
Ponder this: if you made a decent living wage, you wouldn't have to pick up overtime. EVER.
On a different note---I am confused as to why people keep talking about Tenet. Didn't Tenet have to file bankruptcy, or something, due to all the money they had to pay out surrounding that big scandal about all the unnecessary CABGs and other supposedly unwarranted surgery being done by one cardiac surgeon who was subsequently suspended (with pay), much of it, supposedly, on celebrities? I just recall reading a bit about it well over a year ago, at which time it was huge news.
You "support" safe staffing--so what? Anyone can SAY they support ANYTHING, but what effort did you actually exert to make it a REALITY? In '81, when it was just an idea in our minds, we went on strike for it--and several times over the years, until Gray Davis signed it into law. Those were CNA nurses--no one else--who went on strike. Yet, those who sat around and mumbled that it was "a good idea" continued to work at their non-union hospitals, and, in some cases, even picked up registry work to cross the strike lines at ours. That's just not right.
Ponder this: if you made a decent living wage, you wouldn't have to pick up overtime. EVER.
The often unreasonable wage and benefit packages the unions have demanded are one of the reasons our economy is having problems. Pension plans going bankrupt, companies unable to compete in the U.S. because of high wage and benefit packages negotiated years earlier.
Disagreeing with union tactics is one thing, but blaming the American worker for the economic decline? Please! I don't know how many times a person has to mention it, but worker benefits and progression of safety rules and earning power in the US (from the near-slave labor conditions of the Industrial Revolution) is entirely due to the organization of American workers. This is historical fact -- corporations just don't dole out benefits and salary increases because they think it's a cool thing.
What is killing the American worker is the new global "free-market" economy, which has virtually eliminated every market protection, causing American workers to compete with people who work for pennies an hour in Southeast Asia. Remember the "great sucking sound" Ross Perot warned us about? As nutty as he was, he was right on the dollar with his assessment. Jobs are being sucked right out of America -- now, we're losing service industry jobs (call center jobs), engineering jobs, and even some mega-corporations are outsourcing their legal departments to other countries. Yes, it's even effecting the "professions."
Some of the manufacturing jobs lost didn't have those "big dollar" salaries frequently quoted when referring to auto workers -- many were making less than we do. Are any of you prepared to make less in the new open world economy?
Specializes in Cardiac Critical Care, Trauma, Neuro..
Disagreeing with union tactics is one thing, but blaming the American worker for the economic decline? Please! I don't know how many times a person has to mention it, but worker benefits and progression of safety rules and earning power in the US (from the near-slave labor conditions of the Industrial Revolution) is entirely due to the organization of American workers. This is historical fact -- corporations just don't dole out benefits and salary increases because they think it's a cool thing.
What is killing the American worker is the new global "free-market" economy, which has virtually eliminated every market protection, causing American workers to compete with people who work for pennies an hour in Southeast Asia. Remember the "great sucking sound" Ross Perot warned us about? As nutty as he was, he was right on the dollar with his assessment. Jobs are being sucked right out of America -- now, we're losing service industry jobs (call center jobs), engineering jobs, and even some mega-corporations are outsourcing their legal departments to other countries. Yes, it's even effecting the "professions."
Some of the manufacturing jobs lost didn't have those "big dollar" salaries frequently quoted when referring to auto workers -- many were making less than we do. Are any of you prepared to make less in the new open world economy?
I found something "Big Dollar" for you. A CNA dues increase announcement. The CNA is also sending collection notices to nurses telling them "pay up or risk termination" That will really help encourage nurses to join the CNA and it will solve any staffing issues too! Check out the notices on http://www.stopunions.com. Download the pdf's of the CNA notices and read it yourself. I am sure that the new members of the NNOC will be interested as well.
On a different note---I am confused as to why people keep talking about Tenet. Didn't Tenet have to file bankruptcy, or something, due to all the money they had to pay out surrounding that big scandal about all the unnecessary CABGs and other supposedly unwarranted surgery being done by one cardiac surgeon who was subsequently suspended (with pay), much of it, supposedly, on celebrities? I just recall reading a bit about it well over a year ago, at which time it was huge news.
Actually that happened locally . . . .and no, it wasn't on celebrities. Just regular folks - but there is a large contingent of nurses and physicians, plus patients of this surgeon and another plus a cardiologist who support them. Some feel these guys were railroaded. I personally like and admire the main guy accused of these things . .. .
I found something "Big Dollar" for you. A CNA dues increase announcement. The CNA is also sending collection notices to nurses telling them "pay up or risk termination" That will really help encourage nurses to join the CNA and it will solve any staffing issues too! Check out the notices on http://www.stopunions.com. Download the pdf's of the CNA notices and read it yourself. I am sure that the new members of the NNOC will be interested as well.
As long as the nurses who don't want to support CNA financially, forego ALL OF THE BENEFITS that CNA has obtained, INCLUDING the pay raises, benefits, and staffing ratios, etc, they don't have to pay dues. Reality is that all of the nurses are covered by the contract, and receive ALL of the benefits that the union has obtained. When laws get passed that allow the union to deny non union or non-dues paying nurses from receiving these benefits, or these nurse opt out of receiving these beneftits, then you can whine all you would like about unions and dues. As it stands now you are suffering from a terminal case of delusions of grandeur, and self deception. You cannot, by yourself, improve, or change the way hospitals treat their nurses.
Haven''t you heard the term, "strength in numbers"? There is a reason for that. Unions have earned ALL OF THE WORKPLACE SAFETY NETS, THAT ARE IN PLACE TODAY. Big business did not, voluntary give workers that 8 hour day, 40 hour work week, overtime, benefits, etc because of their generous natures. They did it because of the efforts of YOUR GRANDFATHERS' hard work and determination. These are efforts that are now being thrown to the wind, with a record low union membership in this country. I hope that the AFL-CIO is successful in organizing groups that have traditionally not been unionized. It will take that strength in numbers to get back the rights of the workers in ths country. If you can't see that you are blind.
I grew up in the Northeast in a union household where my father worked for the Post Office. I remember my fathers's low pay and how we struggled financially. The Post Office was the lowest paid of all the government workers at the time. Finally in 1970, they has enough of broken promises, and no raises. The Post office voted for a nationwide strike. The first time ever that they had gone on strike. The Post Office, all over the country, went on stike, and brought this country to its knees in three days. Compare that to the nurses' strikes that go on for months and years, with replacement workers brougt in to staff the strike. Nurse should use strike as their first line of workplace actions, and not the last. It should be without the niceities of givng them ten days notice. That will get their attention. CNA's "Big Business" tactics pale in comparison to the crap that the hospitals use against nurses. You are fighting the wrong enemy.
The nurses here in Washington are unfortunate enough to be organized with the Washington State Nurses Association. Let me give you an example of what they have allowed, and bargained for. Ther have allowed Medication Aides to administer medications in nursing homes and assisted living facilities, this past contract. The hospital I used to work for were going through some sort of accreditation process in the fall, and they asked WSNA to wait a couple of months to start negotations on the new contract. By the time they started the negotiations, it was almost Christmas. The were only offering a 5% pay increase, but wanted to increase the cost of medical benefits by 20%. As usual, WSNA caved in and the contract was voted in. To add insult to injury, the hospital blamed the nurses for the delay in the contract negotations, and the delay in getting the contract ratified (no one wanted to pay a 20% increase in medical benefits), and refused to pay the nurses retroactive pay from 12/31- March 15. Of course WSNA did not fight it. As the nurses went to vote on the contract, they put in their paperwork to get out of WSNA. Ther young nurse are now leaving in large numbers, and others are unhappy are finding work outside of hospital nursing.
Is this where you really want nursing to go? The young nurses are leaving in droves, causing the hospitals to consider bringing in foreign nurses because of the "Nursing Shortage" in Spokane. We have three schools of nursing here, in a relatively small community. Don't you see, this is what the hospitals do when they are not held accountble by a union as strong as CNA? This is what they really want to happen. Then they can scream "nursing shortage", ad bring in foreign nurses, and de skill the profession. Is this preferable to what you have in California with CNA? You should get down on your knees and be thankfu to have CNA to stand up for the nurses in California. Washington has a joke called WSNA. Our dismal pay and benefits are the result of their union "protections", "negotiations", and non existent "workplace advocacy".
Actually that happened locally . . . .and no, it wasn't on celebrities. Just regular folks - but there is a large contingent of nurses and physicians, plus patients of this surgeon and another plus a cardiologist who support them. Some feel these guys were railroaded. I personally like and admire the main guy accused of these things . .. .
steph
Merle Haggard is a celebrity to me. He wrote dozens of great songa. I remember singing "Okie from Muskogee"
"How One Hospital Benefited on Questionable Operations
By KURT EICHENWALD
Could it possibly be, Dr. Patrick Campbell wondered, that doctors at his hospital in Redding, Calif., were cracking open the chests of perfectly healthy people?
Dr. Campbell, an internist, first suspected trouble in Redding Medical Center's cardiology program soon after joining the hospital in 1993, according to papers obtained by federal investigators. That year, one of his patients underwent open-heart surgery even after the surgeon told Dr. Campbell the procedure was unnecessary. Two years later, another patient received a coronary bypass, though the cardiologist's report said it was not necessary...."
Actually that happened locally . . . .and no, it wasn't on celebrities. Just regular folks - but there is a large contingent of nurses and physicians, plus patients of this surgeon and another plus a cardiologist who support them. Some feel these guys were railroaded. I personally like and admire the main guy accused of these things . .. .
steph
Yeah, that's what a friend of mine said, who used to live in Redding and did ICU, CCU and cardiac cath lab--she thought he was an excellent doc. You might know her, steph! (Maybe I will p.m. you to ask.)
I thought I remembered reading that one of the surgeries (a controversial one) was on some famous country western singer, but I can't recall who it was.
Merle Haggard is a celebrity to me. He wrote dozens of great songa. I remember singing "Okie from Muskogee"
Oh, yeah----I LOVED Merle Haggard!! I didn't know he was one of the celebrities that had a CABG there, though---seems like it was somebody quite a bit younger, but also a famous country western singer in his own right.
I found something "Big Dollar" for you. A CNA dues increase announcement. The CNA is also sending collection notices to nurses telling them "pay up or risk termination" That will really help encourage nurses to join the CNA and it will solve any staffing issues too! Check out the notices on http://www.stopunions.com. Download the pdf's of the CNA notices and read it yourself. I am sure that the new members of the NNOC will be interested as well.
Don't quote me on this, but I BELIEVE CNA--in fact, most unions---has a clause that says you can, if you don't support unions for whatever reason (for example---I had a friend when I worked at Kaiser, which was CNA, in CA who was Seventh Day Adventist, and their religion doesn't allow union involvement, apparently) you can take the dues that you WOULD have paid to CNA and contribute them, instead, to a charitable cause---of YOUR choice, not theirs.
Even in Oregon we were allowed to do this through OFN, (Oregon Federation of Nurses) and OFN is one of the most scandalous, in bed with management nursing unions around.
Yeah, that's what a friend of mine said, who used to live in Redding and did ICU, CCU and cardiac cath lab--she thought he was an excellent doc. You might know her, steph! (Maybe I will p.m. you to ask.)
I thought I remembered reading that one of the surgeries (a controversial one) was on some famous country western singer, but I can't recall who it was.
Spacenurse had it . . .Merle Haggard. But really most of the patients were just regular folks.
I actually helped Merle find his way out of that particular hospital one time . . .he was lost - as a person can easily get in a large hospital. And I also saw him at Big 5 with his kids buying sports stuff and shoes.
Don't quote me on this, but I BELIEVE CNA--in fact, most unions---has a clause that says you can, if you don't support unions for whatever reason (for example---I had a friend when I worked at Kaiser, which was CNA, in CA who was Seventh Day Adventist, and their religion doesn't allow union involvement, apparently) you can take the dues that you WOULD have paid to CNA and contribute them, instead, to a charitable cause---of YOUR choice, not theirs.
Even in Oregon we were allowed to do this through OFN, (Oregon Federation of Nurses) and OFN is one of the most scandalous, in bed with management nursing unions around.
Stevierae,
They cannot be any worse than the Washington State Nurses Association. Did you read what I wrote about what they allowed to happen here in Spokane, with the last contract that they negotiated for the Sacred Heart nurses? Also, I cannot begin to tell you that harrassment, targeting, and unfair labor practices that I was subjected to over the 12 years that I worked there. Grievences were worthless, and the hospital knew it. Believe it or not, the MALE NURSES ruled the roost, and still do, in the ICU. The female nurses were disciplined far worse that the male nurses were for far less grievous infractions. Female nurses were fired for sleeping on duty, while the male nurses would sleep at the bedsides, get caught by MD's and family members, etc., and they ALL still work there. Think that it has something to do with the fact that, even though nursing is 95% female, there are THREE MALE ASSISTANT NURSE MANAGERS, IN THE ICU. THEY ARE ALL STILL THERE, AND OF COURSE, TWO OF THEM WORKED NIGHTS. Of course, WSNA has nothing to say about the male nurses being favored over female nurses. This, when one of the WSNA co-chairs, works 12 hour nights in the ICU, and has observed this behavior. As we say in Brooklyn, they are all about as useful as tits on a bull, if you know what I mean.
stevierae
1,085 Posts
$6.50 an hour for standby. And you think that's worth your while? Sorry to burst YOUR bubble!
I stopped taking call when I turned 35--even though we were getting half-time plus shift differential for being on call, which, at that time, in 1990, was around $16-$18 an hour--could have been more, but my memory is dim of what shift differential was at that time. We also got time and a half plus shift differential, guaranteed minimum of 4 hours, if we got called in.
Now, in SF, in 2001, I recall taking call once during the day on a Sunday for a friend, as a favor, so she could attend some Sunday morning church function. I think I got $30 an hour--they were making around $60 an hour at the time. Iamgine what the p.m. and night crew were making! Even at that, and even though it was not a trauma center (we did not do elective surgeries on call, as many places are bullied into doing now) so there was little likelihood of being called in, I still considered it an enormous intrusion on my free time. I'd rather sleep or do nothing, and call my free time my OWN.
I've always worked with great surgeons--I was not referring to surgeons as bullying us into doing ANYTHING. It's nursing management that tries to get away with that nonsense, and they are the mutual enemy of both the surgeons AND the "worker bee" staff nurses---that's why, in the operating room, the surgeons and the nurses tend to stick together.
You "support" safe staffing--so what? Anyone can SAY they support ANYTHING, but what effort did you actually exert to make it a REALITY? In '81, when it was just an idea in our minds, we went on strike for it--and several times over the years, until Gray Davis signed it into law. Those were CNA nurses--no one else--who went on strike. Yet, those who sat around and mumbled that it was "a good idea" continued to work at their non-union hospitals, and, in some cases, even picked up registry work to cross the strike lines at ours. That's just not right.
Ponder this: if you made a decent living wage, you wouldn't have to pick up overtime. EVER.
On a different note---I am confused as to why people keep talking about Tenet. Didn't Tenet have to file bankruptcy, or something, due to all the money they had to pay out surrounding that big scandal about all the unnecessary CABGs and other supposedly unwarranted surgery being done by one cardiac surgeon who was subsequently suspended (with pay), much of it, supposedly, on celebrities? I just recall reading a bit about it well over a year ago, at which time it was huge news.