Another reason unions suck!

[Ruger8mm]

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.

[joanna73, BSN, RN]

Your opinions don't matter to me. I'm bored and wanted to trash unions.

At least you admit it. I can respect that much.

[Ruger8mm]

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.

[ProgressiveActivist, BSN, RN]

Your point? Trickle down economics does not work?

Here you go Liberal. Maybe this will help you understand.

[Farawyn]

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.

They play NWA and ply them with pasta? Oh deers.

[martymoose, BSN, RN]

Here you go Liberal. Maybe this will help you understand.

I don't see how you can compare nurses in nursing unions to "the bum on the street getting the handout "for doing NO work.Nurses aren't laying around doing nothing all day.That is not what this topic of vacations/seniority was all about. You obviously believe what you believe, and I'll believe what I'll believe.

And you are obviously a hypocrite for taking a union sponsored job.

And the fact that you say your family is all management/CEO's explains things.

That is all. :/

[PMFB-RN, RN]

There is a reason we are in a capitalist society and why the rest of the world wants to come here.

Keep telling yourself that little bit of fiction. It's totally false but go ahead. The fact is that nobody but people from the worst third world hell holes wants to come to the USA and that's only because the better places with more opportunity are even harder to get into.

The fact is that many other first world countries offer better opportunities for social and financial advancement.

[PMFB-RN, RN]

As a registered nurse, I actually deserve more than what I'm getting. But some guy running a wrench in some factory darn sure doesn't deserve $35 an hour. Or some guy standing on a railroad track shoveling snow doesn't deserve $25 an hour.

We conservatives understand that "deserve" has absolutely nothing to do with what people get paid. If you make $35 an hour as an RN (I wouldn't get dressed for that amount) it's because that's what your employer thinks it has to pay to keep you doing your job. If they have plenty of qualified applicants who are willing to do it for less they the pay will go down, as we have seen since 2008.

[PMFB-RN, RN]

After many years of working is various parts of the country and dozens of hospitals as a full & part time staff casual staff and travel nurse (have always had 2 to 4 jobs at once), and working as an RN in another country I notices some things. When I decided to be less nomadic and settle down I knew what I wanted.

This what I went looking for.

Low to medium cost of living area with a lot of outdoor activities and some cultural things (preferably a university town) available and very good schools.

Place with a number of larger hospitals to compete with each other for nurses.

In a hospital I knew I wanted:

Non religious affiliated.

Publically owned.

Non profit.

Voluntary union.

A reputation for great patient care.

Non Magnet.

After a long search I found what I was looking for. I invested many hours researching the area, the local market for nurses, and the hospital. I spoke with nurses from various units of this hospital.

I found exactly the hospital and area I was looking for, but they weren't exactly the same. So I took both and have a long commute.

Now I work for a government owned (not federal), non religious, non magnet, union teaching hospital with an excellent reputation for patient care and outcomes.

Nurses are treated fairly, hard work and superior performance are recognized and rewarded. Dead wood gets cut and the union doesn't defend dirt bags. They do negotiate for working conditions, but not pay. I have affordable and good quality health care coverage, a 403B with generous matching, a non contributory pension that I get to manage and that is in great shape, and my pay has more than doubled to well into six figures since I started here nearly 6 years ago and I have been advanced to what is, for me, the coolest nursing job, full time rapid response team RN. The union is voluntary and is great. We had an incompetent manager for a while who lacked a shred of integrity. The union protected us from the worst of her schemes and eventually got rid of her. Good managers don't have problems with the union.

Because I feel like I am treated fairly and compensated well I am devoted to this hospital and work hard for them. I am 100% dependable, work hard, and do my best for the hospital and my patients.

The hospital is a cash cow for the entity that owns it. Its well managed and shows a healthy "profit" year in and year out. Turn over is low and moral is good.

True we do have our own brand of suck. Its not perfect. Some things annoy me and need improvement. But it's by far the best place I have every worked.

When I was being treated like crap by management (in every Magnet hospital I ever worked in) I wasn't always so dependable and while I did my best for the patients, I didn't really care about doing my best for the hospital.

[TriciaJ, RN]

I work for a union facility that reaches beyond just nursing (meaning housekeeping, plant operations, etc are all in it as well). I am ambivalent about how I feel about them. They have provided good pay, benefits, and a somewhat OK work environment but in turn it has fatal flaws.

The biggest gripe I have is how bad employees are harbored from losing their jobs. It doesnt matter if you call off and make my unit short once every 2 weeks, you'll still have your job. Its abused regularly at my facility in every department. if we had people that wanted to work in a team environment and left the baggage at the door it would be a wonderful place. We all have those workers that are just lazy and bring the department down, I suppose this is universal. I'm also not fond of the union including non licensed staff into the union. They collectively outweigh the amount of nurses and as such, we often lose out on things to their benefit and not mine. Example - No raise for 2 years but we'll give you a lump sum on money instead. Of course the people on the lower payscale jump on this the first second they drop it on the table during negotiations. Apparently none of them took a math class to understand that if you plan on working another 10 years, those raises would have made you 5 fold the amount of the lump sum. We lose out to stuff like this all the time.

As far as representation goes, its terrible. IF our facility wants you gone, your gone, the union doesnt care. Our representatives are usually people from dietary and laundry, tell me that they understand the complex world of nursing....

The union does not mandate keeping bad employees on the job. They just make sure the disciplinary process is correctly followed; this protects you from inappropriate dismissal. Many managers can't be bothered to follow the disciplinary process; they just make you carry the deadwood and blame the union.

If the quality of your representation is poor, that doesn't mean unions are a bad thing. It just means that workers aren't making the most of it. Why don't you offer to be a representative? If you and your colleagues just trash unions instead of involving yourselves, your quality of representation is sure to suffer.

[ProgressiveActivist, BSN, RN]

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

[TriciaJ, RN]

You don't really believe that do you. You are as insignificant to a union as you are to your employer.

Not necessarily. Some unions are better than others. Just like employers. Some employers are so decent no one needs a union. That is rarely the case, however, among hospitals.

It's really all about checks and balances. There are unions that have grown too powerful; they give the rest a bad name. But I shudder to think what working life would be like if there were no unions.

[2011RN]

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!