Another Texas Hospital Goes Union

Nurses Union

Published

This is brand new - the vote count just finished minutes ago - and I have no more info than that bare fact, but nurses at another Texas hospital - only the second in the state (so far) have chosen union representation. The hospital is Rio Grande Hospital in McAllen, owned by corporated giant Hospital Corporation of America. The union is National Nurses Organizing Committee - NNOC. Several other HCA-owned hospitals in Texas have have elections scheduled in the next few weeks.

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.

Don't read everything you read in the paper. In order to promote a more civil process than occurs in some places during a union organizing drive, the union and management agreed to a set of ground rules that put restraints on both sides. There was a vigorous anti-union campaign with anti-union materials widely available throughout the hospital. And, of course, anyone who has grown up in America in the last 50 years has been exposed to a lifetime of anti-union propaganda, so it's not as if that information has been unavailable to them.

On the other hand, what there was NOT was hospital management spending millions to bring in outside anti-union "consultants" to run a campaign of lies and intimidation, like we had when I helped organize my hospital. And there also were not "one-to-one" meetings where nurses are taken off the floor into a small room with a senior manager and harangued for hours about how voting for a union will destroy the hospital. There also were

not the instances of fraud and forgery that we had at our hospital when the union busters forged fake documents that were purported to be from the union. Without all of those things, the nurses had a chance to make a rational choice in an intimidation-free atmosphere and chose to become union members.

So this is a HCA facility? Same chain in Houston that organized? Ahh, now I see the light.....

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.

This is exactly what happened in Houston. Anti union nurses being forced to wage their campaign from a closet space somewhere in the hospital. You can believe what you read in the papers...

So this is a HCA facility? Same chain in Houston that organized? Ahh, now I see the light.....

This is an HCA facility, the one in Houston is a Tenet facility - different chain.

Specializes in Critical care, tele, Medical-Surgical.

del sol nurses vote to join union

by vic kolenc \ el paso times

posted: 05/28/2010 12:00:00 am mdt

el paso -- registered nurses at del sol medical center have voted to be represented by a national nurses union.

in an election tuesday and wednesday, 205 registered nurses voted to join the national nurses organizing committee-texas/national nurses united union, and 78 voted against the union, according to the national labor relations board. the agency oversaw the election.

eighty-four nurses eligible to be represented by the union did not vote, according to del sol information.

last week, registered nurses at las palmas medical center, del sol's sister hospital, also voted 151-71 to join the nurses union. both hospitals are owned by hca inc., a national hospital chain...

...monica sanchez, a registered nurse at del sol and an organizer for the nurses union, said, "everyone is really excited to be part of a union. we need a stronger voice, a collective voice to be able to provide better care, safer care for patients."

sanchez said she wanted a union because she sees that as a way to get a contract stipulating lower patient loads for nurses at the hospital, "for the good of patients."...

http://www.elpasotimes.com/ci_15177152?source=most_emailed

Thought we were heading to Florida next and were geared up for this week. anyone know what happened?

Apparently as the NNOC organizing bus was headed toward Florida it broke down in western Kansas - you're organizing in KC now. Try to keep up . . .

Kinda funny! knew KC was on the agenda but also knew we had given notice in FL and then cancelled two days before. guess it doesnt matter where we win first!

#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.

Then do it without pay ...

Then do it without pay ...

Why without pay??

Specializes in Psych , Peds ,Nicu.
Why without pay??

If you are crossing picket lines simply for the patients , caring for those " abandoned " patients should be reward enough for your soul , why quibble about the little things , such as money , surely that lowers you to the level of the strikers, who , as we all know are only in it for the money !.

Specializes in Psych , Peds ,Nicu.

The often used reason given by strike breaking nurses for crossing picket lines , is that they are racing in to save the patients from being abandoned by the mercenary union nurses going on strike for , heaven forbid ! , money .A motivation that never would cross their altruistic minds .The lie to that is seen in the threads where a poster has brought attention to a recruitment for strike breakers , the responses , from potential strike breakers usually boil down to how much money can I get ? and how do I sign up to get some of that .

As a union has to give prior notice of a strike , the management is aware of a potential strike , they make an economic decision upon how much to pay strike breakers . If that sum is not enough to attract enough staff then it is a MANAGEMENT decision to either keep the facility open with inadequate staffing , raise they amount they are prepared to offer strike breakers or actually negotiate a resolution to the bargaining .

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