Do you have a union? Should nurses strike?

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Having a union in my opinion makes the diference between having the right to hold my head up and stand up for my patients and being an abused and overworked doormat. How many of us are in unions? Who has been involved in a nurses strike? What was it for and did you win it? Were your patients better off for it? What has your union done for you?

Specializes in ICU/CCU, CVICU, Trauma.
Let me see if I've got this correct.

The union gets me a 5% raise.. Easy numbers here.

My union dues go up by 1%.

The hospital offered 4%.

How am I ahead of the game with a union?

I'm not ahead............. the union is!!!!!!!!!!!!

:yeahthat:

Yor're all fighting over union vs non-union :smiley_ab . But just think - why did you become a nurse in the first place? Was it to abandon patients that need you and place them in the hands of employees who do not know how to properly take care of them? I'm sorry, but in my opinion, patients come first. And I don't want to rehear the argument about "safe ratios". If nurses would all stick together as a profession and educate the public about what we really do, maybe we would get somewhere.

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Yor're all fighting over union vs non-union :smiley_ab . But just think - why did you become a nurse in the first place? Was it to abandon patients that need you and place them in the hands of employees who do not know how to properly take care of them? I'm sorry, but in my opinion, patients come first.

So, nurses should forget that they have any needs and just focus on the patients' needs? That attitude leads directly to burnout. If our needs are not met, there is no way we can adequately meet the needs of others.

If nurses would all stick together as a profession and educate the public about what we really do, maybe we would get somewhere.

AMEN! I think unions attempt to get people to stick together, but those in the power positions often seem to lose sight of what is best for the group and go with their own agendas. Even so, I think that work with a union is infinitely better than work without. I've done both as a teacher, and it makes a HUGE difference. Striking is ugly business, but sometimes it is absolutely necessary because sometimes nothing will change unless you hit a big corporation where it hurts them the most....their bottom line.

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I had the misfortune of being hired into a management position exactly one week before the facility went on strike. The bargaining unit included nurses, CNAs, housekeepers, and dietary aides. Of course, nurses and dietary aides have the same professional outlook and professional goals. It couldn't be about the money.

I had the privilege of being screamed at and insulted as I tried to go to work every day, under escort. That's because the strikers were totally concerned with patient care.

In the end, nobody won. They didn't get the money; management outspent them and they couldn't afford to hold out any longer. But that was money that could have been used for better purposes.

And as for the patient care, I heard a lot of complaints from family members when the regular staff came back. They were very happy with the attention they got from the replacement staff.

When I was a staff nurse, I used to think a union would be a panacea for all our problems. I understand the frustrations that would lead a nurse to want to join a union. I know better now.

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We organized because the new for-profit owners wanted to replace almost half the licensed nurses with unlicensed workers with less than one week of training. NOT certified nursing assistants. People from dietary and housekeeping who never chose patient care.

They also eliminated 75% of the pharmacists.

We didn't have to go on strike. We would have though because they wanted to have only one RN for twenty monitored patients, some on ventilators!

What WE union nurses did was complain the the Health Department that licenses hospitals. They had to give a plan of correction which became public record.

We gave copies of this to our medical directors.

Management knew some of would stand on the sidewalk giving copies to the public. Now staffing is excellent on that unit.

I am certain that without union protection those of us who were open and visible about what we were doing would have been fired.

Fired by a hospitalization with no respect for human life or the law.

But they are gone and we are here doing the very bes we can for our patients.

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As a new nurse, I don't know much about unions, even though I'm in one. I couldn't see my union ever going on strike. Its seems like they're not very vocal at my hospital. Our LPNs as a rule for the last month have been pulled from our floor on my shift regardless of what our acuity is or how many admissions we're getting, leaving just me and another RN on the floor with two nurse aides (thank God) and often no secretary. So it could be worse, but things have been getting out of hand lately. I talked to my union rep recently who pretty much told me that I could place a grievance if I wanted to, but usually people only place grievances if a patients goes bad as a result of poor staffing.....which didn't really sit too well with me. I'm placing a grievance anyways because I really don't want to have to see a patient get seriously hurt before something is done. Last week there was a day when the other RN and I had some pretty sick patients in addition to three admissions and two discharges between just to the two of us, and of course no secretary except for two who came for about half an hour each to do paperwork for the admissions. The rest of the time we had to go running for the phone every single time it rang.

So my union gets me some paid days off here and there, and of course decent pay, but they don't really do much else for me and the working conditions on my floor. Of course I would support a strike, depending on the reasons for it and such, but I doubt anything like that would ever happen.

Tell me something, what labor union and state are you ?

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:yeahthat:

Yor're all fighting over union vs non-union :smiley_ab . But just think - why did you become a nurse in the first place? Was it to abandon patients that need you and place them in the hands of employees who do not know how to properly take care of them? I'm sorry, but in my opinion, patients come first. And I don't want to rehear the argument about "safe ratios". If nurses would all stick together as a profession and educate the public about what we really do, maybe we would get somewhere.

I've worked almost all union jobs since becoming a nurse and have never been on strike.

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**Totally stupid question here**

I live and work in Illinois in a non union hospital. Does anyone know how a hospital can become a union hospital? I e-mailed the Illinois Nurses Association and have yet to receive a response.

We are having some major issues on our unit and our unit manager and upper management don't seem to care about the nurses on our unit. I'm going on maternity leave in a few months and if nothing changes I won't have much choice but to leave.

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**Totally stupid question here**

I live and work in Illinois in a non union hospital. Does anyone know how a hospital can become a union hospital? I e-mailed the Illinois Nurses Association and have yet to receive a response.

We are having some major issues on our unit and our unit manager and upper management don't seem to care about the nurses on our unit. I'm going on maternity leave in a few months and if nothing changes I won't have much choice but to leave.

Not a stupid question at all.

Maybe lack of response is one reason the Cook County nurses changed unions.

Cook County nurses reach tentative deal with county officials

http://www.belleville.com/mld/belleville/news/state/14889290.htm

http://www.calnurses.org/media-center/press-releases/2006/june/page.jsp?itemID=27859832&print=t

Tribune article on ratios for Illinois - http://www.calnurses.org/assets/pdf/ratios/chicago_tribune_ratios_013106.pdf

The number to contact the NNOC - http://www.calnurses.org/nnoc/

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Specializes in HIV care, med/surge agency.

Nurses are expected to make sacrifices to care for patients. We are not supposed to expect anything for ourselves or ask too much. We are supposed to be models of unselfish devotion .

Funy thing the doctors, hospital administrators, pharmaceutical and equipment company executives never think about making sacrifices. They don't strugle to send their children to college, travel or save for retirement. A lot of them make several times what we do yet it is our labor that makes the healthcare system work.

So yes we need unions. We need to organise nurses everywhere into unions and other hospital and healthcare workers as well. We are essential. They can't outsource our work. They can do some automation but the possibilites are very limited.

Nurses are regularly rated as the most respected and trusted profesion in all the polls taken in the US. We can win strikes and the public will support us. Sure some few nurses will be tempted to scab but if we run a good organising drive we can keep the numbers of traitors to the profession low.

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Specializes in Med Surg, Telemetry, Orthopedics.

Amen, Glenwood!

Yes, nurses are caretakers, but that doesn't mean we can't take care of ourselves as well! And that means making sure we are properly compensated as well as not risking our licenses daily because we have too many patients and can't take care of them properly.

No, I am not unionized, unfortunately. Colorado is backwards. Lousy pay, pathetic benefits, and bad ratios. Striking should be a last resort...but the CNA/NNOC has found a way to do so without totally jeopardizing the patient!

FANTASTIC organization, working towards national ratios, healthcare changes, and the betterment of nursing!!! And they're all nurses!!!

http://www.calnurses.org/nnoc

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The money is not the main thing. There are other things that are more important.

If I had to choose between a high-paying job w/ terrible ratios where I was at the mercy of an employer's whims, or a low paying job where I had the time, resources, and support needed to provide my very best care, I would choose the latter.

You just don't get it.

One traveler to another... Haven't you chosen the former? You aren't union as a traveler are you?

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Not a stupid question at all.

Maybe lack of response is one reason the Cook County nurses changed unions.

Cook County nurses reach tentative deal with county officials

http://www.belleville.com/mld/belleville/news/state/14889290.htm

http://www.calnurses.org/media-center/press-releases/2006/june/page.jsp?itemID=27859832&print=t

Tribune article on ratios for Illinois - http://www.calnurses.org/assets/pdf/ratios/chicago_tribune_ratios_013106.pdf

The number to contact the NNOC - http://www.calnurses.org/nnoc/

LOL Even the unions themselves don't stick together. :trout:

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