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?

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/

Sorry I was in a hurry and doubled posted... :trout:

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Specializes in Med Surg, Telemetry, Orthopedics.

The unions don't "stick together" because they compete just as anyone in a capatalistic society does. And many nurses eventually leave the SEIU, AFL-CIU because they are lumped together with food service workers and other "service professionals". Sooner or later they realize that a nursing union - one who knows exactly what is going on in our profession - is the only one who will take care of the problems that are specific to nursing.:deadhorse

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Specializes in Geriatrics, Pediatrics, Home Health.
Preferably one INSIDE the hospital . Correct? And the women in those hospital beds who needed encouragement to nurse their newborns weren't as important as a woman in labor. With the TV cameras rolling I'm sure. But just for union effect correct? :uhoh3:

I am not comparing automobiles with human lives. I am saying unions are in it for the money . Stop paying your union boss and see how long he/she stays around. Or the shop steward. Do they still get paid when the nurse takes the hit in the pocketbook.

Oh wait they get as much as the CEO you are fighting against. I bet they can handle a few days/weeks of a strike.

I am sorry but you are IGNORANT of unions and shop stewards!!!

My husband was chief Union Steward and got $28.92 a month extra for putting up with stupid stuff. If they had gone on strike, he would have walked the line and starved the same as anyone else. In his union, they strikers would have received 1/2 their pay for striking.

What are the dues used for? To pay for a PAC to have a voice at the State and National level. To talk to Management and explain what the workers need to make them happy. Union members and management work together, most everything improves. They were set to go on strike but didn't. why? Because the women REFUSED to put action to the b*tching.

When a union comes in they ask for people to represent the workers. If no one voluntees, there is no represent ation.

The people who vote in the union ARE THE UNION!!

The union is NOT some invisible entity out there in a corner of the hospital. The union is US!!

Let the flames begin!!

____________________________________

In His Grace,

Karen

Failure is NOT an option!!

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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.

Right on, glenwood! The union hospital I worked for always 'prepared' for a strike whenever contract time was near - they severly limited admissions, etc.

I also think if some of the administration must 'come out of their office' to actually work the floor, all the better!! After all, these are the people who want to sit back and tell the rest of us how good we have it, and why there is no reason why we can't take care of 4 fresh surgicals at a time!:uhoh3:

This was the same hospital that spent BIG bucks to 'beautify' and on advertising what a 'customer friendly' place they are - all the while they cheapened supplies, and did not one thing to increase the staff to enable them to actually be able to offer all this 'customer friendly' service.

THEN when things DO go wrong - they busily find ways to blame the individual staff!!:angryfire

I suspect that the next time the contract comes up - there will be a strike - and well deserved!! I got out of there, and I'm so much happier now. I don't make as much money, but my piece of mind is worth it!

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Specializes in Critical Care.
The unions don't "stick together" because they compete just as anyone in a capatalistic society does. And many nurses eventually leave the SEIU, AFL-CIU because they are lumped together with food service workers and other "service professionals".

But you just described why unions AREN'T the answer to the national 'unification' of nurses.

Unions might be good at some local levels. But, that neither creates an inherent need for unions in ALL areas, nor a national movement to unionize for the benefit of the profession.

~faith,

Timothy.

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Do you realize that hospitals use high priced ($$$$$$), powerful, lawfirms, to bust union activity at their facilities? Nurses up against the "big guns" of society", with only their worthless state nursing assiations to back them up?

Nurses are now, and have always been, kept powerless, "barefoot, and pregnant" by hospitals. And that is how the hospitals want it. If nurses had organized years ago, when they were finally allowed to unionize, there would be a very different picture today.

It is the hospitals responsibility to staff their facility, not the nursing staff. If they don't want the nurses to strike, than they can listen to their nursing staff, pay good wages, and benefits, and provide for reasonable "grievance procedures" when their is a dispute. In other words, the ball is in THEIR court. Nothing will ever change until nurses stick up for themselves, and demand better wages, benefits, and working conditions. Nice guys finish last.

Expecting nurses to be powerless is what got us into this predictment in the first place. If hospital don't want a strike, they can bargain fairly with the nursing staff. Years ago, the post office was a poorly paid branch of the governent workers. After years of negotiation, and being "Mr. Nice Guy", the post office went on strike all over this country. It took three days for the government to give in to the postal workers, and agree to a contract that gave them better wages, and benefits. My point- the squeeky wheel gets the grease. Nurses are entitled to some of that. The HMOs, and insurance companies are making billions, and they can afford to pay nurses better and improve staffing. Nurses truly have their best intersts at heart when the strike for better staffing, and wages as well. Fighting the individuals who are trying to make things better, hurts no one but the nurses in this country. JMHO, and $0.02.

Lindarn, RN, BSN, CCRN

Spokane, Washington

I agree, Lindarn. From what the people have told me, and from what I've read on this site, some have the idea that depending on a union to fight for nurses' rights somehow means that nurses are abandoning their patients. "Union" doesn't automatically mean "strike." As you said, it is the responsibility of the hospital to have staffing, and not the nurses themselves. I have been told of experiences with nurses/CNAs who work at facilities who are made to feel guilty for using vacation/sick time, even when the place does provide those benefits, because they are "abandoning" their patients/residents. The same with trying to get them to work overtime. Management seems to play on the socialized idea that nurses/CNAs are supposed to be self-sacrificing, and not care about money, health benefits, or staffing ratios, for instance, and that we should put the patients first before anything else. There is nothing wrong with nurses demanding better job conditions or pay, and it doesn't mean that nurses who join unions in order to help them get those important things don't care about their patients.

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But you just described why unions AREN'T the answer to the national 'unification' of nurses.

Unions might be good at some local levels. But, that neither creates an inherent need for unions in ALL areas, nor a national movement to unionize for the benefit of the profession.

~faith,

Timothy.

Yep.

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Maybe patients do better in union hospitals?

I think it depends on many many factors. I do think that with incompetent, ignorant, or greedy management nurses efforts supported by a good union improve patient care and save lives.

JONA

Volume 32, Number 3, pp 143-151

©2002, Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Inc.

Registered Nurse Unions and

Patient Outcomes

Jean Ann Seago, PhD, RN

Michael Ash, PhD

...The significant finding in this study is that hospitals in California with RN unions have 5.7% (.84-the RN union coefficient from Model 4/14.8-statewide risk-adjusted AMI mortality rate average) lower mortality rates for AMI after accounting for patient age, gender, type of MI, chronic diseases,

and several organizational characteristics.

This result includes controls for number of beds, AMI-related discharges, cardiac services, staff hours, and wages...

http://www.massnurses.org/News/2002/002004/study.htm

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Whew! I'm not sure I would have gone into nursing in 1974 if nurses collectively had felt this way. I knew when I chose nursing that the profession was one of dedication to always putting the patient's needs before your own. There is no way to convince me that abandoning my patients and allowing lesser skilled and lesser dedicated people to "care" for them is putting their needs above my own. Even in situations where their conditions need improving the ends do not justify the means. We have choices in life, we can choose to be the Doctors, pharm reps, Hospital administrators, all those who you say do not sacrifice for the patients. Why did you all not choose to go into those professions? Why did you choose to go into a profession that doesn't give you the things that those do and then cry and scream that we are mistreated. Were your eyes sealed shut when you decided to be a nurse? If I want to be a top executive I would not go to work at Burger King and then piss and moan about not getting what I would in another profession. I don't think this is what FLO had in mind when she created the profession and somehow I don't think any of you would be able to convince her to walk the pickit line with any of the logic I have read hear. You consider this maryterism, I consider it taking responsibility for MY OWN CHOICES. There are alot of possibilities in life figure out what you want before blaming anyone else for the conditions of your choice.

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What will it take to convince you that nurses unite because they want to improve patient care? No one nurse can fight the business office accountants when they mkae their pitch for cutting staff and "prove" that they are saving money for the corporation. Unless, perhaps, the corporation is really trying to drum up more business by discharging patients quicker and sicker so they can get paid for another admission of that same patient.

When nurses join together to improve staff ratios they really ARE acting in the best interests of their patients.

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Specializes in Cardiac.

How powerful we could be if we decided to fight as one for our patients and our profession.

It's too bad people can't see that.

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Specializes in Critical Care.
How powerful we could be if we decided to fight as one for our patients and our profession.

It's too bad people can't see that.

I can see that.

I just don't see unions as being that vehicle. Unions are for trade work. Professional Organizations are for professionals.

Now, if you want to talk about kicking ANA to the curb and working on a REAL professional organization, I'm all ears.

But unions simply do not have the power to organize us on a national level. As the SEIU/NNOC friction amply demonstrates, unions, outside of a local arena, are just as divisive as the ANA.

~faith,

Timothy.

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