I work at a large hospital in Florida and the Union has shown up at our front door.... can't say I am against it due to the fact that I always have 3 very sick patients every time I walk in the door (I should add that I work on the MICU floor with no aids). Everyone at our hospital is stretched so thin that we have now developed a "survive the shift" mentality most days, which I hate. My main question is, has anyone heard about the UFCW? as a Florida resident I am not very familiar with the in and out's of the union.
Any info about this particular union or the good, bad, and ugly about any union would be helpful. Needless to say administration is freaking out and is on some serious damage control and telling us that the union is horrible and will be the demise of the hospital.
Thank you for the reply. I have been trying to get ready for the meeting in September because I want to be well informed before I get there. My hospital is really scared and is telling us that the union can't do anything for us. The one thing I guess I am still confused about is has the UFCW helped with the staffing ratios at other hospitals or does it have to be changed at the state level? I know that the UFCW can help us with all of the other issues such as pay cuts and benefits but staffing ratios are priority ONE for many of us.
Does the union represent any other employees at your facility or is it just the RNs who are organizing? Are they seeking to represent nursing assistants and LPNs together with the RNs in the bargaining unit, or just the RNs? How is the board of directors for the union chosen? Are they democratically elected? Are they all direct care RNs? Is the dues money spent to represent the RNs' collective interests locally and nationally, as determined by the direct care RN Board of Directors?
When the RNs at the facility where I work were organizing, we really appreciated meeting other RNs who had been organized with the California Nurses Association/NNOC so we could learn first hand about the quality of the representation, the tools for collective advocacy and member mobilization, and the success stories of how nurses were able to solve problems and enforce safe staffing at the facility level. We had met with a couple of other unions in the past too and asked a lot of hard questions. For us the right choice was eminently clear.
Having an all RN bargaining unit and facility based union member representation is an important consideration. RNs have unique legal professional practice accountabilities for patient advocacy and safety. I've talked with some other RNs who are in mixed bargaining units and they've often expressed frustration with competing and conflicting interests--especially if they're "outnumbered" in a union that represents service workers and other paraprofessionals too.
Change can be good and you're taking a common sense approach by looking before you leap. Research and ask good questions. It's best to have a clear vision that includes short term and long term professional objectives. For instance, greater workplace control of nursing practice and effective patient advocacy to prevent nurses from quitting in despair was a short term goal for us. Being in an all RN union with strong member negotiated contract language is a great equalizer and brings justice to the grievance and discipline process. We can legally hold management's feet to the fire when we need to engage in "behavior modification," and get them to change workplace practices that are against the interests of patients. We don't have to fear unjust retaliation and discipline for doing the right thing on behalf of our patients when we seek to remove barriers to our ability to advocate for them.
Next, what is the union doing to solve the big picture problem, including writing laws and getting them passed to compel employers to provide additional staffing based on acuity, like California's RN to patient ratio law? Other NNOC member organizations in Texas, Massachussetts, Arizona, and Ohio--to name a few, have introduced and are working on passing similar pieces of advocacy legislation.
So, there are genuine changes that will help solve the problem, but you have to do your homework. Otherwise, change for change sake may leave you in the position of trying to "put the toothpaste back in the tube." Making the wrong choice as in, "change for change" sake is not good; you can waste valuable time, energy, and hope when you're trying to undo the damage. Choose wisely.
thank you so much for the input. I just heard that this particular union is also trying to get the other services of the hospital to join too. I was a little concerned by this because nurses have such different concerns than many other departments. As for not fearing retaliation when standing up for our patients safety, that would be wonderful.....
Thanks again for the reply. I am going to make sure I ask them everything you mentioned!
From what I know this UFCW division is run by an RN with 30+ years bedside experience. I don't know if we vote this particular union out if we could unite enough employees together again to vote a Nurses union in. Our hospital is in such a mess that we need this union to be voted in. We have lost so many wonderful nurses because of nurse to patient ratios. There is going to be a meeting held by the UFCW for a question answer session, anyone have any suggestions for questions? I really want to go in to the meeting with the most amount of information as possible. I have been trying to research other unions aswell to compare. CHANGE IS GOOD!!!!
Thanks again for all of your responses.
Just be carefull CodeQueen your hospital will not go easily. Before it is all over there will be terminations and intimidation. They will lie, cheat and if it would work steal to keep a union out of the mix. Get ready for the fight because it will be a fight. Good luck to you and your fellow nurses.
In response to "advocateforsafety" the UFCW does have a 30+ year bedside RN servicing their hospitals. Her name is Debbie and she does a wonderful job. It is also true that companies will say and do anything to keep employees from forming unions. The two nurses who were fired by Halifax hospital for speaking out in the newspaper is a perfect example. What they didn't plan for was the UFCW stepping in to help them. If the employees at Halifax really want a union, there is nothing that Halifax can do to stop them. It all comes down to one thing: How bad do you want help!!!!!!!
There is strength in being good at what you do. Union strength is achieved primarily through mass mediocrity. I prefer being good at what I do. Therein lies my strength.
There is strength in being good at what you do. Union strength is achieved primarily through mass mediocrity. I prefer being good at what I do. Therein lies my strength.
That can be fine up to a point. But if your conception of your duty as a nurse leads you to advocate for the patient against the interest of your employer, without a union behind you, you'll get a lot of practice polishing your resume. The idea that pro-union nurses are lesser in skills is patently false. My own experience is that just before we started organizing at our hospital, the top management wanted to do a recruiting ad campaign featuring a few of their very best nurses. They approached me to be part of it. I was happy to help, but they sure were unhappy when they discovered I was one of the leaders of the organizing effort a few weeks later. Having put my picture all over town as an exemplar made it hard for them to attack me, which worked out just fine.
Nurses acting together as group have made it possibe in California to acheive salary, benefit and staffing that are the envy of the world. Can't see any way a nurse acting alone could do that. It took thousand of us.
There is strength in being good at what you do. Union strength is achieved primarily through mass mediocrity. I prefer being good at what I do. Therein lies my strength.
I disagree with you! Union strength is achieved through solidarity; collective action, in unity to achieve higher standards of professional practice and safe, therapeutic, and effective patient care! The California Nurses Association achievement of the "first in the nation" RN to patient ratio law is a prime example.
Nurses who are very good at what they do believe that their patients deserve a single excellent standard of care. Nurses who are very good at what they do recognize there are barriers to their ability to provide that care, such as deliberate short staffing to maximize profits at the expense of patients. Many studies have documented that patients suffer fewer preventable complications and have shorter length of stays when there are sufficient RNs available to meet their complex and sophisticated care needs.
You may be good at what you do when you're taking care of four patients, but what about when you have eight? The Aiken's study showed the odds of patient mortality increased by 7% for every additional patient in the average nurse's workload in the hospital and that the difference from 4 to 6 and from 4 to 8 patients per nurse would be accompanied by 14% and 31% increases in mortality, respectively. Her results suggest that the California hospital nurse staffing legislation represents a credible approach to reducing mortality and increasing nurse retention in hospital practice.
The moral of the story is, you may be very good at what you do, but when there aren't enough nurses patient's suffer the consequences. In good conscience, as patient advocates, we have a duty to act to change circumstances that are against the interests of the patients. It took thousands of us, who are very good at what we do, 12 years to pass the ratio law. http://www.calnurses.org/assets/pdf/ratios/ratios_cost_effective.pdf
Wrong, but thats ok. The changes you have stated did not ever occur as a result of collective bargaining or solidarity. No matter that the unions want to inapropiately take responsibility for this. These changes all came about as a response to what the customer wanted. Better patient care, Better rooms, better food, more drugs. This is what has prompted all the changes. Satisfying and attacting the customer.
Nowadays the only people who care about unions are the ones who belong to it. Unions more and more are serving the employers more than employee nowadays.
Specializes in Critical care, tele, Medical-Surgical.
tens of thousands of nurses worked for years.
we worked on campaigns of candidates who promised to vote for safe staffing.
we campaigned for a candidate for governor who promised to sign the safe staffing legislation.
we gathered signatures for a ballot proposition. it did not win but did educate voters. millions did vote for it.
we wrote letters, made phone calls, demonstrated, and wrote letters to the editor.
we gathered stories from patients and their families who were harmed by unsafe staffing.
cna's historic first in the nation safe staffing rn ratios took 12 years to winand has been in effect since january 2004 despite continued efforts of the hospital industry and governor schwarzenegger to have the law overturned or otherwise weakened.
when governor schwarzenegger decided to roll back cna's staffing ratios and called nurses a "special interest who don't like me because i'm always kicking their butt," cna ignited a broad grassroots movement that led to the sweeping november 2005 electoral defeat for the governor's special election initiatives. two days later, schwarzenegger dropped his year-long fight against the ratios.
safe rn ratios have improved quality of care and nurse recruitment and retention in california hospitals. ratios continue to improve with a 1:4 ratio in telemetry and specialty units (oncology, ortho etc.), and 1:3 in step-down units beginning this year.
I used to work in Florida. It always baffles me why it has taken so long for nurses down there to organize GO SEIU!! They rocked at Miami Dade.
Organizing is tough down there. Still lots of good ole boys and people who feel they deserve to live in shanty town conditions while putting their licenses at risk.
Don't delay-organize. And why would you not want more money? C'mon. YOu work hard and save lives every day. Why is it nurses are so quick to say the don't want money? Who says that? doctors? No. housekeepers? No.
Go after what you deserve or management will walk all over you and continue to drive healthcare down the toilet.
texas nurses working to protect their patients.
california nurses united to keep the ratios
maine nurses working for safe staffing
ohio nurses
arizona nurses working their safe staffing bill.
CodeQueen
8 Posts
centralflunionnurse,
Thank you for the reply. I have been trying to get ready for the meeting in September because I want to be well informed before I get there. My hospital is really scared and is telling us that the union can't do anything for us. The one thing I guess I am still confused about is has the UFCW helped with the staffing ratios at other hospitals or does it have to be changed at the state level? I know that the UFCW can help us with all of the other issues such as pay cuts and benefits but staffing ratios are priority ONE for many of us.