Teach me about the National Right to Work Committee

Nurses Activism

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I've learned in this forum about activist anti union nurses.

The web sites they post have links to the National Right to Work Committee.

I googled and Yahooed them and to my knowledge they are a bunch of attorneys working for big corporations to stop employees from organizing. Seems this group has fought in court and defies court orders to divulge where their funding comes from.

A small percent of their funding sources is known. The Walton Family Foundation gave RTW $15,000 a year from 2000 to 2002. They received $3.64 million in grants from 1991 to 2003 from a variety of sources-primarily the John M. Olin Foundation Inc (largest manufacturer of ammunition in the U.S.A.)., which gave $1,985,000, according to http://www.mediatransparency.org .

But that is a small amount compared to the $15 million a year budget made possible by secret corporate backers.

Most disturbing for us in California is Michael Grebe of the Bradley Foundation. He was CEO of the Hospital Association (CHA) which has fought against safe staffing since 1976 when we, the CNA, lobbied for and won critical care ratios of two or fewer patients per nurse in critical care units. In addition to spending money and effort to fight against safe staffing the CHA opposed the Whistleblower protection law, and opposed the law that requires a telephone advice nurse to be licensed.

Bradley funded the author of the "Bell Curve". Remember that book claiming minorities are inherently inferior?

Then there was the NRTWC claim that unions, including firefighter unions, tried to use national emergencies to "grab more power". Accusing firefighters and paramedic unions of "presenting a clear and present danger to the security of the United States"

http://www.leadershipdirectories.com/fmnsyb5.htm

FoundationExecutivePrevious Position

The Lynde and Harry Bradley FoundationMichael W. Grebe

President (Beginning July 2002)Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Foley & Lardner(Until July 2002)

http://www.calhealth.org/public/chpac/pres.html

CALIFORNIA HOSPITAL ASSOCIATION

Corporate Donors

Foley & Lardner LLP

2029 Century Park East, Suite 3500

Los Angeles, CA 90067

310.277.2223

Fax: 310.557.8475

[email protected]

http://www.foley.com

California Hospital Association Files Appeal Seeking to Overturn Nurse Ratio Ruling - March 17, 2005 (pdf) - http://www.calhealth.org/public/press/Article/124/CHA%20Files%20Ratios%20Appeal%20Press%20Release%2031605.pdf

Harry Bradley

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Lynde_and_Harry_Bradley_Foundation

The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, according to The Bradley Foundation 1998 Annual Report, was giving away more than $30 million per year. (http://www.mediatransparency.org/funderprofile.php?funderID=1 )

"The overall objective of the Bradley Foundation, however, is to return the U.S. -- and the world -- to the days before governments began to regulate Big Business, before corporations were forced to make concessions to an organized labor force. In other words, laissez-faire capitalism: capitalism with the gloves off.

http://www.mediatransparency.org/funderprofile.php?funderID=1

Bradley is also a heavy funder of University of California Regent Ward Connerly and his American Civil Rights Institute. Connerly was a leading figure in the anti-affirmative action campaign in California. Ward Connerly is a Black man who has dedicated his career to ensuring that white men are not discriminated against.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2005/01/19/MNGENASPGV1.DTL

http://www.annonline.com/interviews/970224/biography.html

Charles Murray is the Bradley Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. He first came to national attention with Losing Ground: American Social Policy 1950-1980, the controversial analysis of the reforms of the 1960s. This was followed in 1988 by In Pursuit: Of Happiness and Good Government. In 1994, he and the late Richard J. Herrnstein published The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life, one of the most widely debated works of social science in recent decades.

http://www.srv.net/~msdata/bell.html

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Specializes in Cardiac Critical Care, Trauma, Neuro..

Wow Spacenurse, it seems you have already done a lot of research and posted all the information you liked. You have asked the question, then gave the answers you wanted everyone to hear.

I have found the National Right to Work to be a very helpful organization providing me and many of my friends with information on my legal rights as an employee dealing with union and non-union matters.

When the SEIU and the CNA used the "Neutrality Agreement" to block my employers ability to provide me with information on my rights as an employee when dealing with union organizers I turned to the NRTW organization. They provided me with all kinds of very helpful information on my rights under the National Labor Relations Act.

The CNA invaded my hospital, they flooded us with their dogma, their promises. Because of the neutrality agreement my employers were not allowed to counter any of it. The CNA had struck a deal that I knew from the start was not to my benefit or the benefit of my coworkers. I set out to get the information myself and campaigned hard against the CNA and SEIU.

Because of what I learned and what I shared with my coworkers we beat the CNA in an election held on their terms! Despite voting them out, the CNA filed numerous ULP's (unfair labor practice complaints) against my employer in an attempt to throw out the results of the election and unionize my hospital AGAINST THE WILL OF THE MAJORITY!

I turned to the National Right to Work Organization for assistance. They provided me with a lawyer free of charge, who took my case and we filed charges against the CNA. A few days later all ULP's were dropped and the results of the election were certified. A copy of the charges can be found on my website at http://www.stopunions.com.

I felt all along that the Neutrality Agreement was illegal and later with help from the NRTW it was found to be illegal and the CNA was forced to leave Whittier Hospital Medical Center in Los Angeles County. The CNA was also required to refund any dues they collected under this illegal neutrality agreement.

Thank you,

Sherwood

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CNA does not collect dues for representation at a facility until the represented nursesapprove a contract by a majority vote.

I check out the CNA web site often. I believe if there had been a contract at Whittier it would have been posted.

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Specializes in Cardiac Critical Care, Trauma, Neuro..
CNA does not collect dues for representation at a facility until the represented nursesapprove a contract by a majority vote.

I check out the CNA web site often. I believe if there had been a contract at Whittier it would have been posted.

So what your saying is that I was wrong implying that the CNA actually was able to bargain a contract that the majority of the Nurses were able to approve? The CNA failed and no dues were ever collected?

What actually happened then was that the Nurses at Whittier Hospital voted in the CNA in hopes that the union could bargain a contract on their behalf for better wages and working conditions then they already had. The CNA, during the time they represented Whittier hospital nurses failed at this. To compound the failure, the NRTW lawyers representing a nurse employed by Whittier Hospital were able to prove that the neutrality agreement that the CNA formed with Tenet Healthcare, former owners of Whittier Hospital was illegal and violated the nurses rights under NLRB laws. This illegal contract was cause for overturning the results of the vote that got the CNA in the hospital in the first place.

The CNA was forced out of Whittier Hospital because of an illegal contract that they themselves formed and demanded. The NRTW proved that the contract was illegal.

Thank you for pointing out my error and allowing me to clear that up,

Sherwood

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Specializes in Med-Surg, Geriatric, Behavioral Health.

He stated in 1997, "The University of California hospitals do not exist for the purpose of patient care. They exist to educate physicians. Nurses are a regrettable but necessary expense."

Ever wonder why our hospitals are in the shape they are in?.......now I know why!

The man should be tarred and feathered for such statements.

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Specializes in Cardiac Critical Care, Trauma, Neuro..
He stated in 1997, "The University of California hospitals do not exist for the purpose of patient care. They exist to educate physicians. Nurses are a regrettable but necessary expense."

Ever wonder why our hospitals are in the shape they are in?.......now I know why!

The man should be tarred and feathered for such statements.

Can site a source for that quote? I would love to read it.

Thank you,

Sherwood

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He stated in 1997, "The University of California hospitals do not exist for the purpose of patient care. They exist to educate physicians. Nurses are a regrettable but necessary expense."

Ever wonder why our hospitals are in the shape they are in?.......now I know why!

The man should be tarred and feathered for such statements.

Hi Thunderwolf - who the heck is "he"? I'm really curious.

steph

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What actually happened then was that the Nurses at Whittier Hospital voted in the CNA in hopes that the union could bargain a contract on their behalf for better wages and working conditions then they already had. The CNA, during the time they represented Whittier hospital nurses failed at this.

Uh ... this doesn't make much sense By your own account, and according to your own website, CNA got you more money than you would on your own.

http://www.stopunions.com/the_math.htm

So ... how did CNA fail to negotiate better wages? According to your website, they did.

:coollook:

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Specializes in Med-Surg, Geriatric, Behavioral Health.

The quote is straight from Spacenurse's post...you must have bypassed it.

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Can site a source for that quote? I would love to read it.

Thank you,

Sherwood

Sorry, you can doubt my word if you want. I heard him say the same thing twice on local KABC talk radio. Once in 1996 when there we had proposition 216 (Patient Protection Act) on the ballot. The next time I believe was regarding the University of California RN contract negotiations. A caller said, "Hospitals exist to provide nursing care."

He disagreed. Without quotes i can say with confidence that to Mr Connerly in 1996 and 1997 the purpose of the UC hospitals was to educate physicians.

I should not have posted that quote because it is my memory only. I do know two other RNs who heard him say that. I have no idea why a regent of the UC would say such a thing.

From now on I will ensure there is a link for all my claims. I learned a lesson with this. I am sorry for posting what cannot be proven. I hope not to do such again.

I found more ore regarding regent Ward Connerly looking for a link. I don't know whether or not it is in print.

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0DXK/is_8_20/ai_103563684

http://www.californiahealthline.org/index.cfm?Action=dspItem&itemID=95679&classcd=CL353

Ward Connerly, regent of the University of California, said, "If you're lying on a gurney, and a black doctor shows up, you're going to get up and crawl out." - http://www.apha.org/Journal/editorials/edsept.htm

Thunderwolf: Let me apologise to you and anyone else who thought there was a link to the quote. It is a "no. no." to post without a link on a public figure.

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He stated in 1997, "The University of California hospitals do not exist for the purpose of patient care. They exist to educate physicians. Nurses are a regrettable but necessary expense."

Ever wonder why our hospitals are in the shape they are in?.......now I know why!

The man should be tarred and feathered for such statements.

I worked at UCLA in Westwood in 1979, after I moved to California. UCLA recruited me from NYC. At my hospital orientation, we were told the exact same thing- the the UC Hospital system exists, not for patient care, but its primary reason for existence was to teach the physicians, residents and interns. If I hadn't heard it with my own ears, I would not have believed it.

Lindarn, RN, BSN, CCRN

Spokane, Washington

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