Give Thanks to Nurses

SC_RNDude · Nov 21, 2012

...Who Are Standing Up For Patients... SUTTER EXPOSED | National Nurses United

Standing up for patients my A$$. This is just a greedy union asking for unrealistic demands. This is the 5 or 6th "mini strike", and over half of the nurses each time are reporting for work. Must not be all that bad. It fact, sounds like their pay and bennies are better then any I have ever heard of in just about any field.

How ironic that on your little flyer there it states how Sutter has "unprecedent profits", something like over $4 billion since 2005, and then it implies that the executives make too much money. LOL!

Mindful, RN · Nov 22, 2012

Here you go reb...

dixie

Testa Rosa, RN · Nov 24, 2012

SC_RN YOU ARE SO WRONG--over 90% of us walked out. My coworkers and I have striked for 7 days and have been locked out for 35, all unpaid--how greedy is that, babe? We mean business. There's nothing "MINI" about this.

As an RN that works at both Kaiser and Sutter facilities in the NorCal area, NEVER EVER have I seen nurses so disrespected as they are at my Sutter Hospital. As soon as I can switch to a benefitted position elsewhere I wilL RUN AWAY FROM A SUTTER RUN FACILITY AND NEVER COME BACK!!!!

I will leave behind some of the most amazing nurses at Alta Bates. These are the nurses that started the whole nursing to patient ratio laws we so enjoy in California. Laws Sutter is trying to undermine--who is the greedy one here? These nurses are dedicated to their urban community and work hard with heavy pressure to incur no overtime and without adequate staff or supplies. I can never can find bleach wipes in Cdiff rooms, with no lift teams or inadequate lift supplies or time to use the mechanical lifts. POOR CNA coverage--it's typical for me to have a case load with all total care pts with only one pt getting a CNA--is it safe for my pt to lie in their own filth because of inadequate staffing--NO. Pharmacy and Housekeeping understaffed so that meds and room cleans are late. When I work at Alta Bates, It is common for me to run down to pharmacy to pic up meds, to cafeteria to pick up food, to housekeep my own room in order to expedite transfer from ER. And everyone around me is so pushed to the max you feel a total lack of support. These things rarely happen to me at other local hospitals where nurses are treated like the professionals they are. Nursing is hard work and I'm not scared of working hard, but when I work at the other hospital I feel so supported and as a result I feel my patients are safer.

Yet my Alta Bates crew has such heart--these are some of the most generous, hardworking, ethical nurses I've known. These RN's have been told such boldface lies by management it's just appalling. Sutter lies about RN salaries to the media, about how many nurses cross the picket, that the RN's are asking for more $$$ (NOT). These nurses are not asking for anything extra. They just don't want anything taken away by a "not for profit" highly profitable company that has enjoyed a very healthy bottom line with huge executive salaries to prove it. What is unrealistic about this demand????

Actually, many of the RN's are willing to negotiate on the take aways and have tried to bargain in good faith, but the management refuses to come to the negotiating table. They basically told the RN's this is what we are taking away (sick leave, differentials, health benefits, etc) no negotiating. The management plays immature head games with the bargaining team by not showing up to the meeting at the appointed time or changing the room, and then they send a followup email to staff stating the bargaining team didn't show up. How can you trust your management when they tell lies and behave so badly? Yet we nurses have to do a computer training (ON OUR OWN TIME) on morals and ethics. We who as a part of our profession are expected to adhere to highest levels of morals and ethics are being managed by such unethical people it's just sad. Some units have flagrant bullies as their managers. These managers have brought lateral violence back with a vengance and the upper management endorses this behavior.

As a second career RN, I was an MBA business exec in my prior career, I am not naive. I understand that a clash between management goals and RN perspective is healthy and I am not against my Hospital group making a healthy profit. In fact I endorse it! I want my pts to have their own private rooms in the shiny new tower those profits are going towards building. However, Sutter management behavior has gone beyond the pale all while using Alta Bates as a cash cow by gouging the staff to the point they will create unsafe working conditions (you can trust my A$$ on that because I see it now with my own eyes).

Personally, I was never a big fan of Unions. However, I would never work at a Sutter facility without the benefit of a union having my back.

SC_RNDude · Nov 25, 2012

Testa Rosa,

Great. You are in the think of it. Maybe you can give the union some credibility by providing some specifics.

They are taking away sick leave? Can you clarify? You are saying if you call in sick, you won't be paid?

No more health benefits? For anyone? Or is it they want you to contribute more? How much are they proposing you contribute? How much do you contribute now?

You say your employer lies about RN pay. You can help set the record strait. How much experience do you have, and how much do you make?

What is the union asking for to make staffing, equipment, and supply availability better?

The immature head games management plays...are you part of the bargaining team and have seen this first-hand? Or is this what union officials have told you?

Testa Rosa, RN · Nov 26, 2012

Yes--completely taking away sick leave and making benefits 80/20 for full timers--no benefits for 30hrs or less. Very expensive considering this health care is our industry and considering most nurses are part-timers. Yes, complete and total lies about our pay and we are working to substantiate with fact now-- l can say that RN pay on my unit is 90 - 100K--I'm the least experienced RN there and I make slightly less; yet media states we make over130K. Not even our charge RN with 30+ years makes close to that. While 90K may sound like a lot to people outside the Bay Area--my cost of living is insane. This is lower middle income pay here.

I have it confirmed by the most reliable sources that our facility had 95% RN's walk out yet reports to the media were 65%. Yes, we are fighting for bleach wipes for our Cdiff rooms and Lift teams too--but getting Sutter with a "take it or leave it approach" to negotiate about our contract is an impossibility right now.

YES, I have now seen the head games and lies management spreads first hand--50 RN's made time stamped videos showing they were in the right room at the right time while HR played head games and delayed the meeting for 2 hrs and then moved them to a smaller room. Yet management proceeded to send out emails to staff stating our bargaining team was not there. I plan on going to the next meeting to help support our bargaining nurses now.

ME HA! ...and I used to be anti Union--now I would NEVER EVER work for a Sutter Hospital without the Union having my back. I don't much care for CNA still--but our own bargaining nurses are my freaking HEROS. I've seen a whole unit get decimated where senior, high-quality, pro union RN's were slowly fired one-by-one by a management bully seemingly hired to do this job so these bargaining nurses are putting their careers on the line.

Take it from someone on the inside, What Sutter is doing with Alta Bates goes beyond the pale--it's unethical and unsafe for working RN's and our pts. Today I had a TB pt with no N95 masks anywhere to be found. Poor lady was sick and needed Zofran yet I had to go to another floor to find supplies and felt like I had to sneak those away--sad when a RN who prides herself on ethical behavior resorts to sneaking five N95's from the last box on another unit. And while policy states we are to dispose of masks after one use--what do you think we are actually encouraged to do in real life. How ethical is Sutter being when they can point to their policy yet don't supply the bedside RN?....Just like we punch out and continue charting even tho we aren't supposed to do that either. All sorts of worthless policy and protocol which places RN's in impossible situation at bedside.

Yes, the same can be true at other Hospitals--but at a Sutter facility it just goes beyond what is ethical and right. At my per diem facility I have pressure not to incur OT yet it is understood that sometimes OT happens and you don't have to follow a long and involved process to get permission for 15 extra minutes....and I never, ever have to re-wear a N95 mask....just saying.

Today, I had four total care pts with not one CNA assigned to me. I had to transition a 250lb pt with unsteady gait to BSC with nobody able to help me they were all so maxed out and I had NO lift supplies or time to even use the lift because i was cleaning up the unreconciled MARS the scabs left behind. The bedside at this facility has become unsafe to practice and the management environment is very nurse hostile so we all shut up and put up. The Union is the only one saying "Hey, this is not right." When I go per deim elsewhere it's like a work vacation. Coming back to my regular job feels like descending into nurse Hell. Seriously, I felt like crying in frustration today.

Sutter is squeezing resources at the bedside and feeding it to the board room. They can't do much about our state mandated nursing ratios so they will squeeze us and everything they possibly can around the ratios. I have gone from being apathetic about this to being fighting, stinking mad. Since I plan on running away at the first benefitted op I find, I plan on fighting them to the end. I feel badly about my peers and mentors who have built their careers and friendships around this facility because Sutter Stinks. I am going to take all the wonderful training I got from these hard pressed RN's and run away as fast as I can as soon as I can.

SC_RNDude · Nov 26, 2012

Yes--completely taking away sick leave and making benefits 80/20 for full timers--no benefits for 30hrs or less. Very expensive considering this health care is our industry and considering most nurses are part-timers. Yes, complete and total lies about our pay and we are working to substantiate with fact now-- l can say that RN pay on my unit is 90 - 100K--I'm the least experienced RN there and I make slightly less; yet media states we make over130K. Not even our charge RN with 30+ years makes close to that. While 90K may sound like a lot to people outside the Bay Area--my cost of living is insane. This is lower middle income pay here.
I have it confirmed by the most reliable sources that our facility had 95% RN's walk out yet reports to the media were 65%. Yes, we are fighting for bleach wipes for our Cdiff rooms and Lift teams too--but getting Sutter with a "take it or leave it approach" to negotiate about our contract is an impossibility right now.
YES, I have now seen the head games and lies management spreads first hand--50 RN's made time stamped videos showing they were in the right room at the right time while HR played head games and delayed the meeting for 2 hrs and then moved them to a smaller room. Yet management proceeded to send out emails to staff stating our bargaining team was not there. I plan on going to the next meeting to help support our bargaining nurses now.
ME HA! ...and I used to be anti Union--now I would NEVER EVER work for a Sutter Hospital without the Union having my back. I don't much care for CNA still--but our own bargaining nurses are my freaking HEROS. I've seen a whole unit get decimated where senior, high-quality, pro union RN's were slowly fired one-by-one by a management bully seemingly hired to do this job so these bargaining nurses are putting their careers on the line.
Take it from someone on the inside, What Sutter is doing with Alta Bates goes beyond the pale--it's unethical and unsafe for working RN's and our pts. Today I had a TB pt with no N95 masks anywhere to be found. Poor lady was sick and needed Zofran yet I had to go to another floor to find supplies and felt like I had to sneak those away--sad when a RN who prides herself on ethical behavior resorts to sneaking five N95's from the last box on another unit. And while policy states we are to dispose of masks after one use--what do you think we are actually encouraged to do in real life. How ethical is Sutter being when they can point to their policy yet don't supply the bedside RN?....Just like we punch out and continue charting even tho we aren't supposed to do that either. All sorts of worthless policy and protocol which places RN's in impossible situation at bedside.
Yes, the same can be true at other Hospitals--but at a Sutter facility it just goes beyond what is ethical and right. At my per diem facility I have pressure not to incur OT yet it is understood that sometimes OT happens and you don't have to follow a long and involved process to get permission for 15 extra minutes....and I never, ever have to re-wear a N95 mask....just saying.
Today, I had four total care pts with not one CNA assigned to me. I had to transition a 250lb pt with unsteady gait to BSC with nobody able to help me they were all so maxed out and I had NO lift supplies or time to even use the lift because i was cleaning up the unreconciled MARS the scabs left behind. The bedside at this facility has become unsafe to practice and the management environment is very nurse hostile so we all shut up and put up. The Union is the only one saying "Hey, this is not right." When I go per deim elsewhere it's like a work vacation. Coming back to my regular job feels like descending into nurse Hell. Seriously, I felt like crying in frustration today.
Sutter is squeezing resources at the bedside and feeding it to the board room. They can't do much about our state mandated nursing ratios so they will squeeze us and everything they possibly can around the ratios. I have gone from being apathetic about this to being fighting, stinking mad. Since I plan on running away at the first benefitted op I find, I plan on fighting them to the end. I feel badly about my peers and mentors who have built their careers and friendships around this facility because Sutter Stinks. I am going to take all the wonderful training I got from these hard pressed RN's and run away as fast as I can as soon as I can.

I am totally with you when it comes to safe staffing and nurses having the resources needed to do their jobs. And the "head games and lies" are wrong, although in many cases union leaders play those games just as well (like saying sick pay is being eliminated...I'll get to that). So, I acknowledge Sutter may very well be a crappy company to work for. And, it will come around to bite them in the butt at some point and likely already is.

Let's get real though. When it comes to the strike, it's all about the pay and benefits. The other stuff coming out is to garner support from the public. If the pay and benefits weren't on the table the nurses wouldn't be picketing about supplies, staffing, etc.

When it comes to the nuts and bolts of the strike, you lose my sympathy. More importantly, the public probably doesn't have much sympathy for you either, and this is why:

From what I understand, you are losing sick pay in the technical sense only. If you call in sick, you still will get paid. It's just that now all your paid time off (vaca and sick) is from the same bank. And from what I have heard, your paid time off is pretty generous. Am I wrong about any of this? My sick time has been set up this way since the mid 90's across 3 different careers. I actually like this system better. I don't have to call in sick to get the most of my paid time off, and my employer has people planning their time off instead of calling in sick to use all of it.

Most of your nurses make $90 to 100K a year. And, most of your nurses are part-time. Sounds ok to me! Maybe that's not what you meant. Even at $95K a year in the Bay Area for full-time work isn't bad. I know it doesn't make you rich, but the median household (not individual) income is $70k/year (city-data.com). Looking at glassdoor.com, $90-100k/year is up there with many other professional salaries, including many who don't punch the clock and work way more then 36 hours a week. I see the beginning range for a SF police officer is $88k. As someone looking at moving from my area, I am familiar with several cost-of-living comparison calculators. From looking at those, although I would love to make more, I feel making $90k a year in the Bay Area would be fair.

They want you to pay for 20% of your health benefits? And cut benefits for part-timers? Again, the union needs some perspective. A majority of the public has to pay a share of their benefits. In 25 years of working, both in and out of healthcare, I have always paid a share of mine. Sometimes less sometimes more then 20%. And most part-timers don't get any or the employer doesn't pay nearly as big as share. I'm not arguing this is right or wrong, just that it is what it is.

SC_RNDude · Nov 26, 2012

Here you go reb...
dixie

I only watched the first three folks, and what I have to say is this: If you are going to make a video in support of your strike, get someone who can articulate your position with specificity. This comes off as nothing but propaganda and in my mind does more harm to your cause then good. And that first lady was the worst...I hope she is a MUCH better nurse then spokesperson!

Mindful, RN · Nov 26, 2012

Sherwood Cox, is that you posting again ?... stopunions.com

SC_RNDude · Nov 26, 2012

Sherwood Cox, is that you posting again ?

No. I had to google to figure out what you're talking about. From the little I now know about Sherwood, he sounds like a wise man.

Testa Rosa, RN · Nov 26, 2012

NO--that is average salary for a FTE on my unit only.

And in all honesty I was sort of apathetic at the start of this so don't have all my facts down (we probably agree on more things than we would disagree). I do agree with you that the Union and their overly long fliers and videos turn me off too....at first. Now after seeing my working conditions degrade so much I am singing a different tune and am fighting, stinking mad.

I don't see Sutter as getting their due. I wish. It is so hard to find a job in the Bay Area and this will likely be the case for awhile (but if there is ever a nursing shortage again you can bet your A$$ I will be posting on this board warning away all new grads from Sutter). What I imagine happening is other local Hospital groups--the ones that still make a healthy profit with decent benefits/salaries, with lift teams and adequate supplies at bedside, and nurse friendly environments--watching our fight closely and going the way of Sutter business model. And I need to restate that I am a former MBA and I endorse fiscal conservatism as well as a healthy profit for my company; but again I need to state what Sutter does goes beyond ethical. So, I've come to the conclusion we have to stand and fight otherwise every work situation in the Bay Area will degrade.

And while we probably agree more than disagree on Unions, the other thing that I find upsetting is that you are saying the RN's shouldn't fight for their average health benefits (at least comparable to Hospital groups around here) and salaries against a corporation with one of the healthiest profit margins in the Bay Area? I don't know, I think my three kids deserve to have their middle income life preserved for the hard work I do over the upper management and their huge bonuses.

Honestly, this is not why I myself started to join the strike line. I work two jobs in order to afford my mortgage and put my kids thru school so I am not scared of husttlin to earn my paper; but rather I strike due to deteriorating work conditions I've outlined above. The management endorsed bullying and nurse on nurse violence this has created within a Hospital known for having a "Hippy/Berkely" vibe is astonishing--someone should write a paper on this. And yes I do wish my union focused more on these things, but they need to focus on the contract and I don't think the Union or anyone can articulate the horrible environment we currently have at bedside. Sutter gets away with this because jobs are scarce right now. I know as soon as I can I will get my butt out of there. I don't have the patience to watch the videos but every one of my peers on that strike line (and my whole entire unit 100% went on strike) might have their different reasons and as you can even see by my rambling reply I am not the most articulate--but you can bet your A$$ I'm the RN you want taking care of your loved one. Lets just agree to disagree (and probably we agree more than disagree).

Yours in Nursing, TR

SC_RNDude · Nov 26, 2012

NO--that is average salary for a FTE on my unit only.
And in all honesty I was sort of apathetic at the start of this so don't have all my facts down (we probably agree on more things than we would disagree). I do agree with you that the Union and their overly long fliers and videos turn me off too....at first. Now after seeing my working conditions degrade so much I am singing a different tune and am fighting, stinking mad.
I don't see Sutter as getting their due. I wish. It is so hard to find a job in the Bay Area and this will likely be the case for awhile (but if there is ever a nursing shortage again you can bet your A$$ I will be posting on this board warning away all new grads from Sutter). What I imagine happening is other local Hospital groups--the ones that still make a healthy profit with decent benefits/salaries, with lift teams and adequate supplies at bedside, and nurse friendly environments--watching our fight closely and going the way of Sutter business model. And I need to restate that I am a former MBA and I endorse fiscal conservatism as well as a healthy profit for my company; but again I need to state what Sutter does goes beyond ethical. So, I've come to the conclusion we have to stand and fight otherwise every work situation in the Bay Area will degrade.
And while we probably agree more than disagree on Unions, the other thing that I find upsetting is that you are saying the RN's shouldn't fight for their average health benefits (at least comparable to Hospital groups around here) and salaries against a corporation with one of the healthiest profit margins in the Bay Area? I don't know, I think my three kids deserve to have their middle income life preserved for the hard work I do over the upper management and their huge bonuses.
Honestly, this is not why I myself started to join the strike line. I work two jobs in order to afford my mortgage and put my kids thru school so I am not scared of husttlin to earn my paper; but rather I strike due to deteriorating work conditions I've outlined above. The management endorsed bullying and nurse on nurse violence this has created within a Hospital known for having a "Hippy/Berkely" vibe is astonishing--someone should write a paper on this. And yes I do wish my union focused more on these things, but they need to focus on the contract and I don't think the Union or anyone can articulate the horrible environment we currently have at bedside. Sutter gets away with this because jobs are scarce right now. I know as soon as I can I will get my butt out of there. I don't have the patience to watch the videos but every one of my peers on that strike line (and my whole entire unit 100% went on strike) might have their different reasons and as you can even see by my rambling reply I am not the most articulate--but you can bet your A$$ I'm the RN you want taking care of your loved one. Lets just agree to disagree (and probably we agree more than disagree).
Yours in Nursing, TR

Actually, you articulate your case well. I periodically get into one of these strike discussions on AN, and you are one of the rare few (actually the only one who comes to mind) who makes any sense when taking the side of striking nurses. I can relate to what you say about picketing in large part because you know the union is focused on the contract and you want to be a voice that speaks to the working environment.

I believe that taking care of employees and providing them the means to take care of patients the best they can is also the best way to make a profit. I am hopeful and believe that most hospital groups also believe this, and those looking on see Sutter as the wrong way to do business.

Now, I'm over sitting at this dumb computer but I still have more Cyber Monday shopping to do before I'm off to better things. Good luck to you!