Happy Holidays to Sutter Hospital

Nurses Union

Published

Ho Ho Ho... DEC 24, close to 5000 RNs will strike for one day... http://www.nationalnursesunited.org/state/california

Specializes in Tele Step Down, Oncology, ICU, Med/Surg.

Actually I think new grad pay is $18 with the "last, best, final" Laughable in the SF Bay Area, but take it if you can get in and then run away as soon as you can somewhere else. And please explain to your professors that we are not "striking with the seasons." We are striking out of desperation because a strike should be like napalm--something you do when pushed to the edge as a last resort. We are nurses pushed to the edge with no resort by a greedy not for profit that has made working at bedside like descending into a war zone. We are not striking to make any more money--hell I would be willing to negotiate a reduction in pay to be treated like the professional I am.

Dear new RN, Please join your brothers and sisters on the line--they will appreciate your treats and your time and who knows what valuable contacts you can make there. Thanks for volunteering at my community hospital--the hospital where I gave birth to my children and where I do my best work. The hospital I will fight for keeping a good place to work and a place that attracts bright new nurses like you with middle class wages and health benefits. With safe nurse to patient ratios and with adequate supplies at bedside to provide safe patient care.

And to the other nurses, you are right--it is time for us to step up our game and let our voices be heard. It's time to play their marketing game back at them but--and we've been trying with bill boards and trying to get our message heard. But we need more--and I and several of my peers are getting mad enough to start putting some energy into this. And combined we have some pretty impressive marketing expertise just on my unit alone.

Specializes in ICU.

Now I'm really interested in this. Will there be signs already pre-made or will we need to make our own signs?

I think people should refrain from discussing how cheaply new grads are willing to work. I'm afraid it will further lower the wages among all RN's.

Specializes in Tele Step Down, Oncology, ICU, Med/Surg.

We always have ample signage for everyone--premade signs and signs you can add your own slogan too--and I'm sure I speak for others when I say we welcome our newbie RN's as walking the picket line together affords us time to talk and mentor in ways we can't do when we are on shift with our precepts.

And RN.D68 you are right. But I was just quoting what the pay scale would be for a new grad RN if Sutter has it's way with us but we are not going down without a hell of a fight.

Am joining the Kaiser RN's on their picket line today. Looks like the RN's of the Bay Area are getting really mad at their management

I hear their CEO makes even more than Pat Fry. OMG--what a waste of money that should be spent at bedside.

You are right Testa- And it is that waste of money that is the reason why we nurses are not paid what they used to be paid, why new grads can't get their first jobs , why there is no competent orientation periods for them or nurses new to the these facilities with experienced seasoned nurses as preceptors, why the older experienced nurses were gotton rid of from these hospitals,why there is such a high attrition rate and burn out, why the nurse- patient ratios are as bad as they are( given the common sense that these patients today are vastly sicker than they ever were-I could go on and on with this point a lone)this is why these morbitity and mortality rates and re admission rates and hospital mishaps are in the numbers they are, and why CMS is NOT giving these hospital anymore reimbusment money than they have already been given( the CMS knows which pockets the money is going in and they know it's not being spent on the nurses numbers and salaries and hense end users-the patients) amd are cutting it's reimbursement s. The CMS is not going to keep giving money knowign it will only end up in some CEO's and his cronies salaries- it's like an addiction, the more they get, the more they want.

It is your's and your Nursing union's job and responsibility to get this word out to the general public in the name of patient advocacy. You and one of your union officers or you alone, compose an E-mail to the NNU and the California Nurses Association( check out their websites for contact information) and clearly lay our your stand and your issues with these mega buck salaries and the who what were when and why of where the healthcare dollars are being spent- which is not on nursing staff numbers(bodies) to do patient care!! E-mail them your fear of your licenses. Let Joe public know where their medicare and insurance dollars are ending up- and in who's pockets and how much is in the CEO's filthy pockets. This is like stealing meds from a patient- it's diverson= financial diversion!!! financial abuse!! in the healthcare system. There is no way this mess of a healthcare system is going to be straightened out if this continues- there is no money to straighten it out. it's all in the Pat Fry's of this country's pockets and their personal bank accounts .And then these scum bags are going to apply for medicare when they turn 65 to scrape some more money from people who need it the most- you and all of us included..

Call in the national news. Carry your signs with pride. Do not back down from their intimidation. And stop these scumbags.

If they are not stopped now, we are going to end up being Doctorates of Nursing Practice and Nurse Practioners and answering call lights for $7.25/hr. If the CEO's are not willing to cut their salaries- why should nursing??

I just came from an interview with a DON who told me she was at some DON/LTC meeting. She was getting angry in the interview, discussing taking on new grads and them not being able to get that first hospital job to gain experience, and taking them on into LTC and the cost of orienting them, having them work sub acute and then leaving after so many months. She stated she is staffed to capacity and can't take them all in to her LTC. This whole not hiring, new grad thing is going to get very ugly and very messy. There is no nursing shortage. There will be if things keep the way they are. There are enough new grads and older nurses out there to adequately staff these hospitals. But with no experience and the discouragment of the experienced nurses, I have already seen nurses seekng employment in other industries and fields and not as nurses. They are not going to leave those jobs once nursing and hospital administration hail the "all clear" This is not the fault of the nursing schools and academia. They educate with all the advantages and methods of modern technology, but there is not job for them on graduation. This is all back to one person who is scimming off the top of these healthcare institutions- CEO.

I am on the other coast, and I have not forgotton that Mr Fry was the one responisble for that cancer patient dying in his facility back some time ago in September, when he couldn't get along with his nursing staff back then. It's quite obvious he escaped, finaggled and was not held responible for that and he continues in the same manner. He's scimming the big bucks, he made the decision not to work things out with his nurses so where is his responsibilty for that big buck salary??? He has poor job performance- terminate him- that would be done to any one of us if we pulled the same stunt.!! Go Sutter nurses.!!!

Specializes in Infusion Nursing, Home Health Infusion.

Will there be a strike at Sutter Sacramento as well? I work in Sacramento but not for Sutter thank god! This all makes me very upset that the nurses are treated with such disrepect. I am in total support of the strike and send you all good luck with all your efforts. I hope that one day their is Karma for these greedy ######## and they are in a hospital bed with an overworked and underpaid nurse and we will have to see how they feel about it then!

I wish the nurses of this upcoming strke on Dec 24 much luck and success. I know for me- I am seeking employment out of nursing come the first business day following christmas. I can not afford to remain in nursing any longer after 32 years. I will loose my house and be non payment on my bankruptcy. I have nursing to thank for the bankruptcy which I began in 2008 after 8 months of unemployment and using all my savings to pay bills. I knew nothing of unemployment back then. Since that time, I have has one temp position after another and 2 eposides of needing to call up on unemployment to keep from drowning. I will not be celebrating christmas again this year- haven't been able to since 2008. Nursing is negatively effecting my entire life.

The unemployment in nursing is totally uncalled for. These hospitals are getting millions every year from the governement and CMS in reimbursment and subsidies. There needs to be a major federal investagation into EVERY hospital's and healthcare facility's books. There needs to be testimoney before federal congressional panels from these CEO's and their financial CZARS as to why CEO's are making the salaries they are and just whose pockets these federal monies are ending up in!!

And for the record I did go back and start working on my BSN- with grant money I could not have recieved had I not been unemployed. With a 4.0 GPA at that. So all the excuses these "hiring entites " are giving nurses as reasons for not hiring are lies also. BOLD IN YOUR FACE LIES!! its about continuing to give a CEO a multi million dollar salaried contract in the wake of cutting the reimbursement rates of federal funding. Every time the feds say there is going to be a cut in federal reimbursement- the louts, gougers and theives in their CEO chairs go after the nursing staff. Get their fat lazy butts out of their comfy CEO chars and make them and their spoiled rotton families take care of these patients!

The trigger this time, Sutter and Kiaser nurses, is : the threat of the fiscal cliff and the for certain/ count on it, cuts to federal spending no matter if the cliff takes place or not.

I am very suprised no one has taken a gun to them yet. I kow i wouldn't shed one tear over it.

May the CEO or CEO's choke on their Christmas dinners!

Because we (as nurses) care. :cautious:

Specializes in Stroke Seizure/LTC/SNF/LTAC.

I have been one of those very qualified (not joking) "scab" nurses at two Sutter facilities. Somehow, Sutter has a "strike fund" from which the "scab" nurses gets paid. The "scab" nurse never sees what it cost in airfare to fly 300 nurses from all over the country to Oakland for the strike in April. Nor do they see what it cost for the hundreds of hotel rooms (some at a very expensive hotel) or the security, etc. You could probably double what the "scab" nurse makes to calculate what the agency/ies actually got paid :jester:! Don't even get me started on what the negotiations cost in attorney fees!:eek:

As an observer, I supposed that the "take aways" have been very serious for the nurses to be repeatedly striking since September 2011.

Testa, thanks for giving us an inside view of what these very expensive strikes are about. I heard about the greedy CEO making a disgustingly-high salary while Sutter expects their nurses to take care of much sicker patients and document all the care you provide. Where is their accountability to the public? :madface:

It seems Sutter has yet to figure out: in order to give excellent bedside care, the nurses must be treated fairly and compensated adequately! :speechless: #getting off my soapbox now#

I agree that they should start the cuts with the seriously-overinflated CEO's salaries. :whistling:

Specializes in rehab.
In the Los Angeles area, wages for new grad RNs are already down to $29/hour.

I wish I made that wage.

Specializes in Tele Step Down, Oncology, ICU, Med/Surg.

@WittySarcasm: Have you lived on your own in the LA Area for $29 an hour while working full-time? Very hard to do. TR

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