I don't get it...CNA Ohio

[Miss Mab]

Seriously, I'm not being sarcastic, perhaps a bit dense but:

There's so much dramatic verbiage surrounding the happenings there i.e., taking food from kids mouths, crushing dreams and three years toil in smithereens and as a CNA member myself I ought to be applying a red A to my chest....etc.

Without weighing in too much on how I read what happened there(and it does sound like after three years of working so vociferously it seems a bit shady that most of the actual nurses didn't appear to know about the election even happening until very late in the game and they were then prohibited from discussing it (?) but that's really not my point)

Why can't the SEIU and all the workers who invested all that hard work just reschedule another election date?

Soon.

Because all the work has been done already.

And everybody's there.

And now there's no way to claim secret deals.

No possibility that an RN wouldn't know exactly what they were voting for or against this time or why.

Is there some rule I missed 'cause I really did try to read all of the different threads. I'm being serious, I really don't get it exactly.

And I know it's not 'cause the unions can't handle the additional time or work involved. I mean, say what you will about CNA, but damn they are one busy group of nurses.

In the last few days, they were involved in this Ohio thing, got a local county hospital here to withdraw their own strike call and keep negotiating, ratified a pretty nifty new contract for thousands of UC nurses while also continuing to execute the final plans for the 10 day Sutter strike that starts this weekend.

I don't like some of what they do with my $$, either, but I 'll sure never accuse 'em of being lazy....

I honestly wish the best for those in Ohio:redbeathe

[micurn55]

The piece of literature in question asks nurses to "Vote No" repeatedly. Don't understand how that could fail to be interpreted as anti-union.

Chico David, How does the old saying go, "thou doth protest too much?"

[Miss Mab]

So, thank you for trying to answer my question. It still appears murky, though.

When's the new vote? Seems a simple ballot.

SEIU--yes/no.

No?

[Chico David, BSN, RN]

The piece of literature in question asks nurses to "Vote No" repeatedly. Don't understand how that could fail to be interpreted as anti-union."

I think nurses can handle a certain amount of nuance. And there's a big difference between the message:

"vote no because unions are bad"

and the message:

"vote no because there are much better unions and you shouldn't allow yourself to be rushed into a bad one."

[SEIU PSYCH RN]

What's not to get...With a rushed back door election these are the kinds of things SEIU will do! No wonder the Ohio Hospital Association (which spends millions on union avoidance) praises the deal between SEIU and CHP

http://www.sfweekly.com/2004-06-30/news/partners-in-slime/3

I am proud to be part of an organization that actually fights for patient rights and NOT corporate rights. NNOC is not selling it's soul but rather spread the soul and spirit of true health care reform and patient safey.

A rushed back door election that had been in the works for over three years i dont think so. And multiple events that dozens if not hundreds of CHP nurses had attended. If they were unaware they were simply not paying attention or did not care

[SEIU PSYCH RN]

What's not to get...With a rushed back door election these are the kinds of things SEIU will do! No wonder the Ohio Hospital Association (which spends millions on union avoidance) praises the deal between SEIU and CHP

http://www.sfweekly.com/2004-06-30/news/partners-in-slime/3

I am proud to be part of an organization that actually fights for patient rights and NOT corporate rights. NNOC is not selling it's soul but rather spread the soul and spirit of true health care reform and patient safey.

Show me a single contract that NNOC has negotiated staffing ratios in. I do not believe there is one. However SEIU has these contracts in place. And as for the California staffing ratios SEIU was just as responsible as CNA. CNA did not have the unity and political power to accomplish this SEIU did. And SEiu has had introduced Federal satffing ratios introduce fot the past several years, While we have not been successful in this administration we come closer with more cosponsers every year.

[RN Power Ohio]

please read this post from another thread:

http://http://www.calnurses.org/asse...os_booklet.pdf

check it out this is a 20 page booklet on mandate rn-to-patient ratios authored by cna/nnoc :"the ratio solution-cna/nnoc's rn-to-patient ratios work-better care , more nurses"

there is a reason this book was written--rns all over the country want madated ratios like california, which has proven to improve care and bring rns back to work in hospitals with improved staffing.

cna rns authored and defended ab 394...it took 13 years. we paved the way for other states and now there are patient protections acts that are modeled on california in ohio, illinois, texas, arizona, and maine.

sadly it is fact that seiu did try and derail this bill at the eleventh hour. fortunately they were unsuccessful, but are now doing the same dance in many of the states where cna/nnoc is currently working to win support for mandated ratios, not:

--voluntary ratios with no public disclosure,

--no rights for rn as patient advocate,

--lvn/lpn interchangeability

--staffing based soley on patient classification sysyems without ratios as a minimujm standard.

and as for ratios in contract[/bmost of cna/nnoc's 150 california contracts have won binding arbitration as a mechanism to resolve staffing disputes as well as having the actual ratios in the contract to give them extra protection from any uncertainty in the legislative arena in the future (as we witnessed with our governor who tried unsuccessfully to weaken them a couple of years ago).

in addition, i sure didn't see seiu holding public protests angainst arnold when the ratio bill was in danger. if you read the "statement of reasons" for the ratio law you will see the ratio numbers seiu proposed-read it and see who was on nursings side.

i have read seiu's federal bill and it is weak. again, friendly to hospitals.

[RN Power Ohio]

the above link to the ratio booklet does not work. here is the link. for whatever reason i am unable to edit.

http://www.calnurses.org/assets/pdf/ratios/ratios_booklet.pdf

[Organize1199]

"RN Power",

Wake up and smell the coffee, sister. The CNA is little more than a scab organization that grows off the backs of SEIU members, and by raiding other nursing unions.

CNA's so-called leadership waits for our members' long-term investment in visionary organizing drives to come to a breakthrough. Then DeMoro &co try to jump in and get on the ballot with some last-second maneuvering, like a pack of hyenas.

There are a few variations on the theme, but, to my knowledge, the only other ways the CNA knows how to get members is by attacking other unions.

It is an unsustainable model that is dragging down organizing efforts in the health care industry across the labor movement. Workers have been denied the union all over the country by CNA union busting and failed raids. For example, in St. Louis, MO, Chicago, IL and, most recently, workers at nine Ohio hospitals.

Members of other unions cannot afford to foot the bill for expensive, long-term organizing drives only to have the CNA try to raid or run an anti-union campaign at the end of the day. Nor can the labor movement forever stand by and watch the CNA's frequent attempts to break the back of nursing unions (Hawaii, Massachusetts, etc.).

In Ohio, the CNA couldn't figure out how to raid, so it just sought to destroy what our members and CHP activists had won through a three year commitment. That's what they had you doing in Springfield, M., and I hope you can see through it.

Your leadership's lefter-than-thou posturing apparently has you under a spell (or perhaps they've put you on staff). But, to quote from Jesuit priest Thomas Reese, you have to consider the actual impact of the CNA's behavior in the world.

Does it lead people to true devotion and love? Does it unite people or is it divisive? Or as Jesus said, "By their fruits you will know them." Those that foster hate and division are not of God.

http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/thomas_j_reese/2008/02/by_their_fruits_you_will_know_1.html

An organization that arms legal aides like yourself with falsehoods, and sends you to ruin a three-year effort by thousands of Ohio hospital workers - do you think that unites people, or is it divisive?

IN SOLIDARITY

[Chico David, BSN, RN]

Now you have indeed gone a bit too far. Or rather quite a lot too far.

CNA/NNOC has quadrupled in membership in the last 15 years, with the vast majority of the membership growth coming from new organizing. Every one of those elections was won after a full campaign with open debate and the opportunity for nurses to be fully informed.

CNA wrote, fought for and won California's landmark staffing law, which SEIU allied with the healthcare industry to try to derail and later tried to water down by including LVNs in the ratios.

When Arnie tried to roll back the law, CNA fought a year-long successful battle to preserve the law, a fight from which SEIU was notably absent.

CNA has won the best contracts and highest wages for registered nurses in the industry, often after long and bitter fights.

During CNA's 5-strike, year plus war with Kaiser in the 90s, SEIU switched sides in mid battle by forming a "partnership' with Kaiser, working to undercut CNA.

Now let's look at what the Stern agenda for America's workers looks like:

Partnering with Walmart to seek fake healthcare reform and derail the demand for real reform.

Crossing a union picket line to appear on stage with the CEO of Walmart.

Crossing another picket line to kiss up to Schwarzanegger and help promote a fake "healthcare reform" that the California Federation of Labor had voted to oppose.

Splintering the labor movement by leaving the AFL-CIO because they wouldn't go along with his plan for forced mergers of smaller unions.

Working with the government of Puerto Rico to break the democratic teachers union there

Making deals with nursing home owners in which the union agreed to support the owners' political program and gag workers from criticizing patient care in the homes, in return for organizing rights to some of the homes' workers.

Removing the democratically elected officers of numerous locals and replacing them with Stern-appointed loyalists.

And that's just a start. We could go on.

I helped organize my hospital in 2000 with CNA after a tough election under labor board rules in which we faced a full-force Burke Group campaign. I become a bargaining team member, then Chief Steward, then in 2003 was elected to the CNA board. Then in 2005 to the executive board.

In the last 5 years, I've been part of a lot of policy discussions and decisions. Not once in all that time has there been a moment of discussion that I am not proud of. Not once has there been a moment when anyone has said "We know this is wrong, but we'll do it because it's expedient."

Not once has there been a discussion that started from strategy. Every time we are faced with a discussion of what to do, it always starts with principle - "What's right?". Then we turn to "What's the most effective way to do what's right?"

My reasons for organizing with CNA had little to do with me own work situation. I was happy in my job and satisfied with my pay. I chose CNA because it was clear to me that this organization had the potential to change American healthcare for the better and I wanted to be part of it. Nothing has happened in the years since to make me regret that decision.

[Organize1199]

The California Nurses Association came to Ohio for one reason and one reason only - to destroy a three-year organizing campaign at 9 Ohio hospitals. There are no clever words for you to hide behind. That's what you did.

Your holier-than-thou cloak is off, and everyone can see exactly what you are. If you bust the union, you're a union-buster.

Along with the 8,000 Ohio families you betrayed, I know you by your fruits.

[Chico David, BSN, RN]

False again of course. CNA/NNOC has been working in Ohio for over 2 years, laying the foundations for organizing by putting on classes for nurses and building a coalition around passing a staffing ratio bill in Ohio. All of which will, when enough base has been developed, lead to organizing nurses for collective bargaining. The fear of CNA/NNOC was the main reason the hospitals were suddenly willing to do this deal with SEIU. Their worst nightmare is a union that really fights for nurses and patients.

Get your facts straight.

[HobbesRN]

What's not to get...With a rushed back door election these are the kinds of things SEIU will do! No wonder the Ohio Hospital Association (which spends millions on union avoidance) praises the deal between SEIU and CHP

http://www.sfweekly.com/2004-06-30/news/partners-in-slime/3

I am proud to be part of an organization that actually fights for patient rights and NOT corporate rights. NNOC is not selling it's soul but rather spread the soul and spirit of true health care reform and patient safey.

I just read the article you provided the link to--this is an issue in California and Sal Rossini, the proponent of this amendment, is a rogue SEIU official who has resigned from the SEIU executive board because he couldn't abide by their democratic process. He is not representative of the SEIU local that was involved in the organization of the CHP workers in OH, nor the SEIU organization in general.

It would seem CNA would do well to spend the resources of its membership a little closer to home.