INCREDIBLE CNA/NNOC victory in Houston.

[Chico David]

I'm posting this fast, and don't yet have all the details, but here is what I do know:

CNA just won a representation election for the RNs at Cypress Fairbanks Hospital, a part of the Tenet chain in Houston Texas.

Other than a small number of RNs employed by the federal government, this represents the first unionized nurses in the entire state a very tough organizing environment. It is the first major fruits of a three year statewide campaign.

The election was run under an organizing agreement won at the bargaining table by Tenet nurses in California.

Don't yet have numbers or other details, will make a second post when I do. I've met some of these Texas nurses and they are just the greatest. This is only the first of many organizing victories to come in this state.

[vlynnieg]

Here is the flip side of your story.

Without the contract it was quite probable that your mother would have had NO PTO to use or would have been forbidden by management to use it when they furloughed her. It is a bad deal when anyone is furloughed but the other side of a problem needs to be considered. Its a lot worse to take home a short pay envelope for workers. Far better to have the option as an individual to use your leave rather than lose the salary and the benefits entirely.

Seniority is meant to protect longer term workers from the vagaries of managers. Your dads situation would have varied dependig on whe he wet to work for one of the Big 3. If he had started before his entry into military service his seniority under USERRA would have accrued during his military service. If he went to work for the auto industry after his military service that time would not have been counted because he would not have been under the protection of the contract. It wasn't the union sticking it to him. He just happened to fall into a different category based on when he started working for the company.

(Parenthetically as a federal employee I can purchase my seniority from my military service just as I did when I was a state employee.) That same contract that called for orderly layoff also gave him reemployment rights from a seniority roster. So while there were short term costs for him there were also longer term protections that did eventually lead to greater protections for him.

Thats the rub the tradeoff for longer term protections sometimes results in shorter term pains.

On my unit, if there has to be cancellations, it is rotated fairly and no one bears the burden solely. And, we can use out PTO to cover it, but as it is distributed fairly, everyone still has PTO to actually use for well-deserved vacation time if they so choose. It was also the way they did things at the hospital I worked at back home as well, so I'm reasonably convinced it is the norm, not the exception. It would be wrong for the union to change that to the detriment of anyone with the least amount of time in with us.

As for my dad, he served almost straight out of high school, so it's not likely he would have had any opportunity to accrew any seniority prior to being called up to serve. And he got called back to work a few times, usually right after getting an interim job--only to be laid off again within a few weeks. Did they rotate the layoffs evenly among the employees there? Not likely! I guess we can thank the union for making things a lot better for our family. He finally had had enough, STAYED laid off, went back to school on his GI Bill, got his Bachelor's in 2.5 yrs going year-round and taking insane course loads (managing a 3.8 gpa, no less)got his CPA and NEVER LOOKED BACK. So, if you count 'disgusting and ******* off someone to the point of them being willing to suffer anything to be as far removed from it as possible' as the union doing something for him, then I guess my family owes them a lot.

[Chico David, BSN, RN]

On my unit, if there has to be cancellations, it is rotated fairly and no one bears the burden solely. And, we can use out PTO to cover it, but as it is distributed fairly, everyone still has PTO to actually use for well-deserved vacation time if they so choose. It was also the way they did things at the hospital I worked at back home as well, so I'm reasonably convinced it is the norm, not the exception. It would be wrong for the union to change that to the detriment of anyone with the least amount of time in with us.

As for my dad, he served almost straight out of high school, so it's not likely he would have had any opportunity to accrew any seniority prior to being called up to serve. And he got called back to work a few times, usually right after getting an interim job--only to be laid off again within a few weeks. Did they rotate the layoffs evenly among the employees there? Not likely! I guess we can thank the union for making things a lot better for our family. He finally had had enough, STAYED laid off, went back to school on his GI Bill, got his Bachelor's in 2.5 yrs going year-round and taking insane course loads (managing a 3.8 gpa, no less)got his CPA and NEVER LOOKED BACK. So, if you count 'disgusting and ******* off someone to the point of them being willing to suffer anything to be as far removed from it as possible' as the union doing something for him, then I guess my family owes them a lot.

Call offs are done by rotation under my union contract, which is pretty common, but not always the case under contracts with my union. The point being that it's very different at different hospitals - "the union" doesn't choose one way to do it, the nurses at a particular hospital elect their bargaining representatives who choose the way they want to do it at that hospital. Representative democracy, much like the United States. Some of our contracts 9mostly older ones) are very seniority heavy, others are not. All according to the preference of the members at each facility. And we often build in variability even within a facility. The contract where I work has a plan for vacation scheduling, but specifies that any unit that wants to use a different plan can do so if a majority of the nurses and the manager of that unit agree to. Unions have nothing to gain by forcing everyone into a single mold, so the smart ones don't.

[HM2VikingRN, RN]

It wasn't the union sticking it to him. He just happened to fall into a different category based on when he started working for the company.

One other thought...Hiring and firing is a management decision/right.....It makes little sense to blame the union contract for staffing decisions made by managers. The contract provided for orderly recall from layoff based on seniority which was done IAW the contract. (one of the goals of negotiations is to mitigate damages to employees in the case of involuntary layoff.)

As a long term state employee I volunteered for layoff during a RIF after I landed my first nursing job with the goal of protecting a younger employees job. AFSCME to this day is still trying to work with state government management to encourage incentives that will allow older employees to retire early with the goal of saving younger employees jobs.

(I went through a serial bullying by a manager. The union saved my job, and facilitated a transfer which ultimately allowed me to become a nurse with a 30% pay increase.)

All things being equal throughout my work life I have always been better off with the protection of a contract. (And my family by extension.)

[txdude35]

I hope you didn't tell others you think they are ignorant. Not likely to earn respect or votes like that.

Education takes time. And maybe you all have lots to learn about collective bargaining. I know I did. I still do.

No, I didn't. One of them and I have a profound and mutual dislike of each other, and have had for some time now. I can put my personal feelings aside and work with her though, because business is business.

I have _everything_ to learn about collective bargaining. I'm an absolute neophyte and freely admit it. I'm reading, researching, and talking to people with experience though in order to have some sense of where this is going to go.

[Leyla~]

I apologize if this has already been mentioned, I only checked the last few pages.

I was checking the National Right To Work website just now, looking for those sample union resignation letters (I'm resending them certified mail this time so I won't have any legal issues when I cross the picket lines in MN) and came across the following:

Houston, TX (June 03, 2010) - The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has issued a formal complaint against the California Nurses Association (CNA) union and Tenet Healthcare Corporation (THC) for illegally negotiating contractual provisions before the union received majority support from Tenet employees. The complaint was prompted by unfair labor practice charges filed by several nurses at the Cypress Fairbanks Medical Center with the help of National Right to Work Foundation attorneys.

Full article here: Federal Labor Board to Prosecute Hospital Union for Illegal Bargaining in Secret Agreement | National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation

[vlynnieg]

We supposedly were nominating last week for potential representatives, yet only 2-3 people on our unit had been told of this. Funnier, yet, is that two of the people supposedly nominated were clueless about this, as well! I called the regional office for NNOC and was informed that our assigned organizer had supposedly tried to talk to me about it and I supposedly refused to talk to her about it. The only time I've so much as laid eyes on her since the facility election was once in passing as I was en route to the ER to pick up a patient. She didn't even so much as greet me, much less attempt to talk to me about anything, this included! Needlessto say, I advised the peorson on the phone that if they were told this, they were told a blatant lie, that no such attempt at conversation was ever made. I have, however, discovered their mantra. There are perhaps two phrases that they rely upon heavily when they don't have any other defense.

[Bortaz, MSN, RN]

We supposedly were nominating last week for potential representatives, yet only 2-3 people on our unit had been told of this. Funnier, yet, is that two of the people supposedly nominated were clueless about this, as well! I called the regional office for NNOC and was informed that our assigned organizer had supposedly tried to talk to me about it and I supposedly refused to talk to her about it. The only time I've so much as laid eyes on her since the facility election was once in passing as I was en route to the ER to pick up a patient. She didn't even so much as greet me, much less attempt to talk to me about anything, this included! Needlessto say, I advised the peorson on the phone that if they were told this, they were told a blatant lie, that no such attempt at conversation was ever made. I have, however, discovered their mantra. There are perhaps two phrases that they rely upon heavily when they don't have any other defense.

A couple of the nurses on my unit (including a charge) were upset to find their names on the "example form" showing them as nominees for the representation committee. They'd not been asked, and while they were just examples, at a passing glance an uninformed person could easily think they'd nominated themselves for consideration. The thing was put up by one of those chicks from NNOC. Again, it was just an "example", but it was formatted in such a way that you'd not know that unless you read the form in depth. I'd have been POd if I'd been put on there.

[vlynnieg]

I'm not a fan of some of the deceptive techniques I have noticed. I've always operated under the understanding that a truly good product doesn't need to rely on gimmicks or deception, it sells itself.

[HM2VikingRN, RN]

Oddly enough I was just offered a recall to my old position with the state. Funny how that contract language gives me the option to return to my old job if I had happened to be unemployed when the decision to recall was made.

FTR I am not accepting the position rather it was to illustrate how the system has worked to protect my interests 1 1/2 years after I accepted voluntary layoff.

[HM2VikingRN, RN]

Full article here: Federal Labor Board to Prosecute Hospital Union for Illegal Bargaining in Secret Agreement | National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation

Its not a violation of the current law to negotiate an organizing agreement......The title is deceptive. Its an investigation by a administrative law judge which is a civil matter not criminal....

(Additionally establishing an agreement to pursue binding arbitration places both labor and management in the position of agreeing to negotiate in good faith after establishment of a bargaining unit.)

Crossing a picket line for a single day may well be career suicide. You have to work with people following a labor dispute. Crossing a picket line may be good in the short run for your pocketbook but the long term impact on your relationships with coworkers could make your future working life difficult.

Will you be viewed as trustworthy in the future by either coworkers or managers?

My integrity is very important to me. I am not afraid to tell my managers my opinions about labor issues because I expect mutual dignity and respect. I will not sell out my shipmates for this very reason.

I would not cross a picket line for that very reason if I was planning on making a career with a particular hospital system.

[vlynnieg]

Its not a violation of the current law to negotiate an organizing agreement......The title is deceptive. Its an investigation by a administrative law judge which is a civil matter not criminal....

(Additionally establishing an agreement to pursue binding arbitration places both labor and management in the position of agreeing to negotiate in good faith after establishment of a bargaining unit.)

Crossing a picket line for a single day may well be career suicide. You have to work with people following a labor dispute. Crossing a picket line may be good in the short run for your pocketbook but the long term impact on your relationships with coworkers could make your future working life difficult.

Will you be viewed as trustworthy in the future by either coworkers or managers?

My integrity is very important to me. I am not afraid to tell my managers my opinions about labor issues because I expect mutual dignity and respect. I will not sell out my shipmates for this very reason.

I would not cross a picket line for that very reason if I was planning on making a career with a particular hospital system.

On the flip side of that coin, however, if you rise above the dispute and show that patient care is more important to you than money--which might very well be the heart of the strike, not just the motivation of the one crossing the picket line--both sides should respect your dedication to the well-being of the patients. Isn't that the heart of why we do what we do? It should be.

[Ludlow]

On the flip side of that coin, however, if you rise above the dispute and show that patient care is more important to you than money--which might very well be the heart of the strike, not just the motivation of the one crossing the picket line--both sides should respect your dedication to the well-being of the patients. Isn't that the heart of why we do what we do? It should be.

In the case of striking for better, safer patient care, when you cross the picket line you make the statement that you are endorsing the hospital's unsafe staffing and unsafe patient conditions. Not a good place to be for a patient advocate.