Is it ethical for nurses to go on strike?

Nurses Union

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Hi,

We are a group of nursing students in Canada writing an ethical dilemma paper and we would like to know your opinions on the following issue:

The nurses at a large hospital have been doing negotiation for months but since they haven't obtained any positive results they are deciding to strike for better pay and working conditions. A new graduate nurse is not sure about what to do, or how to vote.

We have learned that in Ontario it is illegal for hospital nurses to strike.

So, our question is: If all or most of the necessary steps to seek negotiation have been taken, to what extent do you think it would be ethical to have an illegal strike? Would the purpose of an illegal strike outweight its consequences?

Working for a good institution that values its employees and what they have to say about the system.

That's certainly important. But it appears your ability to speak up for yourself has resulted in no guarantee of anything. I sincerely hope that your wages and benefits are not taken away without warning.

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I have ZERO fear of losing my job or benefits. This isn't the environment its made out to be... I've never worked with a contract and really don't want to start now. I get yearly raises and have every year. My benefits are excellent and I have a great colleagial relationship with my manager.

As far as speaking up is concerned, I was able to get an across the board raise for all nurse practitioners as well as having our salary range completely changed. So I have been able to get things changed just by speaking up.

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There's no way i would work for a healthcare system where the nurses NEED a contract in place to ensure anything. That would be a significant red flag for me as a potential employee!

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Specializes in Psych , Peds ,Nicu.
I have ZERO fear of losing my job or benefits. This isn't the environment its made out to be... I've never worked with a contract and really don't want to start now. I get yearly raises and have every year. My benefits are excellent and I have a great colleagial relationship with my manager.

As far as speaking up is concerned, I was able to get an across the board raise for all nurse practitioners as well as having our salary range completely changed. So I have been able to get things changed just by speaking up.

Well done , sincerly . As you may be inferring by your reference to slight change of position , I wish managements at other facilities were willing to treat their staff as partners in its sucess , jnfortunately this all too often is not the case . The other little quibble I would add that your sucess re. negotiating for your NP coworkers , may be aided because they are a small group ( in relation to the total number of employee ) , if the group had been larger maybe management may have been less receptive ?. I will reiterate congratulations upon what you gained for your fellow workers and vlarify that this comment was not meant as an attempt to burst your bubble .

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Thanks. We currently employ over 150 NPs in our institution.

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Specializes in NICU, PICU, PCVICU and peds oncology.

Working for an organization that truly values and appreciates its staff is a wondrous thing; if employees are happy, rewarded and consulted about workplace issues there is really no need for a union. But 4 years of moderating forums here suggests to me that those employers are in a significant minority. Perhaps it reflects a self-selecting bias that more posters here reflect disrespect, unrealistic workloads, poor or no benefits, no job security and an atmosphere of fear in their workplaces. Right-to-work states allow the employer to fire employees at will with no recourse for the fired employee at all. If they decide unilaterally to increase a person's hours of work, move a person's schedule from days to nights or the reverse, mandate overtime, decrease the number of hours off between shifts, increase the number of patients a nurse is responsible for, decrease a person's pay, eliminate what few benefits they provide, or any other patient-care and life-affecting decision, the employee will either have to suck it up or find another job. And trust me, finding another job isn't as easy as it sounds.

Nurses join unions when they see no other alternative and nurses go on strike when there is absolutely no other way of making themselves heard. Nurses' unions develop essential-services plans to be implemented in the event of a strike so patients continue to receive care, but the nurse may no longer answer phones, run specimens to the lab, pick up blood products from the blood bank, file reports in charts, mop up spills, porter patients, pass trays, fill water jugs, fluff pillows, or any of the thousand and one other tasks that do not require a nurse's attention. Depending on the workplace, anywhere from 30-70% of a nurse's time may be taken up by non-nursing tasks, not because the job requires it but because there isn't anyone else to do them.

In jurisdictions where essential-services legislation exists, the employer decided who and what constitute essential services. In 2002 the Manitoba Nurses' Union voted to strike when negotiations fell apart; the employers' essential services schedule actually had MORE nurses scheduled to work in the event of a strike than was the norm. But negotiations contiuned after the strike vote, in that interim period required by law between the vote and the onset of job action, and as usual, an eleventh-hour agreement was worked out and a strike was averted. Now, if nurses only ever struck over purely monetary considerations that would be one thing, but they typically have far more pressing issues, such as mandatory overtime, loss of control of their schedules, diminished capacity to provide safe, ethical care and other such that are of greater importance than sheer money.

PICUPNP, you must work in a very large institution if there are 150 NPs there. How many rank-and-file front-line nurses are there? And what sort of raises, benefits and perks do they have? What is their workload like when compared to yours? I would wager that their perspective would present a horse of a completely different colour.

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Our front line nurses, of which I was for 5 yrs here, are treated very well. No more than 5 patients on the floors and no more than 2 patients in PICU. We all get yearly raises, my yearly review is tha same as the nurses go through. We get a christmas bonus every year. We are, thanks goodness, a non academic facility and that helps, IMO.

I hate to burst the union bubble, but not every hospital out there treats their nurses badly. No union doesn't equal Bad hospital. Nurses can be happy without having to pay union dues!

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Some might say it'll illegal for nurses to strike because of the general risk to public safety.

But the flip side of that is, who looks out for nurses rights who are forced to work? Is the only other choice but to quit the facility or the career? If the government takes away your ability to organize, then need to be doing something for the group them. I could also argue it's a risk to public safety if the nurses want to strike due to very unsafe working conditions and they cannot, so the hospital continues to be an unsafe place.

We should also look at the labor laws for that specific location. In some states, an employer needs to have a good reason to fire an employee. In others, they can fire you for absolutely no reason or explanation. If labor laws in that state strongly favor the employer, perhaps that's a situation where a union might be needed.

And the question is more about striking than unions. A strike is where people get together and all decide they're not going into work. If they're taking away the right to stop working for a "strike", can the government take away the right for a NON-union group of nurses to refuse working in a situation that is clearly very dangerous? Would you risk your health or your license... or do you walk out as a group and take a stand?

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Specializes in NICU, PICU, PCVICU and peds oncology.
Our front line nurses, of which I was for 5 yrs here, are treated very well. No more than 5 patients on the floors and no more than 2 patients in PICU. We all get yearly raises, my yearly review is tha same as the nurses go through. We get a christmas bonus every year. We are, thanks goodness, a non academic facility and that helps, IMO.

I hate to burst the union bubble, but not every hospital out there treats their nurses badly. No union doesn't equal Bad hospital. Nurses can be happy without having to pay union dues!

You've actually just proven my point. If employers treat their employees well and with respect, there is no need for unions or strikes. But just because that is YOUR reality doesn't mean it's the norm. I'm very glad for you that you have a healthy workplace with a great employer. I wish more of us did too. Your patients don't have to be concerned about their nurse being run off her feet, sleep-deprived, or ill but working anyway because if he doesn't work he doesn't eat. Consider yourself very lucky.

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Specializes in LTC Rehab Med/Surg.

I live in the midwest, and am surprised there is no national coverage of this strike. I am a news junky and haven't seen it on tv, unless the coverage was so brief I missed it when answering the phone. I would have thought that nurses on strike would make big news. Is it big news locally? Sorry to get off the topic, just wondering.

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