In the WV, OH, KY area, Krogers has been on strike for 6 weeks.
They went on strike- not for more $$$- - Krogers pays well, REAL WELL - - ever hear of the meat cutter's and grocery checkers who make as much and MORE than nurses?
Well, look no further....than Krogers.
No, the employees went out on strike because......
Krogers has said they must ask their employees to pay a small - - - a very small - - portion of their health insurance .
Krogers employees, in WV, OH, KY do not pay one cent out of their paychecks for health insurance !!
Nurses! Look at your pay stubs....
For ONE person, I am paying $400 a month.
The past four years, I paid between $450- $600 a month for health insurance.... for ONE person.
Hello Krogers employees !!
Health insurance is not a "freebie" that I, the shopper,
wish to confer on you by paying higher prices for groceries and meat, dairy, vegetables in your store.
Management tried REALLY HARD to explain to the union and employees, that the employees must assume part of the financial
responsibility for their health insurance.
Krogers explained that :
Our health care costs have increased 800 % in the last ten years ! We need for our employees to contribute a small amount towards their health insurance.
The employees refused.
Personally, Krogers can reopen manana.....
I refuse to shop there.
WALMART is looking better....Krogers prices were already sky-high.
I refuse to pay at the check-out counter for their insurance.
You can pay for your own, just as the rest of America does.
In all fields I have ever worked in, the pay and conditions were better in about 4 out of 5 places wqhen they had a union. That's not bad odds. So even with all the problems that come about in struggles to get a decent union, without one, you got nada.
Save us from the resentful worker mad at another group of workers for supposedly having it a tad better than she does, so she takes up the cause of the corporations! With this note, the self-righteous shall always cross on over to the other side....
Excuse your rudeness! Actually, I'm not resentful (see my post from a few days ago about how wonderful life is), the supermarket workers do NOT have it better than I do (the job I left to start school paid me $20/hr with excellent benefits that cost me $20/mo) and I had no formal education for this job (just worked my way up), and I am NOT taking up the cause of the corporations!
Watch out or that self-righteous comment may bite you right back.
In all fields I have ever worked in, the pay and conditions were better in about 4 out of 5 places wqhen they had a union. That's not bad odds. So even with all the problems that come about in struggles to get a decent union, without one, you got nada.
And without a union you have nada? I think not. The hospital I will work in when I graduate (and that I work in now as a Nurse Tech) will pay me as good as or better than the three other unionized hospitals in this county and will give me the same or better bonuses and will give me the same or better health coverage. All without a union. (And, yes, I've done the research and have the figures to back this all up).
Now, that being said, not all unions are evil and not all unions are necessary. But to say you have nothing without a union ....
May I guess that you do not live in California? I'm betting my assumptions of you are closer to true than your assumptions of me.
? I would devote the rest of my useful life to any union which truly supported the rank and file.
Check into the California Nurses Association, who kicked the ANA out of their state. I have visited their web site. The first thing they got was decent working conditions (AKA, not being treated like children) after many years with the same hospital. In CNA contract hospitals, after a number of years, nurses no longer have to work nites and weekends.
Someone needs to start a new thread. I would do it, but I do not know how.
The thread should be called, "Nursing Unions--a solution or just another problem?" :kiss
The elected officers and Board of Directors of the CNA are working staff nurses
"You nurses think you can upgrade your profession by getting your BSN's etc. and then be paid more per hour to work in a hospital, but when we become the owners of all the health care systems, degree or not if we want to pay you $12/hr. , you will either accept that amount or be without a job"!
TCJan,
Never thougt it could happen at my age, but I think you've just about changed my mind. Nurses have every right to be afraid when doctors start flexing their economic and political muscles. When I was a nursing student I read about a study that compared physician and nursing salaries over 20 yrs.
They compared the salaries in 1950 and in 1970. In 1950 the average doctor earned double what the average nurse made. In 1970 the average doctor made five times what the average nurse earned. Look at the increase in nursing responsibilities during the same period. In 1950 nurses did not even perform venipunctures, IVs, blood gases, or IV push meds.
I get such a laugh out of "ER" on TV. You can tell a doctor writes the scripts. The nurses are rarely anybody more than some dumb b*tch with a problem. The doctors are always in the middle of every acute case. What a laugh! Half the time they don't even know the patient is here before I or the techs, have initiated interventions (I've seen experienced techs make accurate diagnoses of patients rolling by on a stetcher). Of course they are DOCTORS, so I have to listen to them, (even if I have to take my time following orders that I know are wrong until they run them by their supervisors).
What pukes me out is the kind of power ANY doctor has. Interns, (who have less than one twentieth of my ER experiece) led to my discharge and possibly the end to my 20-year career as an ER nurse.
It has been said that without a doctor, patients will die in days. Without a nurse a patient willl die in minutes.
What no one seems to understand is that doctors are NOT nurses. That's why they have a different license. How is it that they run nursing?
As a virtual monopoly I haven't the slightest doubt that they would freeze nurses out of a living wage.
What is clear is that Junior and his friends are trying to get the government out of the health care business (AKA wiping out health care for everyone but the wealthy). I do like General Clark on foreign policy. Now I need to look at his health care proposals (and the other candidates) and see whose is best. I don't suppose it makes much difference though. None of them is going to beat Junior. I have learned to look at politics as pure entertainment.
Just a comment on your post without getting on my soapbox or placing you back on yours. To add to your research.
Over all throughout the nation, unionized employees receive higher wages and benefits on average then their non union counterparts. There are exceptions and if you have found one good for you.
Secondly unionized employers raise the pay and benefits of non unionized employers with whom they compete for labor. So even if you work in a non Unionized facility you still benefit from unionized nurses working near you.
It just not pay and benefits that a Union can obtain for you...I'll leave it at that for I won't get either of us on the soap box.
Just a comment on your post without getting on my soapbox or placing you back on yours. To add to your research.
Over all throughout the nation, unionized employees receive higher wages and benefits on average then their non union counterparts. There are exceptions and if you have found one good for you.
Secondly unionized employers raise the pay and benefits of non unionized employers with whom they compete for labor. So even if you work in a non Unionized facility you still benefit from unionized nurses working near you.
It just not pay and benefits that a Union can obtain for you...I'll leave it at that for I won't get either of us on the soap box.
I do see your point regarding unions but will have to say that I still disagree with you. Some of this is due to the fact that I was a HR Manager before I left to start nursing school ... my history of employees does not include unions but that if you treat them well, they will stay, and everyone will be happy. I understand that there are employers who do not treat their employees well and thus unions are welcomed and needed. I just don't think that a union is the answer to all problems. And I don't think that being asked to pay $5/week for your own healthcare is too much to ask in this day and age of expensive insurance.
Thanks for the non-threatening and non-rude post, however, I guess I got too worked up over the last persons comments. I love a good intelligent discussion but sometimes get to involved personally! Happens some times!
Thanks for the non-threatening and non-rude post, however, I guess I got too worked up over the last persons comments. I love a good intelligent discussion but sometimes get to involved personally! Happens some times! [/b]
I hope you are not implying that my post was rude and threatening.
As I said previously my Union Experience goes back to 1965. I also showed how rudely I was treated by the only nurse's union I ever belonged to which, after taking a lot of my money, helped me to get fired.
I know many people that work at Krogers, including head quarters and the supermarket. Many of Kroger employees make only minimum wage, I know of no nurses that make that little. The only people that make a "ton" of money at krogers are those that have been in the company for ages. For example, Kim, a person who supervises the Pharmacy crew (who dispenses medicine) who has been in Krogers since 1989, makes ........drum roll please, $13 an hour. For a supervisory position that is not much!
A person that works 40 hour weeks in a store such as kroger and making minimum wage or maybe 7:00 an hour can hardly afford insurance. There is such a thing as freedom of expresion, they are entitle to oppose their company if they like, just as much as you have the right to hate their choice.
The Kroger company offers some good benefits, but not to all employees, we must think of the "little people" who make up for 74% of the employee populi, not those rare $14.00 an hour folk (which is the income cap for experienced, senior members) get.
Thanks for the non-threatening and non-rude post, however, I guess I got too worked up over the last persons comments. I love a good intelligent discussion but sometimes get to involved personally! Happens some times!
I hope you are not implying that my post was rude and threatening.
As I said previously my Union Experience goes back to 1965. I also showed how rudely I was treated by the only nurse's union I ever belonged to which, after taking a lot of my money, helped me to get fired.
Jay Jay:kiss [/b]
So sorry! Nope, wasn't meant towards your posts at all, Jay Jay. Just the one that attacked me and made assumptions about me. I'm over it now, as I researched some of her posts and found that they are all in these types of threads with very few positive things to say. I tend to take things personally but I now realize it's not me.
I do enjoy reading all of these opinions no matter what my own personal thoughts are ... it's good to hear more than just one side of any story!
Thanks, xoe, for levelling the idea that grocery workers are making a killing compared to nurses. And for the info of sc RN who I offended, I live in Texas but just moved back. The last position I had was in California.
If I offended you in response, it's because this comment by you I found to be offensive. Why on earth would you have a problem with health insurance being fully covered? I have a problem with it being acceptable for corporations to not cover people working for them fully, or even at all (which is NOW becoming the case more and more). You ought not to want corporations to go backwards on this issue. But sorry to offend if I came off as too abrasive in making my point.
Your comment, sc rn....
"Striking because your employer is asking you to pay a SMALL PORTION of your health insurance is what I have a problem with."
NurseHardee
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Post #70
xoe
I know many people that work at Krogers, including head quarters and the supermarket. Many of Kroger employees make only minimum wage, I know of no nurses that make that little. The only people that make a "ton" of money at krogers are those that have been in the company for ages. For example, Kim, a person who supervises the Pharmacy crew (who dispenses medicine) who has been in Krogers since 1989, makes ........drum roll please, $13 an hour. For a supervisory position that is not much!
NurseHardee
71 Posts
In all fields I have ever worked in, the pay and conditions were better in about 4 out of 5 places wqhen they had a union. That's not bad odds. So even with all the problems that come about in struggles to get a decent union, without one, you got nada.