Mass resignation

This idea gets kicked around on a regular basis. But it has never come to pass in the nursing profession in Canada that I know of. It sounds good in principle, but the problem is the same as with every other type of collective activity... getting enough people to go along with it. The fear factor is just too high to really allow people to follow through. People are too afraid of the unknown consequences; collective job action is a very bold and difficult move with sometimes dire results. The big fear with this is that the employer will refuse to be called out and the people will then be unemployed without a safety net. Too many people are drawn to the line of least resistance. One only has to look at the situation in Alberta right now to see that.

Pebbles, it WAS talked about (but of course not acted upon!) in Manitoba back in late 2001 and 2002, the last time the MNU took a strike vote. I still have the paperwork from our unit about essential service staffing, including the unit schedule which bore no relation to the normal one. I kept it to remind me how far from reality the administration is. Under the Essential Services Act our PICU would have been better staffed than it ever was under normal circumstances. We were almost interested in striking just for the decreased workload!

Some employers do recognize patterns of seemingly unrelated resignations and take action to figure out what's going on. The roots are exposed and the administration takes the necessary action, like escorting the manager out of the building. My current unit has been hemorrhaging staff for the last 15 months; the resignations have encompassed every experience level from brand new grad to people with 30 years of seniority. Lately it has been mainly the middle group and the workhorses who have been leaving. In May 10 people left. Our management (top-heavy let me tell you!) insists that people aren't leaving because they're dissatisfied with their working conditions but for "new opportunities". Some of the people leaving have insisted on an exit interview (our patient care manager told one nurse that it wasn't necessary or appropriate for her to have one, so she went to HR and got one... You can imagine what she had to say...) so it isn't as if human resources isn't aware of the issues. So far nothing has come of it and I doubt there will be anything done for the foreseeable future because our PCM just was presented with a leadership award from our regional health authority! How would that look? That's all that matters. Meanwhile a good number of us are biding our time, looking for "other opportunities". One day recently when I had three different assignments in three hours, I told the manager on duty very clearly that the next time I had three assignments in the same shift I would be leaving and not returning. Her face went white and she took a step back, then said she didn't want me to resign. She knows I'm the main breadwinner in my family and she knew very well that for me to threaten something like that was no joke. So far I haven't had any more stupid assignment changes, but there are others who are still being jerked around. Time for someone to sit up and take notice, I think!