Nurses and the Presidential Election 2004

[-jt]

Presidential Election 2004

The national labor union for RNs, the United American Nurses,AFL-CIO (UAN) asked all candidates for the 2004 presidential election to give their responses on how they would address the issues important to staff nurses, from unsafe staffing to workplace safety to the right to join a union. To read the full responses of those candidates who did respond, click on the links at:

http://www.UANnurse.org/responses.htm

President George W. Bush ® - No response provided.

Carol Mosley Braun (D) - No response provided.

Rev. Al Sharpton - No response provided.

Responses are in MS Word format:

Sen. John Edwards (D)

Rep. Richard Gephardt (D)

Sen. John F. Kerry (D)

Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich (D)

Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D)

Gen. Wesley K. Clark (D)

Gov. Howard Dean (D) - response is in PDF format and can be viewed with Adobe Acrobat.

http://www.UANnurse.org

[roxannekkb]

Originally posted by -jt

Unionized nurses can and do ---- because they cant be fired for it. But the majority of nurses in this country are not unionized and have no such protections from heavy-handed retaliation by employers. I dont think its so much a martyr syndrome affecting those other nurses (although there is that problem in nursing). But its more that they have the fact that they can be fired at will hanging over their heads. And they would rather quit than be fired and have a termination sitting on their work record, following them around their entire career, having to be explained with each new job application.

Well it has to start somewhere. I only worked in a unionized hospital (per diem) for about a year or so, right at the end of my bedside nursing career. Interesting that most of the nurses never went to meetings, didn't really care about much except their seniority, and didn't protest against things the union was supposed to protect them against. And it was a strong union, the California nurses association. They just complained a lot, but didn't draw on their union to help some of the issues.

Other groups have unionized and organized, and often at the risk of death, ie, the early unions who organized at the beginning of the 20th century. They were shot at, threatened, locked out of jobs--but yet they felt they had no choice. Continue to be at the employer's mercy and be abused, or fight back. So if nurses just keep coming up with excuses why they can't stand up for themselves, or that they don't "believe in" unions, or that striking is immoral, or any one of millions of excuses--well, there really is not much hope. No one is going to save nursing except nurses. Prince charming isn't going to come and awaken sleeping beauty,and then everyone will live happily ever after.

The outcome will be that we will be flooded with foreign nurses, who really won't speak up. For each foreign nurse who arrives on a contract, that's one step backwards for American nurses, one step backwards for hospitals to have any incentive in making changes.

[pickledpepperRN]

Originally posted by roxannekkb

Well it has to start somewhere. I only worked in a unionized hospital (per diem) for about a year or so, right at the end of my bedside nursing career. Interesting that most of the nurses never went to meetings, didn't really care about much except their seniority, and didn't protest against things the union was supposed to protect them against. And it was a strong union, the California nurses association. They just complained a lot, but didn't draw on their union to help some of the issues.

You said it!

I work on a unit of ICU/CCU nurses who are united and strong.

Other units where the majority are as you described put up with short staffing, no breaks, and the patients suffer from nurses who "Do the best they can" under the circumstances.

Through registry i have been priviledged to work with nurses at recently organised hospitals. They rally struggle for benefits for patients and nurses!

My heros. I stay because of friendships and seniority.

A union is only as strong as its members.

We as nurses are doing great things. With more active we can do so much more. Non members supported and were crucial to the passage of the ratio law. It will require most of us, not just CNA members insisting the law be followed to help our patients and our profession.