What is wrong with unionizing?

Nurses Activism

Published

All,

It would seem that a union,with its power of cohesiveness to the issues,would be the only thing that a corporation would HAVE to listen to. The contract would HAVE to be honored.

Forming commities and filling complaints is NEVER going to have the impact that a national union would. The idea of having a national walk-out will only serve to get your license taken away and have you out of a job for the rest of your life BUT if there was a union sanction behind it with guidelines to be followed it would be in a signed document called a contract and you would have just cause for failure of performance of that contract.

Without a legal document, why should they treat us well. They have it just the way they want it. Any action that's not in a legal document THAT HAS POWER is just a smokescreen to keep it the way they want.

It just seems so logical to me.

I have no experience of having been in a union so maybe if someone could tell me...........

WHY NOT.

Specializes in Vents, Telemetry, Home Care, Home infusion.
I have never heard of any facility where only the RNs were unionized & the rest of the employees were not.

JT, that may be true of NY, but not the rest of the country. My local hospital, Fitzgerald Mercy, flagship hospital of health system was organized by PSNAP about 6 years ago after several changes in administration that ignored staffing and safety issues--only union at the facility. I think PASNAP has two other hospitals: Notheastern and Butler Memorial that nurses are the only union inplace. (Someone correct me if wrong).

Other sevice employees attempted organization with 1199C and reported hardball tatics used with not enough yes votes (unfair labor charges logged with labor board, hospital letter sent wont happen again-administrator canned less than 1 yr later). The administration has changed two or three times since and appears to have stabilized as a new CEO taken over two years ago that appears to be listening.

Hard feelings don't change overnight and is happening with hospitals all over, area demographics have changed--mostly working class neighborhood, HIGH Medicare and manage care population. Upper class moved further away (able to pay cash for luxary care/surgery), shringing reimbursement with 2 million uncompensated free care provided. Closed pediatrics (4 peds hospitals in 30 min drive) and just closed Maternity at sister hospital 2 days ago. Their maternity clinic changed to private status( due to skyrocketing malpractice) and change in docs--15 have left for other states. So many changes to deal with... union helping, they feel, to maintain bottomline safe practice and patient care.

I am in favour of being in a union see previous comment -

however l acknowledge that l beleive we have a good system that works - l use the word strongly there - WORKS for nurses -

Interestingly this week the 'news' is discussing a claim amongst another union within our country - l cannot post the link(havnt figured out how to do this)

A claim has gone to the courts that anyone who is not in this specific union will then have to pay a fee to the union if that union then wins a payrise for its workers. (this will probably flow onto the other uniosn within our country)

what l am tryng to say here is that is you are not a union member you will have to pay a fee if the union negoiates a payrise or better condtions etc if you are NOT a member

To me this is really important as too many people can ride on other peoples backs getting the benifts withour paying the fees.

hope this makes sense- l am not sure if this helpsinthe discussion or just throws in a red herring

Posibly a modeerator will know how to post this information if they feel it is relevant

Tookie

l have just tried to reread this - l am sorry about the typing of the mistakes - l need to figure out he spelling( have tried bbut always seem to lose my posts) and also how to link into nwspaper articles etc. - again sorry Brian maybe it moght be useful to have section on how to access the basics in your loists of options

tookie

At my facility we have a strong union that includes RNs, PT/OT, and RTs. The ancillary staff have a separate union. We almost striked last June (put the strike vote in and scabs were brought in a week prior to the date-part of the old hospital was set up like a hotel!!!). This facility 3yrs. ago took back pay, holidays, sicktime,etc. so as "not to close down". This contract they wanted more; however, they were able to open a new open heart center within those 3 yrs.!!! Our union worked for us and claimed some of what we gave back!!I totally believe unions are there for the good of the employee. Another example, where a friend of mine worked at another small, non-unionized hospital and a union was formed, which she felt she was betraying the hopital if she joined. She was one of 12 that did not join. They were also told by the hospital that they would be heavily compensated if they did not join. She lost a lot!! Her wage went down while others went up and much more. She felt hurt by the administration and let down.

Its a service fee since whatever the union members win with their hard work in fighting for better wages, conditions, etc will be in a contract that covers all the nurses who work there - whether they are union members or not - they will still reap the benefit of the efforts of the union members. You dont have to be a member but youre going to be working under that contract anyway & enjoying its benefits, so you have to pay a service fee to the union for obtaining & maintaining it.

The service fee which is usually just about the same amount as the members dues. Youll be paying to be covered by the contract but if you arent a member, you have no say in what goes into the contract & no vote on it. What if you dont like the contract? Well, you gave up your right to have anything to say about that when you didnt become a member - but you'll still have to pay the service fee for it.

I dont understand people who would rather pay the service fee as non-members than join, be members, pay about the same AND have a say on & a vote in what the contract that they have to live under will be.

anbody hear that JCAHO suddenly has new staffing standards that they are going to be assessing the hospitals for? If you did, do you think JCAHO came up with that all by itself in its infinite wisdom?? Not a chance.

Last year, my union, the national RN labor union - The United American Nurses of the American Nurses Assoc - passed a resolution to "educate its members and the public about the structure of JCAHO and the role JCAHO plays in setting patient care and workplace standards", and "to bring pressure to bear on JCAHO to expeditiously and aggressively fulfill its oversight responsibilities to improve the patient care and workplace environment, especially in regard to the threats posed by unsafe and inadequate staffing"

It then went into meetings with JCAHO to do exactly that. After all of that & more meetings with nurses throughout the year discussing the issue, this year JCAHO has implemented the staffing standards.

No surprise to us. It was a goal set by our union. Now -- accountability.

when i worked in TX and had never heard of a union i took whatever i was offered and figured it was this way everywhere. no insurance, one week vacation, no retirement, no job protection etc. now since moving to nv--a right to work state-- and having worked with union protection and benefits for almost 12 yrs i would never want to be without it. i have alot of good benefits, retirement, and they cannot punish or fire me without reason. our union is for all employees including rn, lpn, cnas, housekeeping, ancillary, resp., therapists, dietary, techs, transporters, ....well, you get the idea. :cool:

Is that SEIU?

Or something else.

yes peeps. seui local 11.

I'm glad your local is looking out for the nurses.

Would you shed some light, if you care to, about the SEIU's apparent interference with the nurse patient ratio bill in California.

From our perspective, it would appear as if the SEIU is undermining it to get representation for its "other" members.

I don't want to put you on the spot over this. I certainly don't want to argue it, but that is the way it was percieved by me and I hope that is not a trend.

I realize your in Nevada but you may know why they seem to have done that and the real reasons behind it. I just wanted firsthand knowledge instead of hearsay.

I want to state very clearly that this is not a forum with which to attack your union's apparent policy, your affiliation or you personaly.

Just information from someone other than a talking head at the union's PR dept or someone who read an article that was derogatory. It may shed a little light on the truth.

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