Nursing Unions-what is the good,bad, ugly?

Nurses General Nursing

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anyone in a nursing union w/in your facility? what is the good, bad, ugly?

It is more then just preventing the company from going bankrupt. One thing that people fail to realize and recognize, is the failure of the companies to adequately put aside the funding for their pensions. Instead they use them to pay for company growth and other things, totally different from their intended purpose. Does the company ENRON mean anything to anyone?

Grannynurse:balloons:

If you want to bring up "Criminals" we can talk about Jimmy Hoffa, Every Mafia Family in the US has had its hands in the unions, AFL-CIO and Teamsters aren't the poster children for the BoyScouts. Yes Enron failed due to criminal acts by greedy executives, but to use that to justify unions-please?

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If you want to bring up "Criminals" we can talk about Jimmy Hoffa, Every Mafia Family in the US has had its hands in the unions, AFL-CIO and Teamsters aren't the poster children for the BoyScouts. Yes Enron failed due to criminal acts by greedy executives, but to use that to justify unions-please?

And you are talking about my generation, not todays. Yes, there are bad union leaders. And yes they have robbed their members. But please name me one nursing 'union' that is guilty of such behavior, just one.

Grannynurse:balloons:

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And you are talking about my generation, not todays. Yes, there are bad union leaders. And yes they have robbed their members. But please name me one nursing 'union' that is guilty of such behavior, just one.

Grannynurse:balloons:

Give them time.. Rome wasn't built over night.

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I'm a little confused. I have only lived in Virginia and NC. (both right to work states). But what exactly is a right to work state- ie does that mean a union couldn't form here? I have no experience with nursing unions, but UAW has been really great for my family. Mom makes as much as I do as a nurse- and she screws bolts into an engine all day, gets every holiday off, 100% paid healthcare, etc. Our staffing has gotten really bad lately at the hospital I work for. Another nurse saw me outside of work today- and we talked in hushed voices about what a nursing union is and what it does- I think if anyone at the hospital heard me say the word 'union', I'd be fired. But then I think- do we have it that bad? According to my interim DON- I spoke with her about the staff's disappointment that we got MAGNET and yet staffing has gotten much worse since then.. anyway, according to her third party papers, we are paid about what all the other hospitals pay for 100 miles. We have retirement benefits. I've never known anyone to be fired, unless it was a privacy issue. But med surg is so stressful, and they expect us to 'find a way' to make 7-8 pts on day shift work. Management has pep rallys ' our census is up and our costs are down!' but the costs are down because nurses have left in droves. They are happy they are making more money (non profit?!) but they don't REALLY seem to care what that is doing to us nurses. Our RN turnover rate is 33% and CNA is over 50%. Am I over-reacting?

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Salary.com showed an average cost of living from Alabama to California to require nearly an 85% differnce in pay- which there is not. Conclusion, the Standard of Living (in California) with union representation is less than (in Alabama) without union representation.

If you're talking about this salary.com cost of living calculator ... alot of it depends on which towns you are comparing ... both in Alabama and California ...

http://swz.salary.com/CostOfLivingWizard/layoutscripts/coll_start.asp

If you compare ... let's say ... Mobile to San Francisco then, you are probably looking at a 95 percent difference.

But if you compare Mobile to San Bernardino, which is closer to the area where I live and work ... you're only looking at a 14 percent cost of living difference.

Seems to me that it all depends on which towns you are comparing and the base salary you're putting into the calculator.

I only paid $150,000 for my California house two years ago so ... I seriously doubt my cost of living is that much higher than if I was living in Alabama. As this calculator demonstrates ... not everybody in California pays or has paid $500,000 or more for a house.

:typing

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Alabama had an average wage of $35,00 to $68,500 depending on area and length of experience.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics says Alabama RN's had an average wage of $37,500 in November, 2004.

http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_al.htm#b29-0000

California RN's had an average wage of $69,000 a year.

http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_ca.htm#b29-0000

So ... California RN's are making, on average, $31,500 a year more than Alabama RN's.

From what I can tell, salary.com only lists wages by town, and it doesn't include every city in the state. Bureau of Labor Statistics' data covers the entire state. I also think the federal government's data is more accurate since, income is reported to them by all employers for tax purposes.

:typing

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Specializes in Home health, Med/Surg.

I used to work at a non-union hospital in LA for over 2 years in med/surg. I just moved to the Bay Area in November and I have my first union job in San Mateo County. I am making double the hourly rate that I made in Glendale CA. My night shift differential is 15 %. I get 2 hours of penalty pay if I miss my meal break, yes they do pay it every time I ask. I almost always leave on time. No mandatory overtimes, good staffing, good cooperation among staff. Great overtime pay too. I worked two voluntary double shifts in one pay period and was stunned by my paycheck.

My only annoyance so far has been the seniority thing. I can't get a day shift because I have no seniority. I am better on days, I like it busy!

There are nurses working here who should be fired but are not because of the union protection. Some nurses call in sick once a week, show up 20 minutes late to work and just go through the motions of their job and are still protected by seniority and the union. Part of the problem is our too too nice nurse manager. She could fire these nurses if she started a paper trail and documented the problems. But for the most part the nurses here are very professional and really care about their patients.

And for the record my apartment in the bay area costs the same as the one in LA (1000 a month). I live 10 minutes from work and it is a very nice neighborhood. If you just rent there is no problem with housing here. There are empty apartment on every block now that the high tech firms have lost so many jobs.

I like being a union nurse so far...but who knows what my opinion will be after a few years.

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anyone in a nursing union w/in your facility? what is the good, bad, ugly?

Since 1965 I have worked in 3 different professions/occupations, Union and Nonunion and all things being Equal I would choose Union over Nonunion in a heartbeat! I worked at General Electric(union)in 1965 and the Benefits were great plus due to the Union Contract, they protected my Job(seniority) as a Veteran in VietNam. A NonUnion shop would have put a Vet to the Street! Thanks to the Union, I had a Job when I returned home as Vet in 1969. I worked Heavy Construction as a Union Cement Mason in the 70s and again, good benefits and pay over non union construction work, not to mention the Safety Issues. I have observed many inequities as a Nurse in Florida, a right to work state. Unions in Miami have organized the Docs and Nurses at Jackson Memorial and they appreciate the Union Representation and Protection they have now. Safety Issues,staffing, Seniority,Floating ect were just some of the Issues the Union has rectified at this huge facility. They, the Nurses say, they would never go back to how it was before when NO union existed in their workplace. Unions are not perfect nor are they without fault, but compared to how Nurses were treated before(no respect) it is 99.9% better. Nureses will be much better off under Union Representation on Safety, staffing, floating ect. We also just Organized Pan American Hospital in Miami after a long protracted battle but the Federal Court Awarded the Union and its workers at this Facility Victory a few months back. Now we are working on several Nursing homes in the Miami area and if any facility ever needed Unionizing, our Nursing Homes are it! Talk about Lousy unsafe and inhumane Staffing Ratios and employee abuse! All found in Spades at these Nursing Homes! These complaints by Nurses continue and continue and will do so until a Union comes. Many who say a Union is not needed in Nursing probably have only worked in Nursing and have no basis for comparison in making their statements. Try working both sides of the fence for 30+ working years in and out of Nursing and you may have a different opinion. Until Nurses speak up in/with an Organized voice, conditions never will improve. Hospitals will try to resolve the problem by outsourcing and hiring more foreign nurses to alleviate the shortage. There is always going to be a Shortage as long as these problems presist. These Hospitals will continue to chew up new Graduates year after year, saying they will improve staffing to pt ratios, resolve the Floating and mandatory OT issue ect ect , blah blah blah and this has been the same old same old for the last 30 years and nothing ever changes until Nurses organize and speak in one cohesive voice then change occurs.

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I've worked in unionized hospitals and I've worked in non unionized hospitals and even a bad union with hostile shop stewards and wimpy negotiators are better than no union.

They stop a lot of hospital dirty dealing before it starts, like firing experienced nurses on trumped up excuses because a batch of new grads is cheaper. They negotiate the best deals you're going to find on salary and benefits. And they're there for you if you think you're being treated unfairly.

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i think it depends on so many factors my psycological spiritual social status but usualy the good thing is i meet so many persons feel the same feelings i do in the same sitaution the bad thing is that when the serounding circumistancses do not apreaciat what we do as nurses the ugly thing is that we some times forgets our own selfes in career then discover that we lost so many nice thing we couldnot do because of our assigments

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California had an average wage of $48,500 to $107,500 depending on the area and length of experience.

Nursing pay at my hospital STARTS at 70K! And you've got to be crazy if you think it costs 85% more to live in california. I'm willing to bet my electric bill is LOWER than yours. I know I pay less for it now than I did 20 years ago in TX. Food bills are also equal or less in CA. Half the food comes from CA afterall. A few pennies more for gas but not 85% more. I pay 800 monthly rent for a 3 bedroom flat in a nice neighborhood. Though this is low by CA average, good deals can be found. Sure houses are expensive but the nurses in my unit that own are making a fortune in equity. Being from the south, I know a lot of southerners would never enjoy CA living but don't fool yourself into thinking our quality of living is suffering from high cost.

in my hospital new grad nurses get paid $37/hr (days) or $43 (nights).. after 6 months it becomes $39 ($45). that would change this march because we (all nurses) will have another 3% pay raise thanks to CNA. not everyone here in the bay area chooses to buy a house. buying a house in this area takes courage (imagine paying the high mortgage, usually more than $2000 monthly just for a 1 bed condo). BUT consider that if you get an equity of even just $60,000 in one year, there's no way you could save $60,000 in one yr just out of your own pocket. no f way! (btw, my mom's house in houston texas never made that amount of equity in 6 YEARS. it only appreciated about $30,000 to $40,000 in 6 LONG YRS, check out zillow.com! and she bought it new)

this is just my opinion.. i would never exchange beaches, snow, mountains, fine weather, accessible national parks, beautiful sceneries, thriving culture .. over flat lands, high humidity, smog, lack of natural attractions even if it means cheaper cost of living.. (i would have liked austin if it wasnt for the weather. austin is actually nice. very diff from other texas cities)

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mostly good

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