So I'm facing an issue at this hospital I'm working at in Long Beach. I signed a contract for 13 weeks, 48 hours a week with Fastaff and have been here about 8 weeks. Apparently they have been in negotiations with their union for months now trying to get better pay, more benefits etc for their nurses but it isn't going well. The hospital is playing hardball and the union is proposing an imminent strike. There is one last day they will negotiate and then they will strike if an agreement is not made.
My first issue is the fact that the hospital suddenly started pulling in tons of travel nurses in the past 6-8 weeks when staff says previously they almost never used any travelers. So why suddenly start using all of us now? Because they were preparing for the probability of a strike of course. So my problem is that all of us regular travel nurses are here under false pretenses and the staff is asking us questions about if we'll cross the picket line and are we going to be scabs? Charge nurses have even made remarks about giving us terrible assignments if we cross the line, etc.
I've never worked a strike and never really wanted to. When I called my agent she was very elusive about what my rights would be if they went on strike during my contract. She wouldn't clearly state if I would be allowed to not work that week, or would I be penalized? Would they withhold my pay and housing stipend that week? That's a significant amount of money I would be out of pocket when I have no horse in this race so to speak.
My agent did say something about me being welcomed to cross the line and they would even raise the pay (slightly) to compensate a little. I can't imagine the S**t storm I'd be dealing with on this 39 bed super critical ICU when I would suddenly become one of the most senior nurses there. They even said I would probably be the charge nurse!
Anybody been in this situation before or have any relevant insight to my situation?
I was a ICU Travel Nurse. Your opening sentence says it all and you should just honor it. Why? You are working as a travel nurse under contract with your agency and in turn the hospital.
Screw that. LBMMC recently had a EMR conversion right? The hospital should had been upfront about things and they were not. It is not as if the contract issue between the Union nurses and Hospital happened within the last two months. These things take many many months of negotiations. Hospital knew things had soured and used the EMR conversion as a coverup to the real back story.
Since you have strong feelings about the messiness that is occurring I would say follow your gut and bow out. CRNA school is around the corner, be stress and worry free.
Screw that. LBMMC recently had a EMR conversion right? The hospital should had been upfront about things and they were not. It is not as if the contract issue between the Union nurses and Hospital happened within the last two months. These things take many many months of negotiations. Hospital knew things had soured and used the EMR conversion as a coverup to the real back story.
Since you have strong feelings about the messiness that is occurring I would say follow your gut and bow out.
I agree with this, if the agency doesnt like it then get a new one. There are hundreds out there.
Nurses need to put the brakes on these travel companies. They need US, WE DO NOT NEED THEM. Without US, there is NO Agency. Without Agency, There is still US. I can tell you a 5 Hospitals in Dallas that offer direct contracts. They also provide shift diff for nights, eves, and weekends and a higher rate than the agency due to No middleman.
I feel for the OP, hard to be asked to go against your conscience. The hospital is assumed to be the fraudulent party here, but maybe we should look at this in broad spectrum light. What option did the hospital have? Maintain poor staffing ratios with already disgruntled workers for an indefinite period until negotiations were fruitful; hire strike specific nurses at higher rate indefinitely with the strong personalities of the nurses that choose that calling (not necessarily a negative thing). You are assuming, too, that your agency was clueless on this matter, the MC may have made them aware, but chose to remain quiet to get the contracts. Then, at the real end of this mess is the patients. Census should be near their lowest as people would not want to go to a hospital in that condition, in fact, I would have steered clear of this place since I found out the nurses were dissatisfied, I doubt customer service is even on the radar. This is the real victim, the patients who you contracted to help. This is a possibility in any union controlled environment and should always be in the realm of possibility for any contract or agency nurse. Good luck on your outcome in this mess.
It's like I feared I only have the choice to work the strike, which they did quote some higher pay but not very impressive, or not work it but be out of work for the week costing me at least a few thousand dollars.
I feel your pain, but I'd point out that if you take your attitude to its logical conclusion, you would never take any time off! I tend to think that way personally and it is not so healthy.
So unless you are actively penalized for not crossing the picket line (from what I read, is it only a one day strike anyway?), do what you like. Bike or skate one of the beach bike paths, catch up on vitamin D, visit the Queen Mary or Disneyland. Or whatever. Even work the strike to see what it is like.
Maybe I'll pull out my rollerblades from 1993, drink kale smoothies, try tantric yoga and blend in with the locals at Venice Beach for the week. So many options for those 7 days.
Nah, if I don't work the strike I'll just play a ton of Xbox, marathon watch all the Star Wars on blu-ray and eat lots of frozen pizza.
My perspective has shifted and now I think this is the best thing that could have ever happened. Strike, Strike, Strike!
Nothing wrong with working a strike as a traveler. A couple of agencies started calling for applications for this assignment long ago in many professions and not just nursing or healthcare. Many other union companies depend on this strike for some extra income. The PD will put on OT officers. Union private security extras hired. Extra hotel staff added. Limo and bus drivers added. All are union. It is not necessarily the hospital playing hardball but both parties have an interest in the "business of strikes". After I learned about how a strike was actually orchestrated, I have never felt guilty about working through a strike. It is a win for many people.
Sure, the hospital has invested in strike insurance and wants to see a payoff by playing hardball. Ultimately though, they are paying the full cost of the strike. Interesting proposition that we should be paying for this "economic stimulus" with higher healthcare costs and poorer patient outcomes.
Yes, the current tactics of 1 to 5 day strikes and a lockout period seem a bit silly, and indeed are fairly harmless to work, but they have come about because enough nurses are willing to work strikes. Thus the union tries to exert a bit of financial pain on the hospital to try to get them to budge on negotiation. If no one could be found to work strikes, guess what? There would be no need for strikes because the hospital will always negotiate instead.
Sure the business of strikes is indeed interesting, but I don't see how anything you said suggests that travelers should work them without pay commensurate with the working conditions, or to shift their perspective on the morality of working strikes.
Wolf at the Door, BSN
1,045 Posts
Screw that. LBMMC recently had a EMR conversion right? The hospital should had been upfront about things and they were not. It is not as if the contract issue between the Union nurses and Hospital happened within the last two months. These things take many many months of negotiations. Hospital knew things had soured and used the EMR conversion as a coverup to the real back story.
Since you have strong feelings about the messiness that is occurring I would say follow your gut and bow out. CRNA school is around the corner, be stress and worry free.