U.S.A. Washington
Published Jul 23, 2007
RN130
31 Posts
Providence St peter Hospital Nurses will be picketing the Hospital from 6 am to 8 pm on JULY 30th. Come Join Us to show support. All you nurses at Mason, Capital and Centralia know that your contract will follow as our has. And look out up north if we let the DWT get any take aways....
Solidarity Works.
blaaveispiken
74 Posts
Just curious what happened yesterday. Any new results? I used to work at St. Peter Hospital -- a very bad experience for me.
Hi. We had lot's of fun. We Were in negotiations the whole day (till 2300). I have to say management seemd to be playing a very lawyer centered hard ball game and basically refusing to negotiate. delay delay and not interested--. Very sad, i really got a sense of the true depth of how little respect they have for their RN staff.
This does bring nurses together tho--we know we have to take care of ourselves and each other because management is not on your side.
lindarn
1,982 Posts
Hi. We had lot's of fun. We Were in negotiations the whole day (till 2300). I have to say management seemd to be playing a very lawyer centered hard ball game and basically refusing to negotiate. delay delay and not interested--. Very sad, i really got a sense of the true depth of how little respect they have for their RN staff.This does bring nurses together tho--we know we have to take care of ourselves and each other because management is not on your side.
What union are you folks organized with? Have you cosidered changing unions, like to the NNOC? They have had good luck in Illinois, and I think that the time is right for a change in the union atmosphere here. Not enough militancy, but too much complacency.
You can petition to bring in another union if you are between contracts. This sounds like a good time to do it.
Lindarn, RN, BSN, CCRN
Spokane, Washington
Not really interested in switching Unions. One of the strongest things we have going is that this Union knows Prov from way back and does not back down.
Who are you unionized with? Just curious.
Spokane, WA
ScienceRN
2 Posts
I disagree with RN130. I have worked at PSPH for 20 years. I believe that we do need a new union. What we have has dragged out negotiations for nearly 10 months and has kept staff nurses virtually in the dark about what is happening. To get a better feel of what staff feels about the hospital, check out the website created by one of the longtime nurses working at the hospital (or her husband) http://stpeterhospital.net/ The union is asking us to take strike vote on Sunday, yet the information given to us has been abysmal. I personally believe that the president of the union may be getting kickbacks from the hospital...it's the only thing that makes sense.The union is United Staff Nurses Union, UFCW local 141. it's website is http://www.ufcw141nurses.org
I will ask again. Is it time to perhaps bring in the NNOC into Washington State? The unions here, as we say in Brooklyn, are about as useful as tits on a bull.
I don't work in a hospital here, but I used to work at Sacred Heart. The nurses there are just plain all disgusted.They just negotiated a contract about 1 1/2 years ago, and it was just plain awful. All there is are take aways, and more and more work.
If you folks are interested, I can talk to my old friends, and see if we can get something going over here. It is high time the worthless unions of Washington State were given the boot. We can give them a double whammy. Lets all unionize under the NNOC, and then all go on strike at the same time.
I can just see administration getting their panties all in a wad over it!
JMHO, and my NY $0.02.
I would love to see them come into this area. We need a change. However, apathy toward unions from nurses is rampant. Far less than even half the nurses particicpate in a strike vote. And this is with nurses that are frustrated with the employer. I don't know how to change that. I do know that the learder of USNU needs to change....but again, she has ran unopposed since the beginning of the union in 1989, and feels so comfortable in the position, that she is clueless to nurses needs at the hospital level.