mobileRN

SEIU can't 'call a strike'. Only the members in that chapter can make that decision. I have been an SEIU member for about 15 years and they have been a great help to us. I have never regreted our desision to affiliate with SEIU. As far as I can tell from this website there is no perfect union just as there is no perfect anything in life. Overall I think nuses in a union have a more power to affect positive change for their patients and themselves. It is up to the nurses to decide which union can best help them. For me it has been SEIU.

My union contract gives RNs with 25 years bargaining senority every weekend off, or the nurse gets paid time and one-half. The majority of these nurses are off. The shifts are covered by nurses working the weekender program so the unit is not short staffed. Nephro BSN how are your Sundays off covered?

Thanks spacenurse for posting #121 and adding some clarity to the story. I am still not sure CNA doesn't raid. I am in SEIU in Wi and we are getting mailings from CNA 2-3 times per year offering membership at rock bottom prices.

Ok this thread has gone in alot of directions but the start was abour unions, in this case the CNA raiding another union. Alot of CNA members have been to this thread, what do you think about it? As I said before I think unions should focus on organizing the unorganized insted of raiding.

Kevin I think I understand what you want from your posts, which is to not join a union or pay dues or gain anything from a contract. In the US anyone who works at a facility in a job covered by a contract is covered by that contract weather or not they personally join the union. They get all the pay raises and will be afforded other protections of the union should they need them. Unions by law cannot use dues for political lobbying, that is seperately raised money. There are states in US that are called 'right to work states' if you live in those states and you work in a facility with a contract you are still covered by the contract even if you don't join the union, but in these states if you don't join the union you do not pay dues. Wages , benifits and retirment benifits tend to be lower in these states. Visit some of these states on the state specific forums and check them out, some examples are Missisippi, North and South Carolina. I personally think that anyone getting the benifits of the contract should pay dues. Your wife can either find a job in a non-union facility or yes she will pay dues as California is not a 'right to work' state.

The question I have been most often asked is 'what are your goals?'

I'm really happy to see and work with young nurses. Yes it does take extra time and some patience but I look at it as an opportunity to help them become a good RN. Most of the ones I have worked with are enthusiastic and interested in learning.

Ok I'm not very good on the computer yet so I don't know how to include a part of a previous posting but in regards to posting # 46. A union is it's members and it sounds like your union needs some new blood. People need to get involved in their unions, no one is well served by stagnent leadership. People with poor work ethics are not just found in work places with unions they are everywhere. Unions work to ensure that people are treated equally, there needs to be a consistant manner for discipling people, folks should not be singled out, and the process should be the same for every employee.

Maybe she should stick around for awhile and find out the impact. Most likely it will become a better place to work. I don't understand why workers wanting input into pay and working conditions is considered 'radical'. Unions and thier predecesors trade guilds go back for hundreds of years.

Well as ticked off as I am at the CNA for raiding other RN unions,it pales mightly as to how angry California govenor Arnie Schwartzenager makes me! Arnie has got to go! How dare he try to get rid of the State Board Of Nursing !

This does not make sense to me. Employees either have to vote, or a majority sign a membership card[and then management must agree to recognize the union based on card signing which is rare] for a union to represent them. Management does not get to make the choice.

I wear Crocs, they are incrediably comfortable and as they are plastic [i know sounds weird] easy to clean

While the CNA has done a lot of great things in California I do not agree with their method of growth by getting members from nurses who are already in a union. There are MANY nurses in the US who want to be in a union and would LOVE to have help organizing. It is expensive and hard work to organize a union where there is none. I am angry with the CNA for focusing all their growth efforts on raiding existing unions. I don't think this will help grow the number of organized nurses and that is what needs to happen.

Sorry, did not realize I was in a state specific forum. From the pay I'm seeing posted here you would probably all do better if you formed a union.

I'm in Wisconsin and work in a unionized hospital so the pay scale is in our contract. New grads start at $25.95.