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.

We get $2.75 per hour except for Holidays when it's $4.00 per hour. Minimum of 2 hours pay when called in. Depending on the type of call [we have 9 catagories in our contract] some get time and 1/2 for the first 2 hours, some for all hours. All of us continue to get paid the call pay once working, plus shift diffs etc. Wisconsin also.

Vitals if they are abnormal otherwise I say VSS, then I use a systems approach I always say level of orientation and mobility and then any highlights by system,. Labs highlight the abnormal ones, and what if anything was done to correct that, note what what ones were normal CBC etc so the next RN knows I looked at them. I&O I note if it's close or not. Last pain med given. If in ICU what drips at what rate, same for heparin etc on the units. Progress on DC plans any emotional/family/spiritual issues that came up. Status of IV site and cental lines.

Redesign and design committees with staff RN members are in our contract and timelines as to when we are involved. It has helped in having our voices heard at the right time.

I work at Meriter. UW and Meriter are unionized and are better places to work than St Mary's, St Mary's doesn't want you unless you are willing to sign up for call {I think it's] a shift a payperiod. UW separates their ICU's and Meriter has just one. Both have low turnover but it does happen so keep checking their websites. Meriter rarely uses agency, I don't know about the UW so the agency route might only let you see the outlying hospitals. Good Luck!

The Institute of Medice published a report in 04 or 05 called Keeping Patients Safe Transforming the Work Enviroment of Nurses. This is an AWESOME report that makes alot of sense. Your management must have access to it, there is a whole section on how nursing units should and should not be designed. They call the linear units the race tracks because nurses then spent so much time racing around to get and do things. If you can get even the section you need of this report it will save alot of time and effort....why reinvent the wheel?

.I agree! And are you getting paid to attend this meeting ?

Yes but it has been awhile, I once got punched in the stomach while I had a patient in the shower. Amazingly he was my patient again about 15 years later and he REMEMBERED the incident and APOLOGIZED for it. WOW. I have come close to being hit more times that I can remember, had too many killer grips to my hands than I can count.

Lab draws everything on the general units and ICUs except central lines, PICs etc even then they bring the right tube up to us. In ES lab is only available from 6PM till midnight or so,the RNs do all the other draws.

We have a paid time off system in our contract [the time is for vacations and sick time] the numbers I give will be for full-time folk and below that it is prorated by how much you work [note, not your FTE but how much you work] 0-2 years 24 days/year, 2-4 years 26 days/ year and so on the max is 36 days at 14 years and above. We start scheduling vacations [blocks of time off] in February by senority, we have a max number of FTE that can be off at any point so if there is time left with vacations folks can take single vacation days in the summer. In regards to the pension where I work folks need to work 1000 hours in a year to qualify for the pension and at half time that means you can only be off 5/shifts or 2 weeks /year unless you pick up extra.

Simple basic care is also related to STAFFING. You can't do baths when you have an unsafe number of patients and that is one of the links to higher infection and mortality rates. No oral care for vented patients is linked to pnuemonia and so on. We have to make the link on staffing to administraors and to the public, we need to unite over this, it is not fluff it's vital.