adawg67

So- remind me again - what is my political and financial agenda? What post were you reading? What ties to community do travellers have? remind me again. Nothing against travellers. It's a great option for nurses, but we all have to sleep at night. If nurses who cross picket lines can still call themselves professionals and members of the nursing community I would have to question their motives. Most strikes are ULP strikes and most ULP's are non-economic. ULP strikes are closed ended. We are fighting to improve patient care and staffing. The boss has barely even talked about money with us so the $$$ isn't even the issue right now. Remind me again where you work and what improvements have you and your co-workers been able to make? How were they achieved and what legally binding language do you have to hold mgmt to their word and committment? Got nothing but love for ya!

I have to disagree with you. I worked for SEIU for 7 years and we always had the members involved every step of the way. I am now a nurse and a shop steward and on the bargaining team. We move with the members. If members don't get involved then they get what they get. The union is the members. There are exceptions to everything and there is never 100% perfection or ideal situations. Anyone can find SEIU or CNA or UHW shops that are not engaged in best union practices. In those cases the members need to get involved and create change. I look at it this way- I pay for my cell phone, all my utilities , etc because I need those services. Do I have a say in what my rates are? No. Do I get to choose what is offered to me? No. A union allows workers to have input and there is no other alternative. To the other posts- It's such propaganda that CNA was exclusively reason why ratios were passed in California. That is just a slap in the face to the SEIU members and non union RN's and LVN's, techs, phlebotomists, etc who worked hard to get ratios and safe needle laws changed. Total drivel. It's easy to take credit for something after that fact esp when most people don't:jester: have a clue how laws get changed or created and all the work that goes into it.

The fact that I new I would make over $100,000 a year my 1st year out of school gave me the motivation to figure out how to make it through at any cost. I actually got flunked out of Ob/Peds along with 3 other students and 2 of us fought back and won our spots back in the program and graduated with our class. It's boot camp for 2 years-at least at my school it was. Constant intimidation and humiliation for the most part intersperced with awesome teachers in between who made it all worth it. Sorry-make that $120,000 this year. How can you not do it. 2 years goes by so fast.

I used to work in Florida. It always baffles me why it has taken so long for nurses down there to organize GO SEIU!! They rocked at Miami Dade. Organizing is tough down there. Still lots of good ole boys and people who feel they deserve to live in shanty town conditions while putting their licenses at risk. Don't delay-organize. And why would you not want more money? C'mon. YOu work hard and save lives every day. Why is it nurses are so quick to say the don't want money? Who says that? doctors? No. housekeepers? No. Go after what you deserve or management will walk all over you and continue to drive healthcare down the toilet.

To Be A Scab Or Not Just think-it's your mother in the hospital and instead of the experienced nurse taking care of her it's a nurse manager who hasn't seen the inside if the Pyxis in years and she's about to give Lovenox to your sweet, but very ill mother. hhhmmmm...IS Lovenox given IM,SQ,IVP??? Well can't hurt to give it IVP right? Nurses strike to improve patient care. As a nurse, bargaining team member and former union organizer I can tell you the folks who crossed the picket lines the last time the nurses are my hospital struck are 95% going to strike this time, have quit or don't care that their co-workers think they are lower than the belly of a worm. If you are into nursing for the quick buck go abroad, get into another field. Why do you need money so badly? Is it??could it be?? that you aren't covered under a union contract now that guarantees you wage increases, benefits, employer paid health benefits, education reimbursement, etc??? Think carefully about crossing a picket line. Why would you call yourself a professional and yet not honor your peers and support them? Well I guess if you are travelling hobo RN with no community, no family, no ties to a peer group it may seem like no big deal. BUt it is. The hospital can always settle to avoid a strike. Anyone who works a strike to "save the patients" needs to get their head checked and look up the definition of the following: codependency, narcissism, egotistical. I'm sure one of these will fit.

Why are you as nurses allowing the boss to violate your contract? There are several worksite actions that nurses can do in addition to filing grievances? Who are your stewards? What are they doing? Your union dues are a tax write off by the way. Last time I checked we all need more tax writeoffs. Get involved and work on making things better. Be part of the solution, not the problem. I know you are a smart person who is resourceful enough to figure out ways to organize your co-workers into action against the boss. Throwing your union out is not the answer - making improvements and changes that will result in long term power for you and your coworkers is the answer. You are the union-nothing will change unless you change.

So who wins when unions fight? The Boss Who wins when 1 union unilateral declares themselves the "only" union for nurse? The BOSS Who wins when union members support their dues money (was there a vote on this) to wage campaigns with already organized workers? The BOSS What is the prize here? The BOSS gets stronger and new nurses are left in the cold as healthcare goes through drastic changes and mre and more nurses are without any union representation. Is there anything that we can say is the best? Not really. That's why we are a democracy. Do we all get junk mail sent to us without our permission? Yes-so stop whining about gettng mail or solicitation without your permission. Geez-it sounds so petty. We as nurses need to get back to the work of elevating our profession, empowering ourselves and the new nurses joining our ranks at a very fast pace and get out their and organize the hundreds of thousands of non-union nurses who are being forced by their employers into a race to the bottom of healthcare and have no way to stop it unless they join together as a union. We need to stop empowering the boss and get to the "getting to" of building union power.

1: All union contracts should be negotiated by an bargaining team elected by the membership. 2: Bargaining surveys need to be distributed to all members and tallied to get a feel for what the members want want to achieve in bargaining their next contract. 3: The members as a team should be bargaining with mgmt and then give feedback to nurses and so forth. There is a lot more that goes into a contract other than economics. Layoff language, education money, PTO, pension, just cause, union leave. 4: Get a copy of the union's bylaws and you should get a group of people together to protest the process 5: Most union bylaws should require the membership to ratify a contract. 6: one caveat - if the members are lazy bums, indifferent to their union, not participating, don't know how to participate, etc the union leadership may have been inclined to take what mgmt offered, but that still does not justify circumventing democracy and process rules. 7: The union is every member so get involved and become a steward. I'm on the bargaining team at my hospital in Oxnard, CA ad we (3 hospitals) have been bargaining for 6 months. We are scheduled to strike next week and now have been called back by the federal mediator to return to the table. The nurses have been chomping at the bit to strike. Why? because they know it is their way of showing the boss who has the power. We even gave a 12 day notice instead of a 10 day notice required by law. What union represents you and your coworkers? Please get involved - that is the way change happens.

I am in a very unique position because I was a healthcare union organizer for 7 years before deciding conditions, pay, benefits, and job security had evolved in healthcare enough for me to become an RN. It's interesting that so many people become focused on who the unions support politically. Let's do a comparison of money spent on CLA expenses and where and how much control we have over where our money goes. Cell phone-$100 plus a mth. Cable $100 or so Utilities $100-500 + (many privatized) Gym $50 etc etc We spend thousands of dollars on expenses of living and have zero control over where our money goes or what it supports from Domino and Carl's Jr supporting anti abortion politics,to BOD's granting huge bonuses and payouts to corporate bosses. Another analogy I like to use to help people understand how a union works is a gym membership. Every month we pay dues and if we don't go and participate we see no results. I will only work in a union position because I know firsthand the benefits of workers uniting--we are all workers folks-let's not be delusional about that. Here's a perfect example. Prior to the 1st RN union contract nurses would work 16 plus hrs then have to work the next day another 12 plus hrs. There were no limits or pay benefits for nurses having insufficient rest between their shifts. NOW we receive double time for the entire next day we work if we don't have 12 hours off b/t our work shifts. Just one shift pays my union dues for a year in 1 day. In flu season we often stay late and work consecutive days. This compensation provides us with an incentive to staff our hospital and also a disincentive for mgmt to work us to the bone and motivates them a bit more to staff properly. Union members have a right to be informed and involved in their union to solve workplace issues. Our patients are depending on us and when hospitals shortchange healthcare staff they also shortchange our patients.

to RNPowerOHIO- article.. Is this your own words or did you post a published article with noting the source?

Why aren't CNA members demanding that there dues be spent on organizing non-union members rather than carpetbagging on the work of SEIU members and member resources? Chasing SEIU campaigns around the country is an utter waste of CNA members dues money and in the end how many of the "raids" actually yield success and contracts? It's despicable and truly represents unprofessional behavior. Why not build industry power-the CNA's goal is actually aligned with management's goals - to maintain a union free environment-as the end result of shipping staff all over the country to harras and interfere with current members bargaining process and prospective members organizing committees is just pouring CNA members dues money down the drain. Not to mention it does nothing to raise the standard of living for RN's and other healthcare workers. I think CNA doth protest too much...

Is this your own words or did you post a published article with noting the source?

My advice as a career switcher is to forego the BA for now, get your LVN if you are for sure going to be on a waiting list for 1-2 yrs. That way you can work registry or for a great employer like Kaiser who offers to pay for your education and gives union represented employees a stipend to pay for 1 day off of work when in FT school. Either way you will have a back up to make $$$. you are young so don't sweat it-just make sure you have time to study about 40 hours a week while you are in school Good Luck

I worked as a grassroots campaigner for the Human Rights Campaign and other civil rights work, esp for Gay/Lesbian/Transgender rights, then several years as a union organizer for Service Employees Int Union-helping healthcare workers form unions. From that work I became inspired to become a nurse and now I understand why so many of the nurses I worked with thought I was crazy to become a nurse. Thank goodness I'm in California with ratios. :trout:

Go health care workers! I admire and encourage all healthcare workers to stand up for themselves and their patients. All the rest---well hey there are Codependant Anonymous meetings for you. Striking is always a last resort and something that is never voted on lightly by the members of a union. ...and management always has time to come to the table and settle. The law mandates that healthcare workers- not just RN's ---as providing healthcare is a team effort...have to give 10 days notice to the employer before going on strike.