Chico David BSN, RN

There was another recent posting - thread now closed - by a nurse who got in trouble over a Facebook posting. I have some direct experience with this - as a union steward - and a fair amount of second hand knowledge. Here are a few basic things to ...

Again, to clarify: your constitutional rights of free speech are vis-à-vis government action. Not anything your employer might do. There have been a number of well publicized cases in the last year of employers firing people for having a bumper sti...

There are a number of things I could add to this, but will just focus on one: the idea that "bad" nurses can't be fired in a union environment. I've had 13 years in management and 12 years as the chief steward for the union at my hospital, and that ...

This isn't exactly unbiased, as I am a volunteer steward for my union, but I also spent 13 years in management, so I do have both perspectives: And I note the thread is pretty old - sorry you didn't get more helpful advice - you've likely made your c...

Still more union nurses in Texas! For the second night in a row, nurses at an HCA owned hospital in Texas have voted for union representation. Las Palmas Medical Center in El Paso joins Rio Grande in McAllen from last night. Nurses at both hospital...

This is brand new - the vote count just finished minutes ago - and I have no more info than that bare fact, but nurses at another Texas hospital - only the second in the state (so far) have chosen union representation. The hospital is Rio Grande Hos...

I'm posting this fast, and don't yet have all the details, but here is what I do know: CNA just won a representation election for the RNs at Cypress Fairbanks Hospital, a part of the Tenet chain in Houston Texas. Other than a small number of RNs empl...

I'm well aware that libertarians favor some form of government, but all the libertarian writings I've read claim the government ought not be in the business of regulating things to ensure public health and safety. They would claim that it's your job...

And while we are at it, we obviously should do away with licensing for nurses - that's just about the government trying to ensure quality care and public safety and we don't need the government for that - the free market can handle it - just like the...

It seems to me that it's hypocritical for a libertarian to be going into nursing - or medicine - since both are professions in which a government issued license attempts to assure quality of care and the safety of the public - something libertarians ...

Short form update: both on the organizing front and on the political/social movement front, NNU has been pretty active. More members in more states, including places like Texas and Florida that have hardly been hotbeds of union activity. Making sub...

Several quick thoughts: it sounds to me, if I understand correctly, that people at your hospital are trying to set up an entirely independent union, not affiliated with any larger organization There are places with single-bargaining-unit unions that...

The whole thought process of German employment is very different than here. The attitude of cooperation appears to cut both ways there - employers try to treat their workers decently and unions try to cooperate with the company. For such a system t...

So I'll take pity on the poor student and try to help: First, complicated subject. All the below is my opinion - coming from the perspective of someone very involved in a state association that does do collective bargaining. Some state nurses associa...

One of my personal little hobby horses: the biggest thing holding back nurses is nurses. Our self-sacrificial, fearful and co-dependant natures that prevent too many nurses from being willing to stand up for themselves. Every time we go into bargaini...

Couldn't agree more with that - every person dependent on a health care facility for their survival and well being deserves the quality care that ratios provide. But it's a heck of a fight to get them won. A few miscellaneous comments: I came into t...

You may have some sad surprises coming - I just got to listen to the most amazing tape recording - Dave Regan talking to a bunch of local union leaders from SEIU Kaiser just a few days ago. Spinning like mad trying to put a positive interpretation on...

Everybody has their own opinion, but there is one of those knocks against unions - highlighted in the passage above - that I will challenge every time I see it because it is just flat false. Here's the way a termination works in a union facility: (at...

I was a delegate to the founding convention of NNU, but I'm not directly involved in its governance right now - so this is coming from memory and might be off just a tiny bit - but it's pretty close: The NNU is governed by 3 co-presidents and an exec...

It's hardly "behind their back". CNA and pretty much any other politically active union does everything they (we) possibly can to inform the members about their political activities and program. Anyone who takes even a cursory look at the website, ...

I don't have direct experience with exactly this sort of program, but whenever we have had any sort of new program to boost morale, or "employee engagement" or whatever the latest corporate term is, it seems to work from unit to unit only as well as ...

if only it were true.

Consider the possibility that the way things look to you in nursing might be the same way that other people's workplaces look to them and that the role of unions in bringing about a fairer power relationship would be the same in those places as it mi...

By federal law, you can not be required to be a member of a union. But, depending on your state law and the contract where you are, you may be required to pay a fee for the benefits of the union contract. If you are in a so called "right to work" s...

I really like your spirit. I have the strong impression - again, I'm not an expert - that there are rules on who can be classified as exempt and that staff nurses are not generally one of them. But it's a subject loaded with grey areas. Back in th...