Sherwood

Congratulations to the Nurses at Centerpoint for taking a stand! We will stand by you all the way. If we can be of any help let us know. Sherwood,RN

The "Employee Free Choice Act" would remove your right to vote in a voting booth in private. Union organizers and employees supporting the union can surround you in the parking lot, corner you in the restroom or stare you down in the breakroom until you sign "the card". Peer pressure or mob pressure compels you for your safety to sign "the card". Is this the way important decisions should be made? With you "on stage" forced to make a decision that will affect your job, your future and your families future while everyone stops and watches? We Save Your Life - Please Save Our Right to Vote! Nurses and other caregivers work long hours, under great stress, all across the country. We make sacrifices for you, our patients, every day. One sacrifice we shouldn't have to make is giving up our right to vote. Union bosses are spending $400 million in a campaign of deception to steal our right to vote, so they can reach into our paychecks and take our hard earned money. The "Card Check Bill" passed by the US House of Representatives soon will be taken up by the US Senate. It would be used to deprive Nurses and other caregivers of the right they now enjoy under federal labor law: a right to a secret ballot election on whether to unionize. If the union gets a majority of staff to sign union cards - even if by threats, misrepresentation, or mistake - the union gets in without a vote. Today, we can go and vote privately in a voting booth and in secret, according to our conscience without fear of retribution or retaliation. Only we know how we voted. This law - misnamed the "Employee Free Choice Act" or "EFCA", by union bosses - would take that right away. Once unionized, labor bosses can demand that we pay union dues - or get fired. They do that in most states today. If the union gets its way, by next year, nurses in all 50 states could be fired for not paying union dues - nurses who never got to vote! Please support us in our fight to protect our right to vote in a secret ballot election. We work to save your lives - please work to help us save our rights. Call your Senator - or Senate candidate - and tell them to STOP the EFCA/"Card Check" bill. I support the Nurses and other caregivers' rights to a secret ballot election and oppose any effort by the US Senate to take that right away with EFCA.

I truly love Orange County California. Sitting in between Los Angeles and San Diego on the coast and Riverside and San Bernardino inland, Orange County has access to so much. We have several great hospitals here. Three trauma centers serve the county. They are University of California Irvine Medical Center (UCIMC), Western Medical Center Santa Ana and Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo. All great places. I work at Western Medical Center in the ICU/CCU and am also one of the Trauma Clinicians. These hospitals are multi-specialty offering cardiac and neurosurgical care as well. All very busy hospitals. Other large (for Orange County) are St Joseph Hospital in Orange, Hoag Hospital in Newport Beach and Saddleback Memorial Medical Center. All have much to offer. Thats a start, as away. I am sure others will join in. I will try to answer questions when I can. Good Luck! Sherwood

I'm an RN from the heart of Orange County California. What are your questions? Congratulations on your choice of nursing! I've been an RN almost 12 years and in healthcare for nearly 30 years. I am a Critical-Care nurse and Trauma Clinician. Sherwood

I believe that staffing ratios are good for patients and of course nurses. The California Nurses Association, other nursing groups as well as individuals all worked and are working to maintain and obtain safe staffing ratio's for the benefit of all, not just a chosen few. It would be both selfish and self righteous to limit that benefit to only nurses who support organized labor and the patients they care for. I don't oppose patient to nurse ratio's. In fact I don't know a nurse who does. We just go about it in a different fashion. You do not need to belong to a union to achieve change. Participating on various committees in your hospital is one way. You do need to take the opportunity to educate nurses and non-nurses. You need to be motivated enough in the causes you believe in and take the time to speak out. Write to your local newspaper, a professional publication as well as let your politicians know what is on your mind. Thats my two cents. Sherwood

Here is the document showing how the California Nurses Association chose the give up recognition of Inland Valley Medical Center instead of continuing the fight against being decertified. http://k.b5z.net/i/u/6011029/i/CNAwalkspdf.pdf Here is the document from the National Labor Relations Board revoking the California Nurses Association as the union for the INland Valley Medical Center Nurses. http://k.b5z.net/i/u/6011029/i/CNAwithdrawsPDF.pdf I was asked by a few to provide the documentation and here it is.

Pro-nurse, pro-employee grassroots efforts by a small but determined group of Inland Valley staff can be credited with forcing the hand of the California Nurses Association. Their tenacity and determination should be a guiding light to all who oppose forced unionization and forced union dues. By sticking to your principals and remaining professional, the CNA can be shown the door. http://www.pe.com/business/local/stories/PE_Biz_S_nurses23.3d1d50f.html Sherwood :typing:typing:typing :yeah: :yeah:

The California Nurse Association has withdrawn representation of Inland Valley Medical Center in Wildomar, California under strong grassroots pressure to decertify the union. A decertification election was scheduled for August 26 and 27th 2008. Instead of waiting for the vote the union has walked away. INLAND VALLEY IS AGAIN UNION FREE! The Nurses of Inland Valley have never had adequate representation from the union since voting them in several years ago. The union failed the nurses of inland Valley in so many ways that decertification was inevitable. :yeah::yeah: Sherwood Cox, RN, CCRN I will be posting the NLRB documentation on my website when I receive them.

Once again Nancy it shows how the California Nurses Association cares nothing about the will of the people. They claim to be the "voice for nurses" yet when the nurses use that voice and the words that come out don't please the CNA then the union will do everything in its power to stifle that voice and punish those that dare speak against them. This action against the nurses of Inland Valley Medical Center does not surprise me and it should only strengthen the resolve of the nurses to once and for all remove the California Nurses Association.

quote I think we both believe in the power of a secret ballot , we also agree that both sides of the argument should be presented freely to the electorate . But you appear to believe that the Unions alone control the flow of information in the debate whilst I believe that Management controls the flow of information. I have participated directly and indirectly on union votes many times. I believe that anyone and everyone involved has the responsibility to educate themselves on the issue at hand and not blindly vote for or against something because "my friend said so". The title "Employee Free Choice" is clearly misleading. How free a choice can you make when surrounded by your peers some saying "sign this card" others saying "don't sign the card". The information on the cards is even misleading. I am looking at cards right now some from the CNA, some from the SEIU another from UNAC. What signing the card means is not clear. "Secret Ballot Protection" is clear. It protects and demands protection of your right to vote in a secret ballot. Free from intimidation. No one knows how you voted unless you tell them. http://www.myprivateballot.com/ I support the "Secret Ballot Protection Act" Sherwood Cox, RN, CCRN

here is another source of information on the secret ballot protection act: http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h110-866 the original sponsor of the bill, congressman charlie norwood of georgia passed away after battling cancer. his colleagues have since carried the ball for him. i don't fully disagree with you about ability to distribute information. i worked hard at my hospital to distribute information on why i thought unionization was a bad idea. the california nurses association made it very very difficult by enforcing a neutrality agreement with my employer. while the union was allowed inside my hospital and given conference rooms to hold meetings on unionizing. i was not allowed to do the same. i had to distribute my leaflets from the sidewalk outside the hospital. i was denied access to conference rooms at the demand of the union. the union had full access to the whole hospital. if i wanted to discuss my view on my day off i was told security would escort me off the premises. this was all because of california nurses association enforced "neutrality agreement" with my employer. i cannot for the life of me understand why voting by secret ballot in the privacy of a voting booth would be under attack? card check elections just stink of fraud and would always be suspect and subject to question. it would drag the whole process out with demands for investigation, verification of signatures. claims of intimidation would skyrocket. if any of you union supporters working in a unionized hospital came to work one day and found that your union was removed, voted out in a card check drive would you accept that without question? why not? thats the way the "employee free choice act" would allow the union to be voted in. why can't we remove them the same way? no matter how many people hound you from both sides of the argument, in the sanctity of the voting booth your vote is sacred and private. no one is looking over your shoulder. i support the secret ballot protection act sherwood cox, rn, ccrn

Sometimes one has to start a little fire to get the crowd to gather. Looks like I poured gasoline onto this one! Is there a burn nurses in the house?:angryfire:angryfire:angryfire There is a madness to my method.:jester: Sherwood

yeah!!!!! now your talking. here is my argument: secret ballot protection act: a union and it's supporters campaign at a business trying to convince employees there that unionizing would be in their best interest. they pass out flyers, stage an informational picket or two. the management of the company campaigns too. their message is that unionizing would not be beneficial to the employees. pro-employee grassroots groups do the same, educating their co-workers on why they believe unionizing is not such a good idea. a vote date is set. a room is set aside where representatives of management, the union and a neutral third party (nlrb representatives) witness the verification of id's and that no one is intimidated or coerced by either side while voting. all employees who care show up and present identification acceptable to all parties. a ballot is given to each employee. on the ballot is two choices. 1. yes, i want to be represented by xxx union. 2. no, i do not want union representation. once everyone has finished voting within the previously agreed upon time frame, all ballots are counted. if the majority of the ballots are marked yes, the union and it's supporters win. if the majority of the ballots are marked no, then the union packs its bags and goes home. a majority of employees have chosen not to be represented by the union. the "employee free choice act" basically allows that the union mails or distributes postcards or "signature" cards that may or may not clearly state that by signing this card you are verifying that you want union representation. this signed card is a vote. pro-union employees or union organizers can corner employees in a parking lot, restroom, break room, hallway, stairwell or outhouse and pressure or intimidate people to sign the card. they then turn the card in and if a number of signed cards are collected that represents a majority of employees, the management could be pressured into recognizing the union. do not think i or anyone else is so naive that this could possibly sound fair and not subject to fraud. people will abuse this. people will intimidate others or trick others into signing a card when given the chance to think about it for two minutes in the privacy of the voting booth they may make a different decision. now, switch the whole process around. allow the management to distribute signature cards. allow the pro-employee, pro-management groups to mail and/or collect signature cards in the same manner that the union is demanding. how would the words of our debate here be different? in the united states of america, all parties present their argument, their side of the story. the people, you and i if we are responsible caring voters listen to these arguments, educate ourselves on the pro's and cons of the issue and we go to the polling place on voting day and we present our identification. we walk to the voting booth and we pull that curtain behind us and we make an informed choice in private. why would we possibly want to change this? i support the secret ballot protection act, sherwood cox for more information check out this link http://www.myprivateballot.com/ and of course, my website. . :argue::argue:

let your representatives know that when they support the employee free choice act, they also have the backing of the communist party usa! :eek::eek:

Your endorsement of the employee free choice act can be posted right here along with the Communist Party USA's resolution: http://www.cpusa.org/article/articleview/698/ If the Communists think it's a good thing than by all means............??????? Thought provoking!!! :argue: Sherwood