Quick Q&A about this union business.

[CAnurse22]

okay i will make this short and sweet (sorry if this has been mentioned before i have to work in the morning and couldn't stay up all night to search for my clear answer):

i moved to california from iowa and have been here almost a year. the hospital i work for is a cna represented facility (i'm just now doing research on this). i don't really feel that the union is for me and that i will and am not being benefited at this time nor in the future since i will be moving back to iowa next year sometime. so i e-mailed the cna program and they gave me this after a few more questions....

if you are currently employed at a cna facility and are covered by the collective bargaining agreement then you are, per the contract, obligated to pay amounts to cna for holding that position.

your obligation to pay amount to cna would be contingent on your place of employment.

so my i guess my question is i still have to pay even if i don't want to be a part of this? it's my money and no where (that i know of right now) have i signed to give the money i work for to anyone "just because i'm obligated"...

if anyone can shed some light on this or something that would help. i just don't want to ask other's i work with and spread the word that i'm not paying this union.

thanks :) rn.ch

[Miss Mab]

i'm sure someone else actually 'in the know' will come along with a better fleshed out answer but fwiw:

so i guess my question is i still have to pay even if i don't want to be a part of this?

no, you don't......

*see below

it's my money and no where (that i know of right now) have i signed to give the money i work for to anyone "just because i'm obligated"...

while entirely possible you never signed anything, hiring practices @ union hospitals generally don't keep that affiliation secret and i highly suspect you knew this to be the case. you didn't need to sign anything, accepting the employment offer is de facto agreement with the established labor standards already in existence.

i don't really feel that the union is for me and that i will and am not being benefited at this time nor in the future .

it's true that a union may not be 'for you'.

no problem, free country.

however, it's a tad disengenuous to suggest you not only can't forsee any potential benefit but also deny already enjoying many now. ( likely much higher compensation and standard workrule issues i.e., -equity in discipline/scheduling/staffing procedures, etc, etc.)

true, any hospital nurse in ca, union or no, derives benefit from the best staffing ratios in the nation on a daily basis. most acknowledge union effort to establish and strengthen those mandates.

i just don't want to ask other's i work with and spread the word that i'm not paying this union.

thanks :) rn.ch

and again, you absolutely do not have to pay a union if you don't want to.

particularly if they do nothing for you.

of course, you then cannot work there as clearly the facility's rn staff has chosen cna representation.

i believe sometimes hcf's have forged agreements that allow a 'member's' dues to instead be collected and paid to a charity(?)so therefore not directly to the undeserving union. i don't know much about that but perhaps an option you might explore before submitting your resignation.

best!

[HM2VikingRN, RN]

With collective bargaining agreements with individual hospitals and chains of

health care facilities, nurses are improving patient care as well as their own economic

conditions. For instance, an agreement worked out in 2002 between CNA and Kaiser

Permanente, covering 10,200 registered nurses and nurse practitioners throughout

California – the largest single contract for nurses in the nation – includes a ban on

mandatory overtime, a guaranteed pension three times larger than the previous plan,

a retirement health plan, and a no-cancellation program covering regularly assigned

shifts, the first of its kind in the industry. The language on mandatory overtime was the

strongest in the country, and the union hopes it will set a national standard (Business

Wire 2002).

Also in California, a coalition of nurses’ unions in 1999 successfully lobbied

the state legislature to pass a law mandating nurse-to-patient ratios in hospitals.

Staffing legislation is now being pushed by unions in at least 13 other states (Clark

and Clark 2006).

http://epi.3cdn.net/1f9884ef0ee804bfaa_70m6b39ft.pdf

And in IOWA you will work for a lot less.......

[K98]

There are a lot of nurses at my facility that would love to opt out of belonging to the SEIU. Seventy dollars per month for pitiful representation and weak contracts. What is the procedure for initiating decertification? Aside from ridiculous dues for poor representation, a lot of the staff do not agree with the politics of the SEIU, and resent their hard earned wages going to support causes they do not believe in.

[gest1971]

I belonged to a unionized hospital right out of nursing school. Granted this was over 10 years ago, but I remember them ( including the hospital) telling me that my membership was most definitley contingient on my paying union dues. The union was horrible and did nothing for us. One step forward, three steps back kind of thing. I have since left and work for the other, larger, nonunion hospital in our area and love it. It is run on performance evaluation process. If you want more money, earn it. I don't miss the union nurses with all the seniority in the world who would call out and not work when there and get the same if not better raise than everyone else! I paid somewhere around 12 dollars per pay week for my dues and lost healthcare coverage, we had layoffs with job bumping almost anually, amongst other things. Unions are not what they are cracked up to be. Not around here anyway!

Good luck to you! :icon_roll