Registered nurses reach labor agreement with 10 Florida hospitals

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Specializes in Critical care, tele, Medical-Surgical.

registered nurses reach labor agreement with 10 florida hospitals

after drawn-out negotiations lasting more than a year, registered nurses have reached a first-ever collective bargaining agreement with 10 florida hospitals that are part of hospital corporation of america, including doctors hospital of sarasota, blake medical center in bradenton and fawcett memorial hospital in port charlotte.

the new deal affects some 3,100 registered nurses in florida who are affiliated with the california-based union national nurses united, and could influence negotiations at six other hca hospitals in texas and missouri. ...

... the union said monday that florida hca management agreed to establish a committee of elected nurses at each hospital who can make recommendations on improving patient care. the contract also ties nurse-to-patient ratios to the severity of patients' medical conditions. and it protects rns against forced overtime and provides for a new wage system based on years of experience.

"what will happen now is that there's going to be transparent, equitable wage grid, which didn't previously exist," said libby devlin, a state organizer for national nurses united in florida. "before, people would be paid according to whatever system the hospital had in place."

devlin said most rns covered by the new agreement will see their hourly wages rise immediately, and all of them will receive equity increases over time. ...

... "i think it's in part that the hospitals felt like they needed to demonstrate respect for the nurses who work for them," she said. ...

http://health.heraldtribune.com/2012/05/07/registered-nurses-reach-labor-agreement-with-10-florida-hospitals/

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It's about time Florida nurses began to unionize. Their wages have been disgracefully low and insulting to nurses for many years and do not reflect the true value of nurse.

I don't live in Florida. I have never worked in Florida, but I do know that Florida is one of the states of choice for alot of of retirees. I, for the life of me, don't know how anyone with any so called healthcare business savy can not see the complexity of healthcare issues that surround this patient population. I don't see many happy Florida nurses on these forums. I have read several places where the PTB in Florida's Helthcare industy and judicial system have continiuosly made great strides in "keeping Florida Nurses in their place" Low wages and poor working conditions Wasn't there a judge in Florida who ruled something unconstitutional, went after the nurses and the healthcare reform and made some ruling against nursing a few months back??

I just currently changed jobs. My previous job was that of a civilian nurse/ contractor in a military clinic for a company out of Florida. Another smaller company out of Florida bid on the rights to the civilian nursing contracts in military facilities. I was offered $6.00/hr less than what my previous contract doing the same job in the same building was. I would be going from $35.00/hr to $29.50/hr : a $1,100/ Month pay cut. Needless to say I told this happy go luck joker of a HR recuiter no way, and how insulting it was and a slap in the face. In my state, property taxes are through the roof, unemployment is higher than the national average, forclosures are high and a gal. of milk costs $3.85-$4.10. A single nurse with children and a home owner can barely make ends meet on $35.00/hr in my state, and that's with doing without alot. Couple that with this new BSN,go back to school for higher degrees craze. Nurses can not get a staff bedside position in a hospital in my state without a BSN. Where do these people think that money is going to come from?? I know we have alot of trees but none of them are of the "money" variety!!! He must have just got off the "tea cup" ride at Disney because he sure didn't know the pay scale for experienced nurses in my state!! Military families stationed in my state can not wait to get out it because of the high cost of living.

So I guess these Florida based healthcare MBA's are infiltrating the higher wage states and going to bring nursing salaries down all over the country- maybe the goal is to minimum wage.

So I say- Go NNU!! Give it to the Florida healthcare systems with full force. Just read an news article that Nurses and the NNU are protesting on this upcoming Friday in May 2012 as anti NATO/G8 summit protestors in Chicago. President Obama moved the summit to Camp David. The Nurses are demonstating in favor of the Robin Hood tax.

It's absolutely deplorable that patients are charged higher and higher healthcare costs, given care by fewer and fewer licenses nurses whose wages are being cut and cut only for the profits to land in some greedy CEO's, his/her entoruage and businessman's pocket/personal bank account/ portfolio!!

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Does any one know if Doctors Hospital of Sarasota has publicized their RN wage scale? Since they are now Union, this should be made public, correct?

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Specializes in Critical care, tele, Medical-Surgical.
Does any one know if Doctors Hospital of Sarasota has publicized their RN wage scale? Since they are now Union, this should be made public, correct?
It would be in the contract. If you know someone who works there you can ask to see a copy.
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