Right to work states

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Hi everyone. I know I have seen threads here in the past about right to work states, and I am having trouble finding them with the search tool. Can anyone help me find those threads?

Thanks,

Lou

I felt the same way when I moved from Minnesota (union) to Texas...I realized I had lost my power to negotiate and protect myself because there is nothing behind me...just a door slamming me on my way out if I don't like it. Nurses in Texas won't stick together, sadly, so we have failed to unionize 3 times since I've lived here. I've been in on it and suffered the consequences.

I'm in the urban DFW area and the hospital association has things sewn up pretty tight here too as far as owning souls of nurses and slave labor tactics. We are not professionals but laborers....its their way or blackball. New nurses here may not feel it...but after a few decades practicing here we get educated as to what's going on as we watch good coworkers run off, blackballed, destroyed because they spoke up, got hurt on the job, etc. :stone

We know why there's a 'nurse shortage'. But nobody cares. Crank out new grads and import 'em, that's the answer.

I'm hearing more and more about poor labor practices in Texas......which is really disapointing me because I love Texas and have been seriously considered moving there.

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I'm hearing more and more about poor labor practices in Texas......which is really disapointing me because I love Texas and have been seriously considered moving there.

My husband's company moved us to Texas. I was told that small towns LOVED nurses.

Not so. If you were not born here,lived here and collect welfare here, (in the town I live in) you are not accepted. If you were not conceived in the back seat of a '55 Chevy they won't let you in. The hospital I first worked at had so many bugs and other vermin I was astounded. They think the State Board rules do not apply to them since they are "Small Rural Hospitals" and unforrtunaly the State Board goeg along with them. As far as I am concerned every hospital in the US should have to meet the same standarsd.

After the election we (the nurses) have got to band together and petition the governor, labor loard, and our state representatives to make Texas a Right to Work State. It can be done, we did it in SC. years ago.

Good luck please stay in touch.

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Check this site

http://www.nrtw.org/rtws.htm

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Tx may be listed on the map as a RIght to Work State, but if you will read the fine print, it states that satets are in a constate state of "flux"

My husband signed a a form stating that he understood that TX is an at will state, and so did I.

If the company or organization is unionized you must be a member of the union.

If a company becomes unionized it immediately becomes a right to work area of employment.

Believe me I am still confused as ever.

I have been here several years and I have found the same everywhere.

Thanks for your input.

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My husband's company moved us to Texas. I was told that small towns LOVED nurses.

Not so. If you were not born here,lived here and collect welfare here, (in the town I live in) you are not accepted. If you were not conceived in the back seat of a '55 Chevy they won't let you in. The hospital I first worked at had so many bugs and other vermin I was astounded. They think the State Board rules do not apply to them since they are "Small Rural Hospitals" and unforrtunaly the State Board goeg along with them. As far as I am concerned every hospital in the US should have to meet the same standarsd.

After the election we (the nurses) have got to band together and petition the governor, labor loard, and our state representatives to make Texas a Right to Work State. It can be done, we did it in SC. years ago.

Good luck please stay in touch.

Very good post, Thanks. I especially like the part of us nurses banding together. If I could ask anything to change in nurses it would be for nurses to support and stand by each other. It seems as if from day one nurses are taught not to.

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:stone I live in Texas and Texas is an "at will state", So is Oklahoma, my sister lives there.

It is a shame that a state does not care if you work or not. These states only invite the union to come in. I did not particularly care about the union until I came to TX. You basically have no rights in an at will state. Their reasoning if you don't like the way things are quit.

In small rural areas it is next to impossible to find a job without "selling your soul."

You cater to what management says or leave.

I really like where I live, I simply think there needs to be something to protect workers in all areas.

thanks

Hi,

"At will" doesn't sound so bad on the face of it, it is said by some to encourage free market, and I'm all for that...(Yes, I voted Libertarian). Also implied by some authors on employment law to be the result of emancipation of slaves, although no one seems to say this outright.

The problem is, it is much the same as the concept of democracy. In other words mob-rule. Give me a republic anyday.

You have the right to speak your mind and practice your ethic, just be sure you do it in the closet and wash your hands afterwards. I know. Having injured my back in the line of duty, and then fighting for my rights under Worker's Comp, I am blackballed, and can't even get hired in a bookstore. The "At Will" concept brings about the very thing it is said to prevent.

Snake

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:angryfire The thing that upsets me here in Texas is that you can't get anyone in "corporate" to pay attention to you without fear of retribution, and no way to let anyone know what is going on without revealing your identity. I know all about the "whistleblower" stuff--but kind of like nursing school theory and reality--sounds nice-try doing it!

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There is a special place in hell for these people. They want to keep the incopentent and get rid of the ethical nurses. Ethical nurses will actually stand up for their patients and do the right thing. Unfortunately the almighty dollar rules the health care system, as well as "office politics" I have had a belly full of DR that give orders over the telephone and then say "that is not what I said" even though we are required to wright read back and verified on the DR order sheet.

I am ready to hang up my stethoscope. I stopped believing in the system a long time ago and I am tired of fighting the system. I have done my time in hell.

I know that all DR are not like this, but they are rare.

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Well, well, well. I always thought Arkansas was the backward state. Most people seem to think it is. I think I'm GLAD I live in Arkansas now, if what you all say is true.

I really did not know what the difference was between the two concepts until reading your posts.

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>

And of those, despite the anti-union right to work laws, nurses in the following right to work states have unionized with the United American Nurses/AFL-CIO national RN union anyway:

Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, Nevada, North Carolina, Utah, and Wyoming.

http://www.UANnurse.org

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Every nurse in these states should fight for unionization. Employers in Right-To-Work states can arbitrarily hire, fire, change the rules, reassign duties without consulting the employee, etc... You name it, they can make a nurses work life a living hell, in the name of Corporate Compliance. In a way, it's like modern day slavery. Employees are valueless and expendable.You are free to quit, but it's the same everywhere in these states. How did these Right-To Work laws ever come about?

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Well, I think Right To Work states came about due to union abuses. Not only big bad corporate evildoers take advantage of workers.

"What is the Right to Work principle?

The Right to Work principle--the guiding concept of the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation--affirms the right of every American to work for a living without being compelled to belong to a union. Compulsory unionism in any form--"union," "closed," or "agency" shop--is a contradiction of the Right to Work principle and the fundamental human right that the principle represents. The National Right to Work Committee advocates that every individual must have the right, but must not be compelled, to join a labor union. The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation assists employees who are victimized because of their assertion of that principle."

It isn't all black and white.

I don't want to be forced to join a union against my will. I also don't want to be told I don't have to join the union but I STILL have to pay union dues.

Why force anyone? If the employees want to be unionized, then be unionized. If not, then not. Force should not be needed at all. Below is an organization that protects employees from union abuses.

http://www.nrtw.org/

And the statement about small town hospitals is not true where I work. I work in a rural area, the hospital has 15 acute beds, a 3 bed ER, one L&D room with 2 beds as backups, an OR with one OR and one Recovery Room. Non-union and very open to hearing from employees about problems and pro-active about fixing the problems. Also open to union activity - we had a union here 5 years ago trying to convince us to join and the vote was overwhelmingly against it. No one in "management" attempted to coerce or bully us into not joining the union. We behave like grown-ups, not children pointing fingers at each other.

I'm glad we have rights, on both sides.

steph

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