the union, which represents 1,500 nurses and other workers at the north philadelphia hospital, is threatening to hold a three-day strike starting oct. 2 if a new contract is not reached by the time the current agreement expires sept. 30
we have worked many hours at the bargaining table, but the hospital seems intent on ignoring the needs of patients and the dedicated staff here at temple," said maureen may, president of the nurses' union. "nobody wants a strike, but we are concerned about the future of patient care and the retention of professional staff."
union officials said the health system wants to increase employee health-care costs and forgo its promise to cover dependents' tuition at temple university. pasnap officials said staffing levels also remain a "serious concern."...
...temple said its nurses are paid "among the highest rates" in the delaware valley, making an average hourly rate of $39.80."
it proposal for the next three years is for no increase in the first year, followed by 2 percent increases in each of the following two years. for allied health professionals, the offer is no increase this year, following by 2 percent increases in the second and third years and 2.5 percent in the fourth....
lol! no, a bs of an argument is that you bravely organized a union for the benefit of your patients. you avoided my question of what you did to work with the hospital to improve conditions before organizing. apparently its not obvious to you , but to clarify , i did work upon hospital commitees for change , but when it became obvious that management was simply using us as cover to do nothing , then say they were using the commitees to address the problems , that is when i and others opted to organize . we didn't leave the facility because we were better ( that idea is so :lol2:and so self centered), we continued to work for change were it has turned out to be effective.
please take the blinkers off and smell the roses .
Just for the record, I never said union employees make the institution a great place to work. Respect amongst administration and employees make the institution a great place to work. I think I have earned that respect through my education, work ethics , loyality and service to the institution. Its a total lack of respect whem administration says we reached our goal over the years off your hard work so now we can treat you and do what we want with you. I would gladly work for an institution that was non union and treated its employees with respect and fairly. i happen to love my job my coworkers and the community i serve, which is why I choose to work there.. I look at the union as allowing me to have a voice without fear, and keeping management in tune to the real workers by protecting my rights as an employee, thereby allowing me to work safely and effectively to the best of my ability. I think there are non union hospitals that may have this to offer there employees but I know this is the job of unionized hospitals.
//apparently its not obvious to you , but to clarify , i did work upon hospital commitees for change , but when it became obvious that management was simply using us as cover to do nothing , then say they were using the commitees to address the problems , that is when i and others opted to organize . we didn't leave the facility because we were better ( that idea is so :lol2:and so self centered), we continued to work for change were it has turned out to be effective.//
please take the blinkers off and smell the roses .
every business who goes through a strike loses customers permanently, the company suffers financially both from the cost of strike and by losing customers, and in the case of the hospital patient care is suffering.
leaving for somewhere better may be self-centered to some, but i would have to say leaving your patients and employer to go on strike is as much if not more self-centered.
and, if you have never left a job for a better one, congrats to you!
don't blinkers keep you from seeing, not smelling?
Just for the record, I never said union employees make the institution a great place to work. Respect amongst administration and employees make the institution a great place to work. I think I have earned that respect through my education, work ethics , loyality and service to the institution. Its a total lack of respect whem administration says we reached our goal over the years off your hard work so now we can treat you and do what we want with you. I would gladly work for an institution that was non union and treated its employees with respect and fairly. i happen to love my job my coworkers and the community i serve, which is why I choose to work there.. I look at the union as allowing me to have a voice without fear, and keeping management in tune to the real workers by protecting my rights as an employee, thereby allowing me to work safely and effectively to the best of my ability. I think there are non union hospitals that may have this to offer there employees but I know this is the job of unionized hospitals.
The benefit of reaching your goal is being able to work at a prestigous and top-notch hospital with high-quality collegues, and as such are able to say you love your job. Sounds like things are pretty good! A big part of that is your hard work, and a big part of that is your employer realizing that you are valuable to their success and them treating you right. Did it occur they might have a sound reason for not being able to offer a generous perks they did in the past? And that by offering it they will have to cut something somewhere else?
It seems you think they want to take that away just because they get a kick out of doing it?
I'm guessing your fears of speaking out are more "what if's" than based on realty, especially if the hospital is as good as you say.
Anway, despite what I said earlier I believe you will in the end get your tuition perk back.
The more I learn about this story, the more I see the union has made you all believe this is the important issue. Even though they believe in safe staffing, the hospital doesn't want inefficient MANDATORY ratios, and the union doesn't seem too interested in fighting for that even though that would be the one issue that would have the public's support and would put pressure on the hospital. The union execs know it would still be a tough battle and probably a losing battle, so they are pretending to go to war for you on the tuition perk. You'll get that back, the "gag" order eliminated, feel like you "won" and you'll happily go back to work and paying your union dues.
The hospital is doing sort of the the same thing. They are just holding out a bit so when they give in you'll all be jumping for joy in the streets and you will feel like you won something. They'll be happy and justifiy the cost of the strike by the benefit of putting off mandatory ratios for awhile longer.
cabana boy I would accept your version if that was the facts. Simply put not the case. university professors and secretaries are under a contract. they also worked for several months without one , only recently agreed to new contract in the last6 months. i don't really know if physician have a contract or when it expires, but thet do have the tuition package. i have not had to use the tuition for my dependents, i was blessed in that my 2 college graduates(dependents) were both recepents of 4 year scholarships:yeah::yeah:.I would like to maybe use the benefit for myself, however thats not an issue. Nurses never give up because things aren't going right. In life things are bound to come up that are a struggle.We hang in there and try to work through it. If that fails we don't run and say I am better than this, we dig in deeper and make it work for the better of everyone. If you are not part of the solution you are part of the problem. People who run when things don't go their way tend to be losers. NEWS ALERT-- Just found out physicians do have contracts.
If I got some facts wrong, my fault and I apologize.
If you all want to be treated the same, all work under the same contract. When you have your own, you're going to get some things others don't, and others are going to get some things you don't.
I really am tired of the "quitter" or "run away" references you and another poster make. You never left a job or any situation in for a better one because you and the other party couldn't come to an agreement. If not, congrats to you!
Back to my original point. Some things do get better with unions, but they also limit the potential of how good things can be. That is based on working in union and non-union jobs, being in a management position at a non-union employer, and being a customer of both. As a student nurse, I've been in several hospitals in which I would be happy to work, including 3 magnets. None are union hospitals. I know a SN doesn't see everything that goes on, but knowing I will be looking for a job soon I made it a point to find out as much as I could directly from the nurses about working at that particular hospital.
Anyway, I think I've said all I can say about this. We are starting to go in circles. So, I'm done here. My biggest reason for being so vocal here is so that when the unions start wanting to infiltrate my area and start talking of higher wages, better benefits and working conditions, I hope people look at these posts and at least think about the other side of the union coin.
Sincerely, I hope things work out for the best for you and your fellow nurses.
Specializes in Critical care, tele, Medical-Surgical.
Two Weeks Later, Temple Nurses In Good Spirits
Apr. 13, 2010
Two weeks after walking out of work, the 1,500 Temple University Hospital nurses and technicians are in good spirits manning the picket line and demanding that hospital officials sit down to the table and bargain in good faith....
the nurses and other health-care professionals brought in to replace [color=#320e00]temple university hospital's striking employees may owe the city hundreds of thousands of dollars in wage or business taxes, city controller alan butkovitz said thursday....
...healthsource is not licensed to do business in [color=#320e00]philadelphia and "is in violation of city laws," butkovitz informed gomberg in the letter....
Just some thoughts on the Tuition "perk". Perks are benefits. Benefits are part of ones overall compensation. Based on the history of these threads and my employment background, the benefit of tuition has been in place for a long time. In all likelihood other negotiated benefits were not as generous/ wages less because of the tuition"perk". By removing this "perk" you are decreasing the RNs compensation and previous potential compensation gains given up in the past for continued tuition were irretrievably lost. The fact that other groups of employees are retaining the tuition benefit and the gag proposal of administration points to an administration that wants to permanently weaken or break the union. It has no care, IMHO, for the long term ability of the hospital to attract and retain RNs.
Specializes in Critical care, tele, Medical-Surgical.
Pa. Health Dept.: 'A lot' of complaints from Temple
Thu, Apr. 22, 2010
The deputy secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Health says her agency has investigated "a lot" of complaints about Temple University Hospital since 1,500 nurses and allied health workers went on strike there March 31.
But because of reporting delays she blames on federal regulations, potential patients will not be able to see what those investigations found until at least the middle of next month....
a nurse herself, gomberg has become the public face and, on radio ads, voice of the north [color=#320e00]philadelphia institution as it makes its case that it must take a hard line against pasnap ([color=#320e00]pennsylvania association of staff nurses and allied professionals) even as it spends millions on strike-replacement workers.
while striking workers say temple could settle for what it's spending to stay open during the strike, gomberg says the long-term costs of meeting the nurses' demands "dwarf" the cost of staying open during the strike, now in its fourth week. and, she said, costs are dropping as striking workers cross the picket line to return to work. she said 10 percent of pasnap members (the union said it was 6.5 percent) were now working under the terms of the hospital's contract proposal.
a bargaining session is scheduled for noon saturday.
at issue are pay raises, health insurance, tuition payments for employees' dependents, a clause that would prevent union members from publicly criticizing the hospital, and random drug testing. temple wants to freeze pay in the first year of the contract, with 2 percent to 2.5 percent annual raises after that, while the union wants 3 percent raises each year.
The nearly month-long strike by nurses at Temple University Hospital could soon be over. The union and hospital administration reached a tentative contract agreement on Tuesday evening.
Ratification vote Wed...could be back to work Friday7PM shift. Will post results...
The nurses union executive director Bill Cruice says his members will get 9% in raises over the next 3 1/2 years and will retain differential pay for nights and weekends. But Cruice says more important than economics is that Temple withdrew proposals he said would have weakened the union.:
:yeah:.I would like to maybe use the benefit for myself, however thats not an issue. Nurses never give up because things aren't going right. In life things are bound to come up that are a struggle.We hang in there and try to work through it. If that fails we don't run and say I am better than this, we dig in deeper and make it work for the better of everyone. If you are not part of the solution you are part of the problem. People who run when things don't go their way tend to be losers. NEWS ALERT-- Just found out physicians do have contracts.
nicurn001
805 Posts